Gas Prices, Again

[The Rabbi]

I've noticed gas prices have crept up over the last several months and now are at $2.69 at my local place.  I assume this is common everywhere.
But the last time this happened it was all over the news, angry consumers demanding the gov't "do something" about prices, bloviating congressmen promising investigations into "price gouging", people blaming George Bush.  Now I haven't seen a single news story on it.
What gives?

[mtnbkr]

Democrats have Congress.  Any other sill questions?

I really appreciate the prices starting their upward climb just before we left for our 2500 mile tour of the southeast.

Chris

[El Tejon]

Gas prices are not high enough!

Drove to my nephew's birthday party in Indianapolis and the traffic was terrible.

Stay off my roads, people.  Raise it to $9 a gallon and let me drive in peace.  Only fitting as the roads are mine.

Rabbi, the answer to your question is the November '06 elections.  If Democrats win, it cannot be the government's fault since Democrats run the Congress.

[Laurent du Var]

I'm really bad at mathematics but let's see :

1 gallon = 2.69 $

(would that be leaded gas, unleaded or diesel ?)
Well, I'm thinking unleaded 95 pb, but do correct me.

Since I have no Idea what a gallon is I've looked it up
and one gallon contains roughly 3.785 liters

which makes   1 liter = 71 $cents
                       1 US $ = 75 Euro-cents
                       71 $cents = 53 Eurocents 

                1 liter (in France) =  1.33 Euros 
                1 liter (US)           =   0.53 Euros

And now you know why in Europe we have those ridicolous Smart cars,
and everybody is switching to Diesel engines which are more polluting  in my opinion. I used to drive a gas powered Mitsubishi 4 wheel drive and since I have the kids I changed to a Ford TD station wagon
Only 6 liters on 100 kms but no fun.

Thats why we need to stay buddy buddy with Iran, but I really don't know why no one mentions things like that chez vous.
10 years ag in CA I payed one dollar/gallon, or am I wrong ? 



 

[Art Eatman]

Quien sabe?  Maybe folks are coming to realize that high gas prices are here to stay?  'Cause they are...

Anybody ever check out the website of the EIA?  Energy Information Administration?  All manner of good info there.

Art

[Gewehr98]

We haven't had leaded gas (tetraethyl lead) available for on-road use since 1996.

[meinbruder]

I've noticed gas prices have crept up over the last several months and now are at $2.69 at my local place.  I assume this is common everywhere.
But the last time this happened it was all over the news, angry consumers demanding the gov't "do something" about prices, bloviating congressmen promising investigations into "price gouging", people blaming George Bush.  Now I haven't seen a single news story on it.
What gives?

I wish the price was $2.69 in Portland; I just paid $3.07 for 89oct.  I heard an interesting commentary a while back about who made what on the price of a gallon.  The fed has more profit per gallon than the oil companies and that doesnt include state taxes.  While the oil companies are drowning in money, their profit is generated on volume whereas the .gov taxes are parasitic.  True, the .gov does build roads and all so it has no motive to reduce prices.

I saw an item on Yahoo not long ago, which suggests Hydrogen powered cars are being tested in California.  The price of the engine will be significant but once the price of fuel is factored in theyll sell like the proverbial hotcake.  Imagine the price of gas after a twenty percent, or more, reduction in demand.   
}:)>

[Sindawe]

Last time I fueled up about two weeks ago, 89 Oct (r+m/2) was running $2.69/gallon, and its crept up since then.

Yea, I recall all the pulling of hair and gnashing of teeth on MSM last gasoline prices got this high.  I suspect is mix of people realize that gasoline is just gonna cost more, and MSM not having the Republicans in congress to blame this on.  IIRC, oil companies earn nine cents profit on each gallon sold, while the feds get 18.4 cents per gallon and colorado gets 22 cents/gallon of tax.

http://www.gaspricewatch.com/usgastaxes.asp

I saw an item on Yahoo not long ago, which suggests Hydrogen powered cars are being tested in California.

Do you recall if that was using a fuel cell to generate electricity, or burning the hydrogen in a conventional internal combustion engine?  The latter could be taken up now as a step toward the former moving into wide use.

[RadioFreeSeaLab]

2.69?  I wish.  I filled up at 3.39 a few days ago.  Stupid southern California.  Everything is over priced.

[richyoung]

                1 liter (in France) =  1.33 Euros 
                1 liter (US)           =   0.53 Euros

...and you DO know that almost of that is addition tax your government charges you serfs, right?

