$100/barrel oil on the horizon

[SnowRidge]

I think driving patterns will change, because for a lot of people, they simply have to. Rural working folk are particularly hard hit, especially those who commute to jobs in town. They generally don't make a lot of money, at least they don't in this area, and public transportation is nonexistant for commuting purposes.

Still, they have to get to and from work, and a larger and larger percentage of their limited incomes is going to commuting costs. Something has to give, and foregoing or cutting back on extra trips to town is one way for them to cope. For some, it may be the only way.

I also think we will see a change in housing patterns. People who might have bought in far suburbia or rural America will be rethinking that idea. Commuting costs will become a bigger decision factor in housing choices, and more buyers will be opting for the closer in locations. Poorer people will be squeezed out of these areas due to rising prices, and life will just become harder for them.

Like Gatorboy, my wife drives 42 miles one way to work. We calculated that her commuting costs were over $11,000 a year, including depreciation, fuel, insurance, and servicing costs for her car. That's a lot of money just to go back and forth for a job, and a lot of her time spent commuting, so we started looking for property closer to her work.

We recently closed on a really nice tract of timbered land much closer to her place of employment. We will be building there in the near future. Once we move, her commute will be shorter and costs will be less than half of what they are now, even with higher gas prices.

Just like the housing bubble burst because the price increases became unstustainble, at some point the oil prices will become unsustainable without major economic adjustments. I think we are close to that point, and I don't think anybody really knows how it will all shake out in the end.

 

[WBWI]

My wife and I just built a home that is 38 miles from my job. We lived in the same genaral area when Katrina hit and prices spiked so the drive is essentially the same. What has changed for us are our driving habits. My Dodge Ram sits in the garage more than it gets driven, we are now carpooling in my wifes SRT4 (turbocharged Neon). That car turned out to be a great "investment". It gets 26-30mpg when pampered but will flat out haul ***** if required.

 

[riptides]

...Nothing better than being able to tell the middle east that I don't need their oil so they can go and shove their outragious prices ...

But oil is a global commodity, traded for in US dollars, and the US imports more from Canada than the middle east.

My company yanked my fleet vehicle. I put 75k on it in two years. Currently I am doing 75 miles one way.

Needless to say, I am looking for alternatives, in job and vehicles.

-Mike Z.

 

[ihookem]

No insult taken, "in 1982 the recession had us all staying home" as I mentioned in my last post . A recession would help, but electric cars and diesel hybrids should help a lot. A small electric car can go 100 miles on three dollars of electricity. That is a hundred miles per gallon equal. A diesel hybrid car should get 75-80 mpg. And trains can pull what two hundred semis can pull and does it with diesel electric generators. Why don't we put something like that in a car? I really think this is the way to go in the long run for small and midsize cars.

 

[MikePA]

My dream..... ExxonMobil collapses in bankruptcy !!

And if this happened, how would it benefit you?

 

[Ductape]

Just a little satisfaction for sticking it to America during wartime (or any time).

I'm sure in some way, it would actually hurt me.

But......its not something i ever forsee actually happening.

 

[Rara Avis]

Just a little satisfaction for sticking it to America during wartime (or any time).

It's statements like this that get you on Homeland Security Lists...

 

[Z-Michigan]

Yes they do make billions, they are a business and like any business they are in it to make money. You seem to forget how much the petroleum industry moves every year. Its not like they are selling a couple of thousand of gallons a year. They move billions and billions of gallons per year so their profit margin seems to be normal considering the quantity of product they move. If they were not making a profit they would be out of business and then you wouldn't have any gas or oil at all.

+1, and more importantly, the big oil companies have very ordinary profit margins compared to any other industry - in fact relatively low profit margins. Banks and brokerages, and drug companies, are the ones with huge fat profit margins. I am sadly amused at all the criticism of big oil companies - they do a really good job at supplying us, and we absolutely depend on them. No, I don't work for an oil company nor do I own stock in any of them.

 

[laurencen]

I commute in a VW Jetta, not a small car but will cruise at 70mph and get 55mpg, the price of oil has risen sharply and gas has not followed the same rate, remember when Oil was $35.00 per barrel, Gas is not 3 times what it was then, if Gas had followed it would easily be $6 to $7.00 per gallon, in UK its over $6.50 a gallon

 

[unreconstructed]

I live and work in Midland Texas in the midst of the oil business. Our clients are the small independent producers. Over the years some have made it big, most have not made it at all.

I am not a cheerleader for any of the multinational companies--they are in bed with both policial parties. Yet one has to realize that although the major oil companies profits are way up, their profit margins are less than many other industries. They sell a lot of product. It is my understanding that refineries profits margins are very depressed.

If trains are the answers, those of us in remote regions like in the West will have to abandon our homes and move to the urban areas with the rest of you. Move over guys, I am used to a lot of room.

It seems to me there will be some engineer who will figure out a 40 MPG power plant for our F350s, 3500s and so on. Why cannot we think like that instead of relegating our thinking to the pathetic European model? The thieving political class in Europe accounts for their historically high price of gasoline. Our thieving politcal class here in the US would love nothing more than to tax us into staying home and watching the boob tube instead of being out working on our places with our fuel consuming tractors and pickuptrucks.

There seems to be the feeling we should all be punished for enjoying our lives--time for the party to be over. I say b(*())_#. Let that amazing American ingenuity have its head. It may take a rise in oil prices to facilitate new
technology. That's OK. To allow our politicians to tax us into obliviion and lay waste to ExxonMobil et al because we are po'd at them for making money makes no sense to me.