My friend "revrick" just completed a post on offshore drilling, its impact on prices, and peak oil. Frankly, I am of the opinion the most we will see is a decrease in prices of ~ 25 cents per gallon at the pump for ~ 2 years. It is not worth the risk and we are better off keeping it in the ground.

If we really want to impact gasoline and oil prices, then a better strategy would be to do something about it. I know "duc" drives a Prius and I am in my standard transmission ION. First question:

What do You Drive?

Here in Detroit or Motor City, we have an eight story tire along US 94. It was just renovated and it stands next to one of Eisenhower's Interstate creations. <link> Uniroyal This is a hold over from 1964 when gasoline was 34 cents per gallon. It made the NY Worlds Fair and then was relocated to Allen Park, Michigan. I guess it would be fair to say this represents what the world was like for us in the sixties. Things have changed since then.

Do You Drive the Speed Limit?

There was a time when gasoline and driving was cheap and fun. We would hop in the car and cruise the boulevards looking for girls to pick up. <link> Dream Cruise Detroit on Woodward Avenue. Nothing like reliving those days in the same jalopy. You never know, you might get lucky. I had a 1966 Pontiac LeMans as my first car pre-Marines.

Do you still Dream Cruise or Do You Plan Your Trips?

Even if you can't aford a new car that is more efficient, you can still save by driving the speed limt as your maximum. Think about it and I am looking forward to your answers.

Total bullshit. Liberals are opposed to oil, pure and simple. They don't want drilling anywhere because they don't want the price of oil to come down.

Idiot Obama is opposed to drilling so every last one of you snivling snotheads dance on the end of his string and make absolute fools of yourselves denying that which is so obvious that even a child can see it.

How can you clowns stand to look at yourselves in the mirror? You're all a bunch of jokes.

Jack

I have a Honda Insight which is way better than a Prius unless you need to carry more than two people. They stopped making them a year ago.

Do I drive the speed limit? Nobody in Arizona drives the speed limit except on the 101 where Snotsdale set up a bunch of cameras.

Do I plan my trips? Plan. That's an interesting word. Except for driving to work, my wife plans all my trips. All of the plans start with the words, 'Honey, would you go to the store and get ...'.

I think America should do some token offshore drilling, just to feel like you're doing something.

Also, reading today, if the guy in the Globe & Mail got it right (and I got him right), NAFTA currently specifies that Canada make 60% of its energy resources available to the US (or generally for export, not sure, can't find the article). Crazy. Obama's going to help us out there. We ship Alberta oil south and import from God knows where.

I drive way over the speed limit. Better, I drive with windows down and air conditioner blasting. (Just sometimes.) I make up for it by not stopping at stop signs, and driving through the occasional red light (only when I've checked both ways). Also, when I'm picking up my wife or kids I don't make full stops, they have to get in (or out) on the run.

I don't cruise, I've regressed, I guess, when I feel the need I get on my bike. My first car was a '76 Toyota Celica and I loved it. Back to Japanese now (and have been for some time) after some Swedish and American.

Yup. We Liberals want candlelight and horses. Therefore, we want the price of crude to stay high, as you alluded. But also, we didn’t come to that conclusion on our own; we are all merely puppets of Obama.

Sheesh. I can't even spell the dude's first name.

So, explain to me why Liberals don't want the price of oil to come down? What's the Master Plan?

Oh, never mind, just shut the fuck up.

I do not currently own a car.

My last car was a Honda Civic Hatchback

I would have bought a hybrid, but at the time the technology was too new and I figured there would be some Engineering bugs to iron out.

I always drove the speedlimit. My car got much better mileage at the speed limit than it did above. But for even better incentive the area I was driving in (Western Australia) was notorious for photo radars.

they work about the same...

Use Lodge wear to do stove top cooking...much better heat transfer

Use an electric stove....the energy consumption is far more controllable

Keep your freezer fan free and clear

Replace all incandescent bulbs with fluorescent..that's a big one

Contact your electric company and find out if you can purchase coal powered electricity... I know coal is a dirty word to some but your are actually helping when you do this.

