But let us not forget that the Saudi’s can put a barrel of oil on the deck of a ship for $17 – $25 per barrel. So we may have a long way to go. But isn’t this exciting!

This is my third and last post on the subject.

http://www.forbes.com/sites/quora/2015/01/06/how-will-the-2014-drop-in-oil-prices-affect-the-world-economy-and-geopolitics/

Tech 1/06/2015 @ 4:08PM 6,917 views

How Will The 2014 Drop In Oil Prices Affect The World Economy And Geopolitics?

This question originally appeared on Quora: How will the 2014 drop in oil prices affect the world economy and geopolitics?

Answer by Alex Song, Hedge Fund Analyst, on Quora

• Domestically, lower energy prices means more money for discretionary spending. The equivalent effect on the US economy is a tax cut for consumers on the order of $100-125bn. Think about how low gasoline prices are now compared to where they were a few months ago. This saving generally translates into higher consumption on other things like retail spending. For airlines, this will be awesome because the cost of fuel and flying decreases, the effects of which may be passed on to consumers. Net-net, analysts estimate higher consumer spending should boost US GDP by .4%-.5% over the next year. This will be balanced by lower domestic energy production, however.
• Internationally, for countries like China, Japan, and South Korea, which are huge energy importers, each 1% drop in crude prices is the equivalent to billions of dollars saved on their trade balance. Japan, in particular, has been suffering from a trade deficit for the past few quarters. The predominant reason is due to the mounting cost of energy imports (which they were forced to increase due to their shutting down all of their nuclear reactors following Fukushima in 2011). Plummeting oil prices is net-net a huge positive for them. In other parts of the world, low oil prices are squeezing countries like Russia, Iran, and Venezuela in very negative ways. In the near-to-medium term, it may force them to adopt a more conciliatory stance toward the rest of the world on political issues and reforms (Ukraine/Crimea, nuclear initiatives, etc.) due to the poor state of the economy. In particular, Russia may be forced to acquiesce on Ukraine just to get Western Europe to lift its embargo.

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Go there and read. There are many other linked articles. More next week.

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I know I posted about this last week. I know that usually transportation is not thought of as saving residential energy. But gasoline is selling for the same price as it was when I was in college. I know that this makes me sound like an old foggey. But this is a serious issue. Gas is selling for $1.88 today.

http://www.therakyatpost.com/business/2014/12/23/oil-prices-continues-drop-saudi-comments/

Oil prices continue to drop after Saudi comments

Go there and read. Google it for heaven’s sake. More next week.

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But nobody knows why. They claim they do. One guy claims it is because of Fracking in the US. Another gal claims it is because of Saudi Arabia output is so high. Other people blame a lack of consumption. I believe it maybe because the speculators have unleash a flood of cheap oil from tanker storage. That does not change the fact that we are all guessing. This leads to some really confused reporting.

MERRY CHRISTMAS

http://www.pe.com/articles/year-756846-prices-holiday.html

News

GAS PRICES: Inland pumps average $2.71 a gallon

The eight days of Hanukkah. The Twelve Days of Christmas. So why not the weeks and weeks of plummeting fuel prices?

Again proving to be a gift with seemingly no end in sight, the average price of regular gasoline nationwide dropped an additional 25 cents a gallon in the past two weeks, to $2.39. That’s the lowest it’s been in more than five years.

And, just in time for the year-end travel boom, industry analyst Trilby Lundberg said prices will likely keep falling into the new year. Lower crude oil prices are driving prices down, along with an abundant oil supply and the rising value of the U.S. dollar, Lundberg said. The Consumer Comfort, Consumer Sentiment and Consumer Confidence indices were all at their highest levels since 2007, according to the American Automobile Association, which said the consistent decline in prices is the longest the organization has ever tracked.

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Go there and read. More next week.

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The last excuse by the industrialists and their mouth pieces just went out the window. They totally bought the cancer and smoking defensive fall back approach. First they said that Climate Change wasn’t happening. Then they said we couldn’t “prove” it and came up with “scientists” that refuted it. Then they said it wasn’t as “bad” as what we were saying. Finally they said, “Well China isn’t doing it so why should we?”. So I am sure now they will say that any carbon tax or carbon emissions limit will be TOO MUCH. You heard it here first.

http://www.newrepublic.com/article/120242/us-and-china-reach-agreement-climate-change

Environment

November 12, 2014

The World Has Waited for the U.S. and China to Take Action on Climate Change. They Just Did.

By Rebecca Leber @rebleber

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Go there and read. More next week

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Actually falling oil prices are not good because cheaper oil and gasoline means more of it gets used, thus more global warming. Still if there is a silver lining this would be it.

http://www.npr.org/2014/11/04/361204786/falling-oil-prices-make-fracking-less-lucrative

November 04, 2014 3:23 AM ET

Jeff Brady

Facebook

Oil prices are down than more than 25 percent since June and are staying low for now. Drivers may appreciate that, but for oil companies, it’s making some of the most controversial methods of producing oil less profitable — and in a few cases, unprofitable.

Most of the world’s oil is selling for about $80 to $85 a barrel now. But not all oil is created equal. In the Middle East, it’s cheaper to produce, at a cost of less than $30 a barrel on average, according to the Norwegian firm Rystad Energy.

But in the Arctic, producing a barrel costs $78 on average. From Canada’s oil sands, it’s an average of $74 a barrel. And because those are averages, some companies have costs that are higher — which means there could be drillers currently producing crude at a loss.

Here in the U.S., the oil drilling boom is due largely to technologies like hydraulic fracturing, or fracking, used to force oil from shale formations deep underground. Producing this oil, Rystad figures, costs an average of $62 a barrel.

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Go there and read. More next week.

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