I would hope, at the end of the day, this is all in jest. I am not a very religious person, however I believe we all should have a level of respect for each others circumstances and situations. We are all products of the environment we are in, brought up in, or a member of.

To sum up the world energy crisis in blog format is both disrespectful to my intelligence as well as yours. So instead of fighting each other, why not offer suggestions, or alternatives that individuals can do to make a change in their life, which, hopefully if enough make, will change all our lives for the better.

My opinion/suggestion ... cut back on frivilous spending ... I know I drop like 5-10 bucks a day on drinks or food while at work, well, no more. So I have been saving about 50 bucks a week. This offsets the current $55/tank fill up I do once every 7 days.

I found it amazing just how much I spend on random crap every week ... dont know, just my suggestion for those out there, I didn't think I wasted that much money...you'd be surprised, get a statement from your bank

Let's try to be civil, I mean really people ...

During the hearing is was reported Michael Greenburger (the former speculation committe chairman) reported that gas could drop 25 to fifty percent. If spectulation could proprerly regulated would get prices back under control would drop the almost right away. These controls were removed in 2000.

One reason is we have seen the price of oil more than double from $60 to $135 is just over two years without major supply disruptions. We have also been plagued by manipulation in other energy markets.

Enron and others manipulated the Western electricity markets in 2000 and 2001 and cost consumers over $40 billion. In light of that, Congress gave the Federal Energy Regulatory Commission new authority in the Energy Policy Act of 2005.

Specifically, Congress made it “unlawful for any person … to use or employ … any manipulative or deceptive device or contrivance,” in connection with the wholesale electricity and natural gas markets. We’re going to hear today from FERC’s Deputy Director of Investigation and Enforcement on how FERC has used its new authority to root out manipulation in physical electricity and natural gas markets.
To date, FERC has used its new authority to conduct 64 investigations resulting in 14 settlements totaling over $48 million in civil penalties. We have seen the very same energy traders move from Enron to Amaranth, and American families and business alike have the same concerns about potential manipulation in our oil markets.

Last December 2007, Congress granted the FTC anti-manipulation authority in the Energy Bill. Specifically, Congress made it “unlawful for any person … to use or employ … any manipulative or deceptive device or contrivance,” in connection with the purchase or sale of crude oil, gasoline, or petroleum distillates at wholesale.

Americans may be surprised to learn that our oil futures markets were substantially deregulated by CFTC staff decisions that were made behind closed doors. This “London-Loophole” and now the “Dubai-Loophole” is keeping important U.S. energy trading in the dark. And without proper light manipulators have free reign.

When things are tight - it doesn't matter how efficient new cars are....

I guess I'll try to win the $500 Gas Card !

Did you know that to buy oil futures you only have to put 6% down in real money? You just borrow the other 94%. Imagine what would happen if you went to a casino and could play on 94% borrowed money? Do you think the gambler would behave the same way if he had to put up 50% of his own money instead of 6%? If all we did was require the futures market to pony up 50% to buy a contract you would see far less wild speculation and prices would drop.

Stop being fools of this dumb "liberals vs. conservatives" game. Think for yourself. Ask yourself when you last saw this same thing hapen. Hint: what was Enron doing that got them in trouble?

Attractive or not, it still has to be done. What's worse... spending more net income on gasoline or not making any net income at all?

Someone needs to invent a molecular transporter, and quick!

I said that eventually "... those who SUPPLY crude oil will stop cheating Americans."

Actually, the Arabs and their colleagues-in-crime will never "stop cheating Americans." They will just stop INCREASING the degree of their cheating.

At the pump, Americans are financing the war and "controlling" the nat'l debt. According to Williams, oil is the REAL currency of the world, and petroleum products are simply taxation. Alaska is sitting on huge oil reserves, but if we used it, the US economy would collapse because we sell our nat'l debt to the OPEC nations. According to the video... Interesting.

(1) For a few decades now, the lefties have prevented domestic exploration, drilling, and refinery-building because of misguided environmentalist-wacko concerns.

(2) Forcing continued increases in the minimum wage, which simply gives the producing nations an excuse to raise their prices per barrel of crude oil.

