This is somewhat related since this is a gas thread. One of the rarest minerals on Earth is in high use in the petrochemical industry. Platinum, even more rare and expensive then Gold, is used in the cat crackers in the refineries. It’s also needed for batteries for our new eco-friendly cars too. Here’s some random info about it.
It’s needed for every hard drive we use,
… platinum is sprayed onto metallic computer data storage disks to retain the programmed data. These disks are used by the world's leading disk-drive makers…
Most of it is non-recyclable after its use in the petrochemical industry,
… Industrial and hazardous wastes account for the largest portion of the platinum…
It’s in almost every car,
… One of its most essential uses, however, is in auto catalytic converters…Nearly 35% of newly mined platinum is utilized in this fashion…
This is how important it is to us in the US,
… It is considered a strategic metal by the U.S. Government due to its role in the defense, medical and telecommunications industries, Platinum is even stockpiled by the government for possible defense emergencies…
The more I read about gas, the manufacture, the use and the real cost to us, the more I dislike it. This is the only good thing that I’ve found that can be said about the manufacture of gas,
… On average, 44.4% of petroleum becomes gasoline. There really are no waste products from petroleum. The lighter chemicals are natural gas, liquified petroleum gas (LPG), jet fuel, and kerosene…
This was said this morning by the AP... something just has to be done to keep prices in check. Was listing to a discussion on it that said if it stays where it's at economic hell will break loose again causing companies to stop hiring, lay off again, thus in reverse we go and into a recession deeper than we were.
Oil and gasoline prices began the new year on the same rising course that closed out 2010.
Crude oil for February delivery jumped to $92.66 a barrel, a 26-month high, before settling at $91.55, up 17 cents, on the New York Mercantile Exchange. Oil last settled above $92 a barrel Oct. 3, 2008, when it closed at $93.88.
Higher crude oil costs have been pushing up pump prices since early December. On Monday, the average U.S. pump price climbed 1.8 cents to $3.07 a gallon, according to the Energy Department's weekly survey of service stations around the U.S. California's average gained 2.1 cents to $3.308 a gallon.
Analysts differed widely on how high oil might rise in 2011.
Sanford C. Bernstein & Co. said the commodity would reach a new equilibrium at $90 a barrel this year after spending much of 2010 in a range of $75 to $85 a barrel. Analysts for Natixis Bleichroeder said the average this year would be even higher, about $100 a barrel. Oil last closed above $100 a barrel Sept. 30, 2008, at $100.64.
I think the best think we can do for ourselves and the ecology is to drive as little as possible, till it hurts. Their stock piles will fill up and they will have to reduce the price to get rid of some. (all just a pipe dream in a perfect world)
Or develop a viable all electric car sooner. I don’t think our antiquated electrical grid could handle all these electric cars plugging in at night though.
Sliding down the banister of life ..........................
Gone up 20cents here in the last 2 weeks.. we are up to $3.19/gallon for regular considering it's usually down to around $1.70's or around that during this time of the year. Way too high and all reports are still hinting at it hitting a average of $3.75/gallon by May with a $5/gallon target for the start of next year.
Bilderberg Will not rest until the american economy is totally flushed.
Ponder this:
Subject: Thanksgiving
A must read that looks into the near future!
“Winston, come into the dining room, it’s time to eat,” Julia yelled to her
husband. “In a minute, honey, it’s a tie score,” he answered. Actually
Winston wasn’t very interested in the traditional holiday football game
between Detroit and Washington. Ever since the government passed the
Civility in Sports Statute of 2017, outlawing tackle football for its
“unseemly violence” and the “bad example it sets for the rest of the world,”
Winston was far less of a football fan than he used to be. Two-hand touch
wasn’t nearly as exciting.
Yet it wasn’t the game that Winston was uninterested in. It was more the
thought of eating another TofuTurkey.
Even though it was the best type of VeggieMeat available after the
government revised the American Anti-Obesity Act of 2018, adding fowl to the
list of federally-forbidden foods, (which already included potatoes,
cranberry sauce and mince-meat pie), it wasn’t anything like real turkey.
And ever since the government officially changed the name of “Thanksgiving
Day” to “A National Day of Atonement” in 2020 to officially acknowledge the
Pilgrims’ historically brutal treatment of Native Americans, the holiday had
lost a lot of its luster.
