If it weren't for Halliburton, Exxon, and other oil companies how would you get to work?

Question

And how would our kids get to school? And how would our groceries get to the stores so we can buy them? ETC ETC..... I guess my real question is why are people mad at the oil companies? They are providing a service that we can't live without.

Anders,
I am totally with you on the electric car thing. I would love to buy one. Unfortunatly, the Tesla is like 100,000 bucks. I can't afford that.

Hey poo bear: If you think we are paying more for gas than any other country you have never taken a trip to Europe. They don't drive tiny cars for no reason! Wake up!

Don't trust: You need to stay off the wacky weed! I guess you think I can walk 5 miles to work and my kid can walk that far to school. Crack is wack! I think there is something besides oxygen in your tank! Just say no to drugs!

I have a bike u moron!

It just gets a little difficult to ride to work when it is 20 below and there is ice on the road!

Answer 1

I've got a minivan sitting out in the driveway thats mine and paid for. I need to travel 10 miles this eveing to see my father who is hospitalized. I can either pay Exxon $3.00 and get there and back home this evening with sufficient quality time with my kids still available, or I can walk there and back like some of these morons advocate, or even wait for a commercial bus service to do the same thing for a lot more than $3.00, but in the latter two cases its an overnight trip and I miss work tomorrow morning.

After giving this many many nanoseconds of contemplation, I have elected to give Exxon their $3.00. I just hope all of those "no blood for oil" hippies whose retirement funds are invested in Exxon and Halliburton stock can sleep as soundly tonight as I will.

Answer 2

I also want to add that there is more oil readily available in Alaska than the entire Middle East. But the tree hugging liberals with their fear of killing a seal are tieing our nations hands for what ?????????? a stupid SEAL!!!!!!!!! anyway I want to say that all you liberals that are beating a dead horse with the stupid conspiracy of Bush and Oil , trying getting yourselves off crack so you can reason as an intelligent person. Bush, did not create this war THEY STARTED FIRST, and I am a New Yorker and was suppose to be downtown on 9/11 Thank God I was not, so the way I see it is you idiots that are trying to raise a fight with no basis or fundamentals are living a LIE, yes !!WAKE UP AND SMELL THE COFFEE!!!!!!!!!! The beloved Democrats are Liberals just waiting to steal a vote then sell our Nation down the river ..>WAKE UP PEOPLE .... Bush has done a fantastic job for what he was handed by Clinton's stupidity, and while on that subject the reason why our fuel is so expensive dip **** is because Clinton passed the law for reformulated gas and its the US Government that makes approximately 2.00 a gallon , the gas station makes 3-4 cents per gallon and the Oil companies for your info make 11 cents, SO BUSH IS NOT TO BLAME .... Go blame a CLINTON they screwed up the US in 8 years of stupidity.!!!

Answer 3

And OPEC.

We'd be walking, taking bicycles and waiting for someone to develop an alternative vehicle that can be mass produced at a price people can afford.

People seem to go crazy about oil prices at $3 a gallon (128 ounces), yet spend more than $3 on a 16 oz. beer, $8 for a small glass of wine that holds less than 8 oz. and $1 and up for bottled water that isn't significantly different from what you can get almost for free by running the faucet.

And no one seems to mind spending $100 and more a month to get cable television when you can get HDTV for free over the airwaves and record it on your computer to watch at your leisure. Or pay $9 per person to see a movie (plus the $4 soft drink and $4 hot dog) which can be rented for $4.

Don't expect logic here. People are not rational when it comes to energy prices.

Answer 4

Why can't you see the real picture? People are not mad at the oil companies for providing services, they are mad because the companies are gouging the public. Oil prices were low before the elections and, even though the price of crude did not rise, the prices went up a dollar a gallon in June. The oil companies are making huge profits and getting tax breaks, does that seem right? The oil companies are making sure that the government does not vigorously pursue alternative energy. The oil companies are shutting down refineries in order to keep prices high. No one begrudges them profits but when they get greedy we all suffer.

Answer 5

I think it is general scapegoating for coming to the realization that we are so dependent on oil for those reasons you mentioned and how much policies and events can effect production and prices of that in which we are dependent.

It is easy to say current policies and events don't affect you -- until it hits your wallet. I think some are channeling anger towards other policies and events toward oil companies. My husband often complains that since we invaded Iraq we should have taken over the oil fields and should be paying $.50/gallon for gas. I argue that even if we controlled that oil production it still wouldn't immediately bring down the price, it is all about supply and demand.

