Guest essay by Eric Worrall
Conspiracy, Putin or Biden’s green transition inspired cancellation of petroleum mining leases and pipelines? All three explanations have been proposed.
Rising Gas Prices Have Drivers Asking, ‘Is This for Real?’
The average price of a gallon of gasoline is up more than 10 percent in the last week, leading some consumers to rethink their routines and spending.
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Gas prices were already increasing before the invasion last month, as oil suppliers scrambled to keep up with rising demand from consumers and businesses recovering from Covid disruptions. But calls in recent days from U.S. lawmakers and others to ban Russian oil imports have spurred worries about another hit to global supplies. Prices at the pump, in turn, soared rapidly.
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“It’s sad that if I stop going to a restaurant, a toxic cycle will be created,” said Mr. López. “If I stop spending money on a restaurant, they’ll get less income and people could lose their jobs.”
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Read more: https://www.nytimes.com/2022/03/08/business/high-gas-prices.html
What is causing the price rise? Elizabeth Warren thinks its a big oil conspiracy, to undermine the Biden administration maybe?
Senator Warren’s Oil Price Conspiracy Theory
Michael Lynch Senior Contributor Energy I Analyze Petroleum Economics And Energy Policy.
Nov 29, 2021, 08:11am EST…
Take for example, the recent appearance by Massachusetts Senator Elizabeth Warren on Joy Reid’s MSNBC show, where the host expressed consternation that people had been staying home but gasoline prices had risen anyway. In response, the senator replied, “If this were just ordinary inflation, we might see prices go up, but prices at the pump have gone up why? Chevron CVX +5.1%, Exxon, have doubled their profits. This isn’t about inflation, this is about price gouging for these guys.”
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Read more: https://www.forbes.com/sites/michaellynch/2021/11/29/senator-warrens-oil-price-conspiracy-theory/?sh=41ec8f7422b0
If prices rise, the normal response is to increase supply, to cash in on higher prices. But something is preventing that from happening. In my opinion, Warren’s continued conspiracist ideation has been undermined by other democrats being very open about their opposition to more domestic production.
Amid War, Biden Reluctant to Unleash Clean Energy Rhetoric
The U.S. president has not followed Europe’s calls to produce more renewable energy to weaken Russia’s global influence
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“We can’t let the fossil-fuel industry scare us into a domestic drilling free-for-all that is neither economically warranted nor environmentally sound,” House Natural Resources Chair Raúl Grijalva (D-Ariz.) wrote Friday in a Guardian op-ed.
“The U.S. is the world’s top oil and gas producer. Doubling down on fossil fuels is a false solution that only perpetuates the problems that got us here in the first place,” he wrote, calling for more investments in renewable energy as a way to “cut the lifeline to fossil-fuel despots like Putin.”
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Read more: https://www.scientificamerican.com/article/amid-war-biden-reluctant-to-unleash-clean-energy-rhetoric/
Kamala Harris and Buttigieg have compounded the perception of open democrat opposition to more drilling, by pushing the “let them eat cake” solution, telling people who are struggling financially that they need to somehow come up with 10s of thousands of dollars to buy an electric vehicle, or switch to public transport. Public transport might work for some people, but not for everyone – public transport is frequently dirty, inconvenient or unsafe, especially for single women working night shift.
Kamala Harris, Pete Buttigieg slammed for ‘tone-deaf’ e-vehicle push as gas skyrockets
By Steven Nelson March 7, 2022
Vice President Kamala Harris and Transportation Secretary Pete Buttigieg were criticized Monday for a “tone-deaf” event focused on promoting electric buses as gas prices soared for most Americans.
Rep. Markwayne Mullin (R-Okla.), a member of the House Energy and Commerce Committee, tweeted, “The Biden Administration could not be more tone-deaf.”
“Vice President Kamala Harris and [Transportation] Secretary Pete Buttigieg spent the afternoon promoting electric vehicles and Green New Deal policies.
“Are you kidding me?” Mullin wrote.
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Read more: https://nypost.com/2022/03/07/kamala-harris-pete-buttigieg-slammed-amid-high-gas-prices/
Even if the cost of batteries drops, electric vehicles will never be a solution for poor people. Poor people rarely purchase new vehicles, a $1000 decade old gasoline vehicle suffices for their needs, just like the old wreck of a vehicle I owned when my business was first getting started.
