What Are You Paying For Regular Gas These Days?

[oblioman]

Originally Posted by amdgamer

That is just the start. I was watching a piece on Foxnews where they were talking about what could happen if Saudi Arabia falls, and it doesn't paint a very good picture. The problem is that this unrest in that part of the world could very well spread. I think this highlights the fact that we need to accelerate our alternative fuel strategies without putting all the eggs into a single basket. I think we need to start drilling everywhere we can, and set aside 100% of those sources of money to fund fuel research and nothing but fuel research.

Hindsight be 20/20,,,Jimmy Carter started the ween,,,but along comes rayguns,,,,,well,,,the rest be history. Gas prices be the tip O' the nipple,,,,,when fuel increases so does food and everything else us spoiled Americans so truly enjoy. Ready - Set - get screwed!!!

On an up note,,,the lass and meself have a 1.2 mile drive to work everyday so the price of petro don't really mean squat to us fortunuate few. They had better leave the price of beer alone.

[Cygnus]

I got some gas yesterday at the same station, the price $3.41. So it increased .26 cents in 9 days... My tank was not empty but I wanted to gas up before the full effect of the price hike happens.

Originally Posted by Cygnus

Filled up my tank yesterday, around $50 or $3.15 per gallon regular unleaded in indiana. In chicago it prob averages about $3.40. Thus I rarely if ever buy gas in chi.

[dsskid]

We need to eliminate our dependancy of foreign oil, by using alternative fuel sources, and domestic drilling (including creating a infrastructure to move the fuel). Unfortunately, there are too many oil lobbyists preventing that from actually happening.

[Lee Stewart]

$3.30

Chit - it did a 10 cent boost in one day.

[amdgamer]

Originally Posted by dsskid

We need to eliminate our dependancy of foreign oil, by using alternative fuel sources, and domestic drilling (including creating a infrastructure to move the fuel). Unfortunately, there are too many oil lobbyists preventing that from actually happening.

This is something that looks very promising, as it could drastically increase the US' supply of E85 for flex fuel vehicles. They are currently scheduled to come online with massive quantities by 2012-2013, and have recieved major grants from a lot of corporations along with the government. The best part is that their process of producing ethanol is 100% sustainable and actually consumes CO2 in the process. I bet this is going to make too much sense for the environmental wackos out there.

http://www.algenolbiofuels.com/

Go ahead and visit this site, as the megafarming special interests should be scared crapless when they see this on the horizon.

[sawzalot]

2.99 yesterday morning and it's 3.09 today.

[gameguru1360]

Originally Posted by dsskid

We need to eliminate our dependancy of foreign oil, by using alternative fuel sources, and domestic drilling (including creating a infrastructure to move the fuel). Unfortunately, there are too many oil lobbyists preventing that from actually happening.

not to mention nature's conservation fanatics or those that hate looking out of their beach front property and seeing an oil drill in the ocean!!

Electric only vehicles are too short ranged and the technology is still too new and impractical for today's purposes, plus I think they'll probably start charging up the wazoo for using electricity. It's only free for now, but if they're anything like the cost of your electric bills, I think people will scrap the electric cars and stick with hybrids or regular combustion engines

Oh and are electric vehicles safe from electrical storms?? what happens then??

[Emil]

Originally Posted by dsskid

Unfortunately, there are too many oil lobbyists preventing that from actually happening.

So true .

[ImRizzo]

Gas prices are rising based on fear. Saudi Arabia has indicated it has raised production to guard against actual shortages (which do not exist) once again it is the capitalist moving in to hedge a profit based on fear. They are projecting gas shortages based on what going on now in Libya, but yet we only get 2% of our oil from them. And it's countries like France and Spain who feel endangered by possible lack of gas coming out of Libya, and we are paying for it.

[oblioman]

Originally Posted by gameguru1360

not to mention nature's conservation fanatics or those that hate looking out of their beach front property and seeing an oil drill in the ocean!!

Electric only vehicles are too short ranged and the technology is still too new and impractical for today's purposes, plus I think they'll probably start charging up the wazoo for using electricity. It's only free for now, but if they're anything like the cost of your electric bills, I think people will scrap the electric cars and stick with hybrids or regular combustion engines

Oh and are electric vehicles safe from electrical storms?? what happens then??

