The politicians aren't telling the people the hard truths and I'm not sure people would listen anyway. It's been over 35 years now since the first oil shock and after a brief flirtation with more efficient cars it has all gone very badly.

The fact is we are running out of oil and the longer we wait the more dire the transition to a more fuel efficient economy. The presidential candidates are answering questions about flag pins. The Press is beholden to the status quo. There is little appetite in Congress to really address any of the problems we have let alone reigning our national icon ... the 8 cylinder wonder.

There will have to be a crisis, and there will be a crisis and the American public will suffer greatly. This suffering will not be an interlude from the pursuit of our American dream, this will be a relentless decline in our standard of living for decades to come.

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...nothing will really change. I work in R&D in a chemical company, and the way it works in this neighborhood is the bastards running it purposefully constrain development of new technologies until the MBA's have squeezed the absolute very last nickel out of an existing technology regardless of how harmful it is or what kind of push there exists from the outside to abandon it. Then, and ONLY then will anyone in the corner offices consider embracing any kind of new technology. Oil is the same way. In Germany and other areas in Europe and Asia, two places that are starting to really Get It, roadways are lined with solar cells owned by government energy companies. Land which lies bare is converted to wind farms, new construction starts, especially in China, are required to include solar energy generation technology in their makeup. Public transport is pushed as hard as possible in England and other areas. The USA? We're still oo-ing and ahh-ing over the newest McShitmobile getting less than 10 miles a gallon. There is a damn good reason we're talking more about using more (food-based)ethanol and 'clean' coal technology instead of solar, wind, cellulosics and other forms of real alternative energy in this country. Like the bum-ass company I work for, there is still a few pennies to be wrung from the corpse of the oil economy. Until these bastards are literally forced to move away from this model of national destruction, nothing's going to really change.

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to the will of the people of this country to keep on driving. So far, I've not seen any effect. There's been no material reduction in the traffic here. People simply continue to drive their cars. High gas prices mean nothing to them, at least so far. Why not encourage people to stop driving by raising the tax on gas, say to $10.00 per gallon. Then maybe even the dense people out there on the road would get that there's a problem.

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...And have driven nothing buy small, cheap, high fuel mileage Japanese cars, and kept them until they were junk. Since I've kept car expenses a much smaller proportion of my spending than most people, the current surge in oil prices has had less effect on me than many. I warned younger coworkers about buying big pick-up trucks, luxury cars and SUV's years ago, but nobody would listen. Given that oil prices, adjusted for inflation, are just now exceeding the record levels of the early '80's, it's going to take a little longer for the pain to start seriously affecting those with decent incomes. Right now, they just want to blame the oil companies and the politicians, instead of looking in the mirror to see the real culprits.

Even I haven't changed my habits all that much. My job doesn't allow for using transit, since I work on-call and have to be to work in a short amount of time at any hour of the day or night. But doubling what I spend on gas means that I went from about $50/mo. to $100/mo., not $100 a tank like some of the SUV dinos use. Those of us who know the truth about the peak oil should use the time we have left to get our lives in order for the worsening shortages of everything.

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Quote;
The third is "geopolitical risk"; since 2003, the United States has been committed to a three-trillion-dollar war in Iraq, the heart of the turbulent oil-producing world.
Unquote.

Boy Oh Boy, the MSM does simply love giving misleading informatoin out to the gullible, that's a Fact.
Listen up folks, despite the claims above, the way I recall events, Iraq was unable to export the majority of it's oil due to United Nations sanctions which the U.S. amongst others pushed it's damndest to have imposed, thus effectively cutting Iraq from the source of chain of supply.
To now claim or postulate Iraq as the "heart" of the oil producing World is total rubbish.
Even with Iraq out of the producing loop, or effectively very much reduced production, (forgotten the oil embargo scandels already hey ?) the price was still way down per barrel from what it is now.
Isolating Iran and it's business of oil production was not a good idea, nor is agravating and isolating Chavez either.
Let's face it folks, less wars = stability=cheaper prices, and the fall of the U.S. dollar is also a major contributor as well, less money = more required to buy the same,(provided the folks who have it, wish to sell it to yu) again Folks, stop war mongering and the value MAY, I say MAY again slowly increase.

