jeromie wrote:Such a development would eviscerate the Petrodollar recycling system and that process eliminate foreign financing of US Treasury deficits. US imports of crude from the Persian Gulf are critical to financing the Treasury at any level since the advent of Reagan.
Alfred Tennyson wrote:We are not now that strength which in old days
Moved earth and heaven, that which we are, we are;
One equal temper of heroic hearts,
Made weak by time and fate, but strong in will
To strive, to seek, to find, and not to yield.
Tanada wrote:I think the best solution would be for the town to install an above ground diesel tank along side the Fire Department building
Tanada wrote:The controversy arises that the owners of the other filling station are prominent in the community owning the filling station, a butcher shop, a convenience store and a small grocery store.
Tanada wrote:I think the best solution would be for the town to install an above ground diesel tank along side the Fire Department building and let out a contract to an area fuel delivery service. A lot of local farms have their own tanks for fuel so they can stock up on tax free fuel instead of having to pay road taxes for farm equipment. For the village they would still have to pay road taxes, but it just seems obvious to me that having a diesel tank under lock and key at the fire department would take care of the issues pretty easily.
...
This is an issue that had not occurred to me before in the realm of future issues in a small town. This isn't a case of peak oil eliminating a supply, it is just small town economics at work in the face of large chain filling stations in nearby but not local locations making it uneconomic for this town to support two filling stations with the burden of a mortgage on the one that is being closed if it were to stay open.
Pops wrote:Tanada wrote:The controversy arises that the owners of the other filling station are prominent in the community owning the filling station, a butcher shop, a convenience store and a small grocery store.
Such are small towns, or really, such are humans, chickens and other "social" animals. There is always a pecking order and everyone tiptoes around Boss Hog—to mix my barnyard metaphors. Small towns or US Senate, the squeaky wheel gets the oil, or rather, those who grease the right palms get their backs scratched—to mix my corruption metaphors.
The problem with small towns is the crimes are so small they are easily swept under the rug, or...
well you get my drift
.
Outcast_Searcher wrote:Pops wrote:Tanada wrote:The controversy arises that the owners of the other filling station are prominent in the community owning the filling station, a butcher shop, a convenience store and a small grocery store.
Such are small towns, or really, such are humans, chickens and other "social" animals. There is always a pecking order and everyone tiptoes around Boss Hog—to mix my barnyard metaphors. Small towns or US Senate, the squeaky wheel gets the oil, or rather, those who grease the right palms get their backs scratched—to mix my corruption metaphors.
The problem with small towns is the crimes are so small they are easily swept under the rug, or...
well you get my drift
.
Is the problem actually corruption, or is it more about jealousy? Clearly such people will be rich compared to almost everyone else, and in small towns that will likely be noticeable, re the cars they drive, their house, their clothes, etc.
And of course, the more businesses they own with little or no competition, the more money they make since they can charge a convenience premium in a small town, and I'm sure that annoys people more. But that alone doesn't imply corruption.
And no, I'm NOT saying such corruption doesn't occur, but I'm not buying that it's all corruption all the time either.
Alfred Tennyson wrote:We are not now that strength which in old days
Moved earth and heaven, that which we are, we are;
One equal temper of heroic hearts,
Made weak by time and fate, but strong in will
To strive, to seek, to find, and not to yield.
jeromie wrote:From now on if conventional oil has peaked, cheap recoverable oil will continuously decline for the next century. The very definition of conventional oil as crude oil produced by primary and secondary means that as tertiary recovery replaces secondary production conventional oil phases out. The replacement tertiary recovery, depending on oil basin characteristics , will stabilize production for very long periods . naturally at much lower levels of production. This would be oil pools with product above 20 degree API characteristics. The replacement Tertiary recoveries requires a higher price to cover the investment. Confining myself to North American Tertiary Enhanced Oil Recovery the viable price will be around $60 bbl based on the financial statements of the companies specializing in EOR. Fadel Gheit , the oil specialist at Oppenheimer testified to that fact before Congress in June 2008. My own holdings for 2007 all had revenues per boe in the mid fifty dollar range. On average, these companies had low cost conventional oil mixes in their production of around one third. That is why they made a ton of cash flow in 2007.