Poppycock. In other words,,pure bullshit. Does an electrical, or lightning storm effect your current vehicle? You do understand that your current vehicle relies upon electrical charges to run. It's an electric spark that ignites the fuel in the cumbustion chamber that makes the car go forward in "D". Or perhaps you were referring to radio or cell phone interference. If that be the case,,,quit driving.

Originally Posted by ImRizzo

Gas prices are rising based on fear. Saudi Arabia has indicated it has raised production to guard against actual shortages (which do not exist) once again it is the capitalist moving in to hedge a profit based on fear. They are projecting gas shortages based on what going on now in Libya, but yet we only get 2% of our oil from them. And it's countries like France and Spain who feel endangered by possible lack of gas coming out of Libya, and we are paying for it.

spot on me good man,,,spot on. Hedging and forecasting in an honest market be a good thing just to keep markets stable. It's the fear and over analyzing a solid market that makes things crazy. The turmoil in the mid-east is not going to reduce oil supplies,,,the oil is still there. It be the logistic side they be hedging against.

[Shark2k]

Originally Posted by gameguru1360

not to mention nature's conservation fanatics or those that hate looking out of their beach front property and seeing an oil drill in the ocean!!

Electric only vehicles are too short ranged and the technology is still too new and impractical for today's purposes, plus I think they'll probably start charging up the wazoo for using electricity. It's only free for now, but if they're anything like the cost of your electric bills, I think people will scrap the electric cars and stick with hybrids or regular combustion engines

Oh and are electric vehicles safe from electrical storms?? what happens then??

You do realize that for a good portion of the population, like 95%, an electric car would have enough range to cover the necessary range. Consider that the majority of people drive less than 40 miles per day for most of their trips so an electric car would be able to cover that, even with a 100 mile range. For the rarer long range trips that would either be to inconvenient to plan using an electric car for or for people that just do not want to have to worry about that, they can always rent a gas car to make the trip. The other option is for a two car family one car is electric and the other is gas, giving the same option of using the gas car for longer trips than the range of the car.

As to the price of electricity, while it will more than likely go up, at least electricity can be generated by multiple different sources, coal, natural gas, hydroelectric, wind, solar, geothermal. And people can even put solar photovoltaic systems on their houses that either generate all or a portion of their electricity allowing them to be better protected against the cost of electricity.

-Shark2k

[amdgamer]

Yes, and you also realize that the ability of a battery pack to hold charge decreases as it goes through charge/discharge cycles. Hybrids have found a clever way to maximize the life of these battery packs by employing some tricks such as never letting it hit lower than 33% charge and keeping it from charging above 66-75% for most cases. This apparantly works because we have Prius and Escape Hybrid taxis in NYC that have over 250k miles on it and are still going. A full blown EV presents a different set of challenge, and i'm curious to see how durable those battery packs are going to be.

The other thing to keep in mind is that our electrical infrastructure is in shambles right now. PG&E even stated a few years ago that all it would take is for a single person on a city block to buy a plug in electric vehicle to bring down the grid on the west coast. Our electrical grids are currently running very near maximum capacity, and our power plants are as well. We in fact import 10-20% of our electricity during peak usage seasons. Part of this problem can be solved by plugging these things in at night, but we eventually run into a problem that isn't easily solvable without massive amounts of money.

As far as putting solar panels on your house, that is actually a joke for most people in the US compared to the initial cost of doing so. Until that technology becomes much more affordable, it isn't going to make sense as even the solar panel farms over in the California desert don't produce much.

I am concerned that there are also just not enough resources in the world to make electric cars the one and only solution. My belief is that the gas station of the future will feature buttons for 87 octane petrol, 91 octane, B80 Biodiesel, Diesel, CNG, E85, and rapid EV charge.

Originally Posted by Shark2k

You do realize that for a good portion of the population, like 95%, an electric car would have enough range to cover the necessary range. Consider that the majority of people drive less than 40 miles per day for most of their trips so an electric car would be able to cover that, even with a 100 mile range. For the rarer long range trips that would either be to inconvenient to plan using an electric car for or for people that just do not want to have to worry about that, they can always rent a gas car to make the trip. The other option is for a two car family one car is electric and the other is gas, giving the same option of using the gas car for longer trips than the range of the car.