Eating in the dining room was also a bit daunting. The unearthly gleam of
government-mandated fluorescent light bulbs made the TofuTurkey look even
weirder than it actually was, and the room was always cold. Ever since
Congress passed the Power Conservation Act of 2016, mandating all
thermostats—which were monitored and controlled by the electric company—be
kept at 68 degrees, every room on the north side of the house was barely
tolerable throughout the entire winter.
Still, it was good getting together with family. Or at least most of the
family. Winston missed his mother, who passed on in October, when she had
used up her legal allotment of live-saving medical treatment. He had had
many heated conversations with the Regional Health Consortium, spawned when
the private insurance market finally went bankrupt, and everyone was forced
into the government health care program. And though he demanded she be kept
on her treatment, it was a futile effort. “The RHC’s resources are
limited,” explained the government bureaucrat Winston spoke with on the
phone. “Your mother received all the benefits to which she was entitled.
I’m sorry for your loss.”
Ed couldn’t make it either. He had forgotten to plug in his electric car
last night, the only kind available after the Anti-Fossil Fuel Bill of 2021
outlawed the use of the combustion engines—for everyone but government
officials. The fifty mile round trip was about ten miles too far, and Ed
didn’t want to spend a frosty night on the road somewhere between here and
there.
Thankfully, Winston’s brother, John, and his wife were flying in. Winston
made sure that the dining room chairs had extra cushions for the occasion.
No one complained more than John about the pain of sitting down so soon
after the government-mandated cavity searches at airports, which severely
aggravated his hemorrhoids. Ever since a terrorist successfully smuggled a
cavity bomb onto a jetliner, the TSA told Americans the added
“inconvenience” was an “absolute necessity” in order to stay “one step ahead
of the terrorists.” Winston’s own body had grown accustomed to such probing
ever since the government expanded their scope to just about anywhere a
crowd gathered, via Anti-Profiling Act of 2022. That law made it a crime to
single out any group or individual for “unequal scrutiny,” even when
probable cause was involved. Thus, cavity searches at malls, train
stations, bus depots, etc., etc., had become almost routine. Almost.
The Supreme Court is reviewing the statute, but most Americans expect a
Court composed of six progressives and three conservatives to leave the law
intact. “A living Constitution is extremely flexible,” said the Court’s
eldest member, Elena Kagan. “Europe has had laws like this one for years.
We should learn from their example,” she added.
Winston’s thoughts turned to his own children. He got along fairly well
with his 12-year-old daughter, Brittany, mostly because she ignored him.
Winston had long ago surrendered to the idea that she could text anyone at
any time, even during Atonement Dinner. Their only real confrontation had
occurred when he limited her to 50,000 texts a month, explaining that was
all he could afford. She whined for a week, but got over it.
His 16-year-old son, Jason, was another matter altogether.. Perhaps it was
the constant bombarding he got in public school that global warming, the
bird flu, terrorism or any of a number of other calamities were “just around
the corner,” but Jason had developed a kind of nihilistic attitude that
ranged between simmering surliness and outright hostility. It didn’t help
that Jason had reported his father to the police for smoking a cigarette in
the house, an act made criminal by the Smoking Control Statute of 2018,
which outlawed smoking anywhere within 500 feet of another human being.
Winston paid the $5000 fine, which might have been considered excessive
before the American dollar became virtually worthless as a result of QE13.
The latest round of quantitative easing the federal government initiated
was, once again, to “spur economic growth.” This time they promised to push
unemployment below its years-long rate of 18%, but Winston was not
particularly hopeful.
Yet the family had a lot for which to be thankful, Winston thought, before
remembering it was a Day of Atonement. At least he had his memories. He
felt a twinge of sadness when he realized his children would never know what
life was like in the Good Old Days, long before government promises to make
life “fair for everyone” realized their full potential. Winston, like so
many of his fellow Americans, never realized how much things could change
when they didn’t happen all at once, but little by little, so people could
get used to them.
He wondered what might have happened if the public had stood up while there
was still time, maybe back around 2010, when all the real nonsense began.
“Maybe we wouldn’t be where we are today if we’d just said ‘enough is
enough’ when we had the chance,” he thought.
Maybe so, Winston. Maybe so.
Success is a lousy teacher. It seduces people into thinking they can't lose. -Bill Gates
While this is good..its long over due. What drives me nuts is we don't have the news coverage of prices till its as high as it is now. Anything over $1.50/gallon is too much considering historical figures and graphics showing a level climb minus the 2008 spikes which were inflated to start with.
