Maine Gas Prices WAY Up (Bangor, Brewer: station, union, Sunday)

[Coaster]

Originally Posted by NS4Life

WikiLeaks cables: Saudi Arabia cannot pump enough oil to keep a lid on prices | Business | The Guardian

Saw that last night. Thanks for posting it. A friend who is in the international oil business (or "bidness," as he puts it -- you can take a Texan out of Texas ...) is predicting that this is going to bring the speculators out of the woodwork and push oil prices higher this spring and summer, perhaps into the $150 to $175 range. That puts gasoline well above $4 for regular here in Maine and in the $5 range in some high-price states like Cali.

That's going to spray a whole bunch of Round-Up on any green shoots that may have emerged in the Maine economy.

[bwap_bonk]

Originally Posted by Coaster

Saw that last night. Thanks for posting it. A friend who is in the international oil business (or "bidness," as he puts it -- you can take a Texan out of Texas ...) is predicting that this is going to bring the speculators out of the woodwork and push oil prices higher this spring and summer, perhaps into the $150 to $175 range. That puts gasoline well above $4 for regular here in Maine and in the $5 range in some high-price states like Cali.

That's going to spray a whole bunch of Round-Up on any green shoots that may have emerged in the Maine economy.

this is great timing for me, in two months moving from the city (no car) to the suburbs.

the era of cheap oil is ending. its going to get ugly.

speculators are already pushing up the prices of food which is causing unrest in nations where are large percentage of personal income goes to food (in egypt i think its 80%). oil producing regimes in poor countries will topple, the new regimes may not be so compliant to our wishes.

resource wars on the way...

there are no green shoots!

[Coaster]

Originally Posted by NS4Life

this is great timing for me, in two months moving from the city (no car) to the suburbs.

the era of cheap oil is ending. its going to get ugly.

speculators are already pushing up the prices of food which is causing unrest in nations where are large percentage of personal income goes to food (in egypt i think its 80%). oil producing regimes in poor countries will topple, the new regimes may not be so compliant to our wishes.

resource wars on the way...

there are no green shoots!

Sorry about the timing! Does your suburban home at least offer some room for food gardens?

I think the resource wars are already here in Iraq, Sudan, Nigeria, and other places. Michael Klare wrote a book about them almost 10 years ago that seems absolutely prescient today.

Re: food prices rising on speculation, I saw this today in the business news. Much more at the link. Bloomberg is sensitive to reposting:

U.S. Corn-Surplus Cut on Ethanol; Smaller World Crop Projected - Businessweek

U.S. Corn-Surplus Cut on Ethanol; Smaller World Crop Projected
February 09, 2011, 8:35 AM EST

By Jeff Wilson

Feb. 9 (Bloomberg) -- U.S. stockpiles of corn before the next harvest will be 9.4 percent smaller than estimated last month, a bigger drop than expected, because of increased ethanol production, the government said.

The surplus on Aug. 31, the end of the marketing year, will be 675 million bushels, down from 745 million forecast in January and less than 1.708 billion on hand a year earlier, the U.S. Department of Agriculture said today in a report.

[Maineah]

Originally Posted by NS4Life

this is great timing for me, in two months moving from the city (no car) to the suburbs.

the era of cheap oil is ending. its going to get ugly.

speculators are already pushing up the prices of food which is causing unrest in nations where are large percentage of personal income goes to food (in egypt i think its 80%). oil producing regimes in poor countries will topple, the new regimes may not be so compliant to our wishes.

resource wars on the way...

there are no green shoots!

Our chance to reverse these spending and deficit trends will come in 2012. We need to get our country's house in order as well as our own. It's time to live simply again and let the people in the cities strangle themselves with piling on debt and media driven consumerism greed. That is not the way this country was meant to run. We need to make our own things again and pay what they are worth.
The city folks won't survive when the lights go out...we will.

[Coaster]

Originally Posted by Maineah

Our chance to reverse these spending and deficit trends will come in 2012. We need to get our country's house in order as well as our own. It's time to live simply again and let the people in the cities strangle themselves with piling on debt and media driven consumerism greed. That is not the way this country was meant to run. We need to make our own things again and pay what they are worth.
The city folks won't survive when the lights go out...we will.

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=I4s0nzsU1Wg

[maineguy8888]

The leftists (including Obama) want the planet to live but they want ME dead. That's all I can conclude.
I have to drive 50-100 miles through woods full of moose, three or four days a week. I now have to take our tiny gas-friendly car, to make it so I'm not paying for gas out of pocket (gas allowance is not that high). I would rather take my bigger, safer car.
If I hit a moose in the matchbox, I'll likely die.
Oh well, I guess.

"Sorry, son! Tough luck". (He's 2 years old)

[bwap_bonk]

Originally Posted by Coaster

Sorry about the timing! Does your suburban home at least offer some room for food gardens?

I think the resource wars are already here in Iraq, Sudan, Nigeria, and other places. Michael Klare wrote a book about them almost 10 years ago that seems absolutely prescient today.

Re: food prices rising on speculation, I saw this today in the business news. Much more at the link. Bloomberg is sensitive to reposting:

U.S. Corn-Surplus Cut on Ethanol; Smaller World Crop Projected - Businessweek

our new place is a 5 min walk to the train for work, and a 15 min drive for my wife to her new job. so we will be affected much less then most.

older cities and suburbs which were developed before cars will handle gas increases better then rural and suburban spawl will....

[Submariner]

Originally Posted by Coaster

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=I4s0nzsU1Wg

Take care setting up that trot-line. Wardens don't like them.

[flycessna]

Originally Posted by NS4Life

our new place is a 5 min walk to the train for work, and a 15 min drive for my wife to her new job. so we will be affected much less then most.

older cities and suburbs which were developed before cars will handle gas increases better then rural and suburban spawl will....

I agree, people who live rural might be ok if they are mostly self suffecient.

But I dont believe that is what America historically was or is supposed to be. Humans have always gathered in Masses to support themselves and each other..

City minded... now that might not survive.. But it will be IN the cities and the more urban areas of the country that will still operate..

I think the middle of the road areas.. suburban areas that are neither condensed nor rural with out the either the opportunity to live off the grid or have access to public transportation and employment opportunities will suffer.

And that is a dooms day outlook. I hardly think of doomsday because if there is such an event then the enire world will be thrust backwards..

Otherwise I could just imagine a shift where those suburan/rural areas outside of the cities will decline and become more diversified as minorities are pushed out of the city and Rural will just stay rural..

[beltrams]

Upon closer examination I think that suburbs are really hard to categorize with regards to being post Oil Age livable.

Some suburbs still have vibrant town business centers, some mass transit and trains nearby, and/or have short drives to work centers and shopping. Other suburbs are multiple square miles of densely packed single family homes near nothing but the interstate ramp where one has to drive half a mile to the centralized mail box depot just to get the day's mail.

To a degree, earlier developed suburbs and/or suburbs around older cities such as Boston, I think, will do okay while the later ones, built around the beltways in some newer, more sprawled locations (see the thousands (tens of thousands?) of condos and single family homes along the I-5 in the Sacramento-Stockton, CA corridor as an example) are in for a world of hurt.