gwd

When listening to the radio while getting ready for work they kept talking about two years since Katrina stuff. The announcer mentioned that the reporters who first discovered the breached levee were traveling around the city by bicycle. It seems to me that the news would read differently if more reporters got around by bike.

Another weird thing I heard is that the International Energy Agency wants OPEC to pump more oil to bring the price of crude down and help the world economy, gas prices are down, Saudi Arabia says there is enough oil but refinery capacity can't keep up, the Saudi's don't want to be caught with a huge crude inventory when the world economy falters, crude prices are up, if crude prices stay up the world economy may falter. I can't reconcile the various points, how can a lack of refining capacity make the crude more expensive and the product less expensive?
It sounded like the peak oilers might be right and the various people in the news report are living in a fantasy world. I wonder if cars and gas will be too expensive when I become too old and worn out to bike.

lyeinyoureye

Of course a peak in oil production is correct, it's a finite resource. Regarding OPEC pumping more oil, they are right in that refinery capacity is the bottleneck. Essentially, what they're saying is "Why should we pump more oil and make less money off of it when the refinery bottleneck will push the price up anyway?" Their new price floor was $50 or $60 IIRC, and they won't budge from that because that's way more money compared to what they were getting around 2000. Regardless of whether we are near peak or not, we've tolerated $50 for a few years, and they know we'll continue to tolerate it so there's no reason to bring the price down. If/when you're old and worn out, run a DIY electric bike.

rajman

Don't forget that the current $70 oil is in depreciated US dollars, so it's not as expensive as it looks to US consumers in a lot of places.

Bikepacker67

At about a loonie a litre, it ain't much cheaper in the Great White North.

Dahon.Steve

It's a sad note that our world economy depends on gasoline going down a couple of pennies. What they don't understand is the OPEC is NOT in business to provide us with cheap oil. The refinery bottleneck is due to the fact that one of the oil companies shut down their plant to "Update" the equiptment. They didn't start in the winter when oil consumption is low but right during the driving season. The motorist paid dearly why these execs made tens of millions in compensation.