The speculators still haven't learned. Their unwarranted boosting of oil prices is the straw that broke the camel's back last year. Now they're ignorantly or maliciously killing the economy again. I would support strong governmental action to prevent this. There should be strong regulations on oil markets world-wide, and the US should put everything into getting off the fossil fuel train.

One sixth of the human race is not in recession. The real surprise is that everyone else was hit hard enough to knock prices down this far. I thought $150/barrel was speculation. But $80? More like reality.

The price of crude oil will continue to rise and the days of over a hundred dollars will come again. We need to think out of the box and come of with some real breakthoughs in research for new forms of energy. 60 Minutes just did an amazing story on Cold Fusion research and pointed to some real progress in this field. They featured a company called Energetics Technologies, who say 2 independent labs have replicated their experiments. Plus Green Energy News just did an article about funding this type of research. The link is attached.

Oil will only go higher the time now is to leave this form of energy behind.

We just saw last year how the country could simply & swiftly be crippled by non-government actors & yet there is no talk of the government taking control of this resource. The country will pay dearly for this.

Like rats running a maze, we stampede aver the same paths, forever doomed to repeat past mistakes.

Except the rats eventually find a way out of that maze which is why, in the End, the rats will inherit the Earth.

The DOD may be OPECS best customer, while the war in Afghanistan is gearing up. The supply figures are being gamed for political purposes, and the dollar is being cut off at the knees. In the end we may find out that the bond vigilantes, or their surrogates, have put the bid under crude (rumor is they were buying gold, but Central Bankers and IMF know how to keep the lid on that market). Some hedge fund operators were revealed to be buying oil and putting that oil in storage to boost prices. Obama's war against the hedge funds may just be starting.

Not just what cars we drive, or where we work, but why we go where we do, how often, and for what.

Out here in the suburbs, where everything is engineered around the car, we need a long hard look at planning codes. We need zoning changes for more retail inside neighborhoods, we need more ways to get where we need to go without taking 2000 pounds of metal along. That means sidewalks, crosswalks, bike lanes, park-and-ride lots, and bus service. Not sexy, not interesting, not the coolest new technology, but it's what we need.

Considering that there is an inelastic supply limit of around 92 million barrels of oil per day (a limit that will likely get lower in the future), our current dependence on cheap oil as an economic driver leaves us trapped. If the economy recovers, oil demand increases and, when demand approaches the supply limit, oil prices will explode and the economy will be pushed back. Perversely, oil producers have little incentive to increase supplies as prices rise since they will have a reasonable expectation that the future will bring still higher prices.

If we are going to get out of the oil trap, we need to find ways to manage our economy without using so much oil. Considering the immense quantities of oil wasted by Americans' choice to use cars as their only means of local transportation (and the fact that most of this driving does not contribute to our economy in any way other than to increase the value of my oil stocks), the answer is as obvious as the rather large deposits of adipose on an average American. Our economy is literally being driven into the ground.

that's up 34 cents since Saturday. It sure is looking good for a $4/gal summer.

An article in our local paper talked about the criteria for siting new schools.

Typically, suburban school districts (which in my area are growing) have set criteria for siting schools, usually centered around obtaining cheap land. In the suburban towns in Metro Portland, few suburban districts have laws or guidelines that allow for ease of transit, such as close to neighborhoods, easy for children to walk or bike, close to bus lines so teachers can avoid driving. Instead, new schools, especially large comprehensive high schools, tend to get built on cheap land near the edge of town. That means almost the entire school has to take a bus or car to get there. Yet the school districts are strapped for cash, they're doing the best they can with the funds they have available, and they'll pay in bus fuel in the future for their school siting decisions.

This is very much a state and local issue, yet it affects all of us in carbon emissions, and in the amount of school tax money going into bus fuel. Where we put our schools, especially in the car-centered suburbs, is very important. I'd like to see schools put on land currently occupied by dying strip malls (lots of acreage of parking lots), or any other location that means kids, parents, and teachers could get there easily and cheaply, without a car.

SEE:

http://tinyurl.com/dzqgyl

:)

Where does the free money come from? The Fed.

Where does it go? Chasing higher rates of return.

Where will you find higher rates of return in these troubled times? The commodities market!

What happens when commodities traders suddenly have lots of cash thrown at them? Prices rise. Because even when the real economy was diving oil prices and other commodities were sky-rocketing!

Proof positve that commodities traders & buyers are as amoral as ever.