Why I Think Gas Prices in USA Will Remain Low for a Couple of Years...
one word...only one word...
TESLA
I recall in 2008 around election time, gas prices went down significantly. In Missouri and in other parts of the country a gallon of gas was somewhere around $1.75 cents a gallon. (or less) After the election..the prices gradually rose. why?..I believe that refiners and suppliers lowered the price to try to convince the country that everything was ok, things were fine, no we didn't have to change things to a Democratic president..It was a concerted effort to help McCain win. Refiners and suppliers..etc, did not want to worry about additional regulations on oil, its production, and sale. period. (after the election the price gradually rose where it remained high for a few years....remember?)
About a year ago, the oil companies and the car companies got together to deal with the threat of ..TESLA. No, I do not have the direct link, but I recall the meeting. The threat of TESLA is real and significant to these huge multinational corporations. If people get used to paying $1.50 for a gallon around the USA, the thinking goes..they will not buy an electric car of any kind..
One of the Saudi oil barons admitted a few years ago, that the refined price of gas at the pump has little to do with the world market price.. If that is true, then fixing the price at the pump for a long time would fool U.S. buyers into thinking that a buck and a half is a good price so what the hell is this electric car thing about?..Would they do that to get rid of TESLA?..what do you think? Could they do that if they wanted to? After destroying demand for the electric car in the USA, the price can go back to 4 or 5 dollars a gallon or whatever they want, to make up for a temporary loss.
Sure, we read about an "oversupply" and incredible "production of home grown oil" or whatever. But, I believe that this means nothing to these huge corporations. ..Get this..$1.50 a gallon in todays world, really is 38 cents a gallon in the 1960s world. taken a 400 percent increase of prices of stuff since the 60s. What did a car cost in the mid 60s?..or a house?..So, a buck fifty would be really cheap for gas..given reasonable inflation...people could get used to cheap gas real quick..and forget the expensive stuff..
Could they do it to kill the TESLA in the USA? .TESLA is a new company that does not really need the oil giants or the other car companies..does it? Right now, in California, there are about 3000 employees making these things. They are producing these cars in a plant that used to make Toyotas and Chevy compact cars. That plant was designed to make cars. This company is making them today as you read these words. Do you think that big oil and the other car companies would combine their resources to try to stop this company and others that make these things that are real threats to them? I think they would...(and this does not take into account that Tesla is currently building a new battery factory to greatly increase the distance needed for a charge and improve the technology, oh and that factory is right here in the USA, in Nevada..)
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Military events which could seriously interfere with driving in less than three years
There are looming but plausible threats to widely affordable American driving that are widely understood to exist but are nearly impossible to accurately predict in their severity and timing. Two major “black swan” events are first, an interruption in steady oil exports from the Middle East, and second, a swiftly developing global economic crisis which could affect the U.S. and global economies.
Our current effort to militarily contain the Sunni-based Islamic State in Iraq and deescalate regional conflict is plagued with uncertainties, if not impossibilities. Nobody can easily anticipate how military turmoil in the Sunni regions to the north might affect oil production from the Shiite dominated oil-producing regions of Iraq to the south, which are currently producing and exporting about 3 million barrels of oil a day.
Trying to use U.S. military power to keep the Middle East reliably producing its oil for export has become a daunting military juggling act.
There is much to go wrong in a conflict that could spill over into nearby Saudi Arabia, which is itself increasingly unstable. Trying to use U.S. military power to keep the Middle East reliably producing its oil for export has become a daunting military juggling act. The new Prime minister of Iraq tells us that all foreign troops will be unwelcome at the same time our generals tell us that the conflict cannot be won from the air.
If you look at the Baltic Dry Index for the last year the consistent trend is downward.
The BDI is a measure of shipping activity, shipping being a strong indicator of the health of the physical economy.
Some oil is dirt cheap to pump and refine--think Saudi Arabia
Some is horribly expensive--think shale fracking
Some sources are considered allies and friends of current US political regime: Saudi Arabia, Canada, the UK perhaps, and maybe Nigeria and Norway, this week: approx 34%
Some sources are considered enemies: Venezuela, Iran, Iraq if not held by Shia, Libya, Russia: 30% of world production
Russia 544 Mt (13 %),
Saudi Arabia 520 Mt (13 %),
United States 387 Mt (9 %),
China 206 Mt (5%),
Iran 186 Mt (4 %),
Canada 182 Mt (4 %),
United Arab Emirates 163 Mt (4 %),
Venezuela 162 Mt (4 %),
Kuwait 152 Mt (4 %) and
Iraq 148 Mt (4 %).
In 2012 total oil production was 4,142 Mt. [4] In 2011 the world oil production was 4,011 Mt demonstrating an annually rising trend in oil production...https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/List_of_countries_by_oil_production
https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/List_of_countries_by_oil_production#mediaviewer/File:Chart-of-Oil-Trading-Nation_inverse.GIF
Currently, having lost the wars on Libya, Iran, Venezuela and Russia militarily, the US fascist-leaning regime is trying to choke the economic life out of them by forcing the global collapse of the modern economy and therefore the price of oil, depriving its enemies of income.
This will not work for several reasons, but I will just name two: China and India.
The US hegemony is cracking up. This oil bidness scam will completely destroy it. And the US PEOPLE, as in by the People, of the People, for the People, will have a window of opportunity for peace abroad and democracy at home, brought to you by those greedy, over-reaching bastards at PNAC.
Peace my friend...the Summer of Love may return in our lifetime!
And yes, Tesla (and Volt) may be the wild cards that make a "Royal Flush", and I'm not talking poker.
