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(Gould 0738) wrote in message ...
We, as a country, have decided it's our right to have 90# women
driving SUVs the size of school buses.

And as long as that 90-pound woman doesn't insist on buying 92 octane gas at
$1.19 a gallon, there isn't a problem.

When the 90-pound woman says, "Let's screw up the whole world drilling willy
nilly everywhere there might a few million barrells of oil to help preserve my
$1.19 premium," that's a problem.

200 years from now, when our great great grandkids are still alive, people will
find it quaint that we used petroleum for transportation- but they would still
be living with the effects of irresponsible drilling.

The Republicans are always hollering for free markets. Let the price of gas
seek its place in the market and we'll see a lot fewer SUV's. Yes, driving an
SUV, (or owning a boat), is a choice that we should be free to make----but we
shouldn't expect any guarantees about what the ultimate personal costs of that
decision could be.

I believe the actual cost of providing the energy should be passed along to the
final consumers of the energy. (that'd be you and me) Part of the cost of
energy as of now and probably into the foreseeable future will be a large US
military force in the middle East. We need to inspire the Arabs to continue
selling to us, and to discourage them from further consideration
of switching to the Euro as the standard currency of trade.

Unless you blow around under sail, it's pretty tough for a boater to get
cranked up about fuel efficiency. Even a super-efficient power boat won't do
much better than 3-4 nmpg.

From a resource efficiency standpoint, most boaters live in a glass house and
better not throw many rocks in the debate over oil supply and priorities of
use.

Amen, brother. Liberals and conservative can agree.

I hate paying $2.30 a gallon for regular when my SUV gets about 14-15
mpg around town, and can hardly squeak out 20 mpg on a 200 mile road
trip. I also about fell over when the pumps at the nearest marina to
my slip were set to $3 a gallon for mid-grade! (Ok it was $2.999, but
I'd need to buy a 1000 gallons to make a $1 difference). Costs $50
for me just to putt out my favorite anchorage and back. If things
don't change, I'll be spending $800 on gas for my annual trip down to
San Francisco in October.

But what business do I have complaining about it?

What kind of things do we talk about here? Some of our boats burn
fuel in gallons per mile. And then the "tow vehicle" threads. Yeah -
we all need 3/4 ton trucks to tow our gas hog boats.

Unless you never use an engine on the water, a recreational boater has
little business complaining about gas prices. We burn gas for fun.
Hardly a reason for the government to stop filling our oil reserves
when there is turmoil (more than usual) in the region from which most
of it comes.

Besides - we run less than 200,000 bbl/day into the reserves. To get
the prices to move, the Saudis are talking about pumping in close to a
million bbl/day. Diverting oil away from the reserves is not going to
move oil prices much.

I think we need to get used to it. We are being conditioned for $2
gas at the street pump. If the price of gas came down and stabilzed
at around $30/bbl, gas still won't go down to a buck and a quarter.