Price of the crude oil went up from $10 to over $30 a barrel recently.
Main reasons:
OPEC cartel is a monopoly. They set the price and limit the production. First they drive the price to $10 and knock western producers out of business, then they drive prices up. Western producers are afraid to invest in oil production now because the same can be easily repeated.
If western goverments introduced a sliding tariff on the price of oil so no matter how cheap OPEC would sell it, it would cost no less then $18 on the western market, the western producers would be guaranteed some profit. North sea and Texas oil production would resume and west would be less dependent on OPEC's whims. Then OPEC would not be able to drive the price through the roof again.
People in the western countries, especially in USA after few years of great economy and cheap gasoline started buying huge gas-guzzling all-terrain vehicles even though they drive on paved city roads.
People buy bigger houses made of cardboard that require lot of heating in the winter and air-conditioning in the summer.
So by those actions we are becoming more dependent on the same Arab countries that produce oil.
Well, yu want to drive that moster car - you pay for it.
The electric cars are roadkill. You have to burn fuel and transport electricity and that fuel. You also have to invest billions in infrastructure (more fuel), produce expencive batteries, dispose of them properly, etc.
Since plants are more efficient at burning fuel, you get at most 20% improvement for all the years and billions spent.
It is much more realistic to improve the fuel efficiency of the current cars by 20% by using modern technologies and materials.
Or we could build more nuclear stations deep underground. Those may blow up and poison us. Burning fuel definitely poisons us now.
How come US is hit the least by the fuel prices? Because americans had their lesson in 70s and economy now is much more fuel efficient.
You can and exercise or run near a busy american highway. Whenever I step our into the european street, I smell the gasoline even if there only are a few cars around - fuel efficiency and air quality standards are dismal. Most of the europeans smoking on top of that, and you can forget jogging in the city.
miko
