Comments | liberalrage: Another Day, Another Post About Oil & Gas Prices.

luna_k in liberalrage

Another Day, Another Post About Oil & Gas Prices.

Apr 28, 2006 06:38

++ Remember this when you fill up your tank today.
Exxon Mobil Corp. reported $8.4 billion in first-quarter profit yesterday, as members of Congress outraged over high gasoline prices hastened to propose measures that would boost taxes on oil firms, open new areas to drilling and provide rebates to taxpayers but would not necessarily alter prices ( Read more... )

uk, oil, money

Comments 10

andrewcarr April 28 2006, 10:50:59 UTC

Us Europeans can deal with the high prices though, because not only do we have more effeciant public transport, we drive smaller cars instead of minibusses and monster trucks.

luna_k April 28 2006, 10:53:55 UTC

Word!

My next door neighbor just got a Mini Cooper. It's the cutest little car, and gets great gas mileage.

I learned to drive on a Ford Explorer. What a nightmare of a car. I can't understand why people want to drive tanks to soccer practice every day.

andrewcarr April 28 2006, 10:55:46 UTC

In case they have to fight a terrorist on the way. Duh :P

thisficklemob April 29 2006, 00:51:38 UTC

The real headdesk of it all though, is that even if you drive a tank, it doesn't have to get 15mpg. Our old (as in 1987) Grand Dodge Caravan got over 20mpg. What happened was that SUV makers started building not!minivans on pickup truck bases, called them "light trucks", and allowed them to take advantage of that loophole in the law to get crap mileage.

So we're victims not just of our giant car=good culture, but the manufacturers greed. You could make the same SUVs much more fuel efficient for just a couple hundred bucks... but that would eat into their profits.

::hearts 1989 Honda Accord::

wildrider April 28 2006, 13:28:16 UTC

I live in the metro Phoenix area, where there is a bus system and they're finally building a rail system which won't be operative until 2008 (and then only in limited areas). I work in Tempe, which is across the river, and there are no safe bike routes between the cities - the only way(s) to cross the riverbed are on major streets. When I lived in Tucson I rode my bike EVERYWHERE, but I can't do it in Phoenix, I have to drive. My twenty-minute commute turns into over two hours on the bus, but I do try to throw in a non-drive day every so often.

Most of the Western cities were built for automobiles, sadly. It's hard to get around that. (And I do drive a Suburban. It was in my price range 14 years ago when I bought it, it's paid for, and despite bad gas mileage, I pay around than $500 a year on tags and insurance, so... hard for me to wrangle with conscience on one hand, cold hard monetary facts on the other. But I bought her in the 90's, and a few years after I had her I filled her tank for 74 cents a gallon. I miss Bill.)

I Like This... chi1088 April 28 2006, 15:49:24 UTC

I hadn't seen your blog before. I like it. The graphic with "Liberal Rage" appearing on it is awesome. I agree with you every step of the way on gas prices. The profits EXXON brought in were ridiculous and any American should feel like punching EXXON's CEO in the gut.

Re: I Like This... chi1088 April 28 2006, 15:51:13 UTC

OH...here's my site http://cosmikvoyager.blogspot.com if you want to visit.

supersyncspaz7 April 28 2006, 17:22:35 UTC

I would absolutely take public transport, if the people in my area (Arlington, TX) would just get their heads out of their asses and actually allow it.

No Public Transport in US Cities snolan April 28 2006, 18:13:06 UTC

I seem to recall that automobile companies lobbied city governments all over the U.S. in the 1920s and 1930s to tear down their existing trolley car lines, and even bought a few in places like Kansas City, MO to tear down so more Americans would buy cars.