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- Joined Jun 2008 | Status: Member | 622 Posts
Life happens at the level of events. Trust only movement. - Adler
- Joined Jun 2008 | Status: Member | 622 Posts
Life happens at the level of events. Trust only movement. - Adler
DislikedI just read an article about how Toyota is designing "carbon neutral" vehicles that will run on,among other things, wood chips.
(This is of great importance, considering that a run on biofuels has led to food riots in poor countries because corn and other crops
that would have been used to feed people is now too expensive for the masses.)
Toyota promises plug-in hybrid vehicle by 2010
More:
http://www.google.com/search?hl=en&n...neutral+toyota+Ignored
Dislikedhttp://money.cnn.com/2008/06/19/news...ex.htm?cnn=yes
In short, the Saudis are calling a meeting on Sunday with other OPEC countries, oil refiners, and oil consumers. The topic will be, of course, the high oil prices and what can be done about them. It's mostly speculative at this point, but it is believed they will pump more oil as well as convince refiners, who have been buying less oil with the high prices, to begin buying oil again at previous levels.
This will come at a cost, especially to the US. The Saudis are firmly believed that there is no oil supply problem and that high prices are due to oil market speculation. It is likely they will call for the US to enact measures to limit oil speculation in the market. Additionally, Riyadh will probably push for a monetary police change that will strengthen the dollar, as the riyal (Saudis currency) is pegged to the USD and has doubled in inflation over the last year.
Who knows what actually will happen and, in all likelihood, if any deal is made then most of the details will remain undisclosed.Ignored
QuoteDislikedOPEC itself is divided. While Saudi Arabia is boosting output, other OPEC members including Libya, Algeria, Iran, Venezuela and Qatar are opposed to higher production, saying refiners aren't asking for more crude.
Libya's top oil official, Shokri Ghanem, said after the meeting ended that the Saudi output boost wouldn't affect the oil price, and yesterday said his country may have to cut its own production in response to the Saudi move.
Venezuelan Oil Minister Rafael Ramirez, also asked whether the oil price was likely to fall after the Saudi move, said: ``I don't think so because it's not a problem of supply.''
QuoteDislikedNot long ago the price of oil was about a quarter of what it is today. But soon after the invasions of Afghanistan and Iraq the price of oil began to escalate in tandem with the escalation of war and political turbulence in the Middle East. The fact that the rise in the price of oil has followed the heightened insecurity in oil markets is neither accidental nor a simple correlation; it represents a causality that runs from the heightened insecurity in oil markets to the inflated price of energy.
The war also contributes to the escalation of fuel cost in indirect ways; for example, by plunging the U.S. ever deeper into debt and depreciating the dollar. As oil is priced largely in U.S. dollars, oil exporting countries ask for more dollars per barrel of oil as the dollar loses value.
Not only are the raging wars in the Middle East responsible for energy price inflation, they are also responsible for price inflation of many other commodities, especially grains and other foodstuff, whose production and transportation depend on fuel. According to the World Bank, food prices have more than doubled over the past three years. The price of rice, the staple for billions of Asians, is up 147% over the past year alone. The mounting food prices have caused hunger and deadly violence in many countries, including Haiti, Egypt, Thailand, Indonesia, Senegal, and Malaysia.
This shows that the disastrous consequences of U.S. wars of choice go beyond Iraq, Afghanistan, and the United States....
Neoconservative forces in and around the Bush administration and beneficiaries of war dividends—wishing to deflect attention away from war as the main culprit for the skyrocketing energy prices—tend to blame secondary or marginally relevant factors: OPEC, China and India for their increased demand for energy, or supply-demand imbalances in global markets.
Whatever the contributory role of these factors, the fact remains that the current oil price hikes started with the beginning of the Bush administration’s wars against Iraq and Afghanistan... [read more]
DislikedAs long as these governments (especially China) continue to subsidize fuel prices at these levels, the large increases in oil prices will not be felt by their consumers, therefore no need to conserve. About 75% of a barrel is used for gasoline. Now that we live amongst a competitive global economy, until the playing field is level, there will be continued high demand from the fastest and largest growing industrialized nation. These subsidies are "fueling" the problem.Ignored