On May 8, 9:28�am, "Eisboch" wrote:
Do you know what cracks me up about some of the various views expressed
about fuel prices?

It wasn't too many years ago that those with more left leaning political
views were concerned about the high consumption rate of gasoline in the USA,
it's continued supply and it's artificially low price per gallon compared to
the rest of the world. *Conservation was preached, encouraged and some even
advocated raising the price of gas to force further conservation and the use
of smaller, fuel efficient autos in order to reduce demand.

Fast forward to today and it seems that the same people are now blaming big
business greed and politicians lining their pockets for the natural increase
in prices.

Can't win.

Eisboch

?????????????? You start by identifying a group comprised of "those
with more left leaning political views" and then begin ascribing a
common sentiment to everybody in that group. That's pretty dangerous
ground. No group is comprised of people who all think exactly the same
way.

More left than what?

Stereotypes are nearly always wrong.

But, to the remainder of your comment.....

Is market manipulation the same as a "natural increase" in prices?

Will yanking the price up and down to assure that the greener
technologies the high prices encourage don't achieve any real economic
traction ultimately result in an energy-efficient economy and
society? As surely as we're flirting with $4 (very close to that for
92 Octane in a lot of places on the W coast right now) in the late
spring and perhaps beyond, prices will begin moderating by July. By
fall they'll be "down" to $2.65 a gallon and we'll all be singing
"Happy Days are Here Again" until late February 2008.

Raping and pillaging at a little higher rate for a little longer every
year is a shrewd business practice. No problem with that, you don't
get to be a policy maker in a major oil company by being anything less
than shrewd. Pile up the mega-billions in profits in a short period of
time, and then start loosening the noose before the politicians have
to begin listening to the anguished cries of suffering constituents.

The oil companies have a right to earn a profit. We don't have any
right to cheap oil. The frustration is in being so blatantly
manipulated, and a minor amusement is hearing the programmed
apologists offering the freshest round of big oil excuses for the
various refinery emergencies that just happen to occur during the same
strategically beneficial period each year.

Conservation remains in the best interest of western civiliation.
There are important differences between a national conservation policy
that creates some reasonable alternatives to the consumption of
petroleum products and a marketing scheme by BIGOIL. I burn bio diesel
in the boat and bought a hybrid car. If everybody did only an
equivalent amount, we would break the choke hold of BIGOIL. Difference
is, I'm not prepared or inclined to *demand* that everybody drive a
hybrid, burn bio-diesel, or do something else roughly equivalent.
BIGOIL and their crew of apologists does demand that everybody swap a
pint of blood for a gallon of gas everytime they need fuel for
business or pleasure use.

We have a social and physical infrastructure founded on the assumption
that cheap oil would be almost eternally available. It's hard to
imagine that more than a tiny percentage of folks still think that
cheap oil will prevail in the future or that the current and recent
annual pricing trends are just flukes. A progressive society would
strive toward an orderly transition and energy independence from our
professed enemies, but we sit around fairly helplessly and allow a
tough situation (that most of us agree is a reality) to do little more
than serve as a fig leaf for profiteering by BIGOIL.

My boat burns about 2 gph. Even at $15-20 a gallon I could afford to
go boating. From a personal perspective, I'm fairly immune to the
effects of fuel costs gone out of control. Most of my friends and
business associates are boaters or depend on the boating industry for
a livlihood (as do I). So yeah, I'm personally pretty concerned about
the long term ramifications to boating as a recreational activity and/
or viable business fostered by scandalous profiteering. Yes, even
though the oil companies have every legal right to charge as much as
they can get away with and even if, in the same position, I would
likely do the same.