2007 Hummer H3 from North America - All Comments

Gas prices don't really follow the law of supply and demand at the pump. With oil at $82/barrel, gas should be around $2/gallon but it isn't. Even with demand dropping, the oil companies always find some excuse --- a new hurricane in the Gulf of Mexico that may threaten platforms; the time-honored "fears of instability in the Middle East"; or the same one that energy traders invented to create the California "energy crisis" of "we just don't have enough refining capacity because the Washington liberals won't let us build any!"

And consider this --- states such as California are actually penalizing owners of very fuel efficient vehicles because road taxes are tied to gasoline sales. Before the market crash, fuel consumption and miles driven declined month after month, and gas prices still took months to drop only grudgingly.

"The U.S. "Big Three" car companies made their own choice to partner with nearly every other brand of car over the years, because our domestic products couldn't stand on their own. Now nearly all of the import brands have their own factories here, or somewhere in North America, and many of the cars are even designed here for the American market. You'd be killing off many American jobs if the import car market failed in the US. Yes, Japan... or Germany, or Sweden etc. etc. gets some of the profits, but we couldn't have survived the automobile industry without them."

Not quite true. The domestic auto industry employs, directly and indirectly, 13,000,000 people. Import manufacturers employ only a minute fraction of that number (a VERY minute fraction) in the U.S. In addition, all profits from the sales of non-U.S. companies goes to other countries, thus depriving U.S. companies of expansion and development capital.

As for U.S. companies being unable to "stand on their own", that, too, is not a true statement. Ford and GM acquired import brands, not the other way around. Ford bought Mazda and the quality of Mazda went up considerably afterward, as did Jaguar (another Ford acquisition). We owned a Japanese-built Mazda. It was pure garbage compared to the high-quality vehicles produced under the more quality oriented Ford. A relative owned a pre-Ford Jaguar. It was a mechanical nightmare. He now owns a new J8. It is a very solid and reliable car thanks to Ford. Mergers with import manufacturers have been very good... for the imports.

"The gas price is directly affected by supply and demand. The more you use, the higher the price. Basic economics."

This is true and everybody should try to conserve as much as possible, as well as seriously pursue alternate forms of energy.

But it is also true that gas prices go down when America talks about actually drilling and tapping into our own energy supplies like other nations are allowed to do. The prospect of that is also directly related to supply and demand, and has brought fuel prices down in recent months more than anything else. Of course you will never hear that from the news media.

Even if we tapped EVERY oil reserve in the U.S. we'd still be 22% short of filling the needs of just U.S. drivers alone. We also will not see one drop of newly drilled oil for 10 years, at which time world reserves will be so low it will not be affordable.

-- "Even if we tapped EVERY oil reserve in the U.S. we'd still be 22% short of filling the needs of just U.S. drivers alone..." --

That is pure speculation. Nobody knows exactly now much oil is out there, but recent discoveries suggest America could be sitting on reserves in excess of those in the Middle Rast.

-- "We also will not see one drop of newly drilled oil for 10 years..." --

Says who, Green Peace? Objective assessments by people who know what they are talking about indicate that oil production could take place within one year in areas that have already been explored if the offshore drilling moratorium were lifted.

Furthermore, right or wrong, our whole energy infrastructure is largely dependent on fossil fuels. It will take a lot longer than 10 years to convert it to alternative sources. Do you want to continue to be held hostage by the middle eastern oil cartels for that all that time?

I agree we need to stop depending overwhelmingly on oil and develop alternate energy supplies. But at the same time, we must be level headed and not mistake political sound bytes for fact.

This is not a trivial process. It requires a lot more brainpower than the political machinery in Washington could ever provide. I do not believe there is any one energy source that is going to be the solve all solution. We need an assortment of sources: e.g., wind, solar, tidal, geothermal, and yes, let's even keep domestically produced oil around for use as a supplemental source when required.