Category → oil prices
Chavez predicts $300/barrel
Reuters is reporting that Venezuelan president Huge Chavez is predicting that if his country has further economic sanctions leveled against it, oil could rocket to $300 per barrel, which would send gas prices as high as $8.00 per gallon, or approximately twice the current market price.
Less talked about is Chavez’s admission that the current prices are the result of a speculative bubble which, if it bursts, could send oil prices crashing back down to as low as $70 per barrel and about $1.85 per gallon at the pump.
Sounds like Hugo’s playing it both ways so he can claim to be correct no matter what happens; but remember, WonderfulPessimist.com isn’t about to be outdone by a South American dictator. You read it here first two months ago: $500 per barrel, $22.50/gallon.
Our rationale? Well, hell, it’s as good and as based in fact as anyone else’s wild-ass guess, whether they live in the Middle East, the Outer Banks, Venezuela or Minnesota!
Sex for… gas?
The Web site The Smoking Gun is reporting that Angela Eversole, 34, of Kentucky is facing prostitution charges after an arrest last weekend; according to reports, Eversole was nabbed at a Days Inn hotel for offering sexual services in exchange for a $100 Speedway gas card… or, about 25 gallons of gas.
The court documents had no custom boxes to record the exact nature of the charges, and so they had to be explained in the comment section. Apparently there were other gifts and trinkets offered to Eversole by her alleged customer, Kenneth Nowak, but the Speedway gas card held the highest value.
Of course, a $100 Speedway gift card won’t get you as far as it used to; but then, it’s of no use behind bars anyway.
McCain’s electric car contest
Hoping to put a shine on his environmental suit of armor while not completely abandoning free-market solutions, GOP Presidential nominee John McCain on Monday proposed a $300 million award for the first person to, “an automobile battery that far surpasses existing technology.” To claim the prize, the car model would have to “deliver power at 30 percent of current costs and have “the size, capacity, cost and power to leapfrog the commercially available plug-in hybrids or electric cars.”
It’s a unique idea that depends both on the capitalistic drive toward innovation and American ingenuity. The prize would equate to $1 from every American, and would result in a new generation of automobiles that would divorce America from its dependance on fossil fuels, not for reasons of so-called “global warming,” but as a way to save people money, an everyday pocketbook concern.
The foundations of such a solution have already been laid; the Science Channel recently aired a Mythbusters Young Scientists Challenge that featured electric cars that are equal or superior in speed and power to gas models. If such designs can be refined and made economically viable for commercial use without the long recharge times or the severely limited travel radiuses, it would certainly be an economic boon to the US economy, currently weighed down by gasoline costs.
Who would have thought that some of the most innovative ideas on energy reform would come from one of the oldest men to ever run for president?
Drill here, drill now, pay less
California auto insurance may soon be cheaper than a gallon of gas in California if prices keep rising out of control. OPEC, perhaps a bit worried by John McCain’s commitment to increased drilling in the US under the “Drill Here, Drill Now, Pay Less” campaign, has become divided as Saudi Arabia has pledged to increase production by an additional 200,000 barrels a day by July, and up by nearly 3 million barrels per day by the end of 2009.
In spite of these aggressive new commitments, demand continues to outpace supply and refinery capacity, rising at a pace this year of about 1 percent, with production rising by only one-fifth of that pace. Clearly, depending on OPEC is not a winning strategy to guarantee future oil supplies and low prices going forward. Drill here, drill now, pay less.
