Gasoline Prices

  • Thread starter Danoff
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Gah, gasoline is killing us. I, or my dad to be precise, pay about 1.2€ if we transfer from Swedish crowns, per litre.
 
i am lucky that i don't have a car, I live in the US and seeing the prices i don't think that they are too high. i think that they could go a bit higher though, but hey its just me and i don't drive, i have a scooter and it does't use up too much gas :sly: but it gets me around great.
it kinda sucks cause you know that oil is going to run out (in about 2035) and people are using it like crazy. when it does run out expect wars
 
That's the great thing about diesels. A few changes and you can run on vegetable oil.

I haven't heard any of petrol engine conversions.
 
katana87
i am lucky that i don't have a car, I live in the US and seeing the prices i don't think that they are too high. i think that they could go a bit higher though, but hey its just me and i don't drive, i have a scooter and it does't use up too much gas :sly: but it gets me around great.
it kinda sucks cause you know that oil is going to run out (in about 2035) and people are using it like crazy. when it does run out expect wars

I don't know where you get the 2035 number from, how you can have any confidence in that number, and what evidence could possibly support it. I also don't know why you expect wars to be fought if/when we do run out of oil.
 
I watched a show on The History Channel about sugar the other night. Brazil turns sugar into ethanol and they use it for automotive fuel. Ethanol is way better than gasoline because its a renewable resource. They said the ethanol is "carbon-neutral" meaning it makes the same amount of carbon as the sugarcane would have made if it decomposed. GM has engines there called Flexfuel that run off ethanol of gasoline or any mixture there of( They had the Corsa on the show it made 4 more hp on the ethanol.), and all the new GM vehicle that come out in Brazil are required to have Flexfuel engines. They are almost completely energy self-sufficient now because of using ethanol instead of gasoline. I think GM should introduce the Flexfuel engine in the U.S. as well.
 
[QUOTE='85fierogt]I watched a show on The History Channel about sugar the other night. Brazil turns sugar into ethanol and they use it for automotive fuel. Ethanol is way better than gasoline because its a renewable resource. They said the ethanol is "carbon-neutral" meaning it makes the same amount of carbon as the sugarcane would have made if it decomposed. GM has engines there called Flexfuel that run off ethanol of gasoline or any mixture there of( They had the Corsa on the show it made 4 more hp on the ethanol.), and all the new GM vehicle that come out in Brazil are required to have Flexfuel engines. They are almost completely energy self-sufficient now because of using ethanol instead of gasoline. I think GM should introduce the Flexfuel engine in the U.S. as well.[/QUOTE]
Ford has Flexfuel engines in the U.S. I think they may have been on Rangers and/or Focuses(or Foci, was it?).
 
Thats great!! The more the merrier. I think every company should have more hybrids and Flexfuel. It won't be much longer till they have alternative fuel autos on the roads. i'm looking forward to it. I just hope i can figure out how to swap a hydrogen fuel cell into my Fiero. :scared:
 
danoff
I also don't know why you expect wars to be fought if/when we do run out of oil.

Obviously you've never seen Mad Max...pffft!

I've just found this little comparison on the BBC site:

BBC Website
Prices before tax

Sweden: 427
Belgium: 419
Netherlands: 417
Austria: 398
Denmark: 397
France: 347
UK: 331
Portugal: 287

Figures: euros per 1,000 litres of diesel

BBC Website
EU pump prices

UK: 1,321
Sweden: 969
Denmark: 927
Italy: 912
Netherlands: 903
France: 884
Spain: 716
Portugal: 623

Figures: euros per 1,000 litres of diesel

Just a little bit of tax gets added in the UK then...
 
when gas prices here in the cincinnati area were 3.00 a gallon, it cost me 32 bucks to fill up my ford taurus...outrageous...

but now they're 2.56...which i think is amazing, but still can be better

now my thought is, before the hurricane, it was 2.76, then it jumped to 3.00, now it's 2.56 (how did that happen now)...yet have they really taken in toll the actual damage the hurricane has done to the oil we "got" in that area?
 
[QUOTE='85fierogt]Thats great!! The more the merrier. I think every company should have more hybrids and Flexfuel. It won't be much longer till they have alternative fuel autos on the roads. i'm looking forward to it. I just hope i can figure out how to swap a hydrogen fuel cell into my Fiero. :scared:[/QUOTE]

The problem is not the availability of FFV's, the problem is the availability of ethanol. Several of Ford's most popular vehicles can be gotten with FFV engines, but there's nowhere to fill them up.

