2005-03-21 16:36:45.42249+00 by Dan Lyke 14 comments
It has come to our attention that some denizens of the east coast are amazed at the price of gasoline:
Got gas on the way to work this morning. Paid US$2.19/gallon. boggle
John, if a picture is worth a thousand words, consider this 500 "bite me"s.
[ related topics: John S Jacobs-Anderson California Culture Automobiles ]
comments in ascending chronological order (reverse):
#Comment Re: made: 2005-03-21 19:00:07.443385+00 by: petronius
What's worse, those prices are in Euros!!!
#Comment Re: made: 2005-03-22 19:39:19.97215+00 by: ebradway
Was that outside Yosemite? I've heard that the gas prices in the Yosemite Valley have always been the highest in the nation.
BTW, I currently pay $1.999/gallon for Biodiesel B20. Each gallon carries me just about 40 miles. 20% of that fuel comes from American soybean farmers. Now that temperatures are rising, I'm starting to look for higher percentages of bio.
#Comment Re: made: 2005-03-22 20:00:06.237038+00 by: Dan Lyke
Yeah, to be fair that was outside of Yosemite, I'm told there are similar prices in the Santa Barbara area. Elsewhere we're running about $2.60 for mid-grade.
#Comment Re: made: 2005-03-23 00:28:27.34829+00 by: ebradway
My friend, who grew up in SoCal (in the 30s) and who's mother lives near Yosemite, said that gas prices there in the 1950's were around $2.50/gallon.
#Comment Re: made: 2008-06-17 19:10:09.686341+00 by: ziffle
Gas was $1.10 around ten years ago.
Look here we were discussing it being $2.19 gasp!!
http://www.eia.doe.gov/emeu/international/gas1.html
George 'The Constitution is just a piece of paper' Bush is an idiot. Impeach him for the gas price alone. Not to mention Patriot act ect ect.
aaarrrggg
high test in Mayberry is now $4.15
Fuck Bush!
At least we still have Freedom of Speech. What Officer? What? My papers? What is the problem officer? Bush? Well ahhemm. What about him, Me? No certainly not. Don't tase me Bro!
#Comment Re: made: 2008-06-17 19:50:35.030556+00 by: Dan Lyke
But, really, I think the high gas prices are good for two reasons: First, they've made people come to grips with the systematic destruction of the value of the dollar, and, second, now that gasoline is coming somewhat closer to its actual direct cost, people might actually start reworking their lifestyles to use less of it.
#Comment Re: made: 2008-06-17 19:59:34.318894+00 by: JT
I was watching CNN the other night when they were interviewing some official from Saudi Arabia. It seems that they're trying to get the price of oil down to $80 per barrel. With the tv on behind me today, I heard them behind me discussing how oil companies ran up the price of oil, investors are now investing so much money into oil futures that it's becoming counter-productive for $140 per barrel oil. In an interesting twist, the oil companies and OPEC countries actually want the price of oil to go down, however with money constantly being pumped into oil futures, that's not likely to happen. The news reporter basically said "We can't exactly tell investors not to invest in something that's such a volatile yet profitable market."
I guess the price of oil rising was initially good for OPEC and big oil... but my grandpa used to say "Be careful what you wish for, you may just get it."
On the other hand, Obama's speech last night in Michigan talked about energy plans concerning biofuels, renewable energy such as windmills and similar, and producing vehicles in America that run off of renewable energies. After this speech, I saw a news report that honda has released their first zero emissions car and started to mass-produce this. Hydrogen powered fuel cells producing water as a by-product. It appears with the rising gas prices, attention is no longer on bringing oil down, but finding alternate solutions very quickly. It appears the last few years of extremely high profitability for oil may just end up being the last few years for oil in mainstream industrialized nations.
I welcome our new biofuel powered overlords... energy = power = money. I just hope we don't fall out of the oil frying pan and into the biofuel fire.
#Comment Re: made: 2008-06-17 22:43:10.717055+00 by: Dan Lyke
Yeah, one of the things I've read indicated that Saudi Arabia sees current prices as high enough to spur people to find alternative long-term solutions, and that scares them.
On biofuels, observed on a bumper sticker: "Biofuels: remember when burning crops was an act of war?" I think there's some possibilities there, but right now biofuels are just a way to line the pockets of ADM, Cargill and the like.
