Tom Toles for February 02, 2015

Nah. Don’t have to worry about the climate now, either!

Barry Hussein likes $5 a gallon. Fact!

^^^ Luckily Americans want oil exploration here in America.So do you skateboard to work?Or a solar bicycle?

Some folks like cheap oil AND the Keystone pipeline that is economically unjustifiable with cheap oil. Go figure.

@Doughfoot Well, SOMEbody needs to keep the Chinese supplied with dirty oil, so might as well be uhs helping the Canadians.

@ConserveGov @Nos NevetsFunny how every time “conservatives” bring that up, they ignore his reasoning. The higher the gas price, the more serious people are about alternative fuels. As long as the US remains addicted to oil we will be tied to the Middle East and drug into their conflicts. The sooner we switch over to a viable mix of renewable energy, the sooner we gain energy independence and the sooner we can stop paying vast amounts of tax dollars to meddle in Mid East affairs. That would also mean that state sponsored terrorists loose a huge source of funding.

Hey Harley, long time no see! It’s so good to have join the discussion. You’re so open minded and your views are always thoughtful and well considered. You always enlighten me with reasoned discourse, and for that I am eternally grateful. On this one, though, you’re a bit off the mark, sorry to say. I know it’s unusual for you to be less than 110% correct in your views. So, as a public service, let me tell you a few facts. The proximate cause of the decline in oil prices has to do with supply and demand. For oil prices are arrived at with a very thin capacity and production margin. Since 1947, petroleum engineers have been perfecting their craft. Horizontal drilling allows multiple wells from a single platform. Fracking mud has been vastly improved. Propant technology has been revolutionized. So previously unrecoverable domestic reserves have been very recoverable. The market participants were caught a bit unaware of the pace of tech adoption and capital deployment. KSA is doing what they think is in their interest, targeted at their arch enemy, the Shiite Persians. Plus, they can take a big sideswipe at Russia, who they also dislike. Obama is not really a factor in these developments one way or the other. But, yes, I would raise the federal gas tax in response to fund the bankrupt federal highway fund. I like the Interstates, and want potholes fixed!!! I know you are a loyal member of the pothole party, but get over it man!! By the way, I am deeply familiar with the energy markets, and have raised hundreds of millions of dollars for professionals who have funded the domestic O&G boom…so, my man, you really do have to pay a bit more attention to the facts in evidence. I know you are always so careful to be moderate and reasonable in your posts, so this shouldn’t be too much of a strain, right?

Sorry I’m late to the conversation, but I was out putting a down payment on a brand new Chevy Deathstar SUV – over 7000lbs. of three mile to the gallon, climate controlled Merican luxury… what’s the topic again?

The theory is simple, high gas prices equal conservation, low gas prices encourage and result in higher consumption, of fuel and the products that consume them. The last couple months again prove the theorem proved.

I too remember when pumps had to be changed to accommodate prices over a dollar a gallon. Yes, it was before the oil company orchestrated “Arab embargo”, just like increasing dramatically overseas storage of product ot prepare for “import” at higher price/profit for the oil companies.

My goodness…you make quite a few bold and insulting statements about other commenters. I wonder if you call yourself a christian? If you do, maybe you might want to tone down the vitriol and try a little christian charity. I know it’s tough, maybe, but you really will feel better for it. You know, the “love your neighbor as yourself” stuff. Course, maybe you’re not a christian. In which case, maybe you could be a bit more civil. I don’t mind clever and snarky. I certainly don’t mind a bit of sarcasm. But simple name calling really says more about the person whose doing the name calling than it does the intended target. It seems to me there’s a juvenile taunt that really fits here. “I’m rubber and you’re glue, anything you say to me bounces of me and sticks to you.” That may be a bit closer to the sort of argument that you can relate to. In my limited experience (62 years old), people don’t often change as they get older, they tend to become “more so” of what they were during their younger years. The result is that some folks become wiser and others regress, depending on who they want to be. As I age, I have gone from being non-political, to conservative, to something closer to a libertarian who finally grew up. Plus, I have definitely become more empathetic to others and more compassionate about their misfortunes than I used to be. How is it that you have grown up and are still spewing nasty insults at other folks. You know, Democrats, Republicans, Conservatives, Libertarians, and all other stripe of political viewpoints are all people, just like you and me. I take swipes at Harley, for example, because he’s just so outrageous that I cannot resist. But I have never to my knowledge tried to insult him or belittle him except in jest.

In 2009, I purchased a 49cc Vespa scooter, which required only a registration sticker, PERIOD.. The main reason was that I wanted to hang on to my Nissan 4-cylinder pick-up for several years, and would use the scooter to commute to my store, and other local errands. Plus, I did enjoy a ride on a hot August evening along the Atlantic coast. BUT, a year and a half later, our then Gov. Patrick, who found out that THOUSANDS of these bikes were being purchased by students around Boston and people like me. HE saw MONEY!! He had the designation changed from scooter to motorcycle (a ridiculous comparason!), which required full registration, mandatory insurance, excise tax and one had to travel to a far-away Registry office to take the road test!. They Registry, insurance companies and towns all got their piece of the action, while taking away much of my reason for buying it! And I was naive enough to think that government was supposed to be encouraging us to buy more fuel-efficient vehicles!REMEMBER THIS, because Deval Patrick is thinking of a presidential run in 2020!

“The price is being manipulated by (perhaps the Saudis) to keep their market share, not to trap American consumers.” That sounds like a distinction without a difference. Their market share and their income depends on the world remaining dependent on oil. And by the way, people do drive more less as the price of oil fluctuates. Ask anybody in the travel industry. The price of oil has a definite effect on the kind of vehicles people purchase, also.

Mangy: my scooter is a 250CC and yes qualifies as a motorcycle for drivers license etc, but our state doesn’t nail us on fees, and yes, I’ve ridden motocycles for years, so no problem on the certificate. BTW: I live out of town now, and that 65+ MPG on the scooter for small errands beats my SUV’s 25, and that’s my LEAST fuel efficient vehicle, and a real workhorse, still, after 23 years of use!

“Free translation for liberals: ‘Step here’ means ‘Cancel Keystone’.”The Canadians can build their own pipeline to their own coast, and build their own refineries. In this way, they pay the costs, they retain all of the spills and pollution, and the refined oil still makes its way to the world market. Problem solved. You’re welcome.

1) You need to tone it down with the insults. Your comments to various posters have been rude, insulting, and obnoxious. It is against the terms of service and can get you banned. 2) If you read my comment a little more carefully, I wrote about the need to develop a viable mix of renewable energy. I didn’t say we already had it. There is a lot of research you’re not aware of in all sorts of renewable energy sources as well as energy storage. There are researchers right now making great strides in automotive fuel cells that would greatly reduce the weight and cost of electric car batteries. Development continues to progress on photovoltaic technology to make it more effective and more affordable. Cost effective roof top solar arrays could power more affordable electric cars and lower the burden on the existing power grid at the same time. The higher the oil/gas prices, the more serious people are about perusing these alternatives.

TIme to raise the tax on gasoline to pay for infrastructure improvements and to reduce the incentive to drive.