Is there any hope the US trailer makers will make a trailer that can be pulled with a car or small suv?

And is there any hope the US Car Manufacturers will design a truck that can run on hydrogen or one that will get great gas mileage? I would think since they can't sell any trucks or SUVS that they would be working on this quickly.

My summer's really screwed, who can afford to haul anywhere and who's going to be able to even afford a horse?

I just can't understand why we don't cut off all the food supply to the countries with oil until they lower the prices.

7-10 bucks? we'll see about that............

Got this new bill the other day, looks like it might be a fact soon.

Gard

Here’s an article an about this they say it’s sup post to double by 2012

http://www.breitbart.com/article.php?id=080424190433.04dy6kj4&show_article=1

First off, don't be simplistic in your views that we can just cut off food to solve the problem. If we stop shipping food, South America, Russia or some other country will ship food. And it might even originate from the US.

We have become a world economy. China, India and other 3rd world countries are coming into the 21st century.  People in china now want cars in place of carrying their family of 4 on a  moped. As they become more a part of the 21st century, they will consume more energy. Their increased consumption will affect the world markets of supply and demand.  Energy will NEVER be cheap again until we have a major technology break through that creates a new energy source or radically changes the efficiency of our current cars/trucks/planes and other energy consuming devices.

We not only produce fuel from Oil, but we produce other products we consider an essential part of our lives. Plastics, Fertilizer etc are produced from crude oil. The consumption of crude oil will never return to what we used to know.

Will it surprise me to see gas at $7 a gallon 4 years from now in 2012. Not really. But I do expect this increase in price to fuel more investments in alternative fuels. Ethanol, bio-diesel, better methods of recovery oil from low production wells that oil companies ignored in the past. New energy technologies like Fuel Cells may become feasible and come online.

When I bought my 2000 Ford Power stroke I was paying 75 cents a gallon for diesel.  8 years later I paid $4.13 for diesel today.  Is that 550% jump in 8 years any different than the jump from $4.13 to $7.00 in 4 years?  I will be more focused on what trips I take.  I don't run to the store for milk, I wait until I can combine several trips together. Same thing with horses. Where I used to always haul my trailer. I may now double up with friends.  Will I cut back to 3 horses in place of 5 when hay hits $200 -$250 a ton this summer. Farmers have to pay more for fertilizer, fuel to run they mowers and balers, and fuel to truck hay to my barn

My income has decreased as the country moves into a recession. My cost to live have increased. Something has to go. Like most of you, I will have to make hard choices about what discretionary income I have left.

couple of thoughts

1- the reliance on ethenol and bio fuels will not solve our energy needs. They are poor fuels, bio-diesel cannot be used in winter and cost more to produce than fossil fuels. We need more oil, its out there( and right here) BUT we have regualted 85% of our coastal waters out of oil production and have a lack of capacity to refine. The EPA mandates refineries produce low sulfur and low emissions fuels which are expensive,hard to distribute and driving up the cost everytime they have to switch over. Its a no win burden for USA consumers.

2- we not in recession. The ecomony has grown and unemployment is down BUT if congress and the liberal start taxing the oil companies ( who are making lots of money and thats ok with me) and raising income taxes on americans- then we will see big problems.

Ethenol and Biofuels currently are not the solution and may never be. But who knows what research may bring. I refer to them "as a path way to" another solution. We have to explore and find alternative energy sources. And they need to a replenshable fuel vs a fossil fuel.

President Clinton when he left office created the Grand Staircase Escalante National Park in Southern Utah. 1.9 million acres of really remote land. It contains more oil shale than any place on earth. Something like 1.2 to 1.8 trillion barrels. But supposedly more oil is contained in that oil shale than the oil reserves of the Middle East. That supposedly enough to provide 25% of the oil needs for the next 400 years.  But at $50-$60 a barrel for Crude oil, it's not practical to go after it. At $100+ per barrel there is financial motivation to recover it, But now it's a national park and we can't touch it.

Dang dude you never type that much....pace yourself....keep that up you want have any feelin in them finger tips this afternoon to feel that cable you throw...

lol...

One finger at a time is what I was thinkin....

The gas tax thing was such a joke, you know there are some dumb people in this world that actually believe a politician and what they say.  Yeah if they do pay the gas tax just to make the politician look good and to look good in general where do you think they are going to make up what they lost?  I am self employed and I sometimes have customers want me to eat materials or labor for things, usually I just say "no problem"  in the end they usually pay double just for the aggrivation of having to do so.  That is exactly what the oil company folks would say too.

Hey Tx, fertilizer is same here too.  Rain is non-existant, but I normally dont say anything about the rain since one tropical storm and were caught up for the year.  Talk to friend at a roping sunday he said they had 700 acres that they did not have any fertilizer on yet because of the rain.  Multiply there fertilize bill...ouch.  I thought mine was bad. 

Our families purchased our Fertilizer supplies LAST YEAR...Boy, was my cousin SMART to get everyone to buy BEFORE the price increases...so we are one year out from the big fertilizer price hit...

If oil makes it to $150.00/bbl...everyone is looking at a minimum of $5.00/gal for gasoline...if it goes higher...then the per gal rate will exceed the per barrel increase...

Now the increases in grain prices I'll be getting hit with the rest of you, because the company didn't let us buy in advance...

At least, I make my own hay...

The fuel increases have already affected the dressage show circuit, because shows that used to have waiting lists...now have extended their closing dates trying to get their planned quotas of competitors...

We have seen some slow down in rodeo numbers but not a tremendous amount.  Season is about over though so next year will take the hit I suspect. 

Filled up the pickup today for $4.20 diesel, guy at station told me it was going up tonight to $4.39.  Gas supposed to be $3.85 by next week. 

I need to take the 4400 down to fill it today I guess just to top off the tank.  Dang that would be another $200 and its tick over half full.