Oil climbing to $15 a gallon, followed by rationing.

Dr. Robert Hirsch is predicting that oil will rise to $15 a gallon and eventually we'll enter a phase of gas rationing.

And the prices that we're paying at the pump today I think are going to be the good old days because others who watch this very closely forecast that we are going to be hitting $12 and $15 per gallon. And then, after that, when world oil production goes into decline, we're going to talk about rationing.
www.theoildrum.com...

You might also want to see what Boone Pickens has to say about oil. Do you realize that we (the U.S.) are spending $600 Billion a year on oil imports. That's at $100 oil. At $150 oil, which Boone Pickens says we will hit this year, we'll be paying $900 Billion a year on oil imports.

This is a problem of national importance. His solution is to build more wind farms and funnel the excess natural gas into automotive use which could reduce our imports by 40%. Pickens just bought nearly 700 wind generators for a wind farm in Pampa, TX. He's putting his money where his mouth is. That's for sure.

If one of the world's biggest oil men (Pickens) is telling us oil is going up, up, up. We should listen. Watch the video (and the second video) and see what he has to say. It's important to your future.

[edit on 21-5-2008 by dbates]

If gasoline goes up over ten dollars a gallon, most people will just not be able to afford to drive.

There will be those who would not be affected as far as their personal vehicle is concerned, because they can cut back on other things to pay for commuting and essential errands, but when it comes to recreational activities such as vacations, Sunday drives, or boating, those will just have to take a back seat.

I read an article last week about NASCAR drivers who, even though they can make millions and have no problem filling up the family car are just having to cut back on other activities that use fuel, like hops in the private jet to the Bahamas and instead of taking the jet to the next race, they double up and drive, because the high fuel prices hit the race teams bottom lines.

Those who are not so well off, will just have to opt for public transportation, walking and maybe driving to the grocery store as infrequently as possible.

Let's face it. Even if you drive a Honda Civic, as I once did that got between 34 and 40 miles to the gallon, a hundred and fifty dollars to fill the thing up is still a burden many will not be able to bear.

[edit on 2008/5/20 by GradyPhilpott]

I completely agree. For any doubters out there, last August I was reading everywhere that oil would go to 125 - 150 within the year...I thought "No Way!" But look where we are now.

www.cnbc.com...

The days of oil and gas are coming to a close. Howard Kunstler has some excellent essays on how it is totally going to jack the "American way of life" paradigm, ie: suburban real estate, sprawl, mega farms, etc.

www.kunstler.com...

I had been on the wagon of "slow crash" but now I am not so sure. Things seem to be moving pretty quickly now.

Some other good sites:

www.jeffvail.net...

www.lifeaftertheoilcrash.net...

thearchdruidreport.blogspot.com...

www.ranprieur.com...

I read at some point, somewhere, that - by Executive Order - we would go to a four day or maybe three day work week and there would be restrictions on travel... but I swear I can't find it now. Anyone know what I am referring to?

What portion of this has to do with the contracts being made for the production of genetically modified franken seeds used by other countries for biofuels?

Is this a move to justify reducing the last of our planets resources to deplete the planet of our indigenous wildlife refuges and thereby also the larger portion of the peoples of the third world nations?

If you have the choice between 15.00USD for a gallon of gas or (at first) 1.89 for a veg. based bio fuel which will you choose?

The real shame of this latest scam is when they completely deplete the rainforests and all available land in south America, starve the people by enslaving them in forced labor to fuel the next generation of the children of the NWO.

I just have a bad feeling about all of this.

1.89 for a veg. based bio fuel which will you choose?

Yeah and doing that will kill hundreds of thousands around the world. Also, let's add the money the government gives to those producers so they produce biofuel. This will sure helps the price of food...and of course the debt.

The giants admit it in their memos, there's too much oil, but there's not enough refenery capacities... they are artificially brought down for profit purposes and of course the hijacked ``green movement`` which is aimed at controlling everything in your life and putting you in jail if you pollute in any way or do not obey one of Gore's nazi green brigades.

Originally posted by antar
What portion of this has to do with the contracts being made for the production of genetically modified franken seeds used by other countries for biofuels?

Is this a move to justify reducing the last of our planets resources to deplete the planet of our indigenous wildlife refuges and thereby also the larger portion of the peoples of the third world nations?

If you have the choice between 15.00USD for a gallon of gas or (at first) 1.89 for a veg. based bio fuel which will you choose?

