Big Oil Pricing Itself Out of Record Profits
Are super mileage cars the wave of the future or just a "green" smokescreen?
With the advent of last summer's (2008) disgustingly high gas prices now topping $4. per gallon and rising and with the media fueling gas rage by reporting that petrol prices could get to $8. per gallon by next summer (shoot, you guys, I am still trying to get used to the possibility of $5. per gallon, why can't you let us adjust to that figure first before you doom and gloom me again?) I am seeing a lot of cars like the Aptera on the drawing board with claims of super mileage. These kinds of cars that combine electric motors with combustion engines have been around a long time but only now are gaining widespread attention (and investment capital) due to gas prices going through the roof.
Baby boomers and current retirees are the ones who suffer most
As a baby boomer who just retired and is on a fixed income I hope things will soon stabilize or the feds will get involved and do something to help this situation. How about it Mr. Obama or Mr. McCain, any plans to do anything about this mess? Our great and wonderful capitalist society is to blame, but who can fault a company for trying to make as much money as possible - isn't that the way the game is played here in the Magic Kingdom?
Retiring baby boomers threaten to stay home
As a retiring baby boomer my timing could not be any worse. It's another one of those "just my luck" scenarios, after years of 401 K contributions my stock portfolio is worth an all-time low, gas prices are threatening to keep me at home, the housing crisis prevents me from selling the home that was to help finance my retirement and the cost of everything has gone up. You have to wonder where all of this is leading. (Udate as of 9-9-08 - we are headed into winter and gas prices have stabilized at around $3.75 per gallon average. What little crisis will they manufacture to get back up toward 5 bucks next summer?)
T 
Gas will have to go much higher for alternative fuel vehicles to pay off
This is only a guess on my part but it seems to me that if gas prices go much higher, these alternative fuel vehicles will become more mainstream and the inconveniences of the past that kept people from buying them like charging batteries and smaller sizes just won't matter any more. People will find a way to buy them and will adjust their lifestyle to make them work. If that happens it just stands to reason that gas consumption will decrease and the record profits the oil guys have enjoyed (in the billions per quarter) will dry up.
Join the party - buy oil stocks!
I can't really fault the oil companies for our current predicament, after all they have to answer to their investors and as an American business tasked to make every dollar they can, by our standards it sounds more like jealousy when you hear oil company bashing. Shoot, up here folks even blame the poor, underpaid fast gas clerks for their petrol miseries. Oil companies are made up of everyday people like teachers, firefighters, cops and yours truly, investors in the future of this form of energy. Investors who depend on these company's to make their investment dollars pay off. However, unless we are able to find a compromise somewhere we are all going to suffer even more than we are now. Can you envision a time when gas is $8. a gallon? Chaos! I am hearing things like auto dealers not taking SUV's in trade any more, auto dealerships closing their doors, anything with a V8 engine is worth 10 cents on the dollar and I sure don't see any electric SUV's on the horizon.
Mr OBama or Mr McCain
Which one of you are prepared to do what is necessary to help us out here? Whoever gets the nod as our next president whether it be Barrack Obama or John McCain has his work cut out for him, let's make sure that whoever he is, that we put some pressure on him to find some answers fast. Our very existence depends on it.
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