Gas prices

^I tend to scan all the topics, as many of the replies are interesting, thought provoking, comical, touching, informative, good advice, bad advice, nice memories, future dreams, etc....... Often you can really sense the posters' heartfelt joy for CP. Also there are usually comments from individuals who suffer from "smartest guy in the room" syndrome.

jimmyburke said:

Also there are usually comments from individuals who suffer from "smartest guy in the room" syndrome.

This has been my experience in just about every online forum I've taken part in. I have to say that other than reddit, it has been more prevalent at pointbuzz than most other places. But that's a pretty small sample size overall, so I'm sure other's experiences may vary. I think many of the folks who have that syndrome (not just here, but on the Internet in general) are bolstered by the anonymity factor - something that I think Jeff alluded to least a few times. I often wonder how the conversations would go if we were all speaking face to face on the midway or in a ride queue line.

I agree that politics doesn't really belong in here, but I staunchly disagree that it should be banned entirely from discussion - because you then run the risk of very uneven and subjective enforcement. Having a consistently racist bigoted agenda might be cause for account termination, but simply having a different political viewpoint should not. Of course there are some who would say that there is no difference between the two - but that opinion is itself more close minded than the "offender" it is directed at.

Anyway - I would be happy to chat with any of you over a drink at the park in a friendly face to face. (As long as you promise to keep politics out of the conversation!)

Listen, sometimes it's really hard being the smartest guy in the room. It's not all it's cracked up to be, OK?

^And, you can even tell us to stay away from the doors in a foreign language!

Rester loin des portes.

White people avoiding politics are the reason that we're still having to mess with racism and white nationalists in 2022, and elected a reality show host as president.

Or it’s the 98% of white people that have their own list of problems to solve, their own lives to try and better and their own families to deal with. And who treat everybody they meet, regardless of race, just fine, and always have. And who don’t give a s**t about discussing white nationalism because they don’t take any part in it and are too busy trying to get their own lives figured out. Are they the reason we are still dealing with racism today? Or maybe it’s the vocal minority suffering from white guilt that want to call everybody a racist and cancel them for not abiding by their ideology. And who only hurt black people even more by constantly telling them they have no chance because of white supremacist America creating hopeless people that must look to their government to rescue them.
People are complex, deep, nuanced. Using the word “racist” as a weapon is a Marxist tactic used to isolate and destroy opponents. Destroy opponents to get more power. This is our politics today. Neither party really cares about making minority lives better but just about gaining more votes and power. So, yeah, most people come here to get away from that bulls**t and want to talk/read about CP and coasters not because they want racism to perpetuate. Cmon, what a joke!

Master D said:

Or maybe it’s the vocal minority suffering from white guilt that want to call everybody a racist and cancel them for not abiding by their ideology.

Pointing out that there is a violent white nationalist movement occurring in the US, and that this movement has to some extent been fanned and coopted by elected officials, including and especially the fascist former President, is not in any way "calling everybody racist." It's simply acknowledging the reality that we are facing at the moment. Take your strawman and go.

Neither party really cares about making minority lives better but just about gaining more votes and power.

Let me know when a Democratic president incites a deadly terrorist attack on the US government with the goal of overturning an election to stay in power (with the help of 147 Democratic members of Congress) and is then aided in evading consequence for doing so by Democrats in Congress. Until that happens, your attempts at "both sides-ing" things is flatly nonsensical.

So, yeah, most people come here to get away from that bulls**t and want to talk/read about CP and coasters...

Your mouse is almost certainly equipped with either a back button or a scroll wheel in the event you accidentally click on a topic you're not interested in. You can use either method to avoid topics that make you uncomfortable. But you may want to consider why those topics make you uncomfortable.

SuperS0nicSam: Good call deleting your own posts.

Master D said:

Or it’s the 98% of white people that have their own list of problems to solve, their own lives to try and better and their own families to deal with. And who treat everybody they meet, regardless of race, just fine, and always have.