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I live in rural Nebraska. My town pop. 400 (and falling) has only a tavern, a gas station/quick shop and no jobs or industry. I have to drive 20 miles to the nearest large city to get a decent job. And there are many like me in rural America.

Reading this article and some of the posts to it, they all seem to say "yeah..bring on higher prices! Make those wasteful drivers YELL!"

I think that many of these posters, and the person who wrote this article, are--quite frankly--elitist urban snobs. Who have never BEEN to a rural area, or lived in one, or understand the problems of distance and sparse population that exist out here. So what is your advice to someone like me who needs to drive 20 miles or more to obtain a decent job? Ride a bicycle? (try that in Nebraska in January), live in a log cabin with an outhouse for the bathroom?

BTW--before you jump to conclusions, I drive a 1990 4 cyl Ford Tempo--not an SUV or 4wd pickup.

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Why is the author not talking about Peak Oil Theory? It is widely believed among "peakers" that the first sign that world oil production has peaked will be price instability resulting in a large initial increase is the price of oil. Since we have seen that occur it could be that world oil production has already peaked. If not, it will very soon. This will be followed by a gradual but relentless drop in production each year. The first sign of this will be spot shortages followed by much more widespread shortages. In addition to the U.S.'s largely suburban lifestyle, many of the things we take for granted every day will dissappear or be difficult to come by. Our economy will largely collapse, air travel will become the pastime of the wealthy and priviledged (once again), plastics, fertilizers and pharmacueticals will be greatly affected since all are derived from oil. We will not, in any way, be able to replace this lost oil with ethanol, wind, solar or used french fry oil. These alternatives will help but will lack the mass-of-scale needed to replace the amount of oil we use each day. Oil is very unique in that it delivers a very large amount of energy and a myriad of useful chemicals per barrel that nothing we have encounted so far will even come close to replacing it. Any thoughts on this?

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Bush and Mc Cain are so mesmerized by their base of rich folks that they can only think of one remedy to any situation. Cut some tax or another.

Its especially surprising from Bush. Now he has nothing to lose by doing the right thing and directing Congress to revamp trains and light rail.

As he is an avowed bicyclist, its almost jaw dropping that he has done absolutely nothing to encourage people to bicycle whenever possible and to encourage merchants and businesses to be more bicycle friendly. He could put his crony Lance Armstrong in charge.

This abdication of leadership just shows how deeply he is in Exxon's pockets.

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Keep the tax, get rid of the tax, either way, the demand for gasoline in the short run will be about the same. The short term elasticity of demand for gasoline is very small, which means that people do not change their driving habits and car buying habits much in the short run.

The bigger implications are that killing the gas tax will cut off funding for long neglected highway maintenance (and the jobs that go with it) and the whole notion of a carbon tax to curb energy consumption is being way oversold as a means of making the rapid adjustments to energy conserving lifestyles and technologies we must employ to reduce our risk exposure to many energy related risks, of which climate destabilization gets the most buzz.

Cutting the gasoline tax is a stupid gesture, yes, but the bigger problems of gas guzzling won't be changed much even if we keep it in place.

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Let's say the Karaoke Candidate (Hillary) gets her way and gas prices go down 18 cents this summer. What will keep them from creeping back up to the original price or higher?

Only the oil companies.

Yeah, that'll work.

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The gas prices will get much worse not just due to speculation and greed but the effect of an American attack upon Iran which will change everything forever..and raise prices my additional dollars and also create shortages due to some nations sympathetic to Iran..manipulating production and supply..

That said everybody want to start up a green or alternative energy economy as do I greatly but how do we fund and initiate this..I'll tell you..!

NATIONALIZE TE AMERICAN OIL COMPANIES..AND ALL HOLDINGS..!

Wow brilliant now we can cut costs by 30-35% and still have around $50-60 Billion per year to fund alternative energy sources and fund new technologies heal the failing oil infrastructure hire new employees address our other real infrastructure..

