Blame game

[Bird]

Yet has any of us given up our thirst for oil because of this disaster? Probably not too many. I haven't. As I said before, I'm surprised gas prices have stayed relatively stable. I would have thought for sure they would have jumped over $3.00 a gallon the day after the rig sank.

I, too, expected gas prices to go way up, both because of that disaster, and because vacation travel time is about here, since the schools are out for the summer now. But I just filled up my little Ranger this morning at $2.429 a gallon.

 

[rekees4300]

Yet has any of us given up our thirst for oil because of this disaster?

Most folks would give up on oil if there was a viable alternative. There are no solar powered tractors.

 

[Bird]

Most folks would give up on oil if there was a viable alternative. There are no solar powered tractors.

From what little I've read so far, the Chevrolet Volt sounds like the car I'd like to have; i.e., electric, not hybrid, power, but with a gasoline generator to charge the batteries if you go farther distances. However, it might be a bit small and no way I could afford a new one, so I'll just have to keep buying gasoline for our old Fords.

 

[brin]

From what little I've read so far, the Chevrolet Volt sounds like the car I'd like to have; i.e., electric, not hybrid, power, but with a gasoline generator to charge the batteries if you go farther distances. However, it might be a bit small and no way I could afford a new one, so I'll just have to keep buying gasoline for our old Fords.

Bird, I heard on the news that the Ford Fiesta is coming to this country ...it has a gas engine but gets 40 miles per gallon...Must have a carb they have kept hidden for years...LOL

 

[Bird]

Bob, we had a 1993 Ford Escort station wagon that averaged 32.585 mpg over it's lifetime of 106k miles, and we had a 1999 Ford Escort Sedan that averaged 32.982 mpg over the 39k miles we put on it. Of course to average that with air-conditioning, city stop and go driving in heavy traffic, etc., individual tanks of gas on the Interstates got up to 36-38 mpg. They were both good cars, but I wouldn't want anything smaller. And my wife likes bigger, so we now have a 2002 Ford Crown Victoria that's only averaged 21.746 mpg since we've had it. Is it worth the extra cost? Probably not, but it's what my wife wanted and she's been a pretty good ole gal for the 45 years we've been married, so I'd like to keep her happy.

 

[brin]

Bird ..I am with you and your wife...My Mrs. and I are the same we both drive Jeep Cherokees...We do not want to be stuck in a small car and we both want utility with what we drive..to be able to put the back seat down and load cargo...while you are out and about shopping ..with those little cars where do you put your purchases..driving home to get the truck just wastes more gas. Of course, moe importantly we both feel much safer in a larger & higher vehicle...

 

[dave1949]

It would be a British problem if the oil were all over a British shore. Once BP runs out of cash we are on our own. I dunno if they will go bankrupt, they probably have a pretty good revenue stream. I have not really looked over the situation, I would imagine they carry some type of insurance for this?

Most likely they will stop paying at some point and it will be in the courts forever. Then they will have to pay some lump sum which will likely be a fraction of the true cost of the mess and its impacts.

That sounds about right Charlz. That's the way I see going long term too.
Dave.

 

[dave1949]

Bird, I heard on the news that the Ford Fiesta is coming to this country ...it has a gas engine but gets 40 miles per gallon...Must have a carb they have kept hidden for years...LOL

The Fiesta is coming back Bob. I bought one when they first came out in 1978. I was doing a ton of driving for my job and it made money sense.

In Europe, they were known as the Ford Fiasco :laughing:

I put a little over 104,000 on it and the only problem I had was it ate brakes every 30,000 and I had to replace the fuel pump.

Our Honda Civic, 2006, 5spd manual, two door, will get 40 mpg without even trying. You won't get that mileage on an automatic or a 4 door Civic. It has been trouble free to date with about 73,000 miles on it.

It's not a great riding car, and on the noisy side, and won't push through slushy snow in winter, it is fun to fill up
Dave.

 

[dcyrilc]

The Fiesta is coming back Bob. I bought one when they first came out in 1978. I was doing a ton of driving for my job and it made money sense.

