$7/gal gas predicted w/i 2 years.....

[Jeffrey Makiel]

Hydrogen Gas is the fuel of the future.

Perhaps, but it's a fairly distant future. Currently, bulk hydrogen is derived from petroleum product. There is also an electrolysis process but it is expensive, still requires energy input and the bulk capability is not there. But there sure is promise.

Another energy alternative that uses hydrogen is fusion power. It actually uses isotopes of hydrogen call deuterium and tritium which are smashed together at incredibly high heat to fuse into Helium. As a result, a thermal neutron is given off which is converted into heat energy.

Fusion research has been going on at our national laboratories for several decades in an effort to create a new generation of power plant. There is a huge international collaboration, in which the US is part of, to build a multi-billion dollar 'proof-of-principle' fusion research reactor in France. However, the overall federal budget for fusion energy research in the US has been declining in the past 10 years and it is projected to continue this trend for the near future.
-Jeff

[Butch Edwards]

Part of the problem with the oil and the stock market for that matter is today's communications and the speed at which folks can communicate and OVERREACT to an "urban" rumor....or an internet rumor.


Think about this. With the way the stock market can be accessed today, some idiot gets on CNBC or on a board like SMC and makes a statement that while based on some facts, is, mostly a subjective speculative point of view...it's extemely biased. Biased views are often far from being objective and therefore far from being correct. So we get some guy, who the television talking heads, introduces him as an "expert". Now, this guy based on his extremely biased point of view (which could as wrong as can be) makes a prediction and a lot of folks based on misinformation fed by this media promoted "expert" immediately start making stock market trades using their computers and a "rush" on the market happens and the market dips. It happens everyday. The talking heads are there to do two things..1. sell advertisement and 2. have trades happen. If they can cause people to trade stocks, the traders or the trading companies they work for , make money.

The same analogy works on the oil futures. Somebody comes along and predicts $7/ gallon gasoline and the oil is already $130 a barrel and people start buying the stuff at $130 because "it's going to go up and we are going to have $7.00/gallon gas."

Having rapid access to buy and sell stocks....Yeah it's good for the trading companies that handle the trades. But it's also bad.....very bad...it's what make today's stock market volitile......

The people who write books and tell of the future terrible depressions...maybe......But frankly, they make their money selling books. A dull book telling eveyone to put money in a savings account.....invest some money......and spend some money .....pay off your house mortgage..don't abuse credit....if 99.99% of the time you can't pay off that credit card at the end of the month...get rid of the card and pay off the balance....that's dull and won't sell books or make news. Instead they make their money by predicting doom and gloom. And the talking heads, they put the doom-and-gloom guy on because they want to hold that audience and sell more advertisements. Good news doesn't hold the audience. When is the last time on a national "news" channel, they spent more than 5 minutes in a week showing acts of "good news"....that Dennis Peacock and his family helped a neighbor recover from the effects of tornado in the rural area of Arkansas where they live. When did you see a national news story about a couple of woodworking websites memberships take up collections to help a professional woodworker whose shop roof was collapsed by an early winter storm...or that a major w/w manufacturer contributed a brand new tool to that unlucky individual. Look around you ....there are acts of kindness in each and every neighborhood in this country but very few of those stories get broadcast.

You want to say the previous generations were wiser? They might have been.

The remembered their kindergarden reading:


"The sky is falling.....the sky is falling!"

They also remember what happened to the little boy who always ran around yelling "Wolf!......Wolf!"

the stock market is volitile, due to many factors...but I seriously doubt that crying wolf is one of them. as for the "experts", believe it or not, some are exactly that, and have been predicting this for years..they KNEW the sky was falling. I also heard 1 investor make the statement, that even retirement funds are buying up oil stocks, because as he put it.."if ya can't beat 'em,join 'em"..and they are doing just that...to the tune of nearly the same amount($$) that China is, buying oil. the CEOs of major oil companies are in front of congress yesterday and today, doing all they can to CONTINUE to pull the wool over the eyes of the elected. all their job is: turn a profit.period...and they will,anyway possible.
I agree that national news is built upon Bad news, and that's a statement of the condition of this society... we allow it to continue, by NOT turning it off...by maintaining silence...but that's another issue.