The doom-and-gloom numbers that are mentioned by the pessimistic authors of this blog thread are the by-product of inexperience and a lack of understanding of economic forces. The "law of supply and demand" will prevent such major increases in price. There is a "ceiling" -- which may have now been reached -- at which people will cut back on their DEMAND of gasoline (and other goods [that have inflated prices, due to delivery charges]) so much that those who SUPPLY crude oil will stop cheating Americans.

The unfortunate thing is that the soon-to-come stoppage of price hikes for crude oil will give the Marxists in Congress an excuse to continue preventing domestic drilling and other reasonable efforts at "energy independence" for America.

You are incorrect. Gasoline is most certainly not perfectly inelastic. Like most commodities, the total demand is part elastic and part inelastic. This has been historically proven, most notably during the 1970s fuel crisis. As a result of that crisis, Americans began purchasing small, fuel efficient vehicles. The age of the muscle car came to an end.

American most certainly adjust their behavior based on their own selfish interests. When the price of gasoline goes up, SUV sales go down. Yes, Americans will still have to drive to work, but they can choose what they drive.

There is a lag between gas prices and fuel demand because people don't buy a new car just to save on gas money -- after all, cars are expensive. However, the typical American buys a new car every 5 years. This means that half of them will buy a new car within 2.5 years. You can expect a substantial decrease in gasoline demand about two years after a major run-up in prices.

"As detailed in an earlier article, a conservative calculation is that at least 60% of today's $128 per barrel price of crude oil comes from unregulated futures speculation..."

See: http://www.marketoracle.co.uk/Article4793.html

Look at the numbers - demand is DOWN, supply is UP and prices are sky high? Get a clue people -- you are being conned.

But if the US goes to war with Iran (which would seem to be Bush/Cheney's big agenda), then $200 oil is a guarantee, and $300 oil could be possible.

Hopefully the Bush/Cheney team doesn't get their wish. Time will tell.

PF Wilson, Editor, http://TheInvestorReport.com

I'm in favor of putting a $0.50/gallon tax on gas right now and upping that $0.25 per year, with 100% of the tax going to mass transit and bike/ped facilities. Higher gas prices are coming regardless of what everyone wants, it's up to us whether we want alternatives in place.

TXL

Government massive spending and borrowing leads to printing money, weakening the dollar, creating bubbles (in stock, housing, etc.), and then inflation. Massive government growth robs the productive sectors as more government employees feed on the wealth that is produced. This kills domestic businesses (e.g. manufacturing), leading to more imports and a weakened economy and standard of living while other countries get rich supplying us and we end up with massive trade deficits.

Hassling people because they have kids is stupid, and typical of a short sighted individual who obviously has no one to care for but themself. In reality, just as a nation depends on wealth generation for its current and future prosperity, a nation depends on kids (and the familys that have them) for social stability and a national future. Every entitlement program depends on a next generation, and should the USA continue with family hostile policies, then people living in the usa will have fewer kids, and less wealth. The wealth of a nation is intricately tied to its population. In the end, taken to an extreme, countries like China, Mexico, etc., will just move their populations into areas like the former USSR and USA where declining "native" populations are aging and fading. You will notice that this is in fact happening, leading to rapid demographic shifts that make the USA of 1940-50 culturally, socially, and ethnically an alien nation to what it is now, and what it will be in 30 years.

In short (and these examples could continue endlessly), the root problem is govnernment and its policies. The USA needs a small, Constitutional government that takes in less than 10% of GDP at all levels. It might bear mentioning that before WW1 the average take of government of GDP was under 5% for most nations (UK, Germany, France, USA), and it was a time of incredible advancement in science, industry, agriculture, public health, and pretty peaceful too. This much government is poison to the long term survival of a nation (even the "commie" chinese actually only have about 8-10% of GNP as government spending, as opposed to the "free market" USA which has about 40% or more of GNP as government spending at all levels). The differences in government consumption of the economy (which is what it is, not investment) account for the differences in economic growth rates and the rapid ascent of the Chinese.

