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Thread ID: 90640	2008-06-11 00:04:00	Petrol Prices Around NZ And The World.	Trev (427)	PC World Chat

Post ID	Timestamp	Content	User
677450	2008-06-11 15:37:00	Quite a few San Diego citizens run across the border to Tijuana to get a tank full of gas . The prices are low . . but the fuel is pure junk . ANY exit or return across the border now needs a full-blown visa and a passport . The sulfur levels destroy a cat pretty quick, and it's against the law to buy it and bring it back to the US in amounts over 5 gallons any way . Pemex (Mexico's government owned oil company) makes really poor quality fuel from some of the nastiest crude in the world . It's the reason why Mexico City has some of the dirtiest air in the universe . I know the US uses a lot of fuel per capita, but the commutes are over 3 hours each day, over 150 miles each day and that's because most worker drones cannot afford to live near where they work . Rents are high and mortgage payments are equal to three weeks of wages for most people . Add a new burden of gas prices that have gone up over 65% in the last year and there's a lot of decision-making going on: Food or fuel . We have NO rapid transit or decent rail system to use as an alternative . . . . . subways are just inside the big cities and buses are a joke . If you want to ride a bus to get to LA by a decent work-start-time of say . . . 8AM, you'd need to leave here yesterday . . . . before lunch . The distances make all the difference . It is not uncommon to commute the great miles and work for 10 or 12 hours a day, taking off after 4 days of work . "Work-at-home" or "tele-commuting" hasn't worked well and it's impossible to assemble a car or a house in you home anyway . The country is so spread out and certain areas are so specialized that the ability to use a village mentality doesn't exist here . Every worker makes a small part of the whole and their work end product is then sent to another city or state for finishing or final installation . The country was formed on middle-men, and every one has a finger in the pie, so to speak . It isn't something that can be unraveled easily or undone in the foreseeable future . Typically . . . historically, milk and gasoline are about the same price per gallon . Right now, gas is $4 . 70 and milk is $4 . 99 a gallon, so it looks like we are gonna hit $5 . 00 gallon for gas soon . At the moment, $1 . 00 NZD = $0 . 76 USD, and the US Gallon = 3 . 79 Liters . US/California/LA news flash: The LA school district just announced a budget 500 head chopping . Wanna bet that it's the teachers and NOT the administrators that get the ax? This is JUST the schools in the Los Angeles school district, and is not a statewide response . Other counties will follow suit . Don't get me wrong as I'm not defending the union-protected, bloated, pustule of an educational system here . . . . . as the teachers are anything BUT teachers; they are really glorified baby-sitters at best . . which they can't even do well either . But taking out some of those babysitters will release a lot more gangsters and hoods to the streets . . . I'm talking about the teachers, not the hoodlum students . :yuck:	SurferJoe46 (51)
677451	2008-06-11 21:47:00	SurferJoe46 The US government and it citizens have done NOTHING to curve consumption (not the only country to be fair) . Would it be really that difficult to tax SUV's and subsides efficient vehicles? US car manufactures have been making gas guzzling monsters for decades spurred on by demand from the public . There's no defending this, its utter stupidity, the demand for oil was always going to exceed supply, and we had the opportunity to delay this several more decades at least . Excuses solve nothing, action does .	Battleneter2 (9361)
677452	2008-06-11 22:21:00	Ok so I'm going to charter a ship to Venezuela and fill it up with petrol. Why stop there? Move there and start a nice little business selling the stuff to the neighbouring drug lords.	pctek (84)
677453	2008-06-11 22:40:00	SurferJoe46 The US government and it citizens have done NOTHING to curve consumption (not the only country to be fair) . Would it be really that difficult to tax SUV's and subsides efficient vehicles? US car manufactures have been making gas guzzling monsters for decades spurred on by demand from the public . There's no defending this, its utter stupidity, the demand for oil was always going to exceed supply, and we had the opportunity to delay this several more decades at least . Excuses solve nothing, action does . Get you head outta the orifice . . . . Toyotas, Hondas, Mazdas, Mitsubishis, Subarus, Nissans and all the Euro crap are here in greater number than anywhere in the world . They represent over 75% of the vehicles on the road . . . and unless there is some serious lying in fuel economy numbers, then the US has indeed been trying to cut consumption . Detroit "rebadged" a lot of econo-boxes from Fiat, Renault, MG, Austin Mtrs, British Leyland and even some of the Russian crappola . Gas prices here are a real problem too . . and even the LAST energy crisis caused a lot of second thoughts and Monday morning quarterbacking . The industries all responded to the "E" thing and got on the bandwagon . If the fuel cost factor was high before, it's astronomical now . The scurrying about to buy new "E-Cars" is at an all time high and the land yachts lie, festering, on the new car lots . There are large numbers of RVs and motorhomes here in the US, but they are relegated to vacations and an occasional weekend use for a family outing . This year, the prognosis is that the campgrounds and resorts will be close to 10% of normal guest loads . Penalties? Don't EVEN go there! Registration fees on RVs and motorhomes are through the roof . . it's not unheard of to have to pay a couple of thousand dollars for a yearly registration of the larger motorhomes, and add in the bi-annual emissions testing (hundreds of dollars), the much MUCH higher insurance premiums and then the luxury and excise taxes meted out by the individual states where the owners reside, all sound like penalty taxation to me . On the other hand . . . the buying of a "Green-type" car is indeed with it's benefits . Sales taxes are waived, registrations are lowered, even non-existent in some states altogether . Use of special restricted commuter lanes fees are waived in their favor . We're are talking about daily, one-way fees of $20 . 00 - $30 . 00 for a ten mile stretch of light traffic lanes . E-cars don't pay . Insurance companies even offer rebates or incentive programs for these mobile lunchboxes . There are NO smog inspections for 10 or 15 years for them . There are incentive programs too that give rebates for using an all-electric or rubber band powered vehicle too . Don't give me that sortta green-eyed jealousy thinly disguised as you say that the US is the great energy-wasting Satan of the whole world . People here are bleeding too . We just don't blame NZ for things that go "boom" in the night . Youse guys are just outnumbered by several dozen people here, at least! It's a belly ache getting kinda old guy!	SurferJoe46 (51)
677454	2008-06-12 03:23:00	Yes I agree with Surfer Joe It is the size of the USA, the large distances that dictate people need bigger cars, they are more comfortable and reliable when they are bigger. Try driving from Auckland to Wellington in a Mazda 121. It is the speculators that are pissing me off. They are the ones driving up the price everytime someone in Nigeria or Venezula has a sneeze. And Taine Randall is/was one in London. Why don't the oil companies just buy the oil from the producers at the going price that day and then put it on a tanker. Then when it gets to where it is going the price will be what they paid for it plus shipping. Even George Soros says the futures market is causing it !	Digby (677)
677455	2008-06-12 05:12:00	Why don't the oil companies just buy the oil from the producers at the going price that day and then put it on a tanker . Then when it gets to where it is going the price will be what they paid for it plus shipping . Becasue we are paying the worldmarket oil price today, for the same pysical petrol the oil companies paid a lot less for months ago . The price we are paying, is for the oil companies to buy more for petrol from their source, for our use in the coming months . If the government charged the oil companies a 'Windfall Profit Tax', they could then use this to reduce their own tax on the petrol to reduce the price . That means everyone wins apart from the oil companies who are unfairly benefiting from the market conditions . The government will also benefit as more fuel will be purchased .	robbyp (2751)
677456	2008-06-12 05:16:00	Here's the thing. Cars help create global warming (according to the theories). But once the oil has all gone, we're all going to be back to riding horses. Everyone's garage will become a stable. It will be like the Amish inherited the earth. So are all those methane-producing horses going to be worse for global warming than the cars?	Biggles (121)
677457	2008-06-12 05:22:00	Thanks for that Bru,I like a bit of creative thinking.	Cicero (40)
677458	2008-06-12 05:30:00	Here's the thing . Cars help create global warming (according to the theories) . But once the oil has all gone, we're all going to be back to riding horses . Everyone's garage will become a stable . It will be like the Amish inherited the earth . So are all those methane-producing horses going to be worse for global warming than the cars? Apparently we have got enough petrol for the next 100 years . It is OPEC which is reducing supply, to get higher prices, and it is speculators that are driving the price up, as more petrol is being purchased, than is actually being supplied . The future is in electric cars, but oil comapnies are opposed to this . What we need is more electricity generation, for plugin cars, however our government is so backward thinking, that they aren't investing the profits they make from power users, in new hydro stations . ALso there are too many NIMBY's and the resource management act, which is crippling our country . If project Aqua had been built, we wouldn't have power supply problems today .	robbyp (2751)
677459	2008-06-12 05:34:00	Well, we need to think ahead. What's the horse equivalent of an SUV? A couple of draft horses? Will the Greenies one day be riding around behind a couple of small, fuel efficient Shetland ponies and decrying all those bastards on the road hauling their giant, big wheeled rigs behind a team of draft horses? What's the Ferrari going to be? A sleek Arabian pony?	Biggles (121)
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