You all know of course that 49% of OPEC is the American Oil companies don't you so they are paying only $40-45 dollars tops for the Oil that sells for $120 per barrel and a barrel is only 42 gallons not 55 as many presume..!

These idiots we have for leaders talk about a Manhattan project well this is it and we must also Nationalize the American Airline Industry which will add to passenger safety and we must require all maintenance is done with the United States...

This will sane huge amounts of fuel and cut back on flight numbers aiding the system which is over loaded as there is a lot of overlapping flights and redundancy ad excess fuel consumption..these are interrelated the airlines collapse and our adversarial Oil Companies who are bringing America to it's knees..as if enemy foreign powers which they are..!

If we want o save our nations economy it's time to create a balance of what works best of different systems..

The hell with Edelman "Greed is (not) good.."

Greed creates failure of capitalism and market collapse and at the far reaches of the unbridled capitalist universe is the same redistribution of wealth as we were terrorized by within the Communist system..!

J.S. Mill said near his death that he was a "democratic socialist" so am I, I suppose though most Socialists would deny me as one of them and call me a capitalist and capitalists will call me socialist..

We must preserve our primary infrastructure and vital necessary assets..

Governments duty very purpose is to Serve The People not the Corporate "persons" Corporations are not People you hear me Scalia you gavone'..!

Imagine what we could accomplish with $50-60 Billion per year to fund alternate energy and new technologies the jobs we'd create good paying jobs for Americans imagine that creating jobs for Americans..! You hear me Bill Gates you little !@#$^%..!

Also cutting energy costs by 30% or more would create a huge economic Boom one like we haven;t seen since the late 50's early 60's..

So don;t believe Bush, Don;t believe Hillary, don't believe McCain, Obama has no clue about anything he's like a deer in the headlights about Macro-economics most lawyers have no clue how to run a country's economy and make it great..!

Listen to me and get this out there just the growing call for Nationalizing the Oil Industry will reduce prices by up to 20% far more than Hillary and McCain's stupid .18 cents..big "F"ing deal and it may do more harm than good as we all know already..

I favor a "windfall profits tax" alright one of 100%, that's the only real solution..and not one dime less..!

NATIONALIZE THE AMERICAN OIL COMPANIES..!

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From some of the bozo posters here. Fact: the times are changing and you WILL change or get run over. At some point you will not be able to drive 20 or 30 miles to and from work in your gas guzzler. You can move closer to your job or try to find some alternative transport.

If you need a car or truck for work, you'll need some way to cut down on travel or develop a less energy-consuming form of transport.

Of course you don't want to change, but the economy will force you to do so. In the 30's Depression millions had to leave their marginal farms and small towns. They waited for events to create a "Grapes of Wrath" situation for them. That's the way chumps think. Do your thinking NOW.

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What are we, six years old? If I hear one more politician (or anyone for that matter) patronize us with nursery terms like "magic wands" or "silver bullets" I think my hair will burst into flames! WE ALL KNOW THERE IS NOT SANTA CLAUSE AND WE AREN'T GETTING A PONY EITHER, CAPTAIN OBVIOUS! We do not need baby-boy-bush telling us the "big secret."

There are realistic solutions to all of the problems created by these nation-wrecking whores, but unless they can get their greedy fingers around each and every dime without lifting a finger, there's going to be no effort to do anything other than blow hot air, pretend to wring their hands in phony concern and laugh all the way to their private banks.

My guess is that when things get desperate enough, we will all turn on each other...perfect for bringing on martial law and rounding up all those who don't agree with them.

Sushi
"The unanswered questions are not nearly as dangerous as the unquestioned answers."

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... energy independence. Just the other day I saw some clueless trucker on the news picketing for more U.S. oil production. *SIGH*

As I recall the figures from the NRDC / Union of Concerned Scientists, the U.S. possesses a mere 3% of the world's dwindling oil reserves (while consuming 20-25% of them, depending on whose study you're interpreting).

Yet the fossil FOOLs in the administration and too many uninformed citizens keep whining about our need to (line Big Oil's pockets while we still can &) drill for more U.S. oil. The favorite targets of such schemes: our national parks and ever-shrinking wilderness areas.

