The attitude that keeps us from drilling and producing our petroleum resources affects mining as well.
Posted on 01/07/2008 5:48:41 AM PST by kellynla
NEW YORK (Fortune) -- Crude's surge last week took its price to an eye-popping $100 a barrel. The rise comes on top of a 57 percent jump for 2007 and puts oil within reach of its all-time inflation-adjusted high above $102, hit back in 1980.
The latest jump means that Americans can expect to pay more for everything from gasoline to food and clothes. Those rising prices threaten to constrict consumer spending, which is repsonsible for more than two-thirds of domestic economic activity.
A sharp consumer slowdown would be bad news indeed, because the economy is already showing signs of strain. The government reported Friday that only 18,000 jobs were created last month, a mere fraction of the number needed to keep up with population growth. The Institute for Supply Management's factory index dropped below 50 in December, a sign manufacturing work is contracting.
So will $100-a-barrel oil be the straw that breaks the economy's back? Probably not.
After all, growth has persistently chugged along now for four years despite ever-increasing oil prices. Obviously, another huge rise in oil prices this year wouldn't help the economy - but it's not at all apparent that it would break it either. "We must accept the notion that at some point there's a price people won't pay" for oil, says Howard Simons, an oil industry veteran who has been measuring oil's impact on the economy for 30 years. But crude oil has seen its price rise fivefold in just six years, he adds, and "we haven't even approached the point of crimping consumer spending."
(Excerpt) Read more at money.cnn.com ...
ping
We had an oil burner for heat and mr. mm put in a gas furnace figuring we’d save some money. He calculated the savings the other day and it’s $300 for this month alone. It was a cold month but still, we’re looking at close to $1,000 for the winter depending on the weather. What I wouldn’t give for a wood stove.
Buy a Lopi wood stove, if this brand is sold near where you live.
$1600 to fill my propane tank last time. You have no idea how happy I am that it’s 56 degrees at a quarter after 9 in January.
Wait a minute. Just wait a danggum minute!
You mean to tell me oil was at the equivalent of $102.00 in 1980? And we're still here????
Whoa! Next you're gonna tell me there was a mortgage crisis that we somehow survived (which we all know is ridiculous).
Coal and nuclear is the answer. The USA has plenty of both to last for 100s of years.
The attitude that keeps us from drilling and producing our petroleum resources affects mining as well.
The problem is not the price of oil, it’s the decline of the dollar. We are inflating ourselves into insolvency.
Natural gas or propane?
bump
Natural gas.
A good wood stove will pay for itsself in one season.
Just don’t shortcut safety.
I heat my entire house with a wood furnace. I figure I save between 100 and 150 a month on heat, even if I buy the wood. If I cut my own I save even more if I am utilizing idle time. But wood here in the midwest is chep and easy to obtain. Some areas may not be so fortunate.
We had one of those in our old home. *sigh*
We’re trying to figure out where we could put one in this house, if we could at all. We’d essentially lose our dining room which would be the best place for it.
Last year we were doing about $450 per month in oil alone and oil is now up about 30%. mr. mm figured we’d have spent $600 this month on oil.
Actually, I can feel your pain and agree with you.
I’m going to make sure I get out to go SOMEWHERE in the next couple days just to feel warm air on my skin again.
A refiner is lucky to get 32 gallons of gasoline out of those 42 gallons of crude. The rest is sold as by-products which includes diesel, home heating fuel, asphalt, etc. Big Oil is really big volume, not necessarily big profit margins. The real profiteers in the petroleum industry are the producers (Country of Origin) and the US government.
The US, where additional processing after initial distillation increases our gasoline yield, averages about 20 gallons per barrel.
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