Credit card for lunch and expenses, speed pass for gas and iphone 4. All paid for by work.
sheesh - i want a job like that
$3.50 premium here - Spokane,Wa
yet we liberate some country invaded by iraq - then beat them up and fix their problems - rebuild and what not - stick it to us some more at the pumps - BAH!
Sava700 wrote:While this is good..its long over due. What drives me nuts is we don't have the news coverage of prices till its as high as it is now. Anything over $1.50/gallon is too much considering historical figures and graphics showing a level climb minus the 2008 spikes which were inflated to start with.
Thing is, it kind of takes the meaning out of Free Market. Honestly, I don't care. They need to be throttled.
Success is a lousy teacher. It seduces people into thinking they can't lose. -Bill Gates
U.S. gasoline prices inched up less than 2 cents per gallon over the past two weeks as crude oil prices held steady, according to a new national survey.
The average price of self-serve regular edged up 1.49 cents to just under $3.13 a gallon, according to Trilby Lundberg, publisher of the Lundberg Survey of about 2,500 filling stations. With demand still weak and a glut of refined fuel on the market, the prices at the pump are closely tracking the price of the crude oil that is gasoline's major component, she said.
"The continued oversupply of gasoline and continued weak demand growth of gasoline both are expected to continue for some time," Lundberg said.
Gas prices have gone up about 44 cents per gallon over the past 19 weeks and are about 46 cents higher than in early February 2010, she said. The price of crude oil has gone up nearly 20 percent over the past year, she said.
Gasoline pump prices reached a 28-month high Wednesday even though oil and gas supplies in the U.S. continue to grow and demand for gas is weak.
The national average for regular gasoline rose to $3.133 a gallon. That's about $1.20 more than the price at the pump two years ago, according to AAA, Wright Express and the Oil Price Information Service.
Just eight states have average prices less than $3 a gallon. The cheapest is $2.94 a gallon is in Missouri. Hawaii has the highest average of $3.746 a gallon.
Tom Kloza, OPIS chief oil analyst, predicted gas prices will range from $3.50 to $3.75 a gallon this spring and then drift lower, to between $3 and $3.40 a gallon.
"I do believe that this year is front-end loaded," Kloza said. "I think that perhaps the first third of the year sees higher retail prices for gasoline and diesel . than the middle or final thirds."
Average gas prices have climbed steadily from about $2.80 a gallon in November even though consumer demand has been weak and inventory levels remain high. The Energy Department said Wednesday that supplies of crude and gasoline both rose again last week while distillates, which include heating oil and diesel, declined. All three products are at or above the average range for the past five years.
Man.. lookin at $4/gallon gas in most places by April!!
You know what makes little sense? The price of oil hasn't really gone anywhere, but the price of blend stock gasoline is consistently going up. It's all BS.
Success is a lousy teacher. It seduces people into thinking they can't lose. -Bill Gates
blebs wrote:You know what makes little sense? The price of oil hasn't really gone anywhere, but the price of blend stock gasoline is consistently going up. It's all BS.
Well whats even more BS is we are allowing speculation which is negative right now based on protests half a world away to effect what we pay for fuel.
Sava700 wrote:Well whats even more BS is we are allowing speculation which is negative right now based on protests half a world away to effect what we pay for fuel.
You know what I think we should do? Start taxing the speculators on their speculations. Lets see how high things go then!
Success is a lousy teacher. It seduces people into thinking they can't lose. -Bill Gates
blebs wrote:You know what I think we should do? Start taxing the speculators on their speculations. Lets see how high things go then!
Yeah, well either way something has to be done about that. There were talks back in 08 about controlling this or some new regulation and it slowly disappeared as gas prices came back down. They never went down to the point they should have been at based on the last 10 years of increases so this is something the Govt and the Media should have been all over 24/7.
What is happening in these other countries from Protests really shouldn't have any effect on what we pay for gasoline so long as there is no disruption in oil flow beyond a day or so holdup of a ship getting into a port which is no big deal and nothing to get scared over. Egypt did its protest and got what they wanted now its flowing over to all these other counties that think if they push several thousand people into one area and yell alot they will get what they want which isn't the case. While this is happening we have speculators controlling the markets with nonsense.
Expect Gas prices to sky rocket over the next few weeks!!!!
Oil prices surged more than 4% early Monday as antigovernment protests in the Middle East and Africa intensified, raising worries about possible supply disruptions.
