Why Gasoline is so high in New Hampshire and What we can do About it! (Hill: credit, homes)

[CometVoyager]

While each of us in New Hampshire see our gasoline prices increasing 20 cents a gallon each week, as the cost of Unleaded will soon reach $5.00 a gallon by the 4th of July weekend, Many of us are still in a state of disbelief. What happened and Why? Who is to blame? How will we budget for heating oil this winter? What can we do to stop this from ruining the life style we are accustomed to living?

Well, if I may add my 2 cents here are some observations;

What happened & Why? The global demand for oil has been increasing with the advent of China’s rise as a super power, (thank you Richard Nixon and Harry Truman for that!) and India’s as well. We here in New Hampshire and the rest of the country have basically out sourced our most vital natural resource, energy! The majority of our lawmakers along with the support from the Main Stream Media and Environmental Organizations like the Sierra Club and Friends of Rachel Carson have brain washed us in to believing that developing our Natural Resources, like drilling off the coast of California and in Alaska is a crime! Mainland USA has no less than 200 hundred years of known natural crude oil reserves. If you add in Alaska, that would up the figure to 600 years and this is not crude oil from shale. In other words we have all the Texas Tea right here and drilling for it and refining it here would create an employment and energy bonanza! But this is not happening!

So why are Russia, China, Brazil, and other Countries developing their natural resources while we here at home just sit back and let these scoundrels (lawmakers) segregate the very rich like our favorite Hollywood Icons from the working middle class?!? Why are we letting this great State and Nation of ours become a second class nation that is now and will continue to be dependent upon OPEC and other Hostile Nations for its home heating oil and gasoline?

While other countries see their standard of living improve in leaps and bounds we are being greatly misguided by incompetent politicians and leaders! George W Bush for example messed up big time with his Iraq Foreign Policy. Here we have over a 100,000 troops deployed in a non-specific war and in a country with huge Oil Production Capacity and Bush and his administration did not have the common sense to use Iraq’s Oil Production Capacity to Stabilize and Buffer the Crude Oil Futures Market. Nor has Bush exhibited any leadership with regards to our Energy Crisis. And it is just not Bush, as Obama , McCain and the current party in control of our senate and congress have this absurd Green Agenda worrying about Carbon Credits to the point of an obsessive compulsive who cannot wash his/her hands enough times to make them clean!

We are in big trouble fellow New Hampshire people. We have to get vocal and change this self-destructive attitude in Washington and New England or we will soon even see times worse than the great depression of the 1930’s with serious National Security Problems as well! Lets begin with our Yankee Ingenuity and Common Sense to save our state and nation!

[fishnfool]

actually NH has some of the cheapest gas in the country......cheap being a relative term

[scone]

It's about $4.oo a gallon here in Oregon. Some people are converting to biodiesel, even our John Deere tractor runs quite well on it. For some reason, it doesn't smell as bad as petro diesel.

BTW, if you want to blame someone, blame Winston Churchill. He's the guy who converted the British Navy from coal to oil back in the early 20th c., which started the first wave of concessions in the middle east.

[JFRRACING]

In ny , gas is at 4.22 to 4.50 depending where you get it. you guys think gas is bad ny state just tacked on $2.75 tax on smokes. so that brings the price of a pack of butts up to 6.00 to 8.00 bucks. boy, i'm glad i don't smoke. i only smell like smoke when i come back from putting out a fire. LOL

[CometVoyager]

Originally Posted by JFRRACING

In ny , gas is at 4.22 to 4.50 depending where you get it. you guys think gas is bad ny state just tacked on $2.75 tax on smokes. so that brings the price of a pack of butts up to 6.00 to 8.00 bucks. boy, i'm glad i don't smoke. i only smell like smoke when i come back from putting out a fire. LOL

Personally sometimes I think it may be a good thing for gas to go up to $5/gallon because that would really clear out a lot of traffic and undesirable drivers.

Just don't mess with my Kingsford Original Charcoal!

[JFRRACING]

Originally Posted by CometVoyager

Personally sometimes I think it may be a good thing for gas to go up to $5/gallon because that would really clear out a lot of traffic and undesirable drivers.

Just don't mess with my Kingsford Original Charcoal!

HA HA HA HA THAT is funny. that's the same kind of charcoal i use. i use the lazy man stuff with the lighter fluid aready on it. agree about the undesireables, that way i stand half a chance riding my motorcycle.

[CometVoyager]

Originally Posted by fishnfool

actually NH has some of the cheapest gas in the country......cheap being a relative term

Originally Posted by JFRRACING

HA HA HA HA THAT is funny. that's the same kind of charcoal i use. i use the lazy man stuff with the lighter fluid aready on it. agree about the undesireables, that way i stand half a chance riding my motorcycle.

I once had a Propane Grill with all the bells and whistles and the one and only time my wife started it up, well it literally blew up! Fortunately she was not hurt but the fire in the gas line nearly melted it down to the tank! So I have been doing the kettle weber charcoal thing ever since. Personally I think charcoal makes the food taste a lot better than propane and I use a heating iron to heat the coals so I do not have that nasty lighter fluid taste.

I think about 90%Plus of all motorcycle accidents are caused by people in cars. Kinda scary out there for people with bikes like you JFR. Be Careful!!!!!!!

Last time I was a passenger on a motorcycle I was thrown about 100 feet and we were going about 90. We both walked away from it! Now there must of been angels on my side that day!

[Movingback]

<Braces for Flames>

Well, here is another train of thought to consider. If you are unhappy about the prices, you have a very easy method to get that monkey off your back (at least as far as gas for driving is concerned) BUY A HYBRID!!!

