[KeithO]

The supposed standards about to be enacted might make performance cars more difficult to get for a while. I am wondering if we aren't looking at new-car performance similar to what we saw from 1973 through around 1987...

This is just more motivation for me to maintain my f-body.

Do you guys think that we will be able to achieve this? Regardless, how slow do you think new cars will get before performance returns?

[sgarnett]

What happened? Oil was cheap for a few months. That's all it takes to forget.

Late last year though, I did hear an interesting argument against more drilling ... yet. Do we want to be the first to run out, or the last?

[cccbock]

What happened? Oil was cheap for a few months. That's all it takes to forget.

Late last year though, I did hear an interesting argument against more drilling ... yet. Do we want to be the first to run out, or the last?

Good discussion. Lets not forget that oil over $100 was a market phenomenon (and I think it was totally contrived), and was not based the cost to produce and deliver plus a fair profit, just plain old fashioned old fear and greed. The bottom fell out of oil prices because the demand dropped dramatically due to the world wide economic conditions (brought on in part by the high price of energy).

I think it is a litttle known national security strategy to use up the rest of the world's oil before we use up ours. You might recall that when oil was over $100 a barrel, there was big talk about drilling everywhere including the moon and using whale oil shale, and energy producing algae, making cars that get 100 mpg, yada yada.

When the price went below $80 all that stopped all at once. Now we're creeping back as demand slowly increases.

I spent many years in the electric and gas utility industry, and if wind and solar were economically feasible without government subsidy, they would have invested in it 10, 20 & 30 years ago. When oil is over $100 a barrel, the wind and other stuff looks good economically, but not when oil is $40-60.

Your opinion may vary.

bock