:: Bersa Talk ::

Yeah, it's an on-line petition, but something very important and necessary (IMO). 

http://www.americansolutions.com/actioncenter/petitions/?Guid=54ec6e43-75a8-445b-aa7b-346a1e096659

(Warning:  Political Topic.  Place on ground, light fuse, get away . . . )

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Bersa Thunder .380 DT
Ruger Speed Six .357
Saiga 7.62x39 Carbine
Ruger 10/22

"Barnum was wrong - it's more like every 30 seconds."

I'm all for US energy independence, including coastal drilling and (if the latest in-situ technology actually works as claimed) oil-shale development. However, it would take many years to develop these resources to the point where it would make a dent in gas prices. Just my opinion, but our efforts would be better spent developing and improving our nuclear infrastructure. Its the only proven energy source capable of supplying our needs without contributing to global warming or aerosol and particulate pollution. In any event, the market's flush with oil right now, and it doesn't seem to matter one bit.

 

Last week the price of crude oil reached about $130 a barrel after spiking to $140 briefly. The immediate cause? Guesses by oil man T. Boone Pickens and Goldman Sachs that the price could go to $150 and $200 a barrel respectivly in the near future. They were referring to what can be called the hoopla pricing party on the New York Mercantile Exchange. (NYMEX)

Oil was at $50 a barrel in January 2007, then $75 a barrel in August 2007. Now at $130 or so a barrel, it is clear that oil pricing is speculative activity, having very little to do with physical supply and demand. An essential product-petroleum-is set by speculators operating on rumor, greed, and fear of wild predictions.

Over the time since early 2007, U.S. demand for petroleum has fallen by 1 percent and world demand has risen by 1.3 percent. Supplies of crude are so plentiful, according to the Wall Street Journal, "traders of physical crude oil say their market is suffering from too much supply, not too little."

Iran, for instance, is storing 25 million barrels of heavy, sour crude oil because, in the words of Hossein Kazempour Ardebili, Iran’s oil governor, "there are simply no buyers because the market has more than enough oil."

Mike Wittner, head of oil research at Societe Generale in London agrees. "There’s various signals out there saying for right now, the markets are well supplied with crude."

What goes on in the essentially unregulated New York Mercantile Exchange (NYMEX)-without Commodity Futures Trading Commission (CFTC) enforced margin requirements, and, unlike your personal purchases, untaxed-is now the place that leads to your skyrocketing gasoline bills.

Deborah Fineman, president of Mitchell Supreme Fuel Co. in Orange, New Jersey, summed up the scene: "Energy markets have been dictated for too long by hedge funds and speculators, who artificially manipulate the numbers for their own benefit. The current market isn’t based on the sound principles of supply and demand but it is being rigged by companies and speculators who are jacking up prices for their own greed."

Harry C. Johnson, former banker who worked for many years inside Big Oil and ran his own small oil company in Oklahoma, blames the CFTC, the Department of Energy, the Administration, and Congress, as "asleep at the switch on an issue that is probably costing U.S. consumers $1 billion per day." He cites "some industry experts, who profit greatly from the high price of crude, and have stated openly that the worldwide economic price of crude, absent speculators, would be around $50 to $60 per barrel.

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"Therefore every time you kill a beast of prey, you should feel as though your own bones are being crushed and you are preparing to die with it, laughing in the face of death. That's the attitude of a true hunter."

Shosan - 17th century samurai/monk

We have enough natural gas in this country to run every car, truck and bus for sixty years per the USGS.  We are just playing games with this oil situation.  The "rags" don't control out nations natural gas.  Some of our big city's and some federal agency's are running fleets on natural gas right now.  I think the big three auto makers here stopped production on natural gas engines a couple years ago when oil was lower. You can still special order one a whole lot cheaper than a hybrid. Natural gas for you car is running about $1.75 a gal.,  and if set up nationally would drop to about half of that if we were all on it. Who is blocking this and why? I have a guess.

RC

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This will not help unless we pump so much oil into the world that the supply dilutes the demand I do not see this happening any time soon. It goes back to supply and demand, why would I sell my widgets in the USA at $2.00 each when I can sell them in Canada or the EU at $5.00 each?

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Bersa 380 Black and Gold
Bubinga Wood Grips from
http://www.marschalgrips.com/

Economics 101.

It all comes down to supply and demand. There are two ways to lower the price. Increase the supply, or reduce the demand. No matter how much we reduce usage, places like China and India will offset it. That leaves one option. Drill.

Even if we get off our butts and drill, it will still take a lot more effort. We also desperately need more refining capacity, along with other options. We not only import oil, we import gasoline. More nuclear plants need to be built, and natural gas utilized more than it is.

Even if we do all of these things, it will only postpone the inevitable. There will come a time when we have no alternative other than using a different technology besides fossil fuel. With enough nuclear plants, hydrogen may be the best option. Presently, it costs too much to produce. With enough excess electrical production, it might become more feasible.

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Ruger SP101
Bersa T380
S&W 65 .357
Stoeger Cougar 9
S&W M&P
Springfield Mil-Spec 1911
etc....

I'm with you.  We should allow more domestic oil drilling.  I don't think we should give the oil companies a blank check to take advantage of the situation (because they will).

I think anyone that is opposed to domestic oil drilling shouldn't be allowed to complain about oil prices.

Maybe domestic oil drilling might hurt some rare fish or bird.  If that's important to you then pay the price for foreign oil and stop complaining.  If you don't want high oil prices then support domestic drilling.  I don't see how people can have a "not in my back yard" mentality and still complain about foreign oil.  Pick one.

Alternative fuels are great.  I totally support the concept of electric cars or alternative fuels.  I think that type of thing is driven by the price of oil.  More expensive oil will result in quicker acceptance and development of alternative fuels simply based on market pressure.  If the price of oil was to drop somehow back to $1/gallon people would instantly stop caring about electric cars.

Bomb, bomb, bomb, bomb Iran, Drill, Drill, Drill, Drill, Open the Oil Shale mining on Federal Lands.  Build Windmills and Solar Arrays, Nuclear Power Plants, make advancing technology a priority and give tax credits to all of the above, lower speed limits by 5 miles an hour, and kick out any congressman who doesn't play ball.

In 1981, we were going through the same thing, and advancements in technology were in full gear,  about 6 years later, we had cheap energy again, folks went back to suvs, and the efforts to build more efficient technolgy went out the window, and I knew we would be in trouble again at some point in the future, and here we are.  Not one nuclear plant built in over 25 years in USA

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It's spelled S I R L O I N One pound prize Angus Sirloin , slice into 3/4" cubes, sprinkle lightly with natures seasoning, blend in 1/8 cup minced cilantro, sear all sides, serve at 140 degrees. A rice pilaf side, serve with a hearty burgundy. Sauteed Rattlesnake is good too!

Not a big fan of lowering speed limits.  In my opinion, the purpose of a speed limit is to prevent accidents not to lower oil usage.  People already speed constantly with the current speed limit.  Lowering the speed limit will do just as little to reduce speeding as banning guns would have on gun crime.  The only change that might result from a lower speed limit is an increase in speeding tickets and more people buying radar detectors.

earlhelms:

Not a big fan of lowering speed limits. . . . The only change that might result from a lower speed limit is . . . more people buying radar detectors.

That's what happened last time we had the 55 limit . . . but back in the day, I think a lot of the detectors were made in the US!

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M D "Doc" Nugent - carcentric.com