I doubt old electric vehicles will be as useful to poor people as old gasoline vehicles, when you consider how quickly batteries deteriorate compared to gasoline engines, and how much it costs to replace a battery vs say reconditioning a gasoline engine. In any case, there are simply not enough old electric vehicles available to make this a viable option for poor people, the foreseeable future.
Everyone knows that more oil drilling and gasoline production will bring down prices, supply and demand is a concept everyone gets.
Elizabeth Warren’s conspiracy theories are clever, a lot of of people don’t trust big corporations. The interesting thing is there might be a grain of truth to her claims – Biden’s constraint of the supply of new leases and pipeline bans has effectively removed the threat of competition from upstarts and new entrants, which has made it easier for incumbents to manipulate the market, should they choose to do so. But Warren fails to explain clearly what she plans to do about the alleged price fixing.
Threatening oil companies with legal sanctions will not fix this situation. Price fixing and legal threats wreck the future supply pipeline. People hold onto their investment money or move it to safety, when they are worried about expropriation, legal or otherwise. Just saying there is a conspiracy does nothing to reduce gasoline pump prices.
The easiest way to break the monopolies Elizabeth Warren alleges have arisen is to remove barriers to entry for new producers, say by relaxing drilling bans and pipeline cancellations, and encouraging a “domestic drilling free free-for-all”.
So long as Democrats cannot or will not provide a genuine solutions, cheaper oil or an economically accessible alternative to cheaper gasoline, continued political impediments to greater domestic oil production will be seen by the majority of voters for what they are – playing politics with people’s lives.
Pocahontas speaks with forked tongue.
If Warren is pontificating on an economics problem, you can be assured that the truth will be the opposite of what she is saying.
She says things that my children knew to be false after running their lemonade stands for two hours as five-year-olds.***
*** I have three daughters and we live by a busy city pool. One daughter even grasped the profit margin potential of luxury items – she sold her “art work” at her lemonade stand. All three have spent more time running a business than Warren.
Why would any energy executive in his right mind propose investing in production capacity that takes ten to fifteen years to produce a return? They know that once the current crisis dies down, Greta and friends will be back at it. So they do the rational thing, share buybacks and dividend distributions.
Not true. Elizabeth Warren has business experience. She and her husband used to buy foreclosed properties, renovate them, and resell them at a handsome profit. Then she went on to criticize the banking industry for foreclosing on those homes.
Fauxcahontas
Not just gas, but grain and gold are up as well. No corporate conspiracy. Just Leftie looniness.
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I started buying gold for my IRA account about a year ago. The coming inflation was as obvious as the north end of a south bound goat.
Leftie financiers, like Black Rock, are also conspiring, uh, determined to stop funding fossil fuel exploration funding. The green glob really wants to impose the Green New Deal, and such actions as Net Zero are merely steps towards that fascist socialism designed by retarded schoolchildren.
The Marie Antoinette Democrats: Let them buy Teslas!
And in case you need a reminder as to why gasoline is expensive, just remember who promised a war against oil:
“No more subsidies for fossil fuel industry. No more drilling on federal lands. No more drilling, including offshore. No ability for the oil industry to continue to drill, period, ends, number one.”
https://youtu.be/_M_kMDSdISQ
Everything’s just hunky dory, FJB.
Yep and anything negative is orangemanbad or vladmanbad.
Where did our resident idiots go anyway? I haven’t seen loydo in weeks and grff’s been a bit quiet of late. I did have an amusing interchange though with that guy who thought that because he could convince his Mum’s knitting circle he was a scientist, it would work on here.
They probably are stuck in the Russian convoy stalled in Ukraine.
John the Econ, you have brought up an interesting point, in that Biden was against domestic oil production before the election, yesterday complained about “…nine thousand drill permits in hands of oil companies that they choose to not use…”, and Jen Psaki says “…nine thousand leases…”, and then the Democrat Head of the House Natural Resources Committee says “.. we can’t let the fossil-fuel industry scare us into a domestic drilling free-for-all…” yesterday also. Raises the question of who is actually steering this ship and where they are taking it? What a mess, and looking to get a lot worse.