[Rick Gooden]

I have been watching the fuel prices with great interest and reading a lot of opinions on different forums. First, the problem appears to be global, with demand from other countries certainly adding to the problem. China alone is adding something like 20,000 cars a month to the problem. I think the larger problem that we face is the fact that fuel drives our economy. Everything is moved by truck and in turn is beginning to really rise in price. Just go to the grocery store. Many people are beginning to evaluate their situation and changing some lifestyles. This includes not making purchases, stopping recreational shopping, eating out less, etc. Of course, when these things happen, people in those industries lose their jobs, unemployment goes up, taxes raise, etc. Maybe none of this will happen and I certainly hope that is the case. As for my wife and myself, we have no debt, we own our vehicles, and our home, and we live simply so we are not experiencing any hardship right now, but the same cannot be said for those on fixed income or with debt out of control. I am not trying to be alarmist, just stepping back to take a look at the big picture. I"m not sure how we stop this spiral, because I'm not that smart. Please chime in and tell me that none of this will happen and everything is going to be OK

[Brian Weick]

Something is very wrong in my opinion, how can the oil companies be making record profits while the average consumer is spending $4.00 and up for a gallon of gas~ Something is up with this and I would love to be a fly on a wall in one of these private OPEC meetings. I am disgusted with what is happening and it is affecting every facet of the economy engine. I am glad to see that there are more and more hybrids coming out , this could really give the American auto companies an edge if they can keep the momentum going with alternative fuels or economy based engineering thought out in there production of transportation vehicles.
Brian

[Keith Outten]

Jeffrey,

I'm talking about extracting hydrogen gas from water, which we have plenty of. The energy required to make the process work comes from a small solar panel mounted on top of an outdoor unit the size of a heat pump.

This isn't futuristic, the Japanese have a home that has been hydrogen powered for about three years. It is totally self-sufficient including making its own fuel for an automobile.

I expect that with a new carborator existing internal combustion engines could be converted to burning hydrogen, a similar conversion to burning propane. The DOT would have to approve a new tank, this would be the largest obstacle to overcome but I expect it would be a very small tank....probably a gallon or two of liquid hydrogen.

What we need is a couple of people from MIT to design a hydrogen generator and put the plans on the Net. I would be rushing to the hardware store to purchase the necessary parts right away. I would start by converting my lawn mower to burn hydrogen then the cars and them my home appliances.

You will never see this technology if you expect the Government to make it possible. It has to come from private industry because it will devastate the oil industry, public utilities and cause a severe loss in tax revenue for the Government. Our planet will be the big winner not to mention our pocketbooks.



.

[Brian Elfert]

If oil companies made zero profit the price of gas would be reduced by at most 35 cents a gallon. They only make about a 10% profit margin.

Oil company profits look obscene based on real dollars, but their revenues are also sky high and their profit margin isn't that high. Exxon Mobil had revenues in 2007 of almost $400 billion. Walmart had almost the same revenues as Exxon Mobil last year.

I work for a company that used to have profit margins of almost 25%, but nobody complained about our profits because total industry revenue across many companies is $15 to $20 billion.

[Ed Kilburn]

Have you ever thought about how in efficient our cars are? I've been around engines for years, even rebuilt a few. But when I can across this video series, I got my eyes opened. Don't jump ahead the first few are important to understand why a piston engine is only 30% efficient. There are 10 videos in the series.

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=hFifF...eature=related

[Ken Fitzgerald]

the stock market is volitile, due to many factors...but I seriously doubt that crying wolf is one of them. as for the "experts", believe it or not, some are exactly that, and have been predicting this for years..they KNEW the sky was falling. I also heard 1 investor make the statement, that even retirement funds are buying up oil stocks, because as he put it.."if ya can't beat 'em,join 'em"..and they are doing just that...to the tune of nearly the same amount($$) that China is, buying oil. the CEOs of major oil companies are in front of congress yesterday and today, doing all they can to CONTINUE to pull the wool over the eyes of the elected. all their job is: turn a profit.period...and they will,anyway possible.
I agree that national news is built upon Bad news, and that's a statement of the condition of this society... we allow it to continue, by NOT turning it off...by maintaining silence...but that's another issue.

Butch,

What I'm implying is that because people can trade stock so rapidly today, they can react or overreact to "news" and this adds to the volitility of the stock market and is in my opinion, a leading problem...not the only problem...but certainly a major factor in market volitility.

I wrote a term paper in 1967. My major source of information was from the major oil companies themselves. The theme of the paper "The Upcoming Oil Shortage" The oil companies were prediciting a shortage of oil then to occur in the late '80s. Since then the oil fields in the Persian Gulf area has been found delaying same.

