Road Warning: $7 Gas May Be Ahead

Economist Predicts Increase By 2010, Which Would Take 10 Million Cars Off The Road

(CBS)  A new energy report predicts $200-a-barrel oil in as short a time as two years. If that happens, gas would likely go up to $7 a gallon - and that would have an enormous impact on the way Americans live.

Mitchell Igelko in Miami complains rising gas prices are threatening his 20-year-old landscaping business. His two biggest trucks sit idle - he can't afford to fill them up.

Right now, Igelko's business averages $30,000 a month in gas - at $7 a gallon, that would jump to about $50,000 a month, CBS News correspondent Priya David reports.

"I think at that time, I'm gonna put a sign 'gone fishing,'" he said.

Economist Jeff Rubin predicts the $7 mark will arrive by the year 2010.

Hardest hit will be those for those making less than $25,000 a year. For them, gas will go from 7 percent of their income to a whopping 20 percent.

"People are going to be spending more on gas than they are on groceries," said Rubin. "And that's not a sustainable choice."

In fact, by 2012, higher prices could send an additional 10 million vehicles off the road.

It would certainly ease congestion. Having that many cars come off the roads is like permanently parking twice as many cars as there are in the whole state of New Jersey.

Some look to Europe for solutions to the skyrocketing gas prices.

"They drive these nice little cars which maybe we should start doing," one U.S. driver said.

Expensive gasoline has led Europeans to also drive less than we do. In America, over 90 percent of all households commute to work by car. Compare that to just 60 percent of British households.

"People's entire mindset as to what kind of vehicles they drive, where they live, choices they make on holidays, and vacations are going to be quite different, because it's starting to bite," said Joseph Romm of climateprogress.org.

For Mitchell Igelko, $4 gas is trimming his profits, but $7 gas would be a knock-out blow.

[gaprddesc]

What stock should I invest in? How can I get a piece of this pie?

[edintex]

Hey tree huggers, liberals and democrats...You just keep on ignoring what the oil companies have to say about whats is causing these high prices and what needs to be done to change it. They warned the U.S. government back in the 1980''s that this day was coming. But you northerners and west coast brainiacs enjoyed the $10/barrel. The automakers REALLY enjoyed good times then too. At the same time, the south had lost hundreds of thousands of jobs. Businesses closed. People were literally jumping out of office windows. No congressional inquiries. No outrage. No help at all. YOU ALL WERE WARNED. You all chose to ignore. Enjoy the $141/barrel oil now. You deserve it and more. Just don''t move down here. The refineries already stink it up enough as it is. Besides, you all have made it clear you don''t like the sight of oil rigs on shore or offshore. ENJOY YOUR VIEWS !!!!

[EL_OBSERVER]

All of this stuff is leading directly to the coming of the anti-Christ and the One World Government he will place himself in charge of.

Look to Jesus Christ folks! He is the answer. He will give you the Truth if you invite Him into your heart and He will protect you from the things to come.

PSSSSSSST ... ASK JESUS WHERE I CAN GET $1.90 A GALLON GAS. TELL HIM TO E MAIL ME

[fiberglass3]

Westinghouse headquarters planned for Cranberry Twp.


PITTSBURGH %u2014 Westinghouse Electric Co. will build a new $100 million research center and headquarters for its western Pennsylvania nuclear operations in a new office park north of the city, the company said Tuesday.

Westinghouse, a nuclear power plant designer and builder, had considered expanding its current headquarters in Monroeville, about 15 miles east of the city, but will instead move to a new office complex being built along Interstate 79 in Cranberry Township.

Within five years, Westinghouse expects to add at least 1,000 employees to the 3,450 it already employs in western Pennsylvania.

Westinghouse, which is owned by Japan%u2019s Toshiba Corp., needs to expand to meet the demand for four nuclear power plants in China and 12 reactors it has been contracted to build in the United States.

[toolmangler-2009]

Begin Part (2)
Now the planet is so parched that nothing can grow. Billions have already died and now they have only a few hundred left to propagate the species. Then they all boarded the only means of escape and rocketed into the skies hoping against hope that the third Planet might be able to provide a place to live. They all vowed with one voice to "Never destroy their world again". God slumped and said to himself,"WANNA BET! and a tear fell as he looked at Mars and saw the red dust covering all he had made for them?"

