Fuelling the Fire

[ellyssian]

Okay.

First off, mandatory reading: Kurt Vonnegut's article Cold Turkey from May 10, 2004.

Next, cheap gas: yesterday at 5:15pm or so, $2.49; same station today $2.64. There is no way that the gas costs that much more to produce - it costs the same. What changed is the demand. Five cars deep today, lots of demand. Zero to one cars deep yesterday. People are afraid that the supply is gone - and it will be, not too far down the line, and it will be in shorter supply on a smaller time scale due to the effects on the supply chain down in the Gulf. Two things can raise the price of a commodity: one, lots of people wanting it - which happens when everyone rushes to the station to fill up quick, before the price goes up! Nice job, panicking masses! and two, lack of supply, and that part is going to get hit while we're waiting for them to spin some of the drilling rigs and refineries back up - and figure out ways around the gaping holes no doubt left by loss of Gulf coast facilities.

Some Snopes reading:
-- Pain in the Gas - 1-3 day boycotts can bring down the price of gas (false)
-- Katrina and the Waves - Hurricane Katrina impacting the price of gas (multiple)

I haven't done the math, but I know in some international discussions, that gas is routinely four or five dollars a gallon in other parts of the world, without any assistance from hurricanes and Oil Market Voodoo. I'd like to take the time to do a comparison - what is the price of regular gas, in US dollars, here and in a handful of other countries; along with the price of other commodities (sugar? bread? any ideas?)

I have a significant commute and I go through a tank of gas every three or four work days. I plan - and it's a very loose, open plan, subject to much change - to get an additional vehicle in Fall 2007. That vehicle will use some form of alternate fuel - most likely it will be a diesel pickup truck that I will convert to biodiesel, but time will tell.

I will also be looking into several means to reduce reliance on electricity - not just to go it on our own in power loss, but to help reduce the amount of money spent on electrical generation, which comes mostly from fossil fuels. I don't have the cash to fund this outright and do what I'd like, but I'll certainly be keeping it in mind as a goal, and using the principles of reducing the amount of fuel we require.

Sooner or later, we'll all have to do that. Might as well work towards it with purpose.

Comments

[wintersweet.livejournal.com]

http://money.cnn.com/pf/features/lists/global_gasprices/price.html
Of course, cars in most other countries are more fuel efficient, as I recall. For that matter, American cars were more efficient 25 years ago than now.

[ellyssian.livejournal.com]

Thanks!

The cars are definitely smaller, and those will be more efficient. Not sure about the older cars being more efficient, though - well, unless you count SUVs. They definitely spiral fuel efficiency right down the drain.

[wintersweet.livejournal.com]

I think silme wrote once about how the same model of car was actually more fuel efficient in the UK than in the US. o_o

[silme.livejournal.com]

Yes, that was Ian's diesel Vauxhall Estate -- basically a Chevy station wagon. (They're starting to them Chevys over here now, btw.) Because it was diesel, it got 50 mpg. I'd never heard of a Chevy wagon getting that! :)

[ellyssian.livejournal.com]

Diesel is definitely more efficient - although it does tend to offer up more pollutants.

The bio-diesel is intriguing because (and please, correct me where I'm off here - I haven't looked too deeply into this yet!) you can use it in an unmodified/slightly modified diesel engine. IIRC, the slight modification is required for running pure recovered vegetable oil which would otherwise be a waste product produced by restaurants, wheras bio-diesel itself can be used directly in an unmodified engine.

[silme.livejournal.com]

Yes, and it's illegal in this country. :(

[ellyssian.livejournal.com]

Wow - that seems strange.

I know I've read some stuff on bio-diesel here, and they're pretty sure they can easily grow enough fuel on a regular basis to meet the needs - they just have to get to it.

Some parts of the country (not here, sadly) have it available at gas stations already.

[silme.livejournal.com]

Oh, sorry, I meant biodiesel that you make yourself. There were people who were getting used oil from their local chippies etc. The government disliked that because they didn't pay tax on their fuel. :)

[ellyssian.livejournal.com]

Still - that doesn't seem like any excuse.

I understand why taxes are needed, but I think taxing on something like that... :: shudder ::

I'm hoping the government pays those local chippies generously when they collect that waste... oy!

[ellyssian.livejournal.com]

Kind of like Burger King and McDonalds catering their food to local tastes in other locales... except without as much sense or reason.

[(Anonymous)]

Gas in Watertown went from $2.60 Mon.night to
$3.14 Tues.am. Tonight's news said to prepare
for $3.50 gal. in a short future.

The bit about cars being more NRG efficient several
years ago is, sadly, true and that's comparing similar sizes,
not small to large. With the advent of SUVs and decline
in pressure to produce more efficient vehicles, motor companies
took the cheaper route. Articles on it were in the Globe's auto pages a
short while back (maybe Herald's) and in Newsweek.

Back in the late 60's or so, Jim Melcher and family spent a year in England and, at that time, he said gas was = $4.00 per gal.

Good luck. I think no matter how many different ways of conserving
fuel NRG are found, there will always be a source that could be depleted because of population expansion if nothing else.

[ellyssian.livejournal.com]

Hmmm... I was hoping it was just the SUVs bringing down the performance.

Dissapointed, but not, I guess, really surprised.

The history on the US has always been to produce cars that were fast for that quarter mile, and forget about everything else. Like turning (or at least, for the NASCAR fans, turning right as well as left.) Or using up fuel.

At least, in the last couple of generations, they started giving the Corvette the ability to turn. :: ducks and hides from any Corvette fans ::

[silme.livejournal.com]

We pay about US $6.00 per US gallon right now, with prices going up. Normally, prices would go down here next week -- US Labor Day would be over, summer holidays over here. However, they're expected to rise instead. Petrol is routinely around 91 pence a litre. Where we live, it's more -- 93.9 pence a litre. Luckily, I bought petrol by work on Wednesday for a mere 88.9 pence -- the cheapest I've seen in a while. There is one station in Ashurst that wants 98.9 pence a litre! There is fear of it going up to a pound a litre...

[ellyssian.livejournal.com]

I think that no matter where you are - short of Venezuala, maybe (at least for a longer time) - it will only be going up from here.

[silme.livejournal.com]

Oh yes, we're in a global market.

[dreadpiratetait.livejournal.com]

Tuesday night: gas 2.58. Friday morning, same station: 2.99. Some place have seen it jump as much as 70 cents a gallon overnight. There are calls for investigations into price gouging.