Prices are based on supply and demand. He who controls the supply controls the price. That will become ever more obvious as Putin puts the brakes on oil exports.
US oil companies are profitable. They also control the supply. The twice yearly switch to gasohol always puts a crimp in supply, and the result is always rising prices – due to supply.
When negative politics happen, oil prices always rise. It is not near ending. Oil companies produce based on the political future of their businesses.
Unfortunately, we now have a sizeable cohort in Congress who seem to believe that prices are set entirely by fiat, like they were in the Soviet era. Or at least they’d like to have that power.
Exactly. It reminds me of Venezuela. Price controls lead to bare shelves, shuttered factories and stories.
Is Congress really that dumb? I think it’s intentional.
“Is Congress really that dumb?”
That would be the simplest explanation.
We can reach that conclusion based on Occam’s Scissors!
Yes Scissor,
Congress is that dumb.
and delusional, uninformed, and corrupt
And innumerate.
US oil companies do not have a monopoly or cartel and do not control he oil supply. This is basic economics.
There are around 5 major players in the US bread market. You get your bread from one of them. There are about 4X as many players in the US oil market. Which commodity should you worry about more?
He said “control”. They do not control it.
Yes, of course prices are based on supply and demand alone when the currency has a fixed value in a single commodity (often gold) or service (minimum wage). However, when the a government spends more than it collects in taxes, the demand goes up; this is called inflation. It happens (see Milton F) about six months after the spending.
The combination of reducing gasoline production in the name of Greta and simultaneously injecting huge amounts of “free” money into the system makes gas prices rise quicker than many other commodities. High prices provide supply.
In a place where the value of the currency is tied to one and only one commodity or service permanently, an economy can grow and grow. Our currency is now based on one hour of unskilled labor through minimum wage. This would work as long as minimum wage was permanently fixed at any number and no other commodity or service was price-controlled. (see Adam Smith).
I love it when the Democrat/Communists form a circular firing squad and a tug of war at the same time. The “READ MY LIPS, NO NEW DRILLING” loons tug against the “C’MON, MAN SELL US MORE OPEC OIL” hypocrites while the “LET THEM DRIVE TESLAS” elites stand above the fray and pontificate.
And a pushmepullyou. Even Sleepy Joe has half a mind – to be in two minds about it
Our leader.
Could be worse. Oh wait it was…..
Whatta maroon!
Ahh Russia colluuuusion clown appears
Yes it was. With PBO, pronounced PeeBow. Unless you are referring to low energy prices, low unemployment, at least some border control, as being bad for the US.
When and where was this?
Democrats, “We can’t do what Trump did. We’d like to, but we have this GND albatross hanging around our necks. So, no American oil. We’re going with oil from Iran and Venezuela.
We’re going to call it ‘Putin lite crude’. You’ll learn to like it no matter what the future costs. Oh right, don’t forget. The low dollar and high prices at the pump and your grocery store is patriotism x 10. You’re a patriot, right!”
https://babylonbee.com/news/biden-sells-alaska-back-to-russia-so-we-can-start-drilling-for-oil-there-again
I remember Joey’s promise to “kiddo”…Joey said look me in the eye, kiddo, we are gonna get rid of fossil fuels.
…and after that they will go after Oxygen. Nasty stuff Oxygen, it enables all sorts of global warming activities. What could possibly go wrong with an anti-Oxygen crusade for the next phase of planet Stupid. Oh wait…
And then di-hydrogen oxide. Can drown people & causes rust.
Then it’s gravity’s turn – nasty stuff, gravity.
bin gettin’ ya down, eh?
RUSSIA…..Russia.Russia.Russia…..RUSSIA!!!!!
For four long years while Trump was president, we had to endure this BS. Finally, it was all revealed to be a Big BS campaign, and nothing more. Unfortunately, nobody paid any price for it. Not the least of which was ripping the country apart for four long years.
Guess What?? IT’S BACKKKK!!!!!
(wonderful, *sigh*)
A timeline: One, quick and done.
wrong Biden start point. Should start Nov 4 when elected. That is when oil prices were sure to begin rising.
Go Home has it absolutely correct:
That chart is worth saving and reposting when appropriate, like when Biden says it’s not his fault that gasolines prices are going higher.
Shot yourself in the foot there.