Crude oil for April delivery gained $3.80, or 3.8%, to $93.51 a barrel after earlier jumping as high as $93.75.
U.S. oil prices have been trading in a range between $88 and $94 a barrel since the start of the year but prices have been much higher in other parts of the world.
Brent crude, the benchmark European oil standard, hit a 2-1/2-year high of $105 a barrel before retreating slightly. An overhang of supply has been keeping U.S. prices on the low side...for now.
"All eyes are on the Middle East and North Africa crisis regarding potential disruptions in oil exports that could drive crude oil prices even higher," Myrto Sokou, an analyst at Sucden Financial, wrote in a research report.
All because of these stupid protests and there isn't a damn thing we can do about it - Something has to be done to prevent speculation on something that isn't causing disruptions yet!
Does any politician in their right minds think no matter what party they are in really REALLY think that if we allow fuel prices to remain this high or go higher that we will recover from the economic hell we are in in the near future?!??! There are too many people that cant' afford to even think about going green that live week to week so optional vehicles, optional places to get power,heat and so on just isn't a viable solution for many.
Some more news on what I was saying... to be honest mainstream media needs to stay on this topic and headlines till its back down below $2/gallon National Average!
Some analysts are worried higher oil prices will undermine a fragile economic recovery in developed countries. For every $1 increase in the price of a gallon of gasoline, U.S. consumer spending falls by about $120 billion, said Gerard Minack, an economist with Morgan Stanley.
"Energy is more important for developed-world consumers than food," Minack said. "This is why further sharp rises in oil prices, if they occur, would be likely to be seen as a threat to growth."
In other Nymex trading in March contracts, heating oil rose 5.22 cents to $2.7651 a gallon and gasoline gained 3.83 cents to $2.5896 a gallon. Natural gas futures lost 0.9 cent to $3.867 per 1,000 cubic feet.
Sava700 wrote:What is happening in these other countries from Protests really shouldn't have any effect on what we pay for gasoline so long as there is no disruption in oil flow beyond a day or so holdup of a ship getting into a port which is no big deal and nothing to get scared over.
When I got in my car a few hours ago there was something on the radio about work being delayed a week due to protests, riots, and threats.
IMO now would be a good time for the US to flex some influence and get OPEC to pick up the slack to offset what's being lost here. We are almost back to levels we saw 2 years ago when prices for gas hit $4/gallon and if something isn't done soon cause of all the mess going on in other countries the economic bounce back wont' bounce here in the us, it will just fall flat!!!
IMO now would be a good time for the US to flex some influence and get OPEC to pick up the slack to offset what's being lost here. We are almost back to levels we saw 2 years ago when prices for gas hit $4/gallon and if something isn't done soon cause of all the mess going on in other countries the economic bounce back wont' bounce here in the us, it will just fall flat!!!
Hate to tell you my friend, but this is all a planned destruction of the world economy. The sheeples are ignorant to the facts. There is no saving our economy now. It's just watch and wait for the final collapse.
Success is a lousy teacher. It seduces people into thinking they can't lose. -Bill Gates
blebs wrote:Hate to tell you my friend, but this is all a planned destruction of the world economy. The sheeples are ignorant to the facts. There is no saving our economy now. It's just watch and wait for the final collapse.
Isnt it beautiful though? Like a flower bud bursting through the cool morning air, with the soft silken petals as they flare..
Oil prices continued to rise Thursday as the political upheaval in Libya has curtailed production from the North African country.
The U.S. benchmark oil contract, West Texas Intermediate, for April delivery gained $1.06, or 1%, to $99.16 a barrel. Prices hit a high of $103 a barrel earlier in the session. Just last week, crude prices were trading below $90 a barrel.
blebs wrote:Down to $97.74 right now, but still...............
This time last year it was around $40 or less and the prices were still slightly higher than they should have been for our current economic shape. What could help would be some assurance from our govt that they will release reserves or anything to calm investors down and get the prices to drop again.
Sava700 wrote:This time last year it was around $40 or less and the prices were still slightly higher than they should have been for our current economic shape. What could help would be some assurance from our govt that they will release reserves or anything to calm investors down and get the prices to drop again.
But if they do that, they can't destroy the economy as quickly as they want too.
Success is a lousy teacher. It seduces people into thinking they can't lose. -Bill Gates
stick it to us some more at the pumps - BAH!
reg $3.77 gal !