Ugh... no one is saying everyone is racist. You're like one sentence short of the "I have black friends" argument. The whole body of anthropology has a very familiar pattern: One minority is often oppressed by a more radical and vocal minority that is demographically common to the majority, while the majority in the middle are largely non-factors in creating change. It's the basis of MLK's sentiment of "disappointment with the white moderate" in his letter from a Birmingham jail. The elimination of discrimination based on race, ethnicity, religion, gender, sexuality, etc. can't be overcome without the participation of the majority. The majority has the only effective power to do so.

It isn't enough to not be racist, we all have to be anti-racist to move on. We all have to say, "This is not OK." I too am a busy white person with plenty of my own problems, but people of marginalized minorites are my family, friends and community. It's not abstract to me. If there's one thing I can borrow from the Christian faith that I can get behind, it's that I am my brother's keeper. Because one day, a vocal minority could find a reason to oppress me or my child.

Using the word “racist” as a weapon is a Marxist tactic used to isolate and destroy opponents.

That's completely off the deep end. Not wanting people to be oppressive assholes toward others is hardly Marxist. Give me a break. Wanting to get beyond racism is not a war on capitalism. I concede that the woke monsters who think call-out culture is effective are obviously misguided, but I also think many of us constituting the majority could use a little discomfort and reflection about where we fit in the necessary change.

For you amusement and edutainment.

C'mon man.
Biden campaigned on ending fossil fuels and has been nothing but hostile toward them since taking office.
He also admitted that his Russian oil ban would drive up gas prices.

So yes, it's supply and demand, but who is impeding supply?

If you were genuinely curious about the cause, rather than apparently determined to blame a Democrat, you could find the answers pretty easily. Basically, and this has been pointed out numerous times in this thread, during the height of the pandemic, when much of the world was barely using oil, oil producers cut production dramatically, so as to avoid incurring financial losses. And now that demand is skyrocketing, they're increasing production very slowly.

...the IEA expects supply growth to lag behind demand, pushing an already tight market witnessing soaring prices into a 500,000-barrel-a-day deficit. U.S. oil producers are expected to underpin supply increases next year, while members of the Organization of the Petroleum Exporting Countries are seen continuing to struggle to meet their output targets.

That's now, and going forward things don't look to improve soon.

Oil producers, however, are expected to struggle to keep up with the rapid pace of rebounding oil demand. The IEA expects global oil supplies to rise by 1.3 million barrels a day to 101.1 million barrels a day in 2023, leaving a 500,000 barrel-a-day deficit.

Uncle Steve said:

So yes, it's supply and demand, but who is impeding supply?

Oil companies have no obligation to do anything, first of all, and second, say it with me... 80% of the world's oil is not produced in the United States and 80% of the consumption is not in the United States. The US mathematically doesn't have any significant influence in this supply and demand equation. This is not complicated.

And framing it as something any president has influence on, whether it's good or bad, seems like a special kind of willful ignorance to suggest that anyone would want or intentionally drive up prices. Biden could have campaigned on designating Santa Claus as his chief of staff. It's irrelevant because this is a lever he can't pull.

We elected a reality show moron to the White House because Americans not only don't understand basic civics and economics, but they're unwilling to. And now a segment of the population wishes he could have pulled off overthrowing the government and the will of the people. It's hard to be optimistic about our future.

Exxon Mobil response to the current administration:

We have been in regular contact with the administration to update the President and his staff on how ExxonMobil has been investing more than any other company to develop U.S. oil and gas supplies. This includes investments in the U.S. of more than $50 billion over the past five years, resulting in an almost 50% increase in our U.S. production of oil during this period.

Globally, we’ve invested double what we’ve earned over the past five years -- $118 billion on new oil and gas supplies compared to net income of $55 billion. This is a reflection of the company’s long-term growth strategy, and our commitment to continuously invest to meet society’s demand for our products.