#Comment Re: made: 2008-06-17 23:06:27.779686+00 by: JT
well, with population where it is, and already current food shortages in many countries, biofuels make me uneasy. Between flooding and decreasing value of the dollar, anything that would drive up the price of food seems to be the wrong way to move. Of course, solar panels and windmills could always use a little boost in technology and investment in my book.
#Comment Re: made: 2008-06-18 05:40:40.318995+00 by: TheSHAD0W
Ethanol is a stupid source for fuel; we shouldn't be burning our corn like that. Some biodiesels aren't so bad, you can grow the plants in places food crops won't thrive.
What we really need to switch to is nuclear power. There's enough power to run our society for hundreds of years - thousands upon thousands, if we get rid of our stupid restrictions against breeder reactors - without releasing any carbon dioxide into the atmosphere at all (not that it makes a difference, really).
#Comment Re: made: 2008-06-18 15:53:04.237571+00 by: ebradway
Biofuels are a transition element only - unless we can figure out efficient ways to refine celluosic ethanol. I think it's important for the US to start developing greater energy independence and biofuels can help. Almost all vehicles currently on the road can run on ethanol and biodiesel.
I agree with TheSHADOW: we need more nukes. The fears surrounding nuclear power are completely unfounded. And we've lost 30 years of refining power plants because of these fears.
Be careful about getting to hyped on hydrogen cars. Everyone raves about the cars but they don't realize that the vehicle technology is the easy part. The refueling infrastructure is where all of the challenges are. Hydrogen is currently expensive to produce, hard to transport and almost impossible to transfer from a storage container to a vehicle. Sure, once it's in the car, it works great - getting it there is the problem!
Electric vehicles are a better solution. Why not use something like a home hydrogen fuel cell to generate electricity that is used to power a vehicle?
#Comment Re: made: 2008-06-18 16:13:45.517089+00 by: JT
I did see an example of off-peak power consumption units that were designed to harvest hydrogen in someone's basement mostly in the middle of the night when average power consumption was at a minimum. The whole process sounded quite expensive, but it talked about storing hydrogen in a catalyst instead of liquid or gas form. Of course, it didn't get specific on how to transfer the hydrogen in the storage catalyst into the vehicle catalyst, however I'd be interested in reading about that process.
I don't think we really have an answer... oil never really was an answer, and consuming natural resources is taking it's toll on the environment now. Deforestation, strip mining for coal, pollution from burning oil... even the disposal of batteries from electric vehicles is still a concern in some circles. I realize lead acid and lithium batteries are quite nasty after disposal, but I'm curious about if there's an ability to recondition these batteries with minimal environmental impact that hasn't become mainstream or affordable yet which would minimize those issues.
I'd imagine as the country gets used to hybrid vehicles and sees them as a viable solution, electric vehicles are soon to follow and gain a bit more acceptance since the hybrids make a nice "go between" for the two extremes. With the added benefit of solar panels and windmills, giving the ability to generate electricity and use electricity to power a vehicle would create an interesting power vacuum in society though, one currently filled by oil companies and electrical companies... It'd be interesting to see what fills that void.
#Comment Re: made: 2008-06-18 16:58:46.26534+00 by: JT [edit history]
An interesting interview with Chevron CEO David O'Reilly.
O'Reilly:What I do know, though, is that if we want to solve this problem of high energy prices, we're going to have to work not only in the demand side, as Congress has done with [Corporate Average Fuel Economy] standards and alternatives, but we're going to have to work on the supply as well.
In answer to the supply question...
Concerned that skyrocketing oil prices might induce a worldwide economic slump, Saudi Arabia is planning to increase oil production next month by about 500,000 barrels a day, The New York Times reported on its website.
Citing unnamed analysts and oil traders who have been briefed by Saudi officials, the newspaper said the increase could bring Saudi output to a production level of 10 million barrels a day.
Work on who's supply? Our refineries and current drilling platforms in the gulf of mexico haven't operated at full capacity for years. What's more supply going to do?
#Comment Re: made: 2008-06-18 18:19:51.070785+00 by: meuon
the lie: There is excess off-peak power available. There used to be.