In Europe, they were known as the Ford Fiasco :laughing:

I put a little over 104,000 on it and the only problem I had was it ate brakes every 30,000 and I had to replace the fuel pump.

Our Honda Civic, 2006, 5spd manual, two door, will get 40 mpg without even trying. You won't get that mileage on an automatic or a 4 door Civic. It has been trouble free to date with about 73,000 miles on it.

It's not a great riding car, and on the noisy side, and won't push through slushy snow in winter, it is fun to fill up
Dave.

About 6 years ago, when I went to work for the city and took a $21/hr cut in pay, I bought a used Ford Aspire (made for Ford by Kia Motors Corp) with 168K miles on it. The water pump has died at 221K miles and it soon will need enough work that I'm not currently planning on fixing it even though it still gets 33-34 MPG on the highway. I only paid $800 for the car and it was difficult to find something to replace it without spending $40K or more. The best part of that car was that even when gas was near $4/gal, it never cost more than $25 to fill the tank from empty.

 

[aczlan]

It's not a great riding car, and on the noisy side, and won't push through slushy snow in winter, it is fun to fill up

Do you run snows in the winter? It is amazing what a decent set of snow tires will do for a car's ability to handle slush and snow.

Aaron Z

 

[keegs]

There's an interview in tomorrow's NY Times Magazine with an ex-Navy submariner who suggests exploding the well head is possible and that such an approach has been executed a number of times by the Russians. He also suggests a BP conflict between blowing up the well and its ability to recover the oil in future. Not sure I understand why that would be the case.

It seems noteworthy that all the negative talk about the current government's handling of the spill has persisted throughout this thread and for some time now. Maybe bird's shears have a point of view???

 

[dave1949]

Do you run snows in the winter? It is amazing what a decent set of snow tires will do for a car's ability to handle slush and snow.

Aaron Z

Well, that was a joke on me. I bought a set of mounted Blizzak snows from tirerack.com last Fall. That pretty much guaranteed hardly any snow would fall last Winter. I've got them, and I am sure they help, I just haven't had a chance to put them to a real test yet.

It wasn't bad on undisturbed snow even without snow tires. But on slushed up heavy stuff, the front end just goes sideways whichever way the road slopes better than forward. I need a Winter front-end ballast box
Dave.

 

[niemeyjt]

It would be a British problem if the oil were all over a British shore. Once BP runs out of cash we are on our own. I dunno if they will go bankrupt, they probably have a pretty good revenue stream. I have not really looked over the situation, I would imagine they carry some type of insurance for this?

Most likely they will stop paying at some point and it will be in the courts forever. Then they will have to pay some lump sum which will likely be a fraction of the true cost of the mess and its impacts.

I was listening on BBC Radio to a US commentator this morning (who also discussed the wider issues of international realtionships including a certain soccer game).

He pointed out that British Petroleum merged with the AMerican Oil COmpany twelve years ago in a 60:40 ratio to form BP. British Petroleum has not existed since then as such.

His view was that much of the rhetoric was down to US domestic politics and being able to blame someone else - with mid term elections on the horizon - although I think there was also an element of 50 year old politics of someone's Kenyan grandfather fighting British colonial rule being replayed.

However, in UK press this morning, apparently (I am never sure how the press know for sure) that "President Obama said to the Prime Minister that his unequivocal view was that BP was a multinational global company and that frustrations about the oil spill had nothing to do with national identity."

However, to pick up on the issues of who might suffer - here in UK apparently 12% of pension fund income comes from BP share dividends. I guess that US funds may also derive an income from BP share dividends. Therefore, if these divident payments dry up as money is diverted, then pensioners across both our countries are likely to see a reduction in income - a much wider impact than just around the Gulf.

J

 

[tulenutn2o]

I'm beginning to think 4 years without a president would be good.......

 

[2manyrocks]

Some of the southern states still have constitutions that limit the time the state legislature can meet each year. Whether it was intended to limit the damage they can do each year or limit the amount of time the legislators would have to take off from their private business to attend to their legislative duties, I can't say.

I could be mistaken, but I think I remember reading that the controversy from the Exxon Valdez oil spill was only resolved a few years ago. There's probably going to be decades of litigation over the BP spill.