[Manedwolf]

                1 liter (in France) =  1.33 Euros 
                1 liter (US)           =   0.53 Euros

...and you DO know that almost of that is addition tax your government charges you serfs, right?

I'm sure it makes working French proud to know that all that money is going to support the deliberately-unemployed cafe layabouts and jihadist nuts in the Parisian suburbs, and makes the English proud to know that it's going to support the fully one-third of the population that gets most of their income from the public dole.

[Typhoon]

2.69?  I wish.  I filled up at 3.39 a few days ago.  Stupid southern California.  Everything is over priced.

Dasmi, please,

Dontcha know that the extra $$ we pay here in sunny SoCal is for the excellent roads and air quality we enjoy???   

[auschip]

As low as $2.59 in Austin, in Brazoria/Lake Jackson for the holiday it was $2.69-$2.74. 

[Boomhauer]

$2.59/gallon in upstate SC.

The many different blends that the oil companys are required to produce and the various chemicals that must be added are naturally going to raise prices. On top of that are the taxes that the Feds and the State governments pile on. Once the gov't introduces regs and taxes, it ain't gonna take them off.

Never mind that the regs don't actually do anything to help the enviroment. Another stupid thing is that we are not allowed to have many of the diesels that the Europeans have due to our enviromental regulations.

Yet people still believe two things:
1. President Bush and the Republicans set the prices
2. The oil companies are making "record" or "windfall" profits

[Art Eatman]

The EIA noted yesterday that gas prices up in Armadillo were $2.29, cheapest in the U.S.

Gasoline tax income used to go to a dedicated "Highway Trust Fund", to be used only for highway construction.  Seems fair; a user-pay deal.  Then the do-gooders changed federal law so they could do mass-transit stuff with some of the money.  Later, with inflation, the money proved to be insufficient to keep up with the demand for new construction, so general-fund revenues are added.

By and large over the last 40 years, McDonald's stock has been more profitable than Exxon's.  But nobody ever yowls about McDonald's "obscene profits".

Katrina's impacts on Big Oil included a wipe-out of a Chevron rig in the Gulf.  (And others.)  $600 million, down the tubes.  Chevron's Jack #6 in 7,000 feet of water with a 23,000-foot well has cost around a billion bucks, so far.  Folks don't seem to realize that those "obscene profits" are plowed back into new wells.

Art

[meinbruder]

I saw an item on Yahoo not long ago, which suggests Hydrogen powered cars are being tested in California.

Do you recall if that was using a fuel cell to generate electricity, or burning the hydrogen in a conventional internal combustion engine?  The latter could be taken up now as a step toward the former moving into wide use.

There wasnt a mention of the method of combustion or any suggestion of fuel cell technology.  Dad has been a gearhead since 1950 and thinks a direct combustion system would be the easiest to manage; an electrical separation system venting O on one side and non-compressed H on the other with an induction system injecting the H into the engine.  The system would require a small containment vessel of H to start the engine and it would run just like a gas engine with the advantage of filling the tank from the garden hose in the front yard.  The political hurdle is the numbskull that screeches about H-bombs on the highway being the end of the world, Remember the Hindenburg sort of fear mongering.  I cant imagine a quart bottle of H being more flammable or explosive than the twenty-gallon gas tank under the seat of my Ranger.     
}:)>

[richyoung]

I saw an item on Yahoo not long ago, which suggests Hydrogen powered cars are being tested in California.

Do you recall if that was using a fuel cell to generate electricity, or burning the hydrogen in a conventional internal combustion engine?  The latter could be taken up now as a step toward the former moving into wide use.

There wasnt a mention of the method of combustion or any suggestion of fuel cell technology.  Dad has been a gearhead since 1950 and thinks a direct combustion system would be the easiest to manage; an electrical separation system venting O on one side and non-compressed H on the other with an induction system injecting the H into the engine.  The system would require a small containment vessel of H to start the engine and it would run just like a gas engine with the advantage of filling the tank from the garden hose in the front yard.  The political hurdle is the numbskull that screeches about H-bombs on the highway being the end of the world, Remember the Hindenburg sort of fear mongering.  I cant imagine a quart bottle of H being more flammable or explosive than the twenty-gallon gas tank under the seat of my Ranger.     
}:)>

Uh..that won't work.  2nd law of TD - you can't recover enough energy from the hydrogen to both power the vehicle AND electrolyze more hydrogen.  You can't even just replace the hydrogen WITHOUT powering the vehicle - no system is 100% efficient.

