*Standing ovation*

 

one thing you can't deny, a few years back, when the prices sky rocketed like this, the oil companies posted the highest gains EVER. The politics behind all of it is bogus, and world wide matters are merely an excuse to drive up prices...

 

When you sell something as relatively inelastic (defined as a small change in the quantity demanded relative to a change in price) as gasoline, and the price of that good increases, profits will be reaped.

The price increases are largely driven by speculation. Due to the turmoil in the middle east, there is a risk of a decrease in the supply of petroleum, and the price is driven upwards.

Just wait until we crest peak oil and the price increases are driven by a physical decrease in supply instead of speculation or a temporary slowdown in production.

Everything will increase in price.

The industrialized world runs on energy, and we have been spoiled by this black gold. It is time to stop the blissful ignorance shared by so many.

You want to talk about possible risk? How about the risk that we could see the first regression of industrialized society unless we quadruple our efforts to ween ourselves off the black crack.

 

FWIW, I didn't really shed a tear when my '04 Civic Hybrid got T-boned. Got great mileage (high 40s) but had about as much horsepower as a dead trout. And to keep the mileage up you had to stick with the OE tires (some rock-hard skinny crap), so it wasn't even worth changing out the mushy suspension bits. I'm now getting almost exactly half the mileage, but even though I'm commuting 50 miles a day I'm much happier with my A4. It looks better, rides better and performs *much* better. If I want to save gas, I'll find a job closer to home before I go back to some green wimp ride.

 

You're just another tree hugging san fran idiot, what the hell is this third (or even 4th party) crap link? You want to hear from a credible link? Suck on this.
http://finance.yahoo.com/news/Bullio....html?x=0&.v=1
This is just a small amount in Utah mind you, there are hundreds of thousand acres to be had with this ****, spew your oil hating crap all you want, but know WTF you're talking about before bringing it to the table. Of course this amount will only last us about 4 years, but this is only 4,500 acres, we could potentially tap hundreds of thousands of acres. We will have oil LONG AFTER YOU AND I ARE DEAD, and thats just whats in SHALE!

P.S. How are those low flow toilets working out for ya? I hear you have to spend $14 million to pour bleach into the sewers to clean out all the sludge.....which incidentially will flow into the san francisco bay....way to go green.

 

Its always a good strategy to start off your counterargument with insults, if you can get the opposing viewpoint riled up maybe you can just turn it into a screaming match! Judging by your post, it sounds like that is what you are most used to.

I'm quite disappointed to see that kind of derogatory language from a moderator. Need I remind you of your own forum rules?

I could almost predict a post like yours from a general member of this forum, and maybe its just me, but I hold moderators to higher posting standard than any other member of a forum. As a moderator myself on another forum, your post wouldn't fly.

Since you seem to have not heard of Snopes before, I'll give you a little background information (all of which is easily accessible, a few clicks away.)

From Wikipedia:
Why should we place any faith in this "Snopes" you ask?

From Snopes' FAQ:
I'm sure you would ask for an independent opinion, as you should. So here you go.

According to FactCheck.org (SOURCE)

Now that I have clarified the validity of my sources, lets check out yours.

Press Release
Source: Bullion Monarch Mining Inc. On Monday February 28, 2011, 3:10 pm EST

I'm actually not even sure why you this press release from a company invested in the industry (with a financial obligation to shareholders), that requires a huge disclaimer at the bottom about "forward looking statements", is being put forth as your argument for there being hundreds of billions of barrels of oil in the Bakken region.

Or maybe I'm just missing the key points from your version of a "credible source."

650 million barrels lasting 4 years?

According to the CIA World Factbook (SOURCE), the United States consumes 18.69 million barrels of oil per day (2009 est.)

Some simple arithmetic shows us that at 18.69 million barrels per day, we would deplete 650 million barrels in:

650/18.69= ~34.78 days!

You were off by 1,425.22 days. Pretty close though!

I won't attempt to dispute that there will still be oil long after you and I are dead, as much faith as I have in humans to completely deplete any valuable resource we can, I don't think we will ever find all of the oil.

The environmental damage caused by oil shale extraction is significantly larger than simple drilling for oil. Entire mountainsides are strip mined. I'll spare you all the "liberal" crap since I'm sure most of it would fall on deaf ears.

As far as the low flow toilet situation goes, it is unfortunate, but hardly the end of the world. It is extremely difficult to anticipate every problem that could occur when switching technologies. The BP oil spill and Japan's current nuclear crisis are key examples of reality not following our intended path.

The benefits of low flow toilets vastly outweigh the temporary problem incurred by them. San Francisco is not the "perfect green city", but I can almost guarantee we're taking more meaningful steps toward the future than your city is.

Now we wouldn't want all my time to go to waste, I have high hopes that you'll reply with a very cohesive and persuading retort to the facts I have presented here. If you would like to publicly discuss the environmental impacts of oil shale extraction, let me know and I'd be glad to.

Lets see what you can, to use your words, "bring to the table", Mr. Moderator.

Sincerely, Lukas

 

Wow... you seriously have time to do all this?