I believe in the free market system and yet....explain to me why gasoline that was bought at $90 a barrel and produced into gasoline....should show an instantaneous increase in price today at the pump because oil is selling today for $135 a barrel? The gasoline in the pump didn't cost $135 a barrel in it's raw preproduction form. It's greed..... Using that philosophy, everybody should just increase their prices on everything willy-nilly, because we know from history inflation is going to happen.

I only hope science and engineering can come up with an affordable, efficient and environmentally friendly source of energy so the world population can continue to live comfortably. I don't look forward to using my new w/w shop as a stable and having to clean it out everyday or to bucking bales of hay as I did as a child.

[Chris Friesen]

I believe in the free market system and yet....explain to me why gasoline that was bought at $90 a barrel and produced into gasoline....should show an instantaneous increase in price today at the pump because oil is selling today for $135 a barrel? The gasoline in the pump didn't cost $135 a barrel in it's raw preproduction form. It's greed.....

Because of cost-benefit analysis. When oil prices go up, some pump stations jack up the price right away. Other owners have a choice between upping the price immediately (and making more profit per gallon/liter) or else selling at their previous price, making less profit, and having to re-order at the higher supply price.

There really isn't much benefit to the station to keep their price at the lower rate when there is a price jump. On the other hand there may be a benefit to having prices that are consistently a few cents lower...the increased volume may offset the lower margins.

Back to the original discussion...$7/gal really isn't that bad. Up here in Canada we're already at the equivalent of $5/gallon, the UK is at $7.44/gal, and in Germany they're currently at almost $9/gal. Of course their average fuel economy is much higher than ours.

[Rob Russell]

Back to the original discussion...$7/gal really isn't that bad. Up here in Canada we're already at the equivalent of $5/gallon, the UK is at $7.44/gal, and in Germany they're currently at almost $9/gal. Of course their average fuel economy is much higher than ours.

True, but those european countries also don't have the same emissions standards that we do in the USA.

[Chris Padilla]

Jeffrey,

I'm talking about extracting hydrogen gas from water...

Funny, but the Hindenburg always comes to mind when folks talk about Hydrogen as a fuel!

[Chris Padilla]

Oh, and on the note of oil skyrocketing and the dollar plummeting...look into Gold. I've seen predictions of $2000/oz. Crazy, but hey, life is that way lately....

[Sean Troy]

..or $200/BBl for crude...either way, the American family is in for a very tough row to hoe.... those who are financed to the teeth will suffer most. I've tried to tell my kids to save,save,save..and I know it's tough when you're just starting out, but ya gotta start sometime. Drive a used car, instead of new... buy smaller house... cut back on entertainment spending... spend vacations @ home... BE THRIFTY WITH YO MONEY!!!

Americans shouldn't have to cut back. We need to drill and build refineries. We have more oil in this country than most of the middle east.

[Chris Padilla]

Americans shouldn't have to cut back. We need to drill and build refineries. We have more oil in this country than most of the middle east.

Oh really? More oil than the M.E.? Care to cite this with some actual facts? Are you familiar with PEAK OIL? It isn't going to last forever!

[Greg Funk]

Jeffrey,

I'm talking about extracting hydrogen gas from water, which we have plenty of. The energy required to make the process work comes from a small solar panel mounted on top of an outdoor unit the size of a heat pump.

This isn't futuristic, the Japanese have a home that has been hydrogen powered for about three years. It is totally self-sufficient including making its own fuel for an automobile.

I expect that with a new carborator existing internal combustion engines could be converted to burning hydrogen, a similar conversion to burning propane. The DOT would have to approve a new tank, this would be the largest obstacle to overcome but I expect it would be a very small tank....probably a gallon or two of liquid hydrogen.

What we need is a couple of people from MIT to design a hydrogen generator and put the plans on the Net. I would be rushing to the hardware store to purchase the necessary parts right away. I would start by converting my lawn mower to burn hydrogen then the cars and them my home appliances.

You will never see this technology if you expect the Government to make it possible. It has to come from private industry because it will devastate the oil industry, public utilities and cause a severe loss in tax revenue for the Government. Our planet will be the big winner not to mention our pocketbooks.



.

Keith,

If you just want to power your home there is no advantage to generating Hydrogen. Just use solar panels to generate electricity. Many locations allow you to sell any excess power back to the utility.

Unfortunately, based on the current prices of electricity in most places in the US the economics for generating your own power from solar are not good.

Greg