Oil Execs Defend Huge Profits Before Senate (page 3)

Gill

We have STOPPED using our car as a matter of principle.

We can afford to use it but there is no way we are going to. It comes out once a year now to go on holiday and very occassionally for a bit of shopping, maybe once a month occassionally twice.

We will NOT pay those prices and we will NOT pay those taxes. Apart from diesel lorries which transport food and essential drugs, we should ALL refuse to use our cars and make our lives such that we don't have to. Why should you pay the government, here in the UK 70% of the cost of your fuel, tax to go to work? Why pay them the money? Those in the rural areas must start thinking about whether they actually can live so far from work.

We need protest days where everyone refuses to buy petrol / gas!

We both live very close to work, I walk, my husband cycles.

I suggest everyone makes an effort to limit their use of petrol in a similar fashion and if possible move closer to where you work.

See how much of a profit they can make from us when we stop buying their crap!

Mary

Gill, I think what you're doing is a very smart idea. Unfortunately, for many of us in North America, biking to work, public transportation or walking are not options. There is absolutely no public transportation from where I live to where I work and in fact, public transportation here in Southern Ontario is a joke. The government is very much 'anti-public transportation' and enjoys great revenues for all the vehicles on the highways. You'd be stunned if you saw the number of huge transport trucks driving down Highway 401 each and every day. Alot of their cargo could be hauled by rail, but the government has little interest in subsidizing it. As a result, the highways are crammed full each and every day. I'd love to buy a Smart Car, but the prospect of driving down the road beside a thousand transport trucks that are 20 times the size of my car, is not a pleasant one.

I live about 1/4 mile from the nearest grocery store. But I can't walk there because there's no sidewalks. That, unfortunately, is an all too common theme over here: everything is spread out and you're forced to drive virtually everywhere. The local markets where you can walk down the street to get fresh fruits and vegetables are virtually gone and I haven't seen these outside of Toronto itself.

I'm seriously considering getting a hybrid, but there again, you pay an absolute fortune for it.........I think I just need to win the lottery.

joebin

I think I'll start raising donkeys, and maybe on the side build a line of trailers using old car parts...lol.

My site, donkeysandcarts.com, is under construction, please come back later.

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=y8C6Bp6gTA4&feature=related

Gill

Mary - How about a horse and cart?! I know it sounds 'funny'! You can stop laughing now, but if enough people got together on this we could, in a very small way, change the system to our own benefit.

I will not give the government one more penny in tax than I am absolutely forced to!

I've totally had enough of the low lifes in govenment and the oil barons and middle east multi trillionaires!

joebin

Mary, Canada used to have a really good railroad system. Now most of them in my neck of the woods have been turned into bike and atv trails. I used to think (even in the eighties), why the hell are they removing the railroads, we might need them someday...duh. With a couple of engines you can haul hundreds of containers and they're out of the way. I live in a small rural area, I'm so out in the woods it's not even funny, yet trucks are passing in front of my door at least every couple of minutes, and you wouldn't dare take a walk here either. Simply f'ing annoying. Trains at least you could operate away from residential areas, then I realized, trains were too efficient and the government knew there was more money to be made with the trucking system the way it is now, so they got rid of as many railroads as they could to make sure that when "what is happening now, would happen" they would better profit from it and it would be too costly to rebuild the railroad system, so they wouldn't even have to bring it up as a solution. That's how stupid government is.

Gill, I support you totally on your boycotting the oil industry, I do too, and it's tough, cause if you start boycotting before everybody else does you are viewed as a wacko and things are not in place to help you do it either. I've been preparing myself mentally for what is coming. This baby is gonna come screeching to a halt and it won't be funny. People just won't have a choice. I've thought about the horse and buggy, but can you imagine the abuse some of these animals would go through if this were to become a mainstream alternative, the need for them to perform like a car does... I don't want to think about it. We wouldn't need to go to that extreme, the solutions and technologies are available but the capitalists make sure they are never developed cause there's still money to be made in oil.

I've totally had enough of the low lifes in govenment and the oil barons and middle east multi trillionaires!

