Heres the good news. Fuel prices are slowly trickling down. Good for us.

http://finance.yahoo.com/news/Gasoline-pri...8&asset=&ccode=

But heres the bad news. I heard yesterday that Conoco Phillips (our neighbor accross the street and parent to company I work for) is making plans to idle 3 refinerys until the price of fuel goes back up. Bad for the families of soon to be laid off workers.

I know, I know, I've heard it too may times already. Evil greedy oil companies and all that. Trust me, if those refineries were making the profits people believe they make, they would not be shutting down. Its costs a ton of money to shut one down and even more to start one back up. Its not a decision made on a golf course over a beer to prop gasoline prices and screw people. You don't turn the switch off on a money machine to make more money.

What we believe won't put food on the table of those who will lose thier jobs. Please pray for those familys..

I feel we need to invest in alternative fuel solutions and stop our independence on fossil fuels. Doing that should create new jobs and careers that mitigate the lose of jobs in the petroleum fields. Praying may help but we need new policies and fundamentals regarding our energy concerns.

Jim

At the risk of an argument (hope not) and certainly with all due respect, oil will remain the demand fuel for a long time. Not the way I'd like it to be either, but it is what it is.
Unless of course we really find a planet like Pandora and start skinning the blue monkeys out of the miracle grow that lies under their tree house. (Just being a smart @$$, sorry...)
Other fuels will come in their own time just as oil did, but that time just isn't here yet. Wishful thinking won't make it happen. Again, I don't mean any disrespect. I'm just being the brutally honest realist that I am.

The cold hard fact that no one wants to face is this: Consider how much energy it actually takes to power this world we live in. There ain't no way we can grow that much corn, mine that much lithium, store that much solar power, harness that much wind or harvest that much sea weed. It just ain't gonna happen. Like it or not, oil is going to be around a long long time. Until is actually does start to run out, and we come up with somethinmg besides wind, sun or sea weed -- it will remain the demand fuel of the world.

Some day we may be willing to pay the price for a car that runs on sand or a nuke tablet. Like I said it ain't going to happen any time soon. If our gov mandates something along those lines? And I think they will. People are going to freak out at the cost and you'll hear the Palin chant all over again. Drill Baby Drill. Sorry, thats the way it is.

BTW: Are yall still in Florida? Can Nana and I come stay with yall for a while? We're freezing our pooters off up here. :P Burning wood to save gas, and lots of it.
Have fun!

Healthy conversation is always welcome. I think we can make friends with the blue monkeys and share their miracle grow :D I saw the movie in 3D at an Imax theater, amazing!!

We are still in Florida, come on down. Our park does not allow dogs so you will have to hide them :)

Jim

Working in the oil patch, as Betsy and I do some winters, I can tell you things that would blow most Americans away. Right now, they are still drilling to some extent, but like every well we have worked, over the last few years, none are active producers. The minute they come in, they are capped off and the rig moved to a new site. Shell is going to take several rigs out of service this year and no new ones are being built, so the drilling will also wind down as refinery capacity dries up. I know for a fact that every well we worked in the last 4 years is still non-productive, just capped and in reserve. That is why I cringe every time I hear those dumb words, "drill baby drill" while there are so many new wells setting idle.
Bob

Oil prices make for strange bedfellows. (I wrote a piece about it a year or so back)
Environmentalists love high oil prices. Oil companies obviously love high prices too.
They both want us to believe the same thing. That oil is running out, or that we've "Peaked"
Whatever... :rolleyes:
Its all nonsense. I'm no expert, but I can tell you from 30 years of petroleum industry experience, we're not even close to running out of oil.
Its all about the money for one side and all about the agenda for the other.