I sold my Infiniti G35 two years ago and bought a Prius and couldn't be happier. Originally the purchase was part of my contribution to reduce the amount of carbon my driving was contributing, but now that gas prices have escalated to the point they are at, The 50+ MPG I have been getting with the car makes me feel even better.
I do feel compassion for the folks that heat their homes with oil, but get tired of hearing people whining about gas prices when a simple change in car choices could easily remedy their problem. (With the exception of the poorest of folks that can't afford a $20k car). Although, one of the guys I work with (who was barely scraping by) took my advice to get rid of his SUV and get a hybrid found that the money he saved not filling his old hungry beast completely paid the cost of his new ride!!! Not a bad deal, do something good for the plant and get what amounted to a new car for free!!

For those that are interested, my weekly gas costs for commuting to work 4 days a week is about $8.00 !! Eight bucks a week!!!

You might also want to consider that not does that do something good for the planet (and your children's future). But does your part in lowering gas prices (less demand=lower prices) and helps contribute to our nations national security!! (less dependence on foreign oil, and lessens the need to get into debacles in places like Iraq)

As for Comets observations, I do agree that opening up part of Alaska to drilling couldn't hurt, but that in the big picture, the amount of oil drilled there wouldn't make much impact on our addiction to oil, and think that the only real solution is better conservation and switching our reliance off oil to alternative energy solutions, (not ethenol) lot of which end up costing us little if any more than current sources. There is no way we can drill our way out of this situation, the demand from China, Russia, India and other developing countries is just too great.
We, as a nation, have gotten pretty stagnant in our resourcefullness and can expect much more from ourselves and each other.



"It would take 10 years for any Arctic Refuge oil to reach the market, and even when production peaks -- in the distant year of 2027 -- the refuge would produce a paltry 1 or 2 percent of Americans' daily consumption. Whatever oil the refuge might produce is simply irrelevant to the larger issue of meeting America's future energy needs."

[maestramommy]

Thank you movingback. That was well said! I know there are people who cannot afford the payments for a more fuel efficient car, or need the truck for work. But for the rest of us that can afford to make lifestyle changes, I think it's our responsibility to do our part.

[CometVoyager]

Originally Posted by Movingback

<Braces for Flames>
As for Comets observations, I do agree that opening up part of Alaska to drilling couldn't hurt, but that in the big picture, the amount of oil drilled there wouldn't make much impact on our addiction to oil, and think that the only real solution is better conservation and switching our reliance off oil to alternative energy solutions, (not ethenol) lot of which end up costing us little if any more than current sources. There is no way we can drill our way out of this situation, the demand from China, Russia, India and other developing countries is just too great.
We, as a nation, have gotten pretty stagnant in our resourcefullness and can expect much more from ourselves and each other. "It would take 10 years for any Arctic Refuge oil to reach the market, and even when production peaks -- in the distant year of 2027 -- the refuge would produce a paltry 1 or 2 percent of Americans' daily consumption. Whatever oil the refuge might produce is simply irrelevant to the larger issue of meeting America's future energy needs."

If we had this same defeatist attitude as not to drill in Alaska because it would take too long to bring the Oil to market, which by the way is an incorrect assumption and very weak argument, then we would never have a space program, a national highway system, the Manhattan Project, transcontinental railroad and so on.

You and maestramommy have proven my observation on how in many ways a significant number of us have been brainwashed to believe Oil or any Fossil Fuels in general are dirty words. Many now believe that the Petroleum Industry is the Mother of all Evils and is hazardous to our children's future! And this is so ludicrous, as windmills in the USA have killed millions of more birds of prey than all the oil spills since 1985!

It is very sad to see how this mindset has prevailed throughout our congress to the point of the high cost of fuel we are now going to be paying for today and the near future. This mindset is sending us towards a major inflationary period with higher unemployment as well. So while Brazil, China, Russia, Venezuela and Iran are developing their natural resources and growing their standard of living and economies, we are working towards a Kumbaya Economy.

So lets get some facts clear;

• First of all there is nothing wrong with conservation and providing Auto makers Incentives for more fuel efficient vehicles! Although I personally would not buy a hybrid car, as I feel the technology is inferior, not that cost effective and very dangerous to drive during electrical, rain or snow storms. Auto makers do have the capacity to manufacture quality gasoline vehicles that average 40+ miles a gallon.
• There are bountiful known Oil Reserves in Alaska that could supply the mainland indefinitely! Geologists believe west of Prudhoe Bay throughout NPRA and east towards Anwar contain oil reserves that will dwarf all the fields in Texas and Kern County California.
• ANWR field 1002 alone is reported to have no less than 10 times the capacity of the Elk Hill Oil Field in Kern County California!
• [SIZE=2]Construction of our current Alaskan Pipeline began on March 27, 1975 and was completed on May 31, 1977 and First oil moved through the pipeline on June 20, 1977. [/SIZE]
• The Trans Alaska Pipeline System (TAPS) transports crude oil from Alaska’s North Slope, across 800 miles of tundra, rugged mountains and rivers to Valdez, North America’s northernmost ice-free port.
• [SIZE=2]M[/SIZE]aximum daily throughput — 2.136 million bbl., avg.[SIZE=2] (With 11 pump stations operating). Rates exceeding 1,440,000 bbl./day assume drag reduction agent (DRA) injection. {This equals no less than 18% of our daily gasoline consumption.[/SIZE]

In other words if our nation was serious about creating a very cost effective energy policy we could be totally independent and self sufficient indefinitely. Or at least the time we need to make the bridge towards fusion technology.

But if we buy the defeatist mindset of one particular political party, the same party that killed the Texas Superconducting SuperCollider, the same party which has killed oil exploration off the coast of California and in ANWR then our vibrant middle class will soon fade away and our socioeconomic landscape will soon begin to mirror Mexico!