[toolmangler-2009]

I have a fable for you;
Once upon a time there was a planet that had a thriving civilation. the inhabitants were very intelligent but somewhat short sighted. The industrial moguls were a bit on the greedy side and only looked at the bottom line and not very far into the future. The peoples of this world worked hard and learned everything they could about the world around them. As they advanced, their need for power grew exponentially and they searched the entire planet for more resources of energy but one day, they realized that the reserves were exhausted and they became frantic because no more liquid energy could be found. At this same time, the planet was racked by devastating events like droughts, earthquakes, extreme temperature changes and all forms of illnesses. Water was in such short supply that individuals were being killed and the water recovered from their bodies was sold by robber barons and other gangs. You might ask what happened to the water and receive this answer. "the energy companies pumped it into the ground to take the place of the liquid fuels they were extracting so that the surface of the world would not crash into the gaping holes left when the world was sucked dry."
End Part (1)

[soldat44]

All of this stuff is leading directly to the coming of the anti-Christ and the One World Government he will place himself in charge of.

Look to Jesus Christ folks! He is the answer. He will give you the Truth if you invite Him into your heart and He will protect you from the things to come.

God bless all of you.

Posted by EndTimes22 at 02:12 AM : Jun 28, 2008

God Bless

[samsel3]

In March of 2008 a Cambridge, MA. oil & Gas consulting firm issued a report to Congress. In that report the Congress was told that the laws of supply & demand no longer apply to oil. Demand is constant with only small fluctuations at any given time. Although world demand will increase their is plenty of supply. BIG OIL currently leases millions of acres of oil & gas land & offshore sites that they could be pumping. However, it is not in their economic interest as they have enough supply at this time. Big oil does not want to loose profit by increasing supply , after all selling oil products is their business. Additional offshore and Alaskan wilderness leases are not necessary, Big Oil just wants additional control of these areas for future marketing. The Saudi''s and Big Oil are very happy with the Bush & Cheney energy policy which eliminated Iraqi world oil market manipulation. Saddam kept prices down by selling cheap thus preventing the Saudi''s & Big Oil from getting the prices up. Bush & Cheney opened Pandora''s box & now things will never be the same.

[fiberglass3]

McCain Proposes $300 Million Energy Prize
Ariz. Senator Wants To Give $1 Per American For Developer Of New Auto Battery.

Sure wish that Barack Obama or Hillary Clinton would take a similar position helping to get us away from gasoline and over to electric transportation.

[cyberus-2009]

---
In America, over 90 percent of all households commute to work by car. Compare that to just 60 percent of British households.
---
Big deal ... mass transit is easy when your entire country is the same size as South Carolina ... #40 on the list of land area in the US.

[marshall_nee]

LOL!! That''''s because 30% of England is UNEMPLOYED!!

______________________________________

Not quite:

List of countries by employment rate (the proportion of working age adults employed, here with working age between 15 and 64 years old). The information is based on data from the OECD for 2003.


1 Iceland 83
2 Switzerland 78
3 Norway 76
4 Denmark 75
5 Sweden 74
6 Netherlands 73
7 United Kingdom 73
8 New Zealand 72
9 Canada 72
10 United States 71

[tmittelstaed]

Pros of the electric car:

1) Electrical power is generated from steam created by burning fossil fuels, thus you get far more energy output from burning a gallon of gas to generate electricity then charging an electric car''s battery from it, then burning it in an internal combustion engine in a car. Cars expel the majority of energy recovered from gasoline as heat.

2) Because your energy efficiency is so much higher you have less total pollution per mile of travel.

3) The national electric grid spends the night idle, a fleet of electric cars is recharged at night thus making better and more efficient use of the grid.

4) There is no cost to disrupt everyone''s lifestyle by forcing them on to busses and other mass transit. Calculate the money in lost productivity due to the increased time spent on mass transit vs commuting to work in a private car.

5) Wages benefit when the workforce is easily and cheaply moved around. Potential employees "shop around" when looking for employers and employers know that if they pay below-market then employee recruitment will fall.

[tmittelstaed]

Opening this and that for more drilling is one of the stupidest talking points that has come up. How many people pushing that know that the probability of hitting a producible oil field is only 10% even with the best geologists? None I would bet. It takes years to move a find from a find into a production field, and we don''t have time for this.
50% of US electricity is produced by coal, and there is no coal shortage. The rest is produced by a mix of sources, hydro, wind, nuclear, and burning natural gas. Oil is a minority of electrical generation and so price increases of oil don''t generally affect electricity prices since utilities buy power and ship it around to each other on the national grid. All of this points to the electric car.

