Why cost of Fuel so High?

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quote:
Originally posted by M3 Mitch:
The constant efforts of BB to "do something" about "clean air" are now mostly counterproductive, any modern car with a working catalyst puts out only a trivial amount of the regulated pollutants (HC, CO, NOx)
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Right on! We should do something about CO2, the greenhouse gas. The only effective way is to burn less fuel. Diesels, hybrids, public transportation work. Geo Metros got over 50 mpgs but the new Aveo gets mid-30s? What a step back! "They" blame meeting Super-Duper-Ultra-Low-Emissions for this*. There should be a formula where if you emit much less CO2 you could get away with a little more NOX... which you'd get with a diesel or lean-running gas engine.

* I take this with a grain of salt, but it makes some sense.
 
quote:
Originally posted by eljefino:
Right on! We should do something about CO2, the greenhouse gas. The only effective way is to burn less fuel. Diesels, hybrids, public transportation work. Geo Metros got over 50 mpgs but the new Aveo gets mid-30s? What a step back! "They" blame meeting Super-Duper-Ultra-Low-Emissions for this*. There should be a formula where if you emit much less CO2 you could get away with a little more NOX... which you'd get with a diesel or lean-running gas engine.

* I take this with a grain of salt, but it makes some sense.
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The UK has the right idea with CO2 tax structure.
UK Vehicle Excise Duty
 
quote:
Originally posted by blano:
Oil can be made from coal for around $32 per barrel I am told. How long before this happens and we begin to utilize our abundant coal reserves to thumb our noses at the middle east? I would have no problem paying current prices if I knew it wasnt funding terrorists directly and indirectly in the mid east.
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This would be a great idea, but when OPEC see's the investment our countries oil companies make in this kind of infrastructure, they will increase production from their end and then at the next U.S. oil board meeting, the big wigs say "Put that new production unit on hold, not profitable anymore" and when OPEC gives the U.S. oil company enough time to finally kill the project, BINGO...oil production from OPEC's end goes down...prices go back up...it's all incremental.
 
Ok,

Here's a point that doesn't seem to be addressed.

Any gas station owner will tell you that when oil prices go down after a spike, gas prices take a while to go down, because what's in the underground tanks and trucks was made from the high priced crude....BUT...

How come there's no lag in the price increase of gas relative to the price of oil when oil goes up?

You could track the price of oil and the price of gas, and the price of gas doesn't follow the price of oil. On the front end, in an increase situation, gas goes up almost right away....when oil goes down, it seems to take quite a while for the gas price to go down.

That's what I call gouging!
 
quote:
Any gas station owner will tell you that when oil prices go down after a spike, gas prices take a while to go down, because what's in the underground tanks and trucks was made from the high priced crude....BUT...

How come there's no lag in the price increase of gas relative to the price of oil when oil goes up?
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There are certain things that have to float with the current price. Gasoline is one of them. As soon as the terminal lets the owner know what the price of his next load will cost him ..the price goes up. The price dropping depends on demand. If the demand stays high ..there's no reason to drop it. You get to recover the losses between the volume you sold at the lower price ..before you knew of the price increase. This is how it has to work.

If the price went up $0.05 every load (let's say for easy math 10,000 gallons)..the owner has to "invest" $500 every purchase ..that he can't recover until he goes out of bussiness. The only way to cope with this is to raise the price as it is announced. This has sorta accellerated over the past few years since we now have mega retailers of gasoline that float with the current market price of crude. Currently I can have about $0.11-$0.18 variance in the price of regular in a weeks time. The only other evolution that I've noted is that there used to be a $0.14 spread between reg and premium is now $0.20. Mid grade is now a dime from either.
 
It seems like the whole point of the article is to take a swing at "a bunch of homegrown, radical environmentalists, who would rather save some endangered species of dung beetle than the United States of America." Read that statement again, it tells volumes about his agenda. If the pumps were already installed in ANWR and running at full blast, gas would still be over $2/gal with no sign of lessening. People like to complain about the price but still rush off to buy un-needed gas guzzlers.
 
