[Calisport]

Some people that what mainstream news have no idea the pipelines were shut down also.

[mtdjed]

Originally Posted by Arctic Fox

My point is not that the USA can become 100% non-dependent on fossil fuels overnight, but that, rather than drilling for more oil, it should be finding ways to use fossil fuels more efficiently and to focus on renewables, just as many other countries have successfully done.

The country has continually avoided doing so because the coal and oil industries have so much influence over Government officials. (Why else would SUVs be allowed to be counted as trucks in order to fudge automobile fuel economy figures?)

So many people in The Villages refuse to make any changes to their lifestyle, even though most of them have children, grandchildren and great-grandchildren who are going to be the ones bearing the brunt of our continued insistence on using huge amounts of the Earth's resources and polluting the water and air.

Stop making excuses; start taking action.

So, what lifestyle change actions should we start? Should we all go solar, quit air conditioning, stop driving fossil fuel vehicles, eliminate air flights to see family, quit riding fossil fuel buses, trains, boats? Should I buy a Tesla and power it by solar. Should we stop using water systems and sewer systems powered by fossil fuel. Quit buying food that has been grown and delivered by the help of fossil fuel?

I get buying a car with good gas milage and not wasting cooling and heating energies. But the question is to inform us what else you would recommend that we individually should do to eliminate the dependency of using fossil fuels for 80 % of our energy needs.

It is easy to say stop making excuses and start taking actions.
Please tell us your experiences that will help us eliminate excuses.

Thanks

[Normal]

If prices continue up, look for every Bubba Gump with more than an acre sporting their own oil wells.

I can just see it now, signs “Home Pumped Oil Here/Fresh Oranges”

Or

Sun headline, “ ARC denies well drilling request again…will be reviewed “

[srswans]

Originally Posted by mtdjed

That is your opinion, and you are certainly entitled to it.

However, the current USA appetite for fossil fuels cannot be satisfied by wind, solar, hydro or tidal technology. Recall that in the 1950's and 60's, expectations were that nuclear energy would save us all. That has not gone well. We still have air travel that is totally dependent upon fossil fuels. In fact, about 80 % of all US energy is still dependent upon fossil fuels. Unless someone has an immediate solution for eliminating the need for all fossil fuels, we need to keep supplying them until they can be retired. Probably better for the US to supply its own requirements than to buy from foreign sources.

Agreed. We also need to increase the number of nuclear power plants to replace fossil fuels. Long lead time but at least the Gen IV reactors are significantly safer and have reduced waste.

[Ptmckiou]

Walmart gas went down this week by .20 a gallon. Just sayin….

[Cliff Fr]

It's truly unfortunate that the price of an essential commodity is determined by speculators in the futures market. They often make a large amount of money yet produce nothing! I wish their was a better way to set prices abd ensure a fair profit for the actual
producers

[Bill14564]

Originally Posted by Ptmckiou

Walmart gas went down this week by .20 a gallon. Just sayin….

?? We saw $3.59 -> $3.79 -> $3.99. What price change did we miss?

[Bay Kid]

'08- '16 gas prices high. '16-'20 gas prices reasonable, '21-now prices high. You do the math.

[DOGSAREKEEPERS]

Originally Posted by Arctic Fox

...it’s worth the risk to drill and explore more places for oil.

The number one threat to we humans is climate change. Covid comes along and diverts us, then the invasion of Ukraine, but these will pass whereas urgent action is needed now, and for the next 30+ years, to keep the Earth habitable for us, our children and others down the line. Drilling for more oil, just to keep short-term prices down, is totally the wrong way to go.

...it takes more than a decade to get where other countries are with renewable energy.

Sitting on our hands and saying "we can't do this" is hardly the American way. The USA has long coastlines with plentiful offshore wind, and huge tracts of land suitable for solar (including parking lots and on buildings). Yes, it takes time, but kicking that can down the road is not the solution.

THE NUMBER ONE THREAT TO HUMANS IS NOT CLIMATE CHANGE. Look at the countries that are not too stable that have Nukes.

Drilling for more oil is not just to keep the price down. It is to be self sufficient so we don't have to consider Iran or Russia as a place to give our money because we need them.
We don't have to sit on our hands over the next decade and we are not sitting on them or kicking the can down the road. Fact is there are a lot of questions about the production and sustainability of alternatives that are being looked at and addressed right now.
In the mean time we need and will need for some time, oil and gas and fossil fuels.
We don't have a military that can recharge it's tanks or planes on wind currents or electric chargers.
Our present fuels are needed for all of our manufacturing (including making electric, solar, and wind devices) and distribution of goods . We can work on solutions but we have to live in the meantime.

[Luggage]

Strictly speaking the price of oil does determine the price of electricity and the state utilities commissions are there to make sure that the company's remain profitable and pay their 8 to 10% dividend yearly. When the price of natural gas goes up the electrical companies have to make it up in higher rates to the consumers. The futures markets as you say work by regulating future supply and demand and offloading some potential risks for a large users such as airplane companies who can buy futures for the next one or two years for their jet fuel as it is a major component of their operating costs it's the same thing as corn futures and pig bellies if you ever watched the movie trading places you understand .
More to the point the seasonal weather has a lot to do also with gasoline prices and weather refinery switch over to making heating oil for the Northeast homes that need it to warm their housing.
Another big factor that nobody mentions is that we have a problem about 100 large refineries in the US and if one or more of these go down for maintenance there is a bump and spike in the price of gasoline. This is a huge national concern that nobody talks about is these refineries cost about a billion dollars to build and the concern is that there is a very tight relationship between gasoline refined and are supply and demand in the US through these refineries actually very closely match up to our needs so that if two or three of these are out of commission prices will definitely Spike

[Luggage]

The number one thing that should be done is more research on how to make seller sales less expensive. If it cost me $5,000 instead of $25,000 to power my house by electricity off of my roof I guarantee you everyone would be doing it tomorrow.

[Luggage]

When I was born back in the fifties the world population was estimated to be 3 billion. We had huge starvation in Africa and India and China. Today the world population is somewhere between 6 and 9 billion and they're still starvation but I bet there's a lot less of it. Back in the 50s we were told there would be no more oil in the '60s and '70s and 80s and yet we are pumping 200% more or 300% more than we ever have. I'm not against electric cars but I'm still waiting for these green people to say okay to nuclear energy as that's the only way to get more electricity to put into my so-called electric vehicle

[Luggage]

Just like our social security inflation raise where we only get increases after the fact also!

[Bill14564]

Originally Posted by Bay Kid

'08- '16 gas prices high. '16-'20 gas prices reasonable, '21-now prices high. You do the math.

According to this chart from the EIA, your dates are a bit off.

2002-2008: increasing
2008: sharp decrease
2009-2011: increasing
2011-2014: flat
2014: sharp decrease
2015-2020: relatively flat
2020: pandemic decrease
2021: increase (post-pandemic demand surge?)
2020: Putin/Ukraine increase

[jedalton]

Buy a Tesla