Prices rising when Trump was in office.
No big surprise, vaccines pulling the world out of the Covid pandemic, so demand starts to rise, thus prices start to rise.
Not At All.
Actually Go Home has it right. Biden was elected, it was a done deal, and the markets started responding.
That’s right. The markets are looking six months down the road. They saw what Biden had in store for the fossil fuel industry and reacted accordingly. That’s why gasoline prices have climbed so high so quickly. It’s not that gasoline supplies are any less now than they were a few weeks ago, but the prospect of less oil in the future because of Biden’s anti-fossil fuel policies, is causing the markets to jack up the price of gasoline now.
And it’s not a conspiracy of the oil companies to keep oil prices high, it is the futures market that does that.
This ^
Mr. Gallon: So you credit Trump for “pulling the world out of the Covid pandemic”?
That might have been true if there had been any vaccines, but there weren’t … and what they did come up with didn’t “pull the world out of” anything. Covid went from “plandemic” to endemic unobstructed by intervention.
Rory, give Gallon there a break; the was THE smoothest insertion of evil propaganda I seen awhile!
I mean,did you know that vaccines overrode lock-downs even in Trump’s days?
Yo,Gallon my man, except for your astute observation on supply/demand, where does the other three dollar a gallon come from?
Hee hee, libtards and the things they say…
I’m truly amazed that some people can go around completely oblivious to what is actually happening on this planet. It’s not like we have no access to copious amounts of information. We’re given shit sandwiches on a daily basis and all they can say is, “Mmmm, chicken!”
“the average price of gas from 2017 to 2020 under Trump stood around $2.57 a gallon”
https://www.newsweek.com/americans-are-paying-144-million-more-gas-per-day-under-biden-under-trump-1638605
Your Biden arrow could just as likely be back at 11/4.
Biden called the Middle East and asked them to increase production/drop prices. This actually hirts US production. If he really wanted more oil, he would call Canada and Mexico.
The real plan is high prices so Americans won’t buy, but limit drilling.
Yes, Biden called Saudi Arabia and they would not take his call.
Saudi Arabia is not going to do anything to help Joe Biden. Biden is their enemy. Biden sides with Saudi Arabia’s enemy, the Mad Mullahs of Iran.
Biden is a dangerous fool.
Biden is a dangerous fool.
Biden has always been a “dangerous fool” but now he’s a half demented dangerous fool being manipulated by even more dangerous people.
Biden is a dangerous
fooltool.Fixed your spelling mistake.
The Lithium carbonate price in China has skyrocketed ‘hockey-stick-style’ since Jan 2021 @ 44,604 to 493,500 yuan/tonne.
sweet…
’twas maybe 10 years and I was playing with/investigating small wind turbines – the sort you’d get from ebay.
Those little machines use Neodymium magnets in 3 phase alternators and got interested in following the price of Neo magnets.
At that time, famed windmill company ‘Enercon’ declared that “Permanent magnet wind turbines were the way to go”
I really didn’t understand their logic and still don’t in fact. Neo magnets, especially large ones are horrible things to work with.
Even the small ones inside the ‘hobbyist’ turbines could destroy fingers if you weren’t careful and would ‘fly’ – a pair of loose magnets would attract each other from surprising distance and when they met in mid-air would shatter like glass.
On top of that, the metal alloy they’re made of will corrode so fast it almost catches fire – hence why any Neo magnet me and you come across is triple plated with Chromium
No matter, Enercon went on to build a few windmills and the price of Neodymium magnets went up, almost overnight following their declaration, by a factor of 20
To my mind it demonstrates monumental hubris of The West – there is a collective idea that ‘China’ is dumb & stupid while being in no position to dictate anything the The West.
That we have some God-given right buy cheap stuff from the Chinese and they have no choice but to supply it. At ever lower and lower prices as we buy ever more and more.
The very fact that we deign to buy it should make them eternally grateful and forever in our debt – on which planet?
Off-topic while remaining on-topic and getting on to my fave subject: soil erosion
The Very Best Thing we, in this modern and now highly soil-eroded world, really should be doing with Lithium is eating it.
In order that our minds. brains, personalities, memory, cognitive skills etc etc all work properly, we all need a daily intake of around 4 milligrams of elemental Lithium.