As to the price of electricity, while it will more than likely go up, at least electricity can be generated by multiple different sources, coal, natural gas, hydroelectric, wind, solar, geothermal. And people can even put solar photovoltaic systems on their houses that either generate all or a portion of their electricity allowing them to be better protected against the cost of electricity.

-Shark2k

[oblioman]

Originally Posted by amdgamer

Yes, and you also realize that the ability of a battery pack to hold charge decreases as it goes through charge/discharge cycles. Hybrids have found a clever way to maximize the life of these battery packs by employing some tricks such as never letting it hit lower than 33% charge and keeping it from charging above 66-75% for most cases. This apparantly works because we have Prius and Escape Hybrid taxis in NYC that have over 250k miles on it and are still going. A full blown EV presents a different set of challenge, and i'm curious to see how durable those battery packs are going to be.

The other thing to keep in mind is that our electrical infrastructure is in shambles right now. PG&E even stated a few years ago that all it would take is for a single person on a city block to buy a plug in electric vehicle to bring down the grid on the west coast. Our electrical grids are currently running very near maximum capacity, and our power plants are as well. We in fact import 10-20% of our electricity during peak usage seasons. Part of this problem can be solved by plugging these things in at night, but we eventually run into a problem that isn't easily solvable without massive amounts of money.

As far as putting solar panels on your house, that is actually a joke for most people in the US compared to the initial cost of doing so. Until that technology becomes much more affordable, it isn't going to make sense as even the solar panel farms over in the California desert don't produce much.

I am concerned that there are also just not enough resources in the world to make electric cars the one and only solution. My belief is that the gas station of the future will feature buttons for 87 octane petrol, 91 octane, B80 Biodiesel, Diesel, CNG, E85, and rapid EV charge.

Cmon AMD,,,you quoted that until technology becomes more affordable it just wont make sense. Bullshit me says,,,bullshit. The technology is there and it is affordable. We have a couple of members on this forum that are solar powered and according to them - it is sustainable and highly productive. 99% of this earth is solar powered, why should we look a gift horse in the mouth and say "until it becomes more affordable"??????? When should we make the switch,,,when it becomes a real emergency? When we can no longer wage war in the mideast for oil? A 100 square mile area in the Arizona desert occupied by solar cells would not only supply Las Angeles,,,but also Las Vegas. The US gov (us) own thousands of acres in the southwest, idle, that could be put to good use. We just need to find the balls to fight the oil and coal companies that have bought politicians to make the sane changes.

[Cygnus]

I kind of agree with amd here. I don't see solar being viable for another 10-15 years. I can only imagine how much it would cost to put up 100 sq ft of solar panels. AMD's notion of the gas station of the future makes sense when more non-gasoline based vehicles are sold. Thus for the next 5-10 years, we will be heavily dependent upon oil. It is up to car companies to further improve fuel efficiency of vehicles of all sizes.

[ImRizzo]

Originally Posted by Cygnus

I kind of agree with amd here. I don't see solar being viable for another 10-15 years. I can only imagine how much it would cost to put up 100 sq ft of solar panels. AMD's notion of the gas station of the future makes sense when more non-gasoline based vehicles are sold. Thus for the next 5-10 years, we will be heavily dependent upon oil. It is up to car companies to further improve fuel efficiency of vehicles of all sizes.

I disagree, if we pulled out of all these third world countries we're trying to "SAVE" at the cost of Billions of $$$ and the loss of innocent young americans to these winless wars and demanded the monies owed to us from foreign aide "Loans"( ha, that's a funny term, isn't a loan something that gets paid back?) we would have a substantial amount to pay for these advancements and bail out our brother Americans. I mean seriously where are we going next Libya or Iran or China or korea to spend more money or blood that we will never recover.
Charity starts at home. We can't even pay our own bills at home, we are trying to scrounge up money to bail out our own country, but somehow or another we will find ways to ship out cash and soldiers to some god forsaken sand pit in a land where the citizens hate us already, only the strengthen them so they can eventually turn against us anyway !