People are aggravated at the pump as they see the price go up and up and they know they have to pay for it. It hits them in their wallet. People don't think about all the other ways that gas is consumed like you mentioned. We use it for school buses, shipping, running tractors on farms, flying for business or vacation, mowing the lawn... it goes on and on. More and more countries are using oil for those exact same things driving up the demand which drives up prices.

It is easier to grumble and point fingers instead of actually studying an issue and becoming involved.

Answer 6

In electric cars. It is only portrayed that we don't have any options, when, in fact, the alternate solutions are available. The EV1 could drive 75-to-150 miles ( on average roughly 110 miles.) per charge with Gen 2 Avionic nickel-metal hydride batteries. Fully loaded these batteries would contain 26.4 kWh of energy. If I use a kWh price of 13 cents/kWh I calculate that the EV1 would use: 13*26.4= 343.2 cents --->3,43$ for 110 miles. This is 3.12 cents/mile.
Based on the average fuel consumption of American cars, which is 27.5 miles per gallon, and the price per gallon, which is 2.23$/gallon, it costs 8.92$ to drive an ordinary car 110 miles making the cost of the electric car to 37% the fuel cost of ordinary cars.

The batteries lasted longer then the cars themselves.
Also, the cars were never massproduced which ould have driven down the manufacturing costs significantly.

The Tesla Roadster currently have a fuel cost of 2 cents/mile
and emits 1/10 of the of the pollution. It takes about 3.5 hours to fully charge the batteries.

Answer 7

I work at home. My wife carpools, so she pays half to Exxon et al. of what she would otherwise pay. I personally want energy prices to go up, but our bills to go down, because of efficiency.
If you provide a service to society, you can do it nicely, or you can do it hurtfully. Is it possible that greed yields the latter sometimes, especially when hundreds of billions are at stake? The oil companies/investors/speculators should raise prices more consistently, not gouge at every war/crisis then drop. If society depends on gasoline, like it depends on roads, then shouldn't the level of privatization be the same for both? Roads are almost fully public, where gasoline is almost fully private. Doesn't make sense to me.
Another user answered that they are going to see their ill relative tonight, so they don't mind paying for gasoline. Dollars to donuts that they also use their 1500kg car to go grab a 0.15kg hamburger or drop off a 0.023kg letter, but they wanted to use an extreme example to justify all their mundane use. I've done it (using a massive car just to mail a few letters) myself, and am trying, partially successfully, to mend my ways.
Exxonites often invoke ambulances as examples, saying that if we didn't have gasoline, we wouldn't have quick ambulances. Another case of extreme example to justify mundane use. So much fuel is used to go to a mall to look at an iPod that one isn't even going to buy.
The person on a bike isn't just an eco-hippie. They're also in better shape than us. They're taking up less space. They find parking quite easily. They pay fifty dollars a year for maintenance. They don't have to pay to run on a treadmill going nowhere. They get to listen to birds. They don't have to go on a diet. Sometimes their job gives them an incentive like indoor bike parking, use of the company showers, and free taxi rides during storms.

Answer 8

We can live without it,,how did our grandparents live without it?And their parents?
And u ask how to get groceries,,get to school,,to work??
My mother and us,(her kids) WALKED!!!! to get to school and food,and work etc..
W.T.F are u smoking?--Maybe ur were born after walking was banned in the united states,,they past that law,,what last week,,
We are fed up with high prices and lies our goverment and oils companys are telling us.
One day when u realize that the fish in ur water u cant eat cause of pollution from acid rain thats caused by burning fossil fuels,,and other man made crap that YES,we have safer alternatives,,but they will lose trillions of $$$ if we go to another source,,in the state of S.C. and Georgia,,the lakes and streams are toxic from drain offs and acid rains,,it was said to be unsafe to eat any animals such as fish that comes from the waters here.
Sooo,I cant take my kids fishing and let them eat the fish they caught,cause our states claim its unsafe to do so.
halliburton and exxon,,has bush and our v/p in their pockets,,giving them millions of $ worth of stocks,,how fair is that?Where the F is our share?
I bet u cant remember living without a remote control either!!!
Buy a bike,,u need to get out more!!!!!!!

Answer 9

it's not the oil companies per say It's the price gougers at the top! why is gas cheaper in the south then that of the northeast and in jersey along the turnpike you see nothing but fuel tanks as in the south they are limited.I didn't see a one.

Answer 10

You are right! None of use would live in the world we do without the fossil fuels that make the industrial engine hum.
I think much of the anger at big oil is because of the control they have over our lives and how oil market appears to conspire to siphon the dollars out of our pockets. Big oil seems to operate without morals and corrupts the morals of those that have it and those that need it.