Its a sort of neurotransmitter, much like all the other alkali metals are.
But being an alkali metal, is very easily and rapidly removed by acids from farmland (all lands in fact) soils. All rain (water) is acidic – its how the plant-world works.
Just as the vast majority of us all are deficient in Magnesium – another alkali metal that dissolves easily in acid and that we use (primarily) as a neurotransmitter.
Massively important also for the health and proper functioning of our heart.
The lack of, or dietary deficiency, could very easily explain soooo much of the odd behaviour we see around us – even before we are now urged to deprive ourselves of Sodium,
Science has died and the world has gone mad but, which came first.
What caused what?
Only madness could tell us not to eat Sodium so was that initial madness caused by a deficiency in Lithium, or Magnesium or something else….
or simply that we ate too much sugar and washed it down with alcohol?
Knew some people who got Lithium from their shrinks.They tell me it really calms them,’levels’ them. They were really dull people.
Could have been they were dull to start with,of course…
Still, you keep that stuff outa my drinking water, yu heah!
“The Lithium carbonate price in China has skyrocketed”
Yes, the Demonizers of CO2 ought to figure this new price increase into the total cost of going all electric.
The Green New Deal is a Pipedream. It will never happen. The world will not be powered by windmills and ground-based solar panels. They are a deadend that, if pursued, will cripple the economies who employ them.
The good news is their failures to produce are becoming more apparent in the Crash-Test Dummy nations, and perhaps this enlightenment will spare other nations from going down that destructive path.
The IEA says it rose 150% in 2021 and that the world faces potential shortages of lithium and cobalt as early as 2025.
The most evident things are sometimes the hardest to see.
Oil price responds to two things only. Supply/demand and traders sentiment on what supply/demand will be in the future.
Price of oil is high and rising because there is insuficient supply for the global demand, and because traders think it will be worse in the future.
The real cause behind the increase in oil prices is that Peak Oil took place in November 2018.
Oil prices can only be brought down by increasing supply, destroying demand, or changing traders sentiment. The global economic crisis that is coming our way will do the second.
At least someone has an eye on finance. Forgot sanctions, though.
Anyway for serious analysis, not Adam Smith 101 :
https://oilprice.com/Energy/Crude-Oil/Oil-Prices-Jump-As-Biden-Announces-Full-Ban-On-Russian-Energy-Imports.html
How about a radical idea, for public transport?
Make it clean, convenient & safe.
Outside of inner city metros that would be impossibly expensive. Convenient means frequent, even outside peak hours. Running busses with only one to two passengers is unprofitable, but cancelling services just because there are not enough passengers to fill the bus is inconvenient for passengers.
Some rural areas where I’ve lived in France and Scotland now have a bus in the morning and another at night. If you don’t have to get to work before 9am or return at 5:30pm then pretty inconvenient.
The Beeching plan for UK railways is an example of how things don’t work out as planned. In order to make the British rail network profitable loss making stations and lines were c or that mylosed. This didn’t take into account the onward journeys or that by making rail amongst the least convenient methods of getting anywhere they’d always choose the alternative. The British rail network is still loss making. Despite governments of all political hues trying to take personal motorised transport from the people it has proved impossible until now. Thanks to a coming together of a Flu pandemic, a deliberate plan to create an energy shortage through renewables and closing home based fossil fuel sources, and them playing at least a small part in causing a European war we have a plan to immobilise the populace coming together nicely.
And pi = 3….
Excellent idea … now explain how that might be accomplished in the real world.
Adam,
Add affordable if you want it to be successful. The problem is, it’s very difficult to make a public transportation system that meets even one of those goals, let alone all four. But knock yourself out: design one, cost it out, and present your plan. We’re all eagerly waiting…
Eric, when you say “So long as Democrats cannot or will not provide a genuine solutions” you miss the whole Democratic party modus operandi. Democrats never solve problems.
Problems are opportunities for them to exploit.
Problems enable them to stir up emotions, especially hate.
Problems enable them to blame someone else for the problem – even if Democrats created it.
Problems are their lifeblood – their reason for living and spreading misery wherever they go.
FJB
Brad has it right!
So true
“Problems enable them to stir up emotions, especially hate.”
Remind me again who said this?