Meanwhile, the billions of dollars worth of natural environmental services performed for FREE by the intact ecosystems in these (increasingly rare) places (e.g. CO2 absorption, natural water filtration/cleaning, oxygen production, etc. etc.) would be lost or severely decreased by oil exploration/production. (Tho' they love to deny it, constant oil spillage/seepage is also an unavoidable and even more destructive part of oil exploration & production EVERYWHERE.)

The enormous, irreplaceable value of "automated environmental services" is too rarely considered when self-centered, short-sighted humans think about the costs of fuelling their materialistic lifestyles & "American dream". But they add up to a nightmare for the next generations of every species on this planet.

It is long past time for us to wean ourselves off the petroleum teat. It can be done, it will create jobs and new frontiers -- but our stupid whining about not wanting to change has become an exercise in social darwinism: you could say our "Room" is on fire. The Oil/Carbon Door is nearly shut, there's no exit there; the Clean Alternatives Window has opened: what is our best option? Do you wanna stand there pounding on the door, blubbering until you're overcome by smoke & flames, or do you wanna keep your wits about you & climb out the window -- and live?

If it's 'elitist' to want to fight for and win the survival 'game' on behalf of our one and only planet and the myriad marvelous species TRYING to inhabit it in spite of *stupid* Homo sapiens, then all the oil-addicted (truly elitist) anti-environmentalists can just kiss my La-Di-DAH.

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Peak Oil, Peak Oil, Peak Oil. EIA figures show crude production worldwide peaked in February 2006, Russian production peaked in 2007, and now the Saudis are talking about saving oil for their grandchildren...like TheBigDickCheney, Inc. cares a rat's ass about any of us.

NONE of the Presidential candidates has an energy policy that is based in fact...Obama just got a chance to tell the truth and get away with a good clean hit. The U.S. energy policy is "Last One Standing"---and the last one standing WON'T be any of us!

Go to www.feralscholar.org (and other places) for some practical talk on the future---specifically feeding ourselves and living a convivial existence, and forget about this 3-way horse race that none of US will win!

...although if McCain wins, it will be 1942, NGT (Nazi Germany Time) SOONER, and Iraq will be our Stalingrad.

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This is a very historical time in human history.
As we have evolved from cave dwellers their have always been subspecies of more primitive human beings that have tried to hold advancement and evolution back.
I am speaking of the co existence of homo Sapians Erictus with Homo Sapians Neanderthals.
The people in the government are Neanderthals
who are very savage and have no mental capacity for the common good . But they like their counterparts in the cooperations, hold all the cards. Any one who want to shave off 18 cents gas tax is stupid beyond belief. The rest of us
do have highly developed brains that can visualize the consequences of our actions.
and apply that to the whole community of humans and animals.

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Drive Big!
Drive Fast!

Despite the high cost of gas, my observation is that this is exactly what most of us are doing. Keep up the good work!

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As long as we're absorbed in thoughts of cheaper fuel, we'll be at the mercy of the "energy" companies. By now, we know full well how concerned THEY are with our well being. The minute we get serious about abandoning the archaic notion of burning stuff for propulsion and energy, and embark on a concentrated research aimed at getting away from greedy scumbags and their dirty industries, those industries will magically "discover" ultra high mileage cars and the like. We can't be allowed to be suckered into another scam which will be instantly abandoned as soon as we're hooked all over again. Nationalising the energy companies may seem a drastic step, but I think it's called for. Their impounded wealth can more than pay for the needed research, and for once, Big Oil, Coal, and Gas will be doing something beneficial for us all.