Obviously a college student propaganda puff piece, judging by the sophomoric use of provocative, polarizing words like "taxes" and "liberals."
It starts out with a small lie and grows from there: You can't sell a kidney on ebay....
 
quote:
Originally posted by GROUCHO MARX:
If I were selling something, and I am, I would charge what the market would bear.

End of story.

If this makes me a capitalist, then I am guilty as charged.
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Agree!!!
 
I thought we were going to get free oil from Iraq and Kuwait b/c we liberated them.

rolleyes.gif
 
Well, it certainly hasn't gotten so expensive that it's changed any of our behaviors. Most of your mileage is going to a from work. Secondary mileage is trucking the kiddies to here and there. This isn't ever going to change unless the supply drys up. Price can't stop that. It may influence your next purchase (which will kinda make the price of fuel a moot point given the cost and loss involved with the purchase) ..but you're still gonna do ..what you're gonna do.
 
Has anyone else noticed a recent surge of a dime to fifteen cents overnight? I find it odd to happen on a Saturday, when commodities exchanges are closed. Wonder if it's this hurricane in the gulf freaking people out?

And of course with the resultant lights going out, everyone runs gas generators and/or drives hundreds of miles to evacuate, driving up demand...
dunno.gif
 
I think you will find few people who believe the price of oil will go down. A lot of the biggest whiners about the price of gas are those who do the least to conserve or change their driving habits. A lot of people ARE trying do something about their own personal gas expenses: witness the intense interest in hybrids and diesels. What is really sad to me is that no American car company ( well, maybe Ford, with Toyota technology) can seem to get a good, reliable, fuel-efficient car on the market. Why is the gas mileage so much less on American engines? Some years back, the 'big three' were given lots of government money to develop a family car with high mpg. Apparently that money might just as well been flushed down the toilet since none of them managed to do it. However, Toyota and Honda, without government subsidies, have done it and market the cars today. I would think that Mr. Waggoner of GM has nightmares about $3.00 gasoline and the upcoming Toyota Camry and Tundra Hybrids.

A lot will say I am biased, since I made the leap 20 months ago and bought a hybrid. I will never go back. I put a lot of miles on my car and it is saving me more everyday. We are going to have to try new technologies to get out this problem with foreign oil. Trying to hang on to the 'muscle car - big truck' ways of the past will cost some folks dearly in the end.
 
Oil is a commodity, its price is therefore driven by demand and supply. Right now supplies are at record levels, demand is even higher.

Your computer chips can come down in price because of vast increases in producers and supplies. These do perish as quickly as oil. They are a commodity as well, just a cheap commodity. It wasn't always so.
 
pa04prius, the "tons of $$ the govt was giving the big 3" you mentioned was to fund research for electric vehciles back in the 90's.

Remember with CALI wanted a certain % of all vehicles sold in that state to be electric.

The big 3 had to tell the govt that no ammount of $$ would ever produce a viable electric vehicle that you have to plug in and charge.

You sound like my friend in Austin with an 05 Prius. He likes to run his mouth about corporate conspiracies and the Bu****es owning all the oil production.

When I figured out on paper how a 2005 Toyo Corolla is cheaper to own/operate than his Prius, he just got PO'd and changed the subject.

His $25k "60MPG" Hybrid gets as good of mileage (42MPG) as a Diesel Jetta.

He never would tell me how much his insurance was.

Did yours go up because of the Hybrid?

Those types of cars would seem hard to fix.

I'm not a hybrid basher, they will be economically feasable in about 5 years. I do think its dumb that the automakers are selling tons of pushrod technology, while he Asians are highly refining the DOHC engine.

If it were not for the US's stringent EPA emission standards, Europe would be sending over a lot more Diesels.

I would rather drive a 300C with a MB 3.2 Turbo Diesel than a Hemi.

The '05 Hybrid Accord will pay for itself (increased cost of Hybrid) in I think around 50k miles, almost before you need another $3k battery pack.
 
The '05 Hybrid Accord will pay for itself (increased cost of Hybrid) in I think around 50k miles, almost before you need another $3k battery pack.

Sounds like all the elements will be in place for a regenerative jobs program to continue working. Instead of sending your used car down the economic chain intact, it will get filtered through a refit process that will benefit ..........
 
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