Just for fun...

[Mr. Coffee]

Oil is the same price as it was when gas was 30% cheaper.
Its all about confidence in the giant casino we call an economy.

No, it is all about perceived supply chain and infrastructure risk.

There are four places in the world where most crude oil is refined into things we can use. China, the Untied States, Russia, and around the Persian Gulf. Two of those are currently war zones. The remaining two are, for the moment, running flat out (at about 95% capacity) and have been doing so for some months. And they probably can't continue running that hard much longer.

I am sitting here enjoying the fact that we are forcing an extremely rapid transition away from fossil fuels.

 

[Roamers]

that we are forcing an extremely rapid transition away from fossil fuels.

Where? I'm on the road right now running the Interstates. Very few EVs on the highway. As we pass (or stop at) fuel stations, dozen Tesla stations sit empty at every one; 3 years ago there were wait lines at every one.

People have figured out what EVs are good for, and it's not travel. Nice little around town commuter toys; their niche.

We are at our lodging for 2 weeks; not an EV to be seen (coastal Maine) at the cabins or the restaurant we ate at tonight.

 

[Roamers]

I am sitting here enjoying the fact that we are forcing an extremely rapid transition away from fossil fuels.

Trump Administration Plans to Gut Clean Car Rules

New fuel-economy standards, which President Trump said he finalized Saturday, would kill a federal effort to speed the transition to electric vehicles.

www.nytimes.com

 

[Mr. Coffee]

Where? I'm on the road right now running the Interstates. Very few EVs on the highway. As we pass (or stop at) fuel stations, dozen Tesla stations sit empty at every one; 3 years ago there were wait lines at every one.

People have figured out what EVs are good for, and it's not travel. Nice little around town commuter toys; their niche.

We are at our lodging for 2 weeks; not an EV to be seen (coastal Maine) at the cabins or the restaurant we ate at tonight.

I am seeing several things right now:

1. EVs don't stay on the lot. They are sold as soon as they show up and often someone has already put a deposit on them sight unseen.
2. In early 2026 (pre-war) most dealers offered rebates of as much as $7500. Not anymore.
3. Used EVs, especially at the low end of the price spectrum, are rapidly going up in price. This is even with a "glut" of used EVs coming on the market as a lot of 2022 and 2023 models are coming out of leases.

All of that indicates rapidly increasing demand for EVs. Even if it hasn't yet translated into more of them on the road.

 

[Mr. Coffee]

Trump Administration Plans to Gut Clean Car Rules

New fuel-economy standards, which President Trump said he finalized Saturday, would kill a federal effort to speed the transition to electric vehicles.

www.nytimes.com

Aren't you effectively supporting the ayatollahs if you are driving a gas car? And if higher gas prices are "worth it" to keep Iran from having a nuclear weapon, one would think driving EVs and not buying gas at all would in theory be even better. But I guess I don't understand the "logic" here.

 

[Roamers]

Aren't you effectively supporting the ayatollahs if you are driving a gas car?

I suppose you can twist that however you'd like.

 

[Roamers]

All of that indicates rapidly increasing demand for EVs. Even if it hasn't yet translated into more of them on the road.

I agree, there is a niche for EVs. As there is a niche for black belching diesels; mine doesn't belch.

 

[Chargeride]

 

[Mr. Coffee]

I suppose you can twist that however you'd like.

I guess Basic Economics is now twisted.

If you pump fossils into your car, you are, one way or another, increasing demand for gasoline and all of the upstream products used to make it. Higher demand implies higher prices.

Crude oil is an internationally traded commodity. So higher prices here in the Untied States mean higher prices elsewhere (all else remaining equal). So the Iranians get a higher price for the crude oil they sell to China. Which is exempt from the "blockade" we have on Iranian exports because reasons.

So an American pumping gas indirectly helps the Iranians make more money, which they can use to buy stuff (probably from China or maybe Russia) to use in the war we started with them.

That's how buying gasoline here helps the Ayatollahs.

I can understand how if you are opposed to the war you could argue you have no dawg in this fight and just want to live your life. But if because of years of therapy you decide that it is okay to both support this stupid war and that it is okay to burn fossils to go to the shopping mall or whatever I can't really sympathize.

This isn't all that tough to figure out if you want to know. But I guess ignorance is bliss or something.

 

[Roamers]

f you pump fossils into your car, you are, one way or another, increasing demand for gasoline and all of the upstream products used to make it. Higher demand implies higher prices

Iran’s oil is trapped while rival exports are about to surge but Tehran could break the US chokehold | Fortune https://fortune.com/2026/08/16/iran...l-blockade-missiles-aircraft-carrier-lincoln/

 

[Chargeride]

 

[JGcycle]