Wouldn't it be easier to just bomb Iran?

Then we could once again enjoy our Hummers without guilt.

with high gas prices. for real - these are items i've read in the news, or personally observed

10 - some guy in florida had a custom built "tank' installed in his pickup truck, so he could steal up to 800 gallons of gas at a time. state police have him in custody

9 - also in florida, thieves have invented "an electronic device" that causes a gas pump to dispense unlimited gas without the use of credit card. state police are reviewing surveillance video in an attempt to apprehend

8 - some city in wisconsin is about to ban fast food drive- throughs as wasting too much gas

7 - people in baltimore have always loved SUVs. and i don't really think its driven them to apply for food stamps, but when you actually watch closely, there are a LOT of people driving SUVs and paying for groceries with food stamps. the spanish speakers who pay with food stamps dont have SUVs though - they have pickup trucks which are equally horrendus on fuel

6 - i actually was in someone's car when they turned off their engine at a "long" stoplight. evidently cars in europe turn off automatically after 30 seconds or something. is this the coming thing?

5 - GM is building a "fake" tahoe SUV hybrid that gets 3 mpg better on the highway. something like 20 mpg, instead of 17? normally i don't ask for more government regulation, but it does seem like a crime to use the term "hybrid" for a vehicle like that.

4 - more people driving with the A/C turned off, and the car windows open. technical opinion is divided on this, with most 'authorities" casting doubt about whether the fuel saved overcomes the crappier aerodynamics

3 - i was in ocean city maryland last weekend. we got into the movies and a restaurant (8pm saturday night) without waiting. it does seem as if fewer people are coming there to vacation

2 - people are spending $3,500 for a "euro scooter" to save gas. really

1 - as far as i can tell, bicycles are not making a comeback. there's a limit to common sense solutions, evidently

I bought a KIA Spectrum last week. My Ford F150 pickup gets about 17 mpg so I only use it for work (when I work) and the company for which I do estimates buys my gas for it.

The KIA gets 32 mpg. almost twice what the truck gets so I am pleased with that. It is a nice little car and quick enough for me now that I am older and no longer feel the need to run people off the freeway.

Jack

I used to drive only trucks with strong v-8s because I needed them for my responsibilities. Things change, though I miss them.

I now drive a truck with a small 6 cylinder, while I absolutely hate the anemic performance it is currently adequate. Plus I drive an AWD cross over with a 6 cylinder even though a stronger 8 was available. I often teach CPR AED and other safety related classes for industry in the evenings and need to haul the equipment.

I usually drive at or below the speed limit unless I am late making the transition from one responsibility to another, or if in heavy traffic that is moving fast. Usually.

I still dream cruise a little bit as it has always allowed for excellent thinking time in solitude with the radio off. Though its simply a matter of taking a slightly longer route home from a required destination. No more Sunday cruising around days, dammit. Double dammit.

Back away from the bottle Jackie. This Democrat has posted in favor of refineries and more drilling at least twenty times this year alone.

I just happen to believe in conservation along side of exploration and development. Its going to take both.

I don't drink....do you understand that...I do not consume alcoholic beverages, except an occasional glass of wine with a meal, out in a restaurant. So any dementia that you perceive in me is due to arrogance, stubbornness and a closed mind....not alcohol.

Okay, I have never said that all of you are idiots (well, maybe I have said it but I didn't really mean it). Any sane individual can see the need for building more refineries and drilling for domestic oil. So I apologize if I lumped you into a group of morons.

Also, any sane person can also see the need for conservation. It does take both, as you stated. I agree with that.

Jack

b-a, if you're back in OC, stop by the waterfront and look for a commercial fishing vessel called the Coming Home. She's owned by a close friend and is skippered by his foster son. Fishing for sea scallops way offshore of there. Normally fishes out of Chatham, MA. I'm sure he woud overload you with fresh sea scallops if you stopped by.