Gas to hit $4 a gallon in August

I don't argue any of that. We are in a warming period. We've been in warming and cooling periods before. I just think that people burning fossil fuels have little to nothing to do with the warming or cooling.

 

So you would say that the Earth's climate will self-correct and it will get colder?
So you aren't arguing against global warming, you just say that the warming and cooling is all part of a big cycle and we just happen to be caught in a warming period.
Is that accurate?

 

Yes, entirely. There was global cooling from 1940-70.

 

Scale and economic feasibility.

We have alternatives. Lots of 'em.

But we cannot --- simply cannot --- produce 20 million barrels of synthetic oil PER DAY in a way that will cost the consumer anywhere close to $3 per gallon.

 

Every serious climatologist says you're wrong.
But some politician says you're right.
Guess what? Polling doesn;t matter on this one. We are accelerating catastrophic climate change by human actions, and there is a point of no return and, if we hit it, it's not going matter a damn what some industry flack says.

 

So they are serious if they agree with you, and not credible if they don't agree? Hmmm, interesting how that works.

 

Last time the government required the auto industry to increase the mileage cars could get, they responded in no time. If the government would step in and say, hey, we have to either increase mileage drastically or find an engine that runs on something other than gas by, I don't know, say 2011, or they face a penalty of some sort (a tax for lack of innovation that truly benegits the customer or whatever), then by 2011 we'd be either driving cars that get 60 mpg or run on electricity, and run well on it too.

But the GOP has been in charge of the government since 2001, and in charge of Congress for longer. So what we get instead is handwringing saying the free market will work it out. Guess what, folks? Sometimes the free market only works for the guys at the top. Sometimes governement HAS to step in. Not take over. But step in and say this is how things are going to be. And don't call me a damn socialist for that. If you think that's socialist, let's build you a time machine and take you back to the days that kids worked in coal mines and you couldn't be sure if that food you were getting didn't have a rat or someone's finger ground up in it and any guy could sell his miracle elixer to cure your ills without having to show that it isn't going to kill you.

As for a short-term solution, I still say Congress opening serious investigations of the oil companies, delving into their financials and everything, would scare the hell out of them. Do that, and I bet oil prices fall, and, since that makes up about half the cost of gas, so does gas.

There aren't many short-term answers, but long-term we could do something about it.

And, trounced, dis Gore all you want. Your boy has sure done a great job so far. Record gas prices while the oil execs pad their pockets, a never-ending occupation of foreign soil, higher tension in the Middle East than in a long time, a massively growing national debt thanks to his inane fiscal policy... I could go on, but you're prattle means nothing if you think he's done a better job than Gore would have. My 9-year-old could do a better job than W.

 

At the risk of turning this into a typical "SJ Political Pissing Match," he's bitterly disappointed in Bush. I'm not sure who he'll vote for, after all, we still really don't know much about who is running.

I do know that he's very worried about the cost of diesel and how it'll affect the farming industry. And this is a man who buys off-road diesel (used in farming equipment) in 20,000-gallon batches.

 

No, they're serious if the consensus of the scientific community agrees with them. If you ask 10 scientists, and nine laugh about it, then they're not serious.

 

To put it into perspective, I can buy a quart of Pennzoil or Quaker State oil from the Advance Auto Parts near my mom's house for $2.18. A quart of Pennzoil Premium/Quaker State Q synthetic oil goes for $4.94. Synthetics are too expensive now. E-85 is the hot topic, but only if you're in the corn-producing states will you find it a bargain (in Virginia, it's pretty rare and damn near $4/gal). Biodiesel is getting buzz, but it's also hard to find and is more expensive than straight diesel, plus diesels are fairly uncommon in the States.

But the idea is to have an answer in the next few years, understanding that for now we're pretty much at the mercy of the Middle East, hurricanes and the market.

 

Yeah, at one point I'm sure 99 out of 100 people would have laughed at the person who said the world was round.

 

The reason we don't have cheap synthetic oil is simple -- it's not cost-effective for oil companies to invest the money to develop the technology right now. They can make money for decades off what is in the ground, and they already know how to get it out. Not much of a need to innovate there. But to come up with a way to produce cheaper synthetics in larger quantities? That would mean more money pumped into research, and why should they bother? If they did come up with a way to do it, then they couldn't fill their pockets on pure speculation that lately more often than not is just crap.