Legislating MPG?

[Lancer]

Within 5 years the minimum mpg for any new car sold should be 60. Agree?

How would you solve the gas price problem?

What are prices like where you live?

In my town on the Oregon Coast there's a price war but still it just went to $3.08/gal.

[Japher]

I like the 5 year plan

I would also completely regulate such a commodity and service regulating industry that has routinely destroyed their projected profits that are already in the absurd. Not to mention the fact that they really have no operating cost since if they (refineries) need to spend more to make gas due plant problems, raw material gliches, environmental concerns they just pass the cost onto the consumer. The price of most products stay the same if such things temporarily effect their profits.

[LordShiva]

Legislating MtG?

[Drake Tungsten]

Why legislate minimum MPG? Just tax gasoline and let the market do the rest...

[Flubber]

Originally posted by Japher
I like the 5 year plan

I would also completely regulate such a commodity and service regulating industry that has routinely destroyed their projected profits that are already in the absurd. Not to mention the fact that they really have no operating cost since if they (refineries) need to spend more to make gas due plant problems, raw material gliches, environmental concerns they just pass the cost onto the consumer. The price of most products stay the same if such things temporarily effect their profits.

Huh?

If you are talking refining, I don't know why exactly think their profits are "absurd". There have been a few wild super profitable years but overall the ROI over any longer period on refineries have been pretty pathetic.

If you want to go further and regulate production of a barrell of oil, you are welcome to try but since the US is a net oil importer, I wonder about the effectiveness of any legislation.

[DRoseDARs]

Originally posted by Drake Tungsten
Why legislate minimum MPG? Just tax gasoline and let the market do the rest...

Why does it have to be either/or?

[Drake Tungsten]

A gas tax is much more desireable. It doesn't impinge on personal choice or economically burden auto makers in the way an across-the-board, 60 mpg requirement would.

[Joseph]

Originally posted by Flubber


Huh?

If you are talking refining, I don't know why exactly think their profits are "absurd". There have been a few wild super profitable years but overall the ROI over any longer period on refineries have been pretty pathetic.

If you want to go further and regulate production of a barrell of oil, you are welcome to try but since the US is a net oil importer, I wonder about the effectiveness of any legislation.

Please explain how 18 billion net profit is pathetic.

[snoopy369]

Originally posted by DRoseDARs


Why does it have to be either/or?

Erm, because legislating messes with the market effect and skews it?

[snoopy369]

Originally posted by Joseph
Please explain how 18 billion net profit is pathetic.

Did you read his entire post? It's not one year's profit, but over time. Oil is (was) a high risk-high reward resource. Not sure if it's as high of risk anymore, but for the whole war in the middle east thing ...

[Straybow]

Trying to legislate fleet mpg to that level is stupidity. Complaining about $3/gal is because we've been spoiled for 25 yrs. If gas kept pace with inflation over those 25 yrs it would've hit $3 around 2000 and be more like $4 now.

[korn469]

Yeah if we placed a 2.00 a gallon alternative energy tax on gasoline and diesel that went to funding alternative fuel sources, I'm pretty sure the market would find some solutions, and people would drive less as well.

[Flubber]

Originally posted by snoopy369


Did you read his entire post? It's not one year's profit, but over time. Oil is (was) a high risk-high reward resource. Not sure if it's as high of risk anymore, but for the whole war in the middle east thing ...

Exactly

Plus I was talking refining which is a subset of the whole industry. It can and does happen that the exploration and production side of the equation is immensely profitable while refiners ( who are some of the same companies but there are a bunch of different ones as well) don't have great margins.

I researched this last summer and the numbers were such that there was a better ROI in most other industries (and they did not require multi-billion investments

[Flubber]

Originally posted by Joseph
Please explain how 18 billion net profit is pathetic.

It is pathetic if it were a return on an investment of 120 billion and that in the previous year the profit on that same investment was 8 billion. (made up numbers just to illustrate)

Joseph -- Do you understand the concept of ROI?

[Drake Tungsten]

Yeah if we placed a 2.00 a gallon alternative energy tax on gasoline and diesel that went to funding alternative fuel sources

Why would we want to piss billions of dollars in tax revenues away by spending it solely on funding alternative fuel sources, many of which are uneconomical?