Wrong. Gas is cheaper at the same time fuel economy is better.
'at a boy zipzap, you keep on consuming as much gasoline and electricity as possible in an effort to keep these affordable.
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Then how do oil companies maintain profit margins? Do you honestly expect that if every car got 100 MPG, that they would not raise rates to compensate for the losses they will take or have car manufacturers install smaller gas tanks?? Thatās Economics 101. As far as I know, oil companies are not a government regulated business. So nothing to stop them charging whatever they want.
They fire people and stop drilling wells when prices are down, the reverse when prices go up. They donāt dictate prices. How else do you explain the dozens of bankrupt oil companies?
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Letās hope it continues like this then, because I really don;t want to pay higher prices to offset the losses. Donāt get me wrong, I support our fellow American workers, but Itās not my fault that all these energy efficiency mandates are being passed as laws, which results in less consumption from us, the consumers and job losses. Now I just need power companies to do the same, and we are golden.
Zip, I think it is an illusion that all of these environmental regulations are actually resulting in reduced consumption. I donāt think there has been an overall reduction in power usage. Iām all for conservation and buying more efficient products but when we bought our last appliances the guy warned us not to expect the 20 plus years life span anymore. With the increased efficiency in appliances comes a reduced life span. His experience anyway.
My switchover to LEDās has nothing to do with ābeing a good citizenā, I just like them, especially the way the go to full brightness instantly, even outdoors in freezing weather, as opposed to CFLās and the way they last a long time, as opposed to incandescent bulbs.
I drive high mpg cars and bikes for much the same reason, Iām not trying to save the world so much as Iāve got better things to do with my money than pouring it into my carās gas tank.
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Your argument is backwards. Power companies profits are regulated in nearly every state by public utilities commissions that must approve every increase, or decrease (my utility, for example) as the case might be. Power companies LIKE reduced energy products because it is a monumentally difficult and costly exercise to build a new power plant and energy usage has been steadily increasing even with efficient products. Much cheaper for them to improve the existing power plants and add mandated green sources like wind and solar as small adders to their grid.
Oil companies canāt dictate their profits nor their selling prices. the market does that, There are a bunch of oil companies selling you gas. If one raises the price because their profits are down, they will sell less and their competitor will sell more. Lower consumption means a glut of gas on the market so prices go down not up. THAT is Econ 101.
@ZipZap The issue here is to reduce greenhouse gasses (CO2) rather than just energy consumption. But the new CAFE standards will not be as effective as they could be since they do not cover the total emissions per car by the various manufacturers, as they do in Europe.
Energy prices reflect the cost of production mostly. If utilities have to invest heavily in solar and wind and phase out coal, the rates will go up steeply. Coal is one of the cheapest ways to produce electric power.
The price of oil is mainly determined by OPEC, the Organization of Petroleum Exporting Countries, of which Saudi Arabia is the dominant member. If you donāt like the price of gasoline, complain to the King of Saudi Arabia, who is the most influential member.
Neither Obama or the US oil companies have really any control over crude oil prices. If you look at the profitability of utilities and oil companies over time, youāll find that they are not great investments, unlike electronics and communications.
In short, we all have to get used to higher energy bills as coal is being passed out and far more expensive sources of power are being implemented. All in the name of reducing āglobal warmingā.
Gasoline is now relatively cheap, but hat wonāt last forever.
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āGasoline is now relatively cheap, but hat wonāt last forever.ā
You got that right
The same people that have recently traded in their Camrys, Civics, etc. for F150s, Suburbans, Silverados, etc., will be the ones complaining and/or crying when fuel prices are high again
And I feel a lot of them donāt even NEED a truck or suv . . . they just want it
Iāve known people trade in their average sized cars for monster suvs, and they werenāt even comfortable driving a large vehicle. They only did it, because āit was the thing to doā and they didnāt want to look like some kind of āloserā driving their Corolla, or what have you
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My state is building two new power plants that are to be coming online in 2018 to 2019. We are majority nuclear compared to other states around us and we provide power for other states to some degree since we have a large surplus. Maybe that is part of the reason the rates are skyrocketing. Iām not sure.
Every vehicle Iāve owned - mpg was always a factor in the decision process. Itās not thee most important factor, buts part of the equation. Vehicle need and usefulness are the most important followed by reliability. Then MPG and comfort.
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Comfort is the least important criteria for you . . . ?!
Yeah you take all the factors in consideration. There are some killers like 6 mpg or rock hard seats, or unreliability, or sky high price, but its all a compromise to get things you can live with that may not be perfect. I wouldnāt sacrifice everything else just to get 40 mpg but I wouldnāt buy something that only gets high teens either.
I hope you build those power plants in a non earthquake zone anyway. I read an article a while back that claimed that the green wind generators are actually resulting in more generating capacity being needed. The rationale was that you canāt depend on windmills or solar panels in all weather conditions, so when they are off line, the traditional power plants need to supply all the power those green devices provide on good weather days. If you didnāt do that, youād have the ole blackouts and brownouts. There are always unintended consequences to things that sound like good ideas.
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Nuclear energy is a lot more expensive that it has to be because of all the suits filed by people that donāt want it. The idea is to make it too expensive to build new plants. Obviously, it didnāt work. Letās just hope that they are your neighbors and have to pay the high rates, too.
Reduced demand for electricity reduces the number of new generating plants needed. Without electricity conservation, you might be paying for 3 or more plants instead of two.
Yup. I call this the āmineās bigger than yoursā syndrome. I wish I had a dollar for all the monster pickups and SUVs that Iāve seen that I know have never carried anything bigger than a weekās groceries for three. Iād have a lot of dollars. I have a few neighbors with huge, crew cab Dodge Ram 4X4 pickups that I know for a fact are only used to drive to & from work and the local stores. Oneās a big Cummins Diesel.
I knew a young fella in his 20s when I was still at the college who wanted the biggest pickup he could get. He bought a brand new Ford Superduty 4X4 crew cab. About four months later it was for saleā¦ his words: āitās bankrupting me!ā. Heās a really great kid, but I had to bite my cheek hard to keep from saying āI told you soā (which I had). He took a big āhitā and learned a hard lesson. I suggested he consider the loss the cost of an education, one heāll never likely forget.
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Thatās right, every megawatt of wind and solar has to have a ābackupā megawatt of quick-start gas-turbine generation capacity. This adds to the cost. Another byproduct - it reduces coal use, which canāt be brought on line quickly enough.
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And donāt forget that wind mills kill a lot of birds, including eagles
The government has given them a āfree passā to kill all they want, though
I see a lot of Ford crewcab superduty trucks for sale cheap on Craigslist
Theyāre selling for a lot less than you might think
Even though fuel is relatively cheap at the moment, perhaps the owners finally got tired of paying to fill up the thirsty beas
Or pethaps the owner finally realized he doesnāt even need such a large vehicle. Parallel parking sucks, you know 
You know, cars actually kill a lot of animals including birds also. Is the auto industry getting a āfree passā? Itās also not at all uncommon to see electrocuted birds and squirrels under power lines also.