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Re: Downside of lower gas prices... [larsb]

by gagrice on Fri Nov 14 11:14:02 PST 2008

Sometimes I HATE IT when I'm right.. Not so quick. Or worse. At least 10 U.S. ethanol producers reportedly have filed for bankruptcy in recent months, including VeraSun Energy Corp. of Sioux Falls, S.D., a billion-dollar business. Even T. Boone Pickens is feeling a pinch. The billionaire oilman, who peppered the airwaves this summer and fall with commercials touting his proposals to promote wind power and natural gas to help wean the United States from imported oil, says his plans for a huge Texas wind farm may be slowed by reduced access to credit. Corn ETHANOL was NEVER a good idea as alternative energy. It was boondoggle that we were going to have to pay for with NO real benefit. It was politics to please the Midwestern farmers and the BIG AG companies like ADM As far as T. Boone. The price of Oil has NOTHING to do with tough credit. That has to do with years of poor lending practices. The supply dried up. He should be able to build his wind farm from pocket change if he is dedicated to the idea. So far cheap gas has been good to help us through a tough time. No money no gas. You have 10 million people driving from one job interview to the next and cheap gas helps them a lot. CHEAP GAS IS +++++++++

Re: No bailout without addressing the UAW [tlong]

by rockylee on Wed Nov 12 23:11:42 PST 2008

So they should be highly competitive, right? Well they would be if it wasn't for the currency manipulation. Toyota & Honda, still import 50% of their cars thus making currency manipulation a crucial issues that needs to be resolved. ...and those ignorant people build cars that are better received than the Detroit 3's offerings! Well when you hide your recalls like they did in the 1990's it's hard to overcome such a long period of perception. I see things changing !!! To bad our economy is bad !!! :cry: Almost all of us will end up on Medicare who don't have gilded retirement benefits. Well if we close the doors on free-trade and pass a content law just maybe we can go back to the days with employer paid retirement plans but we need to crack down on insurance premiums and negotiate with pharmaceutical companies !!! They will be if MY taxes are used to fund THEIR retirement benefits via a bailout by the US government. Well who's fault is that ??? Look at the right-wing, mises loving, pseudo-capitalist, globalist, neocons, for your finger of blame !!! The greedy want it all !!! They aren't happy with a nice profit and like a fat hog they want more !!! Our capitalistic society breeds greed !!! Why make $5 billion and take care of your people when I can go to China, and make $10 billion using slave labor ??? When I'm on a business trip I can buy a child to spend the night with !!!!! :mad: :sick: :mad: :sick: Agree with you here, where is the GM board of directors? They are in charge. Why does Wagoner "not see what would be achieved" in requiring him to leave the company?!!! If I was at my job for fourteen years and I failed miserably to have contingencies for foreseeable problems that many of my competitors did, I'd be out on the street. Agree, but he is only part of the problem. they could have it worse like having Mualley or that guy from Chrysler !! Jim Press, should probably be CEO of Chrysler, even though he's a over-paid suit !!! Wagoner, took a gamble and lost !!! He should of known that Bush, is a oil man and that he would allow the oil prices to rocket upwards without any restraint !!! He chose to invest in Trucks & SUV's when he should of spent that money on developing more fuel efficient cars. Perhaps if these fuel prices stay low he will get some sort of return on his investment. However the economy and puting people back to work with better paying jobs willhave to happen !!! I think if we can provide a sense of stability and job security then the people who do have money would spend it. The problem is their is less and less people currently with disposable income !!! That's definitely a big part of it. Toyota, pays their workers more...well they did a few years ago when they cut each employee a $10,000 bonus which equaled to about $30 an/hr. If you factor in all the new hires GM, has hired I bet you even if you factored in benefits Toyota, pays their workers more !!! ;) .....Go check out my post in the GM, forum. $14 an/hr. starting wage and they can top out at $16 and change !!! If $14-16 an/hr., is too much to pay then we got some serious out of whack cost of living here in the U.S. Those MSRP's on cars should be cut back by 50%. Food should be cut by 50%...Gas has recently been !!! ;) So we shouldn't be able to sell to other countries? No but we should treat them like they do our exports with Tariffs and Trade Barriers, and fix the currency manipulation issues to favor us !!! GM should quit China since that's free trade. Free for whom ??? Free for them !!! they can dump on our market but by gawd you better forget about exporting to them !!! China tariffs our imports and has trade barriers in place so that if you want to sell a car in China, you got to build it there !!! Boeing shouldn't sell airliners to other countries (most of their business), because that's free trade. From what I'm aware of the planes are tariffed like a car unless such countries do to not having a competitor at home to protect waves such a tariff....;) I as I said have no problem being trading partners with 1st world countries. I feel that our government is doing nothing to protect our businesses and workers !!! That's why i get fired up when Bush, talks about free trade with South America, Korea. In fact, if we can't trade then we won't have enough oil to power all those Detroit 3 vehicles anyway. Oil has been a dated energy source but since the cartel has such influence in Washington, it's going to be hard to get any real energy legislation passed !!! BioDiesel made from cow, chicken, turkey, pig, carcasses, Ethanol made from non-corn based green plants i.e. milo/maze, Ethanol made from tires and garbage. Cold-Fusion, Hydrogen, Natural Gas, Solar, Elexctric, thus who needs oil ??? Invest the damn money and get us off of oil !!! T. Boone Pickens, says it can be done and I believe him !!! ;) -Rocky

Re: ... T. Boone Pickens and the Plan [roland3]

by ruking1 on Tue Oct 28 08:51:04 PDT 2008

To me, "the holy grail" for plug in electric cars is a 400-500 mile range. One can make that the "primary" fuel source with either RUG to PUG to D2 as the secondary back up. I don't know if many folks grasp the ramifications of this, but I know for sure, the auto companies do!????

Re: ... T. Boone Pickens and the Plan [kcram]

by roland3 on Tue Oct 28 07:54:10 PDT 2008

... Kcram, somewhere in the periphery of my mind your post was kicking around from about two months back. Sixty Minutes did mention that T. Pick's holding companies might make a huge profit if there was a much better market for CNG. @ eighty years old I don't think profit is his main motivator, but of course, he wants, very much, another success. The wind farms alone would be a great thing. The inevitable battery car market can use plenty of charging time, especially off-peak, and I am sure market forces can find use for surplus CNG. BTW, there are a heck of a bunch of seventy foot long, oversize load, wind turbine blades, going down the road in west Texas.

Re: ... T. Boone Pickens and the Plan [kcram]

by ruking1 on Tue Oct 28 07:20:54 PDT 2008

Whats a few more local explosions? Good fodder for slow news days!! ;)

Re: ... T. Boone Pickens and the Plan [gagrice]

by kcram on Tue Oct 28 06:24:19 PDT 2008

Apples to apples comparison here in NJ... NJ Transit runs MCI motorcoaches, powered by CNG and diesel. The CNGs get 400 miles per fill (compared to 1000 for the diesels), lose over 2000 pounds of payload due to the weight of the CNG system (both coach types have 49 seats, but the CNG system reduces the standee count from 19 to 4), and hate cold weather even more than the diesels. Any wonder there are only 76 CNG-powered MCIs in the fleet compared to 1491 diesels (all of which came after the CNGs, when they had the opportunity to choose either fuel)? Translated to a tractor trailer, you're talking less payload (which equals less money), more frequent stops to refill (which equals less money), and more cold weather issues (which equals less money). Plus you're talking about having "CNG truck stops" at more than double the locations - all with an explosive fuel... diesel is combustible, but it won't explode from a match. kcram - Pickups Host