I checked up on the ethanol situation in LA (a fairly progressive place in terms of environmental friendliness), and there are a total of 4 ethanol stations anywhere near here... and 3 of them aren't open to the public. The last one is probably about 70 miles from me.... so Ethanol isn't really an option for me (or just about anyone) yet.

However, it would be a fast way to get us off of gasoline.
 
3 dollars/gallon, most i've ever seen it in my time on earth. It's crazy. So much for the dream of a Tuxedo Black Camaro SS 350.
 
3 dollars/gallon, most i've ever seen it in my time on earth. It's crazy. So much for the dream of a Tuxedo Black Camaro SS 350.

You can still get it. Just drive one day a week. :sly:
 
My dad does that with his mustang. Even so he only gets about 4 weeks out of it. It's insane.
 
Anyway, I'm glad to see prices in my area drop below $3 a gallon. Thank God! Paying 20$ for 4.3 gallons of gas was just sick.
 
danoff
The problem is not the availability of FFV's, the problem is the availability of ethanol. Several of Ford's most popular vehicles can be gotten with FFV engines, but there's nowhere to fill them up.

...so Ethanol isn't really an option for me (or just about anyone) yet...

However, it would be a fast way to get us off of gasoline.

True, ethanol is a good source of fuel, and would really help reduce the dependence on oil. But think about it; ethanol is produced from corn. Think about how much extra farmland we would need in the US just to produce enough corn to make enough ethanol to power our cars. We looked at this last year in one of my classes. To replace just 10% of our gasoline with ethanol would require 600,000 square km (5 times the size of Iowa). For 100%, that would be 6,000,000 square km, or roughly 2/3 of the ENTIRE United States. There's a real praticality issue there :) It's my opinion that the only permanent replacement for oil is hydrogen derived from our oceans.

And to the Europeans blabbing about $6 gallons of gasoline:

I can see you're point; you've been paying way more than us for years.

BUT:
1)Europe is smaller, and places aren't as far apart. Tell me how far you have to go to get to work. Around here, it's not uncommon for people to drive 30-40 miles each way to work. And living closer is not always an option, as some places in the Puget Sound region are VERY expensive to live in.

2)To that same end, consider this: For me to purchase a carton of Florida orange juice, I go to the store and buy it. However, that carton came on a diesel-powered semi-truck that travelled 3,500 miles to get here. If gas prices increase $1.00/gallon (as they have in the past year), that trip costs about $1,000 more to the company. Guess who pays for that? I'll give you a hint: it's not Tropicana. ALL of our domestic goods travel great distances to reach their final destination, as this country is rather large (think: 3,500 miles from London would put you in India...). The bottom line is, as gas prices rise, so does the price of everything else that we buy. This has huge economical implications. People stop buying, companies make less profit, and have to lay off workers.

Also, oil companies unnecessarily gave us the shaft becuase of Hurricane Katrina. They're profiting off of our fear. After that hurricane, our gas prices went up 40-50 cents. You can't tell me that losing 1/15th (6%) of our oil production supply caused gas prices to rise by 20%. That's gouging, and our government refuses to protect us against that simply because no one oil company has a monopoly. Nice work they're doing for us...

Tell us we can't complain about it. Please.
 
Swift
Anyway, I'm glad to see prices in my area drop below $3 a gallon. Thank God! Paying 20$ for 4.3 gallons of gas was just sick.

The most I've ever paid for premium fuel (a must when you're running 16 psi of turbo boost :sly: ) was $3.70/gallon. The last time I added fuel I paid $3.21/gallon.
 
kylehnat, thanks for the info. That's actually very enlightening stuff.

Brian, I paid 3.90 at one point. Man, I hate being stuck with that kind of garbage...oh well.
 
kylehnat
True, ethanol is a good source of fuel, and would really help reduce the dependence on oil. But think about it; ethanol is produced from corn. Think about how much extra farmland we would need in the US just to produce enough corn to make enough ethanol to power our cars. We looked at this last year in one of my classes. To replace just 10% of our gasoline with ethanol would require 600,000 square km (5 times the size of Iowa). For 100%, that would be 6,000,000 square km, or roughly 2/3 of the ENTIRE United States. There's a real praticality issue there :) It's my opinion that the only permanent replacement for oil is hydrogen derived from our oceans.

And to the Europeans blabbing about $6 gallons of gasoline:

I can see you're point; you've been paying way more than us for years.

BUT:
1)Europe is smaller, and places aren't as far apart. Tell me how far you have to go to get to work. Around here, it's not uncommon for people to drive 30-40 miles each way to work. And living closer is not always an option, as some places in the Puget Sound region are VERY expensive to live in.