“When Mexico sends its people, they’re not sending their best. They’re not sending you. They’re not sending you. They’re sending people that have lots of problems, and they’re bringing those problems with us. They’re bringing drugs. They’re bringing crime. They’re rapists. “
Have you ever considered trying to make an argument without appealing to one fallacy or another?
Whoever made that statement was absolutely right.
Hey the Russia colluuuusion guy shows up.
The headline to this article poses the question
“Why are gasoline/oil prices rising”?
The answer is because demand is greater than supply. It’s the same economic answer, as it ever was.
The laws of supply and demand, are as immutable as they ever were.
The reason there is an inability for supply to be flexed to reflect/meet demand is because of political interference in the market place.
If you want market based “real” prices for commodities, then the political overreach so common in today’s world has to be stopped.
How you do that, is the real question? How do we control the political institutions/politicians, rather than them controlling us?
If anyone has an answer to that, your time to reveal it has arrived….again..
That’s only half the answer
Factor in government taxes, VAT, Greens, etc etc etc and you have more
In the UK, we’re paying the equivalent of $7.89 per US gallon.
The UK gov take 20% of the total cost plus approx $1.90 per US gallon.
Redge,
I think I covered the other half as you call it, with my concern of political interference and overreach. That covers the various actors Greens, licencing authorities taxation/VAT etc.
Here in the UK, our energy costs are so ridiculous and high priced, simply because the state has refused to extract our own domestically held oil and gas deposits. The Tory administration, in power for the past twelve years, has mandated the importation of fuels. They have done this by banning domestic extraction??. If you can find any “Green” or economic logic in pursuing such a nationally damaging policy, please advise.
NB Labour politicians are in full support of no domestic energy industry too, so there is little point in electing them either.
To put the government take in the UK into perspective, fuel duty alone has raised over £500 billion in tax over the last 20 years.
UK oil and gas production gets taxed at an effective rate of 62%. That has raised about £100 billion in tax over the last 20 years.
Meanwhile UK renewables receive subsidies annually of about £10 billion, amounting to subsidies to renewables (paid out of electricity bills) of over £50 billion in just 10 years.
All the while greeny liars tell us that fossil fuels are subsidised in the UK and that renewables are subsidy free and cheaper. And no one on the MSM calls it out.
Before our latest increase in Dublin to €1.958 per L, 57% of the amount went to various taxes. If the pump recorded the actual price and the tax was added at the payment point the people would riot. Many Irish are not even aware of how much they are being ripped off by the government on the fuel price.
Interesting figures. Are they just sum totals, not adjusted for inflation?
Just sums. Adjusting for inflation won’t change sign of the flow of money. And inflation has been pretty low over 20 years.
Joe :
https://www.zerohedge.com/energy/biden-gas-prices-are-going-go-cant-do-much-about-it
and Jen :
https://www.zerohedge.com/energy/video-reporter-refuses-accept-psakis-attempt-blame-russia-gas-price-surge
ZH :
“gas prices are now higher in places than in zombie apocalypse movies, “
Russian Deputy Prime Minister Novak presents a clear analysis, and clearly says NordStream1 mirror sanctions are on Russia’s table (Use CC for English subtitles), 5min :
https://thesaker.is/crucial-deputy-prime-minister-novak-on-russian-energy-options-must-see/
I hope it is clear that politicians are driving voters into the ground?
Now just imagine energy futures – simplistic economics 101 is for the birds.
It’s amazing how the West is cancelling Russia when Russia holds the resources the world needs.
If you’re going to cancel someone or some entity make sure you are not beholden to them.
Yep, this is going to get painful for a while.
Whether one uses a gallon of gas produced in the US or in Saudi Arabia, both produce the same amount of CO2. However, two factors that should not be overlooked. The additional CO2 produced in transportation from Saudi Arabia and the stricter pollution regulations in the US should encourage producing and buying local.
It’s the Jimmy Carter solar on the WH roof PR trick–it doesn’t even matter if it’s hooked up or not. It’s the image that counts. Welcome back to the 70s.
It’s really simple: our refining capacity has been falling over the last year. Pump all the oil you want – if you can’t refine it, you’re stuck.
More refineries, more oil infrastructure, or higher prices.