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I really like Greenday - especially Basket Case

And I have been to lots of Green Environmental Events

And I have worked with some totally Brilliant Americans in the Computer Industry and The Energy Industry - but never for an American company

And I am a Capitalist

I do know quite a lot about the Energy Industry

I am now retired

Don't slag me just because I express a view - that's partly the reason why I got fired - cos I couldn't stand the corruption and told my Managers that I thought they were a complete bunch of tossers ( slightly more politely )

Of course I only said it cos I wanted to lose my job

But one thing I can't stand is doomsters - people who only see horror and destruction for the future of the human race and the planet

Of course we have problems and capitalism has reached a state of such appalling corruption that I would never work for a big company again

My 20 year old son also is a "capitalist" - because he is running his own business

He has lots of customers all over the World including Americans

He doesn't discriminate - so long as it is legal - as he is not interested in politics he is just interested in making enough money such that he can afford to live in a place with his girlfriend - who he will probably eventually marry - and have kids with

Property prices in the UK are completely ridiculous - completely obscenely ridiculous from the perspective of a 20 year old

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Russia produces 9.25 million barrels of oil a day, Saudi Arabia produces 9.15 million barrels of oil per day, and they are the number one and number two producers of oil in the world, THE United State produces 5.14 million barrels per day. But Russia is number one producer of gas in the world far ahead of Saudi Arabia which makes Russia by far the largest producer of oil and gas in the world and this has been known for some time, in fact Saudi Arabian oil production is steadily falling off year by year. I haven't looked at the above mentioned site but I would venture that the reason that Russia is pumping as fast as they can is because of the liability associated with oil and gas and that is the global warming crisis that is bearing down on us. As soon as some of the symptoms of global warming begin manifesting themselves in a big way, the bottom will fall out of the oil as the states around the world will pass mandatory legislation drastically reducing oil and gas consumption which will make having huge reserves not so profitable as it is now, and I'm sure these oil producers are well aware of this and are acting accordingly. I also found another tidbit of information and that is because of the Athabasca oil sands in Canada and new discoveries in Australia, both these countries now represent the equivalent of Iraq in reserves. Here’s an interesting perspective: http://www.aph.gov.au/SEnate/committee/rrat _ctte/completed _inquiries/2004-07/oil _supply/submissions/sub34.pdf

Take the spaces out from in front of the underscores

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The Car Talk guys, two people whose incomes depend on a healthy car culture, have for years called for a big increase in the gasoline tax. $1.00 a gallon, to be exact, phased in over 10 years, 10 cents at a time. Give people plenty of time to get used to the idea. It was a shocking idea when gas as $1.30 a gallon, but now it's just the difference between $4.00 gas and $5.00 gas, which is only a 20% increase. The extra tax money will probably not be enough to dig us out of our hole, but it's a start.

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This gas tax ploy is total pandering. Bloomberg called it "The dumbest thing I have ever heard!" We need that money for infrastructure. Did we forget the bridge collaspe a few months ago in the Mid West? The writing was on the wall 30 years ago. We could have been an industry leader by working on alternative oil sources, boosting our economy instead of being kingmaker to the oil companies. US automakers made the decision to be more interested in selling gas instead of selling cars. Bad decsion- the American automakers are hanging on by a thread. While the Japanese constantly honed their products to make them more efficient and more reliable. I guess it's true- you reap what you sow.

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This gas tax ploy is total pandering. Bloomberg called it "The dumbest thing I have ever heard!" We need that money for infrastructure. Did we forget the bridge collaspe a few months ago in the Mid West? The writing was on the wall 30 years ago. We could have been an industry leader by working on alternative oil sources, boosting our economy instead of being kingmaker to the oil companies. US automakers made the decision to be more interested in selling gas instead of selling cars. Bad decsion- the American automakers are hanging on by a thread. While the Japanese constantly honed their products to make them more efficient and more reliable. I guess it's true- you reap what you sow.

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The gas tax is a flat tax, and flat taxes are regressive.

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Is it not interesting that John McCain and Hillary Clinton are the proverbial "Two-peas in a pod" regarding the elimination of the federal fuel tax for the Summer. In the 1992 Democratic primary, former Senator Paul Tsongas called Bill Clinton "Pander Bear". How fitting that Hillary can now wear the title with her good buddy and fellow senator, John Fake Maverick McCain.