There is an essential point to all this. You cannot reduce gasoline permanently without reducing fuel oil and diesel at the same time. In the US, gasoline reduction is unilaterally only possible to the extent that personal discretionary use diesel is also reduced. After that, diesel would need to be imported to make up the shortage. That imported diesel simply off loads the gasoline elsewhere because it is produced automatically to produce the imported diesel and heating oil.
No conservation of any great amount is possible without an energy plan at the state level that substitutes gas for oil. In short, direct production of GTL or CTL products to substitute for diesel and heating oil. Here is the ticket to ending oil imports from outside North America.
The bottleneck in refining will always be the essential fraction products for maintaining your national survival. Fortunately, gas can now be formulated into any direct product. The same will nearly be true of Syncrude. That is, these sources can produce middle distillate characterisic products with little or no gasoline attached as a by product. Of course, using naptha and high octane gasoline blends could turn even gas distillate into gasolines. Processes like Chevron- Sasol or Shell can now turn gas or coal into gasoline. These processes are well proven and China has bought a number of licenses and will be bulding a lot more CTL production, in particular. North America has the pure luxury of huge resources for both processes.
Then add in the recent better understandings of Residual Oil Zones in the US, in particular, and our tertiary recovery potential might well get to a cumulative production of 60 % of original oil in place. That means the US could wind up with an added proven reserve of around 200 bn bbl plus present proven reserves of 20 bn bbl. Interestingly, this added oil would by fortuitous circumstance be relatively low on investment. It sure looks like the old 80 % of the benefit can be bought for 20 % of the investment might be true in the US. That is an added 160 bn bbl for a couple hundred billion. The low cost of remaining conventional oil should easily generate the cash flow to cover investment needed.
Then there is all that gas and coal.
Subjectivist wrote:Older army maintenance manuals gave directions for oil changes. The instructions included pouring the old engine oil into any convenient diesel motor vehicle and then topping the tank up with standard diesel fuel. If you search YouTube you can find several videos of people mixing old motor oil into diesel fuel as a fuel extender and calling it Black Diesel.
Tanada wrote:I do think jealousy is a large part of the resentment. The fact is when I moved here back in 2010 the family owned the local butcher shop and were doing well for themselves. Then a couple years later they bought a closed convenience store and reopened it and that was actually seen as a good thing as it was in competition with the local grocery store/subway/gas station on the main intersection through town where the two heaviest traffic roads cross. Then about five years ago someone built a Dollar General just outside the village limits and started undercutting the local grocery store prices and the owners decided to call it quits. When they did the prominent family rode to the rescue and bought the grocery store/subway/gas station and lowered prices to be competitive on the products the Dollar General carries like milk and cleaning supplies, soda and beer. The lower prices made just about everyone happy for a while, but now that the other filling station which is also the only real auto shop for repairs in town is going to close we will be at the mercy of having a single fuel supplier and nobody expects that to be a good thing.
The really odd thing to me who is still seen as something of an outsider even after living here 11 years is that the family buying up all these distressed businesses has been in this town for generations. Most of the people living here grew up with them, went to school with them or their kids and many are at least tangentially related to them. The fact that they have managed to prosper when many other local businesses have failed seems to generate more resentment because they are local folks. I honestly expected the out of towners who built the Dollar General franchise outlet to get a lot of heat locally but the exact opposite seems to have happened.
Unlike many of the folks around here I grew up in a small town where everyone knew who was what level in the social hierarchy. The thing is once you or your family was pigeonholed into a level of social status you were expected to stay right there. Women who married into a higher strata were considered gold diggers even if they went away to university and came back with a degree that tentatively placed them at an equal status to the family they married in to. Men who wanted to "marry up" in level had to be significantly prominent socially by being a school sport hero, or coming back to town as an MD/DDS/DO or other upper level job like being a district attorney through the court system. Generally speaking factory or farm laborers were beneath the social upper crust women's notice for long term relationships or marriage.
Huh I just realized the practical issues I brought up earlier have morphed into a sociology study I think I said enough to make myself unpopular if any of my neighbors ever joins this place and figures out who I am so I will shut up now ROFL!
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