Why the Oil Price Is High and How that Will be the End of America as a World Power

Great article KRich, Ain't it the truth. "Figures don't lie, but liars do figure".

We should turn Bush and Cheney over to Iran and let them take care of our problem, than we look for a President and Vice President who will work for us. All we need to do to stop this oil problem is get out of the mid East and stop telling them how to live, that seem fair enough to me.

McCain is another Bush and Obama I do not trust, but we have no other choices at this point.

As usual, everyone is looking for an answer from a standard economic perspective which is, has been and always will be a false foundation. This is the volatility stage of Peak Oil that will see frightening fluctuations in the price of energy. Are we running out of oil? Most likely the answer is yes. Will we ever run out of oil? The answer is no. But in the words of Colin Campbell from "Oil, Smoke and Mirrors".

Colin Campbell: "Also, there is so much debate about this date of Peak (Oil). It really misses the point to a certain degree because whether the peak comes this year, next year, or in ten years time (it) doesn't really make that much difference because it's not a high peak. It's only the maximum of a rather gentle curve. And the real impact of that, which is beginning to be realized, is not the peak itself, but the vision of the long decline that follows peak. And that is a relentless, remorseless decline that goes on forever. At 2 or 3 percent per year that's not individually very much, but that eats into our supply very seriously and ever worse."

meh...America has a cheap commodity addiction problem, but it's not as bad as Spain with new world gold. America is also famed for it's flexibility, its adaptability, practicality, and the egalitarian class system which assures brilliant thinkers are quickly rewarded.

Of course, all of these good things have been in eclipse since Bush the Lesser was appointed by the Supreme Court, but I'm confident they will resurge. Thank Heaven for the hippies, treehuggers, and green people, because they have made use quickly absorb low-energy lifestyles.

I am tired of this crap! Why can't we just leave it alone under 2.50 per gallon and we all live on with our life. We are about to tear up our own country up over some stupid rules/law that were made and prices increased for no reason because they just wanted more money but FOR WHAT??? ugh what the hell is wrong with world today??

What's the matter with this writer?
He obviously hasn't benefited from the wisdom of right wing posters on Newsvine or he'd know it's just the invisible hand of the market at work.
(Once again, giving the consumer the finger.)

Its a little early to declare the end of America as a world power. Even with the world's largest deficit the US is the only world leader now.

The world energy supply is not all oil and US has world's largest coal reserves. Nuclear energy will return soon.

Nuclear is not cost-efficient, because the risks are too high. It only works for socialist countries, like in Europe. All American land is too valuable to put nuclear plants on it.

I'm more than willing to pay the higher prices and conserve, if it means we have a non-toxic environment. And I don't even have kids. I can't imagine that anyone who has kids can be any different.

The Fed's slashing of interest rates is a misguided policy with unfortunate complications for the American economy. It devalues the dollar abroad lets people $75,000 incomes continue to buy $400,000 houses (creating another "mortgage crisis" down the road). Every so often we need a recession to get housing prices back in line and perform other "reality checks" on the economy. The Fed's crazy decision to cut rates drastically just postpones the inevitable and makes the neccessary recovery procedures even more painful.

Skal,

I agree with you 100% accept they will not start drilling for our oil here in the US, yes we must fine another source of energy. As for going into to Iran I disagree, I feel we are never going to change the people and it time to come home and just protect our country. The money we are wasting can be put into a health care program, along with working on a new energy source.

One other thing I would like to see is start manufacturing our own products, let not depend on other countries for every thing we need

Thank you Skal I enjoy your comment.

Relax... It will be over, or frosted at the price it's on around, just do not expand....
Iran?
nonsense.
Do not expand.

The article is pretty much trash, and completely refuses to address the impacts of oil depletion (market pressures).

Selectively ignoring why T Bones Pickens is jumping into wind, is exactly why we've never yet been given a formal acknowledgment that Iraq was all about the control of oil in the middle east.

I know that the MSM likes to keep people stupid by not listing all of the reasons for the way some issue or other is moving, and here is one hell of a big one.

Much of the MSM refuses to address the not to difficult to understand idea that peak oil is not some kind of conspiracy or doomsday ploy, but a simple economic model that has nothing to do with the histeria misdirection by certain elements to confuse the public.

WE ARE NOT RUNNING OUT OF OIL!!!!!!

WE ARE however, at the point where demand is starting to outstrip supplies... Note the article didn't even address the fact that IEA global numbers show that world production this spring was over !.5 million barrels below demand. And yes, it there is a huge push to reverse this.

The question then gets real arcane, where the average soundbyte American needs to have a 20 second animation to present a few historical facts. Like, the U.S. reached its own peak oil point in 1970. That's why we now import 60% of our oil from elsewhere.

So if you want to delude yourself by this article, be my guest. But there are now over a dozen major reasons why oil prices are going up and are not gonna come down.

We all better pray that the world's major energy ports don't take another Katrina like hit any time soon or you will be begging for the days when $4 a gallon looked heavenly!!!

Energy:

Once you contemplate your fears in their entirety, walk around them and kick their tires, you realize they're not so great. Low energy lifestyles are eminently practical and are the only way to extend the life of our supplies, which are still large, but finite. Our grandparents survived the Depression, and we can get over this.

I'm a strong liberal Democrat, but I oppose reining in the "speculators" because a) I oppose anything O'Reilly advocates and b) the free market is raising prices, resulting in a rational change in our energy consumption, and that's good. After all, the speculators are taking a risk, and if we cut our daily use more than they expect, they take a bath.