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Old 01-18-2012, 10:13 AM
 
Location: ATX-HOU
10,216 posts, read 8,085,041 times
Reputation: 2037

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Quote:
Originally Posted by KUchief25 View Post
Obama has sent plenty of funding and it's all ended up in the toilet. Exxon is researching algae which I think is the way to go. When something is viable the private sector will kick into gear. Wasting taxpayer money on this stuff is not the way to go. We are too far in the hole. We got plenty of oil. Not like it's gonna run out tomorrow and if it does we got plenty of coal.
Really? So we could just insert coal into our cars? Make plastics, fertilizers, etc. from coal? If we ran out of oil tomorrow?

The simplest solution is to slowly raise the gasoline tax and let the private sector work out the solutions. It's a win win for the country.
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Old 01-18-2012, 10:42 AM
 
29,409 posts, read 21,942,154 times
Reputation: 5455
Basically yes. Coal can be converted to gas. I remember a plant they were trying to start up in west virginia a few years back that was going to be the largest in the world. You pay the gas tax. All they do is raid the transportation funds in states across the country to pay for other shortfalls anyway then turn around and scream the roads are falling apart so folks like you will be willing to pay even more to be stolen away.
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Old 01-18-2012, 12:18 PM
 
Location: Dallas, TX
31,767 posts, read 28,742,149 times
Reputation: 12341
Quote:
Originally Posted by OICU812 View Post
Quit trying to school me, your games to stroke your ego have gotten old already.
Okay, I quit.
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Old 01-18-2012, 12:28 PM
 
Location: Florida
33,507 posts, read 18,033,416 times
Reputation: 15498
Obama stinks as president. Gas was @ $1.50 when Obama was elected, now it is $3.35 a gallon. Food prices has skyrocketed since Obama got in .. does this help the poor people?

Obama doesn't care if electric goes sky high either. Obama wants the coal industry to go out of business.


Obama: My Plan Makes Electricity Rates Skyrocket - YouTube
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Old 01-18-2012, 12:33 PM
 
Location: Southcentral Kansas
44,882 posts, read 33,174,808 times
Reputation: 4269
Quote:
Originally Posted by noexcuseforignorance View Post
I'm not stupid and and have structured my life to not use much gas. Perhaps others should try to be smarter and minimized their need for gas. Energy is way too cheap in this country.
I wish you could live next door to me so you would have to use a lot more gasoline and could understand what that 25 cents will do to us. I guess you don't really know where truckers get their juice to motivate with. What happens when the 25 cents causes even more inflation? What happens when those truckers all take their vacations the same two weeks? Your stores would get pretty bare shelved and that is just what the EPA and Obama want to see happen. Had we given them Cap and Trade in the beginning we would be where they are trying so hard to drive us now.
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Old 01-18-2012, 12:35 PM
 
Location: Southcentral Kansas
44,882 posts, read 33,174,808 times
Reputation: 4269
Quote:
Originally Posted by thecoalman View Post
It's amazing to me that you would consider lowering our standard of living a worthy goal.
Some people already live close to work and don't understand that owning a house keeps many others from living very close to work.
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Old 01-18-2012, 12:42 PM
 
Location: Southcentral Kansas
44,882 posts, read 33,174,808 times
Reputation: 4269
Quote:
Originally Posted by dspguy View Post
If there is one thing we need to learn from this thread:

We Americans have NO idea how good we have it when it comes to energy costs. And because it is so cheap, we abuse it.

In my opinion, we should be taxing the hell out of oil products. Take the proceeds and dump it into alternative energy. We need to get the scientists and engineers of this country working on the problem. Then we'll need infrastructure improvements to handle whatever the outcome is. If we wait until oil is prohibitively expensive, its already too late. Private industry will not fix the problem themselves until it is profitable to do so. But, any change this large will take a lot of time. We need to start this now. Get used to paying higher energy prices now so that when the proverbial #2 hits the fan, we will be ready for it.

Of course, people will say "How can I afford if they suddenly raise the cost of gasoline (and other oil products)? How can you expect me to just conjure up the extra money?"

Funny part is that when Americans want something, we find a way to afford it.

Case in point:
Average miles driven per year ~ 14000 (see: Average Annual Miles per Driver by Age Group)

Average cost of a gallon of gas today: $3.37 (see Daily Fuel Gauge Report--national, state and local average prices for gasoline, diesel and E-85.)

Average MPG of cars/trucks in America: 24.6 (see Fuel efficiency - Wikipedia, the free encyclopedia when the SOPA blackout ends)

Average cost of a cell phone plan per year: $600 (we all know this could be much higher with data plans, texting plans, etc)

What's my point? If there was a $1 per gallon gasoline tax right now, the average driver would be paying an extra $569 per year ( 14000 / 24.6 ), which is roughly the cost of their cell phone plan.

Remember when we didn't have cell phones? Remember not batting an eye when we took on this $50/mo toy (or $100/mo for some?). Now, think about what will happen when gas legitimately goes up to $4.37/gal and we have NOTHING to show for it except more US dollars leaving this country.
Have you failed to hear that we have more oil in this country than we use? Do you not know that wind power (one of the renewables) is great stuff but we just don't have the units to take care of things and don't have the transmission lines to move the power? I guess you think that what the EPA
is doing to jack up prices on energy is just what Obama was talking about when he promised us that with Cap and Trade the cost of electricity would become nearly prohibitive. Open those baby blues and look at what is really happening.
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Old 01-18-2012, 12:56 PM
 
Location: Dallas, TX
31,767 posts, read 28,742,149 times
Reputation: 12341
Quote:
Originally Posted by roysoldboy View Post
Have you failed to hear that we have more oil in this country than we use?
From who did you hear that? At what costs? You may start with your idea of how much we consume.
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Old 01-18-2012, 03:33 PM
 
14,293 posts, read 9,643,728 times
Reputation: 4254
Quote:
Originally Posted by dv1033 View Post
Really? So we could just insert coal into our cars? Make plastics, fertilizers, etc. from coal? If we ran out of oil tomorrow?

The simplest solution is to slowly raise the gasoline tax and let the private sector work out the solutions. It's a win win for the country.
We have no real alternative to petroleum, and you think the win-win solution is to artificially inflate the price of gasoline? You do know that would increase the cost of living for everyone, and harm the poor the most. Besides, there are some folks in government who would oppose an alternative to gasoline even if all it produced was clean burning CO2 and water vapor.
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Old 01-18-2012, 06:40 PM
 
41,815 posts, read 50,858,077 times
Reputation: 17863
Quote:
Originally Posted by KUchief25 View Post
Exxon is researching algae which I think is the way to go. When something is viable the private sector will kick into gear. Wasting taxpayer money on this stuff is not the way to go
$600 million, I believe the number I saw quoted was that it equaled what the government invested in the last 10 years. You can guarantee if Exxon is looking at it that there is viability. The other thing they are most likely looking at is that it can be used for carbon capture, it wouldn't be true capture because it's released when the bio fuel is burned It's more along the lines of recycling it once, you could for example us it to capture the CO2 from a coal plant. This effectively removes those emissions because the only emissions now are from the liquid fuel.
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