So my solution is: let's get rid of the suits. We'll all sleep better at night.

frozen one

Are you sure the horse and buggy should be brought back?

sammielee24

sammie, your naivete can be forgiven. If you want to understand the oil situation and not get taken for a ride by these kinds of articles, I recommend the following resource:

I'm not all that naive unfortunately...it's pretty clear cut. People will die because they cannot afford to heat their homes, people are losing jobs left and right which means no food to eat or electricity to use or house to live in, people dying from starvation around the world because the cost of getting them the food is too high. More crime as cops cut back using cars and instead walk the beat. People having their gas stolen from their cars and houses broken into as people steal food, clothes and medicines to live. All this happening as a CEO walks away with 14.5 million dollars a year - 1 million a month - 250,000.00 a week - . I think thats pretty clear. No profit? Sure. No refineries? Sure. No more oil? Sure. Gimme a break. The governments have known there is an issue and so have the people. The majority of people do what they can to exist within the framework of the society dictated by the strengths or weaknesses of that government. The governments shake hands with the corporations - why build and sell a car that people can afford and that gets 50 mpg when if we all stick together, we can screw them over? Technology has been there for decades that would allow much more efficient vehicles but the majority of people buy what they can afford - I know a lot of people who don't buy a hybrid because they don't have the money to do so. People hauling hay can't use a Prius and some of those people couldn't even afford a hybrid truck. If we stop using plastic bags and plastic bottles, well there goes another part of the oil business and we can't have that can we? Let's try and create another industry to pick up the old plastic or let it rot instead of mandating reusable glass. If the government were serious, and that's a big IF, they could have turned the tide long ago - the same way they could have turned the tide by creating laws or tax incentives for the housing and commercial industries to utilize solar and wind power. All the beautiful subdivisions built and now sitting empty all across the nation, could have been part of that turn by forcing builders to incorporate solar lighting in all the homes. The electric car was in use in 1900 - not new technology but we jump around like it is. People will drive what is made, they'll live in what is built - that's a start. Unfettered free markets do not work - countries are run by governments and sometimes those governments, in the interest of the people, in the interest of their own future, need to push toward progress. Naive? I don't think so. Speculators push the market and the oil is worth more in the ground - why pump it out when it keeps rising anyway? sammieswife.

Mary

joebin said: Mary, Canada used to have a really good railroad system. Now most of them in my neck of the woods have been turned into bike and atv trails. I used to think (even in the eighties), why the hell are they removing the railroads, we might need them someday...duh. With a couple of engines you can haul hundreds of containers and they're out of the way.

Yep. My father started on the railroad in 1950 and there were plenty of trains around then, both freight and passenger. Most stuff was hauled by rail simply because it was common sense. Over the years, the government cut back cut back cut back on rail service and let the trucking industry take over. Of course, now the highways are filled to overflowing with these gigantic trucks, the roads are a mess and fuel is through the roof. Makes perfect sense eh?

Big Tex

Unfortunately, for many of us in North America, biking to work, public transportation or walking are not options. There is absolutely no public transportation from where I live to where I work and in fact, public transportation here in Southern Ontario is a joke

I feel your pain Mary. Texas, and Dallas in particular, subscribed to the car as public transportation. We are just now getting light rail for mass transit but it is very limited and only near some major highways. As a result, you've got to drive. In our case it's a 15-20 minute drive just to get to the nearest station, which has limited parking (fills up by 6:15-30 a.m., so you can drive another 15 minutes to the next station that has larger parking, but by now you've been in the car 20-30 minutes of, what is normally a 45-50 minute commute. By then, what's the point?

I took the train last Monday as Nina was getting her car fixed, and doing so added an hour on to the ride home. That's 2 hours extra per day, 10 hours per week, 40 hours per month. I'm sorry but my time has value as well.

I would love to have mass transit as it's set up in Europe. That would be great, and I guarantee I'd damn well use it every day. But what we've got here is, as Mary says, an absolute joke.

Most of America decided to build the transit system based on cars and planes, rather than subways and trains. The advantage we had for decades was increased flexibility and speed. The problem we've got now is apparent. There has been no plan for the day when oil gets this expensive and I'm afraid it's only going to get worse. Where the price stops right now is anyone's guess.

Chris

Oil Execs Defend Huge Profits Before Senate

Share this