The real shame of this latest scam is when they completely deplete the rainforests and all available land in south America, starve the people by enslaving them in forced labor to fuel the next generation of the children of the NWO.

I just have a bad feeling about all of this.

That's alot of emotion and not alot of facts. Sorry the world sucks and everything but we still have to try to figure out a way to live in balance and maybe changing our position in the carbon cycle will help a bit. Plants grab CO2 from the air. Not all plant matter is food.

The giants admit it in their memos, there's too much oil, but there's not enough refenery capacities... they are artificially brought down for profit purposes and of course the hijacked ``green movement`` which is aimed at controlling everything in your life and putting you in jail if you pollute in any way or do not obey one of Gore's nazi green brigades.

Good to be part of the solution is it not? Oh yeah what was the solution? Something about figuring out how to deal with the oil surplus?

reply to post by stikkinikki


That's a fact jack! I have never been nor will be one of our conspiracy masters because of that.

Yes I agree that not all that is green is food or used as fuel, yet.

And yes it does hit an emotional cord with me from all that I have read about the global plans of the elite to eliminate a major portion of the worlds population, and so I watch everything with an eye of suspicion.

Have no plan to derail this thread so I will just kick back and see what I can learn from debates and others on this important issue.

Are we assuming that the planet is out of oil or something? Why dont we just listen to second guy who suggested we "DRILL MORE" screw opec and thier caps and dig up what is needed. This whole scam is just like what is being done with diamonds, claim they're rare, only release a limited supply, and charge a bundle based on the amount that you want to release, you set your own prices.

A couple of you folks here got it right with the whole bio fuel is stupid statements, its friggen outragouse. It took less than 10 years since introduction to see the mass effect it had on the global food market, and the media barely bats an eye at it.

We all know that governments suppress free energy technology, so it would be obviouse that they would control other aspects of the market as well, it would be ill advised to do otherwise. Look at gold, isnt it legally called the "london gold fix?" These goons run around robbin people like they got an army behind them, sucks they actually do.

Compare what i just said to global warming and carbon tax. Claim that we are to blame for global warming (forget that the sun is heating up and the earth is going through a natural climate change) make us feel guilty and charge us a tax for continueing on knowing damb well there is no other reasonable alternative. Knowing so well in fact that they can charge us what ever they want for something they can tax us for using.

These people make me feel pathetic, for even having to give a damb about wether i can afford to drive or not. Meanwhile today on the front page of my paper, a close up of a mans eyes who had just been beaten and lite on fire, for trying to pitch a tent. [snip] me...

Mod Edit: Please try not to circumvent the automatic censors
ABOUT ATS: Vulgarity and The Automatic ATS Censors



[edit on 5-21-2008 by worldwatcher]

Originally posted by antar
If you have the choice between 15.00USD for a gallon of gas or (at first) 1.89 for a veg. based bio fuel which will you choose?

Biofuel is a joke. I believe that Boone Pickens stated that biofuels will never amount to more than 5% of our countries energy needs. I believe that we're currently hitting about 2%-3% while using up 25% of our corn. Any non-genius can see that it's a dead-end street that we need to abandon. At the very least we need to stop it were it is at the moment and not grow it more.

Take a drive through the U.S.A sometime. Keep your eyes out for old oil well that are still in place. Notice that they aren't pumping?

Hmmm..... old oil wells in America that can produce oil not running, gas at $4 a gallon and climbing, GASOLINE COMPANIES AT RECORD LEVELS OF PROFITS.

Do you all the see connection here?

Oh yes, one other thing. It has been claimed Russian scientists/geologist/oil companies have said that the earth naturally produces oil. Most would say that is just internet rumor/heresay/conspiracy. In an entire unrelated and coincidental matter, Russia surpassed Saudia Arabia as the world's largest supplier of crude oil last year (or the year before, can't quite remember).

Is America the only place suffering from high oil and gas prices? How come it seems the rest of the world is taking it in stride and we're the only ones complaining?

Is it perhaps because they simply don't own as many cars or do as much driving as we do, to care?

Oil is going to keep going up, once we broke $100, it's only a matter of time before a bigger high is set. It's not even about the oil demand and suppyly anymore as much as it is about speculative investors maintaining the higher prices.

