The price of gas will never go back to where it was 5-8 years ago, let alone prior. It's just not going to happen. Why? Well sharon hit on an important point. THe oil that is left is the more difficult and costly type to extract. When oil was first discovered in the Middle East, it freakin' gushed. It does not gush any more (at least like it used to) but it's still much easier to extract than our tar sands and shale oil.
Now add to that the demand aspect keeps on growing every year, and it will be hard to keep up, especially since it will take much longer to extract and process. Just look at the estimated ANWAR reserve. In most cases, it's determined that there's enough oil to keep the US going for only
3 years. Is it would all that effort and destruction just for that???
I realize that a lot of people do not read links, but I so hope you do with the one below. It's an easy read and does a great job of explaining gas prices and other things that are crucial:
HowStuffWorks "How Gas Prices Work"
Also, if you have Netflix or a video store close by, I highly recommend the doc "Gasland." Excellent and informative.
Gasland: A film by Josh Fox
Whoa, where have I ever said it would take it back down to where it was 4 or 5 years ago ?? I have never said that , and never will, but drilling here will still take prices down to what degree we would just have to see.
The demand aspect, will be just like before, with the price of gas up (say we can get it to hold at 3 dollars per gal) that is still expensive for working people. So they will once again do what was done before. Find cars that get better gas mileage and that will help reduce demand. It common knowledge and common sense. Gas goes up, the auto industry changes to smaller more efficient cars gas drops and you see more luxury autos on the road .
Lets move on to the so called destruction of land, maybe in the distance past this happened, I have 80 acres in Michigan, it has two gas wells on it, each one takes up less then an opened area of about 500 X 500 feet and is very well maintained the small building and fence around it as less then 50 X 50 feet.
The days of destruction of property is long since passed.
What I am saying, is that we have untapped resources here, we need jobs NOW… tapping those resources produces jobs, more oil on the marketplace is going to stabilize or reduce the price to some degree. I see nothing bad with any of those things …. Do you ?
At the same time I agree, we can’t stop looking for that alternative source of energy that will eventually replace gas. We can’t take our eye off that goal .. I don’t think we have found it yet. The electric car isn’t going to be the answer, as a 2nd car that is used around town , it’s suitable, beyond that it’s just not practicable .
Gas at nearly 4 dollars per gal and rising, only hurts the middle class people, it hurts not only at the pump, but every time they go to the grocery store. I’m not doing anything here but arguing that we should be doing all we can to help those most effected by the high price of gas. Personally I don’t give a flying f**k if the oil companies make another few billion dollars a year or not. What I do care about is helping people in these trying times. Lowering gas prices helps them, more good paying jobs helps them, less importing of oil helps our country. I just find it hard to find enough negatives to not be tapping the resources that we have .