[tmittelstaed]

Bringing back smaller vehicles that got 40-50mpg is another myth. Pray tell, which vehicles were these? I drove a 1980 Datsun 210 4 banger with stick shift for many years. It was such a lightweight car it would be blown around by a stiff wind, and it had the narrow small "cabbage cutter" econo wheels. It ran like a top, and having such a small engine compartment and carbureted to boot, no engine computer, it was a cinch to work on with an ordinary set of metric wrenches. Far better than a VW bug that one of my friends had, which always seemed to take some special, expensive tool that only VW sold. Neither of these cars got anywhere near 40mpg. The 210 got maybe 25mpg if that, in mixed highway/city driving, and the bug got worse. I''ve always got better mileage on my motorcycles but a bike isn''t usable by most Americans, and you can''t haul a load of groceries home in one anyway. In any case, nothing that was manufactured in the 80''s would get near passing today''s emissions. The only solution to private transportation is the electric car.

[tmittelstaed]

To all the people pushing Mass-Transit, sorry that dog won''t hunt. NYC, London, and so on have had a century of integrating mass-transit into their fabric. Most other American cities haven''t even got started. We need a solution now, not 100 years from now. And lest you forget, 100 years ago when a city wanted to run a subway tunnel they just ran it. If a bunch of buildings that were above the tunnel started getting foundation cracks and the like due to the earth shifting, that was their problem. Today, the governments of America''s cities couldn''t even begin to afford to pay all the land claims and everythng else to put in rail. Even Portland OR which is probably the most pro-rail city out there has had the dickens of a time doing it, and most of their rail is being built on old abandonded train rights-of-way. And busses just can''t substitute for subways and rail, when they have to stop at every other street corner, and battle it out with the congestion on the street, they are just too slow.

[barbaram99]

The cars have made the sky ugly. I remember the pretty bright blue sky in America. It was years ago.
Yer slaves to the car.
In light of the fact that gas prices are getting higher ye think ye pack that car and take the bus.
I HOPE IT CUTS OUT THE JOY RIDING.. If ye must drive plan its use and trips. Walk as well.

[tbweb]

There is no way the U.S. can participate in a Global Economy without controls to prevent from being destroyed! There is no way the U.S. can compete with cheap and sometimes slave labor! A few greedy people profit but the U.S. as a whole does not!

[incog-nito]

Some people argue that "protectionism" is somehow anti-American or sinister. Not true. It has been in place for most of America''s history until recently, and America continued to thrive and prosper all that time. Remember, corporations are there to make a profit any way they can and look out for their SELF-interest. That''s fine, but a democratic government is supposed to look out for its PEOPLE''s interest, not for the Chinese or Indian people''s interest.

Then again. It''s probably too late to do anything about it now anyway. The globalization genie is already out of the bottle.

[incog-nito]

Not to get too off-topic, but I believe that it is globalization, not oil prices, that will undermine the U.S. economy. Oil prices affect most countries more or less equally.

When you have workers in other countries making 1/10th or less than U.S. workers, tariffs are necessary to keep things in balance. Without them, jobs will necessarily migrate to where labor is cheapest. That''s why I believe that we are not in a recession but a long-term permanent trend of steady job loss and declining wages. Meanwhile the U.S. workers will continue to suffer for a long time to come.

Some might argue that tariffs keep products more expensive. That is true, but they also keep jobs at home and wages up. They act as a DISincentive for U.S. companies to move jobs abroad, because they don''t gain anything when they try to sell their products back at home. Also, keep in mind that tariffs bring REVENUE to the government, revenue that it otherwise would need to collect in TAXES. Think of tariffs as an EQUALIZER that smooths out the disparity in labor income of different countries.

[fake-id-2009]

Thanks, George, for taking Iraq out of the oil supply equation. Nice war you got going there, assshole. I''m so effing happy that you are having SOOO MUCH FUN while Americans are dying in Iraq. You sicko...

Thanks, Honda, for building a great motorcycle that gets in excess of 45MPG and is still fun to ride.

But, if it gets much worse, I''ll be reduced to riding a Vespa. Uggggggggggg!!