Should the US government do anything about the financial crisis?

[SiMuLaCrUm]

Yea, I never could see why they measure it all in barrels.

[worker201]

US oil and gas companies use barrel of oil equivalents (BOE) to make their energy accounting easier.  Since oil is a liquid and gas is a gas, the volumes don't add up right.  And their energy content per volume is also quite different.  So they convert the gas to BOE.  According to the US IRS, 1 BOE is equal to 5.8x10^6 BTUs.  The Wikipedia article linked above converts gas and coal to BBOE, which is billion BOE.

If I were to tell you that world energy reserves were:
oil - 1371 billion barrels
gas - 6381 trillion cubic feet
coal - 997748 million short tons

that wouldn't do you much good, would it?  I guess we could come up with some bullshit equation that would convert barrels of oil to short tons of coal, but there's no reason, since apparently someone has done all the work of converting coal and gas to barrels.  If you want to work out the BTUs for yourself, that's fine, but if you look at the BBOE, it gives you the same picture of proportion and scale.

[SiMuLaCrUm]

Ah, so it is just used as a standard of measurement.

[WMD]

But back to the original point, a little pressure helps a lot.  We had hybrid cars before gas prices went up, but they were expensive and unpopular.  Now everybody wants one, every manufacturer is making them, and SUV and Hummer sales are way down.  All because gas prices were artificially high for a few months.  Probably, some of the newer models will be phased out if gas prices stabilize at a low level.

But what's a "low level?"  Gas will probably never go back down to $1 a gallon.  It's still above $2.50 here in Florida, and that still won't sell many Hummers.

Also, if you like conspiracy theories...the price of gas will probably go back up after the presidental election.

[Aloone_Jonez]

US oil and gas companies use barrel of oil equivalents (BOE) to make their energy accounting easier.  Since oil is a liquid and gas is a gas, the volumes don't add up right.  And their energy content per volume is also quite different.  So they convert the gas to BOE.  According to the US IRS, 1 BOE is equal to 5.8x10^6 BTUs.  The Wikipedia article linked above converts gas and coal to BBOE, which is billion BOE.

If I were to tell you that world energy reserves were:
oil - 1371 billion barrels
gas - 6381 trillion cubic feet
coal - 997748 million short tons

that wouldn't do you much good, would it?  I guess we could come up with some bullshit equation that would convert barrels of oil to short tons of coal, but there's no reason, since apparently someone has done all the work of converting coal and gas to barrels.  If you want to work out the BTUs for yourself, that's fine, but if you look at the BBOE, it gives you the same picture of proportion and scale.

That makes sense.

I can't stand imperial measurements though. I wish everyone would adopt metric, it would make life much easier.

[worker201]

But back to the original point, a little pressure helps a lot.  We had hybrid cars before gas prices went up, but they were expensive and unpopular.  Now everybody wants one, every manufacturer is making them, and SUV and Hummer sales are way down.  All because gas prices were artificially high for a few months.  Probably, some of the newer models will be phased out if gas prices stabilize at a low level.

But what's a "low level?"  Gas will probably never go back down to $1 a gallon.  It's still above $2.50 here in Florida, and that still won't sell many Hummers.

Ah, the good old days - I used to be able to walk into a gas station with $10 and get 5 packs of cigarettes and 5 gallons of gas.  You're right, that will never happen again.  But when the Chevy Avalanche (one of the lowest mileage vehicles of all time) came out, gas was right around $2.50/gallon.  So we can deduce that price is low enough that people will willingly trade economy for style.  Obviously, $4/gallon is too high for the same trade, so the tipping point was somewhere in between.

Of course in some places this is all moot.  In Texas, even when gas was well over $4/gallon, automotive behaviors did not change much.  Old men still sat in their running cars with the AC on while their wives spent half an hour in the grocery store.  Pickup sales stayed level, and hybrids still weren't available at any of the town's numerous dealerships, because there just was no demand.  Texas is full of people who will grumble about the price of gas, but would rather be broke than change their habits.  Which explains why they liked Bush so much.  In Colorado, gas could go to $8/gallon, and that wouldn't slow the sale of SUVs and Jeeps, because everyone is convinced that you have to have a 4WD for snow (total bullshit, but it sounds reasonable).  Point being that there are other things affecting demand than price alone.

[SiMuLaCrUm]

Prices around here are in the $2.80 range, and dropping. Not that I pay much attention, I don't drive (bike ftw)