If all the oil producing nations are releasing reserves like the US

[Peacetrain]

this must be a unified attempt to keep the world economies from slipping back into a world wide recession as we dig out.

Speculators are mad as hell I know, but while we are a free economy, their driving up the costs for profits could sink the entire world.

[BeFree]

1. Is Obama giving it away?

Who gets our reserves? How much will they pay?

Is there any profit for us?

Are not the recent price gouges from the capitalist pigs worse than any government tax increase?

How come we all just rolled over and played dead when big oil bent us over the barrel and....

[dkf]

2. It amazes me how oblivious we are to peak oil. This is just the beginning of a lifetime of more

Demand than supply. It should be a wakeup call to move to renewables but instead we have the bandaids of releasing reserves.

You know what that is? It's when you are spending more than you have so you need to use your savings.

What gets me is that people honestly think it is just speculation that is the problem with oil prices. That they think what has taken the earth billions of years to accumulate is somehow endless is mind boggling.

I shake my head in disgust.

[Curmudgeoness]

3. Although I do agree that oil is finite, the release of oil from reserves

is meant to shut down the speculation which really is the reason for price increases at this time. Smaller incremental price increases over time would be the result of demand outpacing supply. A $1 a gallon jump in a few month's time is not the result of peak oil. (And I assume that gold prices have shot up to unreal levels because of peak gold?) Speculation in the markets has a catastophic effect on all that we buy, and I am glad to see Obama moving to wreck that train.

[dkf]

4. Fluctuating prices will be better to move the population away from oil.

At least it will give us a reprieve once in a while. But if we wait until it's really gone we are screwed because we won't have what we need to transition us.

Again it should be a wake up call but it turns into a demand that the government magically fix everything and we both know that isn't possible.

I hate how shortsighted the population is. Where is the planning and vision? People who have a clue will have to save themselves or go down with the populace.

[Curmudgeoness]

5. The questions you pose remind me of a class I took

in Environmental Ethics. After all the dire things we studied and discussed, and all the stupid decisions that had been made, I asked the professor how he kept himself sane with all these issues that he had to spend so much time with. He told me that every time in history so far, mankind has found solutions on a "just in time" basis. It is enough to give you ulcers if you are think too hard about it, but the more I live, the more I see that he is (kinda) right---so far. I say kinda because I still have issues with things like acid rain or zebra mollusks, where I do not believe that we acted soon enough. But then again, we are still here.

We do have the ability to plan for a replacement energy source to carbon fuels, but until the situation gets worse, we will only tiptoe around it. Mankind as a whole (not us individuals) is a great procrastinator, but works well under deadline pressure.

Let's hope that the rule holds that we will get our asses in gear before it is too late.