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BobLfoot

Major Tangent - Read at your own Risk

39 posts in this topic

So are you a believer that cold fusion reaction has been sustained? I am interested in this also

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Before TW and other hijack this onto cold fusion check out this other topic.

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Sorry Bob, shouldn't have done that. Back on a slightly off topic subject of gas mileage, you can squeeze 55.1 mpg out of a 2004 Honda Civic Hybrid. But what I don't understand is if you buy a new traditional compact car then it will only be rated at 30 mpg or so. My first car was an 1982 VW Rabbit and it got 35 mpg. I know newer cars are heavier and must pass more stringent emissions but 25 years of technology should be able to overcome that. What happened?

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Riddle me this -- In 1972 Dad bought a Mercedes 240D 4 door sedan, gross weight 3500 lbs and performance was 35 MPG. So weight and size doesn't always relate to MPG.

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Good point and I don't think emissions equipment has choked them down that much

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No no no. Cold fusion is a fata morgana. I just wanted to say that oil prices can only go upwards in price. To make a long story short: The demand is rising + The reserves are limited + What is left will be increasingly expensive to explore = oil prices will continue to increase.

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So to quote a report by the Congressional Committee on Homeland Security, "The price of oil is determined by people who buy and sell billions of gallons of gas but never take delivery on a single gallon".

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If you hold onto a contract too long, you can have your goods delivered....can you imagine a truck load of pork bellies on your front lawn...they are futures but at sometime you will be called on them, when you buy a contract that contract will have a date Thats why the most powerful man in the world is not the president of the US or the most richest man in the world...but its the man that controls the money of the most powerful nation...Ben Bernanke can have a bad hair day (not much there) and the market will drop like a rock, thats why Greenspan was so good he could speak at a news conference for a hour...at the end of the conference no one could understand what the hell he was talking about, so the only indicators that people would play off of him was his briefcase...they would judge him by how many pieces of paper were sticking out...if there were a lot then interest was going up, if none then he was going to drop it, so the market would have a field day Edited by geniusintraining

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I am still baffled about the Big 3 being able to lower oil prices. I know they are powerful but I never thought they could sway the oil market that much

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http://www.msnbc.msn.com/id/14678206/ The price of oil is tied to the market. Thats all. Big catastrophe futures go up. Huge oil discovery proces drop. Everything else is a coincidence.

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A little exert taken from this website. http://www.howstuffworks.com/gas-price.htm Let's look at where your money goes when you pay for gas: * Crude oil - The biggest portion of the cost of gas -- as of February 2006, that's about 59 percent -- goes to the crude-oil suppliers. This is determined by the world's oil-exporting nations, particularly the Organization of the Petroleum Exporting Countries (OPEC), which you will learn more about in the next section. The amount of crude oil these countries produce determines the price of a barrel of oil. Crude-oil prices averaged around $37 per barrel (1 barrel = 42 gallons or 159.6 L) in 2004 (Source: U.S. DOE). And, after Hurricane Katrina, some prices were almost double that. In July 2006, crude-oil prices averaged around $72 per barrel (1 barrel = 45 gallons or 159.6 L). Sometimes, gas prices go up even though there is plenty of crude oil on the market. It depends on what kind of oil it is. Oil can be classified as heavy or light, and as sweet or sour (no one actually tastes the oil, that's just what they call it). Light, sweet crude is easier and cheaper to refine, but supplies have been running low. There's plenty of heavy, sour crude available in the world, but refineries, particularly those in the U.S., have to undergo costly retooling to handle it. * Refining costs - The refining of crude oil makes up about 10 percent of the price of gasoline. To learn more about oil refining, read How Oil Refining Works. * Distribution and marketing - Crude oil is transported to refineries, and gasoline is shipped from the refineries to distribution points and then to gas stations. The price of transportation is passed along to the consumer. Marketing the brand of the oil company is also added into the cost of the gasoline you buy. Together, these two factors account for about 11 percent of the price of gasoline. * Taxes - Taxes, including federal and local, account for about 20 percent of the total price of gas in the United States. Federal excise taxes are 18.4 cents per gallon, and state excise taxes average 20 cents per gallon. There may also be some additional state sales taxes, as well as local and city taxes. In Europe, gas prices are far higher than in America because taxes on gas are much higher. For example, gas prices in England have risen as high as $6 per gallon, with 78 percent of that going to taxes. * Station markup - While it isn't represented in the diagram above, of course some of the actual money you spend at the pump does go to the service station. Service stations add on a few cents per gallon. There's no set standard for how much gas stations add on to the price. Some may add just a couple of cents, while others may add as much as a dime or more. However, some states have markup laws prohibiting stations from charging less than a certain percentage over invoice from the wholesaler. These laws are designed to protect small, individually-owned gas stations from being driven out of business by large chains who can afford to slash prices at select locations. Gas prices also vary from state to state for several reasons. Taxes are probably the biggest factor in the different prices around the country. Additionally, competition among local gas stations can drive prices down. Distance from the oil refineries can also affect prices -- stations closer to the Gulf of Mexico, where many oil refineries are located, have lower gas prices due to lower transportation costs. There are also some regional factors that can affect prices. World events, wars and weather can also raise prices. Anything that affects any part of the process, from the moment the oil is drilled, through refining and distribution to your car will result in a change in price. Military conflicts in parts of the world with lots of oil supplies can make it difficult for oil companies to drill and ship crude oil. Hurricanes have damaged offshore drilling platforms, coastal refineries and shipping ports that receive oil tankers. If a tanker itself is lost or damaged, or leaks its oil into the ocean, that will put a dent in the market as well.

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For the US, this is true. Check some of the publications at OPEC's site. A lot of the European countries are being hammered with taxes. Edited by IO_Rack

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Hello all, here is my $.02. I think that we are in a big political scam on just about every thing we buy as consumers. The reason i say this is that i live just outside of chattanooga,TN and it has been all over the local news for quite some time that many politicians from this area have been busted by the FBI for everything from accepting bribe money to try and put a company out of business to helping price gouging. i just about fell over when so far ALL of them have been found guilty and have been sent to federal prison.Which is excellent. But when you start getting really close to the white house level corruption is everywhere and if they are all doing it then who is going to blow the whistle. all law enforcement answers to the whitehouse so they wont arrest thier boss. But any way i would like to build an electric vehicle with solar panels to help with battery charging and say forget gas all together.... or something, i think with of the folks here and the electrical technology we have we could out do the engineers at the big 3. they design the stuff then we the little man make it work. RANT: OFF

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