Actually found this on a google ad

[snagged in outlet 3]

I saw a show called Frontline that was titled "Addicted to Oil".

Our government isn't helping us get off the oil merry-go-round at all. I can't believe we are still held hostage by oil after everything we went through in the 70's. Look what 30 years of effort has done for Brazil. We should have been leading the way to oil independence.

http://www.nytimes.com/2006/04/10/world/am...;partner=rssnyt

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[Wayne SW/MO]

Our government isn't helping us get off the oil merry-go-round at all.

I don't see it as a government problem, we buy the vehicles that burn the fuel, we use the energy produced, and we decide how much. If people suddenly drop their usage and cause a glut, the price will drop faster than the snail pace of any government attempts.

I know this because its happened before and its not theory.

[snagged in outlet 3]

I've curbed my usage drastically but the price continues to go up. The Chinese and other emerging countries like former Russia are gobbling up oil and other commodities at a pace that we could never fathom. Even if we curb usage they are picking up the slack at an astronomical rate. If the price of oil declines we are still using it and are held hostage by those that have it. My point is that we need to get away from imported oil completely as a means of our main energy supply. Not just get the price down but get away from it totally so we aren't held hostage by it.

We wouldn't have most of our geo-political problems if we didn't depend so much on oil. If you read the article it explains that Brazil spent billions in government sponsored incentives to find alternatives to importing oil. Heck we still subsidize refiners in this country even after they reported earnings that blew away anything any company had ever earned in history. Conocophillips earned 22 billion dollars over the last year. Do we really need to subsidize these companies or start putting our money to work to find a permanent solution that allows our independence from oil.

The government will have to be involved sooner or later as the infrastructure will need to be modified to handle whatever the alternative might be. I think an old saying went something like "Lead from the top down"

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PS I may regret posting this.

[gonefishin]

I agree that the use of fuel is not really a government problem. I was talking about the road taxes the government collects on each gallon sold at the pump. Our government is not going to allow the use of any fuel, in more than expermental amounts, that will threaten to reduce the $$ collected. If people start seriously making alcohol at home to burn as fuel the government will start sending revenuers out again. They used to check us on the farm all the time to make sure farm use (non-taxed) gas and diesel was used on the farm and not in our personal vehicles. We had to keep receipts showing regular fule purchases and the farm use fuel had an addative in it so they would take samples from our cars just to make sure. Same thing will happen with E-85 and Bio Diesel.

[Phil Lilley]

With the free market and incredible technology advances, you'd think we could come up with something. Look at Japan and Europe- someone will invent something soon to solve our energy problems.

[Brian Sloss]

Snagged,

You hit the nail on the head. I couldn't agree more. And by the way this will help farm owners and is better for the envirnment. It is not perfect, there are cleaner sources, but we could switch eth. soon if we really decided to do so. The technology is available.

[Wayne SW/MO]

I'm not disagreeing completely Snagged, but I think the Flex engine is a good point. many of the Flex engines are coming from American manufacturers, and when Americans demand them, we'll have them and when we demand Ethanol we'll have it.

I just believe that in our society the people should lead, not the government.

[snagged in outlet 3]

whew!!!! I thought I would get crucified for my post. I quess what I'm trying to say is not that the govt. should lead but maybe just stop hindering progress. When we impose tariffs so high as to completely keep an alternative out of the market while with the other hand subsidize companies that clearly don't need it our govt. isn't helping matters. E85 here in St. Charles is actually higher by 4 cents a gallon than regular unleaded. How could that be?

That's my point Phil. We could have spent the subsidies we gave to big oil on incentives to solve our imported oil dependency. Somehow in this country the little guy pays the bill.

"European oil giant BP (BP) said its second-quarter profit climbed to a record $7.27 billion, thanks to rising oil and gasoline prices. Refinery earnings rose by 46 percent. JPMorgan Chase & Co. estimates that the world's six largest publicly traded oil companies shared $36 billion in profit from sales during the quarter -- a 23 percent jump." (Yahoo Finance, 7-25-06)

Their 23% jump cut my fishing trips in half for the year. I have always wanted to start the "Lobbiest for the Little Guy LLC" That way maybe we could get a voice in Washington.

Good debate.

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[Phil Lilley]

When I hear of high profits like these my first reaction is- free enterprise- good for them! But there should be some balance in it all. You'd HOPE that these companies would put most of their surplus back into technology to better themselves- it would be smart seeing someday their way of making money (oil) will be obsolete.

E85 here in St. Charles is actually higher by 4 cents a gallon than regular unleaded. How could that be?

Probably supply surplus.

[snagged in outlet 3]

Phil, wouldn't a surplus drive the price down? Headed your way this weekend, Finally! Any predictions on generation?

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