[Manedwolf]

I saw an item on Yahoo not long ago, which suggests Hydrogen powered cars are being tested in California.

Do you recall if that was using a fuel cell to generate electricity, or burning the hydrogen in a conventional internal combustion engine?  The latter could be taken up now as a step toward the former moving into wide use.

There wasnt a mention of the method of combustion or any suggestion of fuel cell technology.  Dad has been a gearhead since 1950 and thinks a direct combustion system would be the easiest to manage; an electrical separation system venting O on one side and non-compressed H on the other with an induction system injecting the H into the engine.  The system would require a small containment vessel of H to start the engine and it would run just like a gas engine with the advantage of filling the tank from the garden hose in the front yard.  The political hurdle is the numbskull that screeches about H-bombs on the highway being the end of the world, Remember the Hindenburg sort of fear mongering.  I cant imagine a quart bottle of H being more flammable or explosive than the twenty-gallon gas tank under the seat of my Ranger.     
}:)>

And, of course, there's the fact that the Hindenburg's hydrogen didn't explode, or it would have been colorless flame. That it was the aluminum oxide doped skin, basically rocket fuel, and it was far better PR for the Germans to blame America for not supplying them with helium than it was to admit that the skin was fatally flawed. The Graf had its skin changed to a nonflammable composition. They knew what caused it.

[Paddy]

Gas prices can easily double, or even triple, for all I care.  There are way too many big ass SUV's on the road anyway. Besides, the few oil companies who control the prices are entitled to as much profit as they can make.  It's the American Way.....all about the bottom line and we're an easy, captive market.

BTW, we've got one Prius and one Toyota Echo in the family, so we're getting 40-50 mpg and gas prices don't really matter much. 

[Manedwolf]

Gas prices can easily double, or even triple, for all I care.  There are way too many big ass SUV's on the road anyway. Besides, the few oil companies who control the prices are entitled to as much profit as they can make.  It's the American Way.....all about the bottom line and we're an easy, captive market.

BTW, we've got one Prius and one Toyota Echo in the family, so we're getting 40-50 mpg and gas prices don't really matter much. 

Just know how much toxic metals you'll be putting into landfills and the water table when it's time to change out all those batteries in that thing.

Also realize what'll happen to it if any regular-sized car or SUV hits it.

[Sindawe]

Uh..that won't work.  2nd law of TD - you can't recover enough energy from the hydrogen to both power the vehicle AND electrolyze more hydrogen.  You can't even just replace the hydrogen WITHOUT powering the vehicle - no system is 100% efficient.

Decouple the electrolysis of water to O2 and H2 from the engine and it might just work.  I've following these folks for a while now: http://www.switch2hydrogen.com/ to see if they can get their product to the market.  Photovoltaic cells on the roof would be great.  I have several hundered ft^2 of roof that mostly just sits in the sun and gets hot.

[280plus]

Check this out. http://www.avalence.com/

From right here in CT. I've been trying to get more info and a price on one but the sobs don't return my calls. My dream is a house with one of these that is heated and cooled by H, cooking and HW PLUS fill up your H internal combustion car. All from water. It can be plugged into the grid but draws relatively little juice so solar juice to at least supplement the grid is not out of the question.

[Paddy]

Just know how much toxic metals you'll be putting into landfills and the water table when it's time to change out all those batteries in that thing.

Insignificant, really, compared to total pollutants produced by bigazzed gas guzzlers.

Also realize what'll happen to it if any regular-sized car or SUV hits it.

Actually, crash ratings are up in the 4-5 star ratings.  Rollovers are non-existent, especially compared to SUV's (whose sales are plummeting BTW).

[Thor]

Riley, you aren't realizing the energy required to make those batteries, either. Batteries are insignificant  compared to exhaust emissions??  Let's get real. Why do you think that all vehicle batteries are mandatorily required to be recycled?? NiCad batteries, Lithium Ion batteries etc are prohibited in landfills. The Prius is nothing but a "feelgood" solution to our problems.

[Paddy]

I think you're jumping to conclusions.  You seem to think we have some kind of environmentalist/whacko social conscience and that's why we own a Prius.  We like the car, that's all.  That IS ok, isn't it?  I don't happen to like big noisy jacked up trucks, ok? 

Ever drive behind some stinkin' diesel pickup pouring out solid pollutants because the owner won't have it maintained?  Ever try to pull out of some driveway and see around some HUGE SUV parked in your line of sight?  Usually these oversize vehicles are occupied by a single a-hole.  They take up entirely too much room and use too much fuel IMO.