How do we fix this? I really have no idea, some of us live in areas where if you don't drive...well you ain't getting anywhere or getting anything done, so it's not like we all have a choice as to whether we leave the car in the garage or not.

Perhaps a nationwide effort to boost public transportation, upgrade infrastructures and add new routes might help the economy in one hand and also alleviate the need for some people to drive..

Or perhaps getting the speculators out of the oil markets and regulating it or sheesh I hate saying these words... government controlled oil markets...are the only way to keep oil prices from soaring even further, but being that the govt also supports free markets and capitalism, I'm not sure any idea like this will work.

and on a related note, last week when cleaning out my email box, I went through quite a few of those economic forecasts from various pundits in the trading game and it was surprising to note how many people last year didn't believe that oil over $100 was possible at all. I wonder what those pundits and economic gurus are saying now

reply to post by worldwatcher


Well, our entire way of life in the U.S. is based on cheap gas. Endless suburbs and sprawl. Mega-farms that truck stuff everywhere. SUVs. So it will hit us very hard if gas gets any more expensive and/or rationed. It will tank the housing market even more. Suburbs will become slums. Cities will be even more over-crowded and expensive. We complain because we feel helpless to do anything about it. Our government is not taking ANY initiative to protect our interests. Can you imagine if our food supply was handled as irresponsibly as our energy needs?

My question is where is the outrage? People just keep rolling along -literally- even though gas goes up a few bucks every week. No one is demanding any sort of change. It's outrageous. We are all stupified sheep.

I am starting to wonder if Bush, et al is loving it and preparing to "save the day" while they line their pockets when we finally start drilling and refining more here in the U.S. I also wonder if the PTB are just milking us for what it's worth as a new, more efficient, energy sources may be revealed soon. I don't know but this whole think stinks of collusion.

[edit on 21/5/08 by kosmicjack]

I have to say, I am very afraid of all of this. As was said above, our world is based on oil.

The site that's cited up above The Oil Drum (theoildrum.com...) had a couple of others today that are worth reading:

UPDATED: The Oil Market's Historic Swing to Continuous Contango--Has Peak Oil "Tipped"? (about back end oil futures and what it means)

www.theoildrum.com...

Peak Oil - Whom to Believe? Part 1 - There's Plenty of Oil, CERAiously (the basics of peak oil and why there's such controversy...)

www.theoildrum.com...

Oilwatch Monthly - May 2008 (many world charts and graphs)

europe.theoildrum.com...

Worth a read...imho.

Just Great, with my tight budget.

I do believe that the Illuminati, Who Runs The World, as we are living it, are dancing in their Palaces built in GOLD and are looking at us as a bunch of foolish imbeciles.

Their only interest, here on earth, is to make more and more m$ney to make of us slaves to their Empire.

Remember: "He who has the Gold, Makes The Rules"

That is called : The Golden Rule.

Remember: "He who has the Oil"

That is called : He Rules Nations.

Remember lastly : "He Who Has The Food"

That is called : He Rules The World.

Yesterday I sold my V-8 pickup truck that got around 7mpg and bought a 4 cylinder beater that gets 34 mpg. I'm not proud!

I think the days of everyone driving these elaborate vehicles are done and over with. Soon all those tricked out cars and trucks that we all so desired will be nothing more than expensive lawn ornaments.

IMO if it does indeed get as bad as everyone is forecasting, those humble little vehicles are going to be greatly desired.

I rather get to work than own a cool truck that I can't drive.

reply to post by dbates


No offence intended, but the US simply prints paper to the tune of that $600bil every year.

The devaluation and inflation of the dollar is also lending to a rise in oil prices.

Higher oil prices are inevitable and a necessity if we are to diversify sources. Leave alone the environmental issues of using oil, its the sources that worry me. What happens when Saudi Arabia runs out of oil and the world realises that they have been buying their energy from one of the most radical islamic countries (Wahhabi sect) in the worl?

Flood Congress with letters demanding we drill and produce domestically. We have huge deposits of oil shale and the technology was perfected more than two decades ago. It can be produced at $30 a barrel presently. We also have huge untapped oil pools.

If you are looking for the real culprit, look to groups like the Sierra Club and Environmental Activists who have Congress in their hip pocket.

It takes decades to build new Refineries and develop new fields; not to mention installing pipelines. We are already a decade too late and it will get worse.