“a $1000 decade old gasoline vehicle suffices”
Have you priced used cars lately? I doubt anything costing only $1000 could make it out of the used car lot, especially if it’s only ten years old.
The bigger point, that “cheap” used cars are good enough for a lot of people, is well taken. But “cheap” these days is still pretty expensive.
Inexpensive vehicles are out there. Finding them is easier if you can do your own repairs. I bought a 1992 Ford F150 for $200 and drove it for 5 years. It was a old base model farm truck, not pretty but solid. With the inline 6 and 5 speed manual it was pretty fuel efficient for a truck. I can buy a lot of fuel for the money I saved. To replace it I have bought a 1975 F350 for $150 that needs an engine. Funnily enough I have the same engine in my recently retired 92. There are a lot of vehicles available out there just like my truck. Your mistake is going to a car dealer.
That’s nice. Now do current used car prices for the average Joe who has neither the time, place, money, or tools to do his own maintenance.
Current used car prices are insane. For example, my neighbor bought a 4 year old Jeep Cherokee last year for $22,000. He just sold it back to the dealer from which he bought it for $24,500. Yes, more than he paid.
This is quite normal. Vehicles purchased last year can be sold for a profit, even though they are a year older with another 8-10 thousand miles.
The tight new-car market has caused the used car market to explode.
“Let Them Drive EVs” is the updated Marie Antoinette saying.
A typical EV battery requires 8 kg of lithium, 35 kg of nickel, 20 kg of manganese and 14 kg of cobalt. Electric motors in EVs utilize kilograms of magnetic rare-earth materials like neodymium and dysprosium, which are expensive, produce lots of waste and have various mining concerns.
Put these pro-EV politicians on record saying they support the mining operations in the US required to make these EVs domestically or by child labor in the 3rd World.
If you’re concerned about “rare earth minerals,” you must be apoplectic at how much the fossil fuel industry uses. https://reneweconomy.com.au/renewables-use-only-fraction-of-minerals-used-for-fossil-fuel-generation-96577/?fbclid=IwAR0WpzS4TZ-yS5kMyqA20E_unZPFm4IMEXqLIgeZSBADuX7rtTmNsLYOZQw
It’s been hilarious to watch once again as the fossil fuel shills desperately try to spin and deflect while the US and, for that matter, the entire world once pays dearly for this foolish addiction to fossil fuels.
“Fossil fuels are cheap and reliable!” they’ll screech. YET AGAIN, we see they’re not. They’re only “cheap and reliable” in the pamphlets published by the jackals that currently have our economies well and truly bent over. Much of Europe is now held hostage by “cheap and reliable” fossil fuels while realizing too late that they’ve allowed themselves to be victimized YET AGAIN.
Perhaps this latest episode of Lucy versus Charlie Brown will be the tipping point. Perhaps governments that have up until now been bought and paid for by fossil fuel corruption will be faced by citizens who have had enough. Enough wars for oil, enough price gouging, enough volatility, enough pollution, and enough uncertainty of supply.
More than ever before, the dominance of renewables is inevitable.
Is Dessler one of your handlers? I can sense some of his sanctimoniousness dripping off of you.
Gas and diesel prices are rising because that is what Faux Joe Xiden and the America hating c*nts in the Democrat Party SAID THEY WERE GOING TO DO.
Enough shown
Enough shown. Fully predicable spending >1 trillions $ on unicorn farts, stop drilling on federal land, huge admin costs. Bidet pedo is a green nut. Now time to pay for his zealotry. And of course is blameless, just the evil oil industry strikes again
The astronomical amounts of funny money riding on the so-called “fracking revolution” is about to be called in large tranches. The Benjamins lie in the loans you can leverage with promises on projected future earnings.The only way to roll over that debt,would be to show an actual profit.
Back when the scam started, it was determined they could, on average, break even at $147 to the barrel. I have not bothered to adjust for inflation…or reset.
Stealing hydrocarbons in Libya,Iraq,Syria and who knows where kept the price low, now the party music screeches to a halt. Turns out that revolution is actually a finely balanced financial gamble,the gas being merely derivative.
Looking at the actors (hah hah) involved, the Ukraine mess is your pension fund’s investment in the fracking revolution,at work. Or at least just taking advantage of a good crisis? (cough cough burrrsma!)