Specific to refining capacity in the U.S., we’ve been investing through the downturn to increase refining capacity to process U.S. light crude by about 250,000 barrels per day – the equivalent of adding a new medium-sized refinery. We kept investing even during the pandemic, when we lost more than $20 billion and had to borrow more than $30 billion to maintain investment to increase capacity to be ready for post-pandemic demand.

In the short term, the U.S. government could enact measures often used in emergencies following hurricanes or other supply disruptions -- such as waivers of Jones Act provisions and some fuel specifications to increase supplies. Longer term, government can promote investment through clear and consistent policy that supports U.S. resource development, such as regular and predictable lease sales, as well as streamlined regulatory approval and support for infrastructure such as pipelines.

NUFF SAID

Trusting a corporation that is making record profit off of economic pain of hundreds of millions of people to provide honest feedback about their motives represents a stunning lack of critical thought.

EDIT - Actually, I misspoke. It's not at all stunning coming from you. Par for the course.

Just information sharing. Funny when it comes from someone not in line with your beliefs/views, it's always wrong...read the bold faced lettering, this administration CAN help but are opting NOT TO.

They are pushing their "green" agenda and this infrastructure is NOT READY FOR IT. Good luck taking an electric vehicle more than 300 miles if you need to charge it. Good luck with that. I worked for a major car company and this is the facts. We are not ready yet so stop pushing this agenda down our throats. Can you charge you car at home yet? I'd venture to say no.

Last what makes electric power? FOSSIL FUELS....but I am most likely wrong since I do not line up with your views.

To each his own.

I'm pretty sure most (if not all) people with EV's do charge their cars at home.

BlueGemini said:

We are not ready yet so stop pushing this agenda down our throats. Can you charge you car at home yet? I'd venture to say no.

A simple dive into some numbers would have easily shown you that probably over 80% percent of electric vehicle owners charge their cars at home more than anywhere else. You're an interesting character.

EDIT : Oh, and get THIS! Some people even use solar panels to do so! Crazy, right?!?!?

Yeah, and how many electric vehicle owners are there? Show me that number, I bet it's very small.....so to my point if EVERYONE is forced to go that route this country IS NOT READY FOR IT. You want to do it right, bring back nuclear power, a true clean energy, then you can get rid of fossil fuels. but then you have nuclear waste to deal with.

Why am I interesting because I don't agree with your views? Funny how that works. That means you're an interesting character as well.

6.75 million EV's were sold last year alone. Is that number good enough for you? Now that you've seen that number, that you could have Googled yourself, are you satisfied?

Can I charge at home. Hahahahahahaha. Do I have electricity at home? This shows just how completely unwilling you are to figure out even the basics. Here's my garage two minutes ago, where I charge two cars at the same time at about 7kW.

I've had 5 EV's to date collectively driven about 200,000 miles. I have driven from Orlando as far north as North Carolina. My buddy spent an entire year road tripping across the US in his EV. So...

BlueGemini said:

Good luck taking an electric vehicle more than 300 miles if you need to charge it. Good luck with that. I worked for a major car company and this is the facts.

"Facts..." I don't think that word means what you think it means. The average miles driven per day by an individual is 36 miles. You could go that far on a commercial Segway in a day, while the average new EV can do around 300 miles. And like I said, I've driven without issue to NC and back, and right after a hurricane and its associated power outages, no less.

Last what makes electric power? FOSSIL FUELS

In the US, fossil fuels make about 60% of electricity, while about 20% each come from renewables and nuclear. Furthermore, renewables constitute more of the total capacity every year. Renewables are already cheaper than fossil fuel generation. 88% of new generation capacity, 1,230GW, added last year was renewable.

....but I am most likely wrong since I do not line up with your views.

My views and your views are completely irrelevant. I live in a world of facts. That you believe that people can't charge their cars at home is a pretty good indicator that you not only don't know the facts, but you're not interested in learning what they are.