2)To that same end, consider this: For me to purchase a carton of Florida orange juice, I go to the store and buy it. However, that carton came on a diesel-powered semi-truck that travelled 3,500 miles to get here. If gas prices increase $1.00/gallon (as they have in the past year), that trip costs about $1,000 more to the company. Guess who pays for that? I'll give you a hint: it's not Tropicana. ALL of our domestic goods travel great distances to reach their final destination, as this country is rather large (think: 3,500 miles from London would put you in India...). The bottom line is, as gas prices rise, so does the price of everything else that we buy. This has huge economical implications. People stop buying, companies make less profit, and have to lay off workers.

Also, oil companies unnecessarily gave us the shaft becuase of Hurricane Katrina. They're profiting off of our fear. After that hurricane, our gas prices went up 40-50 cents. You can't tell me that losing 1/15th (6%) of our oil production supply caused gas prices to rise by 20%. That's gouging, and our government refuses to protect us against that simply because no one oil company has a monopoly. Nice work they're doing for us...

Tell us we can't complain about it. Please.

Ethanol isn't only produced from corn. Plus, I think it's produced from some sort of byproduct in the crop growing/harvesting process. Something that's actually wasted rather than being used.

Here's a quote from some ethanol-crazy website

"In the near future, a wide range of waste products will be used to produce ethanol, further developing our national energy independence."
 
danoff
"In the near future, a wide range of waste products will be used to produce ethanol, further developing our national energy independence."

That sounds like what Christopher Lloyd did at the end of Back to the Future. :dopey:
 
Dead trees and thrown-away furniture provide ethanol as well. :sly:

If we can sustain lumber suppiles, we can sustain ethanol supplies.
 
kylehnat
True, ethanol is a good source of fuel, and would really help reduce the dependence on oil. But think about it; ethanol is produced from corn. Think about how much extra farmland we would need in the US just to produce enough corn to make enough ethanol to power our cars. We looked at this last year in one of my classes. To replace just 10% of our gasoline with ethanol would require 600,000 square km (5 times the size of Iowa). For 100%, that would be 6,000,000 square km, or roughly 2/3 of the ENTIRE United States. There's a real praticality issue there :) It's my opinion that the only permanent replacement for oil is hydrogen derived from our oceans.

That's lovely... but I don't want a hydrogen powered car. I want a TURBOcharged gasoline-powered car. :D

And to the Europeans blabbing about $6 gallons of gasoline:

Closer to $7/gallon in some places...

I can see you're point; you've been paying way more than us for years.

Doesn't mean it's justified.

BUT:
1)Europe is smaller, and places aren't as far apart. Tell me how far you have to go to get to work. Around here, it's not uncommon for people to drive 30-40 miles each way to work.

What makes you think it's any different in Europe? I have an Uncle in England who has to travel 70 miles to get to work.

2)To that same end, consider this: For me to purchase a carton of Florida orange juice, I go to the store and buy it. However, that carton came on a diesel-powered semi-truck that travelled 3,500 miles to get here. If gas prices increase $1.00/gallon (as they have in the past year), that trip costs about $1,000 more to the company. Guess who pays for that? I'll give you a hint: it's not Tropicana. ALL of our domestic goods travel great distances to reach their final destination, as this country is rather large (think: 3,500 miles from London would put you in India...). The bottom line is, as gas prices rise, so does the price of everything else that we buy. This has huge economical implications. People stop buying, companies make less profit, and have to lay off workers.

This is true.

Also, oil companies unnecessarily gave us the shaft becuase of Hurricane Katrina. They're profiting off of our fear. After that hurricane, our gas prices went up 40-50 cents. You can't tell me that losing 1/15th (6%) of our oil production supply caused gas prices to rise by 20%. That's gouging, and our government refuses to protect us against that simply because no one oil company has a monopoly. Nice work they're doing for us...

Tell us we can't complain about it. Please.

Actually I can't because my local government has decided to go public with information about individual gas stations that were price gouging. I attribute the possibility/threat of a lawsuit for the recent drops (as much as 50-60 cents in some cases) in gas prices at least in my area.
 
MrktMkr1986
Actually I can't because my local government has decided to go public with information about individual gas stations that were price gouging.

As though there was something wrong with price gouging.
 
Well, there is bad news. Another storm (Rita) is headed toward the gulf. In the path are is the oil coast of LA and TX, exactly where Rita is headed. It is expected to be another major hurricane, which we all know what that means. :nervous:
 
kyle
Well, there is bad news. Another storm (Rita) is headed toward the gulf. In the path are is the oil coast of LA and TX, exactly where Rita is headed. It is expected to be another major hurricane, which we all know what that means. :nervous:

Yep, it means it's time to reexamine how we build our cities along major bodies of water.
 
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