Modern methods are of no threat to the environment and these groups know that!!!!!! They could care less how badly they hurt us, just so they cause a stink, get in the news and win their cases. They cause this whole mess and I'll bet ya a dollar they are profiting personally.

The second group of bad guys are the Speculators in the Market. They are cleaning up by driving this bubble and you can bet they can afford gas at $50 a gallon; so what do they care. What does Congress do? They question the Oil Company Exec's about their salaries You suppose those in Congress are raking in the green off this?

Want us out of the Middle East? Then push Congress to allow drilling and develop the oil shale. The Saudis who we have showered with gifts and favors, just gave us the big middle finger. Tell your Congressmen, not one more dime or one more toy fighter jet for Saudi Princes until they open the valves we paid for!!!

This is going to have a cascade effect. All goods are transported somehow. The poor will be destroyed while Gore and his bunch suck them dry. Does anyone think this is a coincidence right after the big Global Warming scare?

We can't drill.
We can't build new refineries.
We can't build new Nuclear Plants.
The only alternative fuels being developed are inadequate and are helping to reduce the food supply.
Oil Shale sits in the ground because nobody, not even the oil companies, can afford to take on the Environmental Liars in court.
Now oil pools can not be drilled because the Environmentalists have taken over Congress by flooding them with money.

Write those letters to Congress.

Blaine nailed it.

Oh ... Some places can do this - go to a four day work week and a four day school week. Big companies can have at least some of their employees do it.

We've cancelled our summer vacation plans. They weren't big plans but we were going to use our stimulus check to go somewhere for a few days - the beach or something. Now we'll be using it just to pay for the gas around town.

reply to post by GradyPhilpott

Those who are not so well off, will just have to opt for public transportation, walking and maybe driving to the grocery store as infrequently as possible.

That's not such a bad thing, and the upper class could take a lesson from those that are less fortunate. I woke up this morning with the news saying record oil again above $135 p/b and it really struck me how people in the 70's 80's and 90's burnt gasoline and fuel like there was no tomorrow and at dirt prices they (baby boomers mostly) were ripping off their children and grandchildren.

Lookout, here come the chickens!

Back when President Carter put solar panels up on the roof of the white house (only to see Ronnie immediately take them down) there were actually genuine nationwide efforts to reduce energy usage. Where are these massive nationwide campaigns today? This administration has completely been out to lunch on the issue (I'm not so naive as to not know they are all oil people and thus have an interest in not having a conservation policy, just trying to make the point). Not only should we have started a massive alternative and conservation based energy policy starting in the late 70's and up to now, but since we didn't and we are in the now right now, we need one now, and where are the candidates on this issue? This should be the main issue right up there with health care and infrastructure ...well energy is infrastructure. It's reaching the point where it is becoming a national security issue, and the politicians have their thumbs up their arses!

We can blame the politicians of course 8 ways to Sunday, but shouldn't we also take a close look at ourselves, get past the denial, and recognize we all had cake and drank at the party? Now the sun is coming up, our heads hurt, and we need a tall glass of water, an asperin, and begin to figure out our way back home.

The baby boomers and the x gen. I believe will go down in history as the most wastefull, greedy, and selfish generation ever. They may also be the generation that not only created massive hardship for their children and grandchildren, but also ultimately led up to the threat of the downfall of the nation. And all you people on the far right; don't forget we on the left tried to tell you so, but you were so drunk on prosperity and fumes from burning fuel that you didn't hear us and even if you did you wouldn't care. Now here we are, and everyone is sober as a brick!

The irony with it all is that the reality of the situation may be the one thing that actually unites the nation again and brings the left and right together with all in the center too all working at surviving the crisis. Alternative fuels and energy sources are now desired by both sides. Conservation measures will become welcomed by all and eventually we will pass one another on the side walks, the bike routes, and will exchange vegetables with one another from our gardens where grass lawns used to grow. We may actually have a more healthy, efficient, and happy society once we pass this peak mess and change our ways living a few blocks from work and the market rather than across town. We will revitalize downtown areas build more urban living, add green gardens on the roof tops, put in communal gardens for those to grow food who have no yards building community and enriching society. Reclamation dpt's will spring up at the State level and reclaim the suburbs and put them back into forests or agriculture. Massive freeways can be tore up, the asphault recycled, and the space converted to train tracks for rail mass transit, and bicycle paths for bikes and motor scooters. That's when gas is above $15 per gallon.



[edit on 22-5-2008 by skyshow]