OT: Gas prices jumping in leaps & bounds across the country

[Rodger Tellefson]

I filled up this afternoon, $46 worth - Ouch. The attendent inside told me that the price went up 2x just today. What the heck is up with this crap. The gas prices sure came down when everyone found out about the oil companies making record profits. We were talking with a guy last Sat. that worked for the phone co., and was helping out in the Katrina area where he heard that those refineries will never be rebuilt. I feel something here just doesn't add up.

 

[Tom Schindler]

In the local paper, someone wrote that the profit margin of ExxonMobile was about 9%.



That isn't that bad...honestly. If the profits are fair, I don't have a problem with it. They are a for profit company.



More refineries and alternative fuels are the answer, but that is where the "Chicken or the Egg" comes into play. people wont invest in vehicles that burn an alternative fule if there arent any fuel stations to support them and the stations wont invest in the equipment if nobody has vehicles they can sell it to.



BTW, did you order your Addco Sway bar? trust me, you will be happy you did. When spring comes, if I can afford it, I will be getting one. I just need to save enough money for my honeymoon and i will order it. $10,000 is alot of money to save up.





Tom

 

[Nelson Atwell]

Ethanol is not the solution to our fuel problems. We'll need to find something else.

Today the US Gas usage is approximately 360,000,000 Gallon /Day. 28.8% of the US surface area (~ 685,000,000 Acre) would be required to grow the biomass required to produce enough ethanol to cover the current domestic US gas demand. The US currently has 455,000,000 acres of arable land. There are currently about 80 million acres of corn planted in the US (~40% of the world's supply of corn). (Source: Wikipedia)

:blink:

 

[Tom Schindler]

That is exactly my point. Until there is an alternative fuel, we are still using petroleum.





Tom

 

[Andrew Tollison 3]

Gas prices have been falling around my area. It was $2.29 on friday and today it was $2.09 a gallon

 

[R 2]

I wouldn't be surprised if it went past $3 w/ the driving months comin up. :blink:



(add SNL Rachel Drach effect)

 

[Todd Cloutier]

You know, all of the estimates I've seen for ethanol production assume that corn is going to be used as the feedstock. But when you consider just how much of the corn plan is used to produce ethanol, namely the kernels, most of the plant is going to waste. That just strikes me as being very inefficient. What is needed is aprocess that will convert cellulose (i.e. the entire plant) to alcohol. Then agricultural production can be switched over to a high-density, low maintenance crop that will maximize alcohol production.

 

[Keith McElroy]

Interesting point, Todd, but what makes corn kernels a good candidate for alcohol distillation is their high sugar content. The chemical process requires a substance that can be mashed, plus has a high enough sugar content for the yeast to convert to alcohol. The fibrous stock does not have much of any sugar content.



Corn is used for ethonol because it germinates very quickly, is fairly easy to transport/process, and its propagation ratio (number of seeds per plant) is high. There is a time of year when you can actually hear corn growing.

 

[Todd Cloutier]

High sugar content is certainly essential for current ethanol production methods, just look at Brazil using sugar cane to satisfy much of its fuel needs. What bothers me is that the argument that we would have to cover the country in corn fields (or soybeans in the case of biodiesel) seems to be used as an excuse to do nothing at all about our energy needs.



There are companies out there, look up Changing World Technologies, that can convert nearly any form of biomass (or anthing that contains carbon) into fuel. Yet the overall progress in using our domestic resources (other than petroleum) to meet some of our energy needs has been slow. The United States has been the world's greatest innovator in modern times. We should be able to invent processes and technologies that will reduce consumption and repalce some of the foreign oil with domestically produced energy. Right now there isn't a national will to do this, but if gasoline prices stay high there will be more popular support to alternative fuels and energy sources.

 

[Keith McElroy]

One word: fusion



All we have to do is put a small fusion reactor in our cars and they will run forever. Only problem is, the CEL would have a completely different meaning.:wacko:

 

[TomT]

I wouldn't be surprised if it went past $3 w/ the driving months coming up.

I have been told we will be paying close to $4 a gal by summers end. And that's without any natural disasters or major wars.

 

[Todd Cloutier]

[Broken External Image]:

 

[Kenrick Pinard]

You guys need to visit my country in order to appreciate the price of gas in your country. We pay EC$10.11 (USD3.75) per gallon. To fill our tank it costs EC$232.53(USD85.58).

 

[Gavin Allan]

re: OT: Gas prices jumping in leaps & bounds across the country by Kenrick,3/28/2006 10:04 CT



You guys need to visit my country in order to appreciate the price of gas in your country. We pay EC$10.11 (USD3.75) per gallon. To fill our tank it costs EC$232.53(USD85.58).

Yeah, but you don't have anywhere to drive like we do!