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O.K. It's Only Local Elections But The Ruling Fascist New Labour Party has been completely trounced by the Conservatives

The Conservatives are Significantly to The Left of The Fascists

But the Funniest Thing Is That an American Has Been Elected as The Mayor Of London

Hardly Anyone Knows bout Boris

But Boris is Completely Hilarious

He is a Wonderful Excentric Character - Even More English Than His Dad - Who He looks Almost Exactly Like

But I think he was born in America - though I haven't bothered researching the details

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The oil crisis is basically one big, fat lie created by the oil companies, big business and Bush (not to mention Wall Street). Let me explain. About a year back, I decided to research why oil was so damned high. This is what I found out.

First of all, we are sitting on the LARGEST natural gas and oil reserves in the WORLD according to US oil and gas maps. The easiest places to extract that oil is in the midwest and Texas where the oil is approximately 100-200 ft. under the surface. The oil that is extracted from Alaska is far more costly by comparison because of the oil pipeline, but we aren't even getting that oil--it goes straight to Japan, instead of to our own country because of all the trade agreements. Additionally, there are limited numbers of oil refineries which also boosts the price because this is what determines how much comes out to the pumps. For every gallon of crude oil, the oil companies are making approximately 70 different products out of it, so they are making HUGE profits on this alone. They don't really need to boost the price every time there is some sort of a spill. That's just a bunch of hooey. Additionally, everytime there is something that disrupts something, like a taker spill for instance, it takes 6 MONTHS for that to actually register at the pumps! That is 6 months worth of inflated price (and profit) that is being made at our expense. Let's face it, the jamoke that comes on the TV and states that we can expect gas prices to hit $4 by Memorial Day can't even lie any more with a straight face!

Now, the part about the war in Iraq, which was done basically to obtain the oil fields from the French, is probably true because the Arabs are tired of all the BS disrupting Business As Usual over there.

The other part about the speculators is also true. I received a fax about a year back at one of the jobs I was working at stating that for every dollar invested in oil, you could make $1,000 back. Those are pretty lucrative odds. They wanted the price per gallon of gas to top $5, because then they would have really huge profits.

Its time people started waking up. Its time we stopped electing people into office that get paid off by the PAC's. Bush is an oilman. His whole cabinet is in the oil business one way or the other, at least the top echelon ones, so they certainly don't want us to wake up and smell the coffee or should I say a reasonable price at the pump?

As for the decline of the US dollar, that is just a poor, poor excuse. The dollar would be a lot stronger if oil and big business (a/k/a the shadow government) aren't sending us into a recession or should I say an impending depression.

This is coming pretty rapidly if Congress doesn't act soon in the interest of their constitutants not the PAC's. I'm a home health nurse. My car is necessary to get to all my patients. There was a week recently in which I had to actually buy back some of my PTO time in order to get enough money for gas up here in VT. Many of my clients are now faced with paying for heat or eating. Let's not forget Congress deciding that the folks who can least afford it--those on Medicare and Medicaide--must now pay copays for doctor's visits and prescriptions. Need I say more?

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You all talk about oil like you think it's fine to just go on and on using the stuff regardless of the effect it will have on the climate of the only planet we have. Gas should be $10.00 a gallon, $100... whatever the hell it takes to get us to stop using the stuff and all the oil and coal still in the ground should STAY there. What is the matter with you all? You'd all rather die and take out all the other life forms we share Earth with than sacrafice a few conveniences while we mass produce solar and wind fed electric mass transit systems and head off global climate catastrophe? I can't believe the idiocy. I expect it from politicians but you? I really don't think we'll make it unless we all wake up pretty damn soon. We cannot go on this way. We have to stop USING oil, not ask why Russia isn't selling more and looking for more places to drill and such nonesense. I think the pollution from burning the stuff has gotten to your brains. All this we are can be gone in 50 years or less, rivers that flow from mountain glacier sources WILL dry up... even rivers that have never dried up will and all the life forms that depend on that water, what will they/we do?... Earth has done this before and though life went on, NOTHING remained of what went before. Think about that for a minute... doesn't anyone care?

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Europeans are paying $10 a gallon right now and their economy is doing a lot better than ours. You folks who say that your existence is threatened by $5 gas should pay attention to what your counterparts in other countries are doing.

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