Unfortunately, in a nation full of Americans who have been indoctrinated by over a decade of public schooling (go to John Taylor Gatto's site to see what that has meant), I don't see that the problem of addiction to government will change. The mindset of "needing" government in every facet of daily life for "security" and such is just too deeply embedded!

which brings me to argue against some of the comments put on here-- i know it's just semantics, but it's the mentality of it and not just the vocabulary. and i understand that there are people from other countries, but they are excused because they're allowed to do this.. people are saying 'americans are stupid because blah blah.. THEY do this and THEY do that' and they're forgetting that they, too, are american. that's the "individual" i'm referring to above, where politicians are forced to make rules for EVERYONE because INDIVIDUALS are incapable of seeing that issues within society are the issues OF THAT SOCIETY and not just the select few who can't think for themselves. it's funny, because that's the first step in drug/alcohol rehab (no i've never been a participant))- admitting you have a problem. part of the language of admitting it is OWNING the problem by saying "my name is blah, and i am an alcoholic." they can then take steps in identifying how they got to the point they did, and take more steps in the direction of fixing their mistakes. if people blamed others for their own addiction, they would never get clean. seem relevant?

let's say it together so we can move on- so we can stop blaming whoever for why our prices are high- so we can move on and take the proper steps in trying to fix our problems- I AM AMERICA, AND I HAVE A HUGE PROBLEM. now. treating this issue as if countries were people, should america go to england for help? their government seems to be doing well for them, i bet they can do the same for us! but wait, no- because they are different! they have other systems that work for THEM that won't necessarily work for us. ok, how about south africa? no, wait.. indonesia? no.. australia? no. we need to help ourselves and the first step in doing so is working as a country and not just a bunch of disenfranchised individuals. this went way off topic.. sorry guys. i'm just trying to emphasize how important it is to stop blaming OPEC, stop blaming rising food costs, stop blaming other people for our problem. yes, OUR PROBLEM. steve carrell said it best in 40-year-old virgin: stop telling me how i feel and just tell me what i should do!

Seriously. Plug it in at night to fuel it. Gets up to 50 km/h (most residential streets). Has a damn good range if you're just using it to get across town and back.

Man, best thing ever. And it only cost 3,000 Dollars.

2. Has anyone out there wondered if one of the agenda of this fuel-price-policy is to herd more and more people into cities where they can be fed off-of more efficiently? Take away the ability to move freely, and this is the likely result. How will existing cities be re-worked to allow for less autos? Will we have to relocate to new cities instead?

In the united states we have to pay for our own education and healthcare. healthcare alone costs over 2500/year alone if you have to pay it yourself.

We obviously have a problem in the states, and yeah, we do want it all. "All" being not being forced to live in a flat, not having cramped and over crowded cities with poor water supplies, a minimum wage that will allow even the hard working poorest of us to at least survive and some healthcare we can afford. And oh yeah, not having to cram onto a bus just to get somewhere. The basics. I don't see anyone else living up to that, and we just have higher standards, and we haven't been getting those standards for quite a while now. And instead of complaining, we're supposed to just shut up and take it, because it's like that in your country? Ha. Ha.

Oh yeah, maybe I should just face reality, this really hurts. Let's all get together and try to overthrow big business. Who's first? No one, because they'd immediately be taken out by the government, or mysteriously get a tumor. It's not the 1700's sweetheart, get real.

And the Americans saying we should all get bikes? Put down the pipe. So two full time working parents who manage to support their six children without welfare, who pay their taxes, don't have a right to complain about being charged more for gas? Someone gives an answer of "abstinence"? Sounds like you need to head your happy ass to Asia, where they give similar answers. If anyone has a right to be driving a gas guzzler, it's people who are going to put the space to good use, like, you know, taking children to doctor appointments. I hope soccer mom runs your pedaling, spandexed-ass over. Why don't you walk to work? Your bike tires are just going to end up in a landfill anyway. You think you're better than people that drive to work? Well people that walk are better than you. People that can teleport to work are better than them. You'll never be good enough, quit trying. Buy two bikes, maybe it will stop global warming. Because I can tell that it's really helping so far.

Quit spouting from the anus, people. Bottom line: greed. Until the powerful decide to stop, we can do approximately jack shit to change it. That includes your countries. Follow the investment trail and you'll find that just about everyone has fingers stirring our pot. When we stop funding big business, we also stop funding your countries elite.