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If gasoline is anything like home utilities, the less we use the more we'll have to pay.
People who want to force everyone to drive a miniature car just don't get it. I saw this ad in a local Craig's List just yesterday. At $3.00/gallon, for $20 I wouldn't move my truck out of the garage. At $5.00 a gallon, the person on CL will have to call a moving company and pay for bonding, licensing and insurance, or go back and rent that rental truck again.
"I need a truck or trailer asap! Wanna make a quick, easy 20$? - $20
Hello I am just moving from a house to an apartment but my 2 parts of my bed got left behind when I had the rental truck and now they're stuck there. I have no truck and that's why I'm asking this. If you have a pick up and want to make a QUICK, EASY 20$ then please email me. I am just needing you to pick up the parts of the bed and bring them to my apartment. You won't have to load or unload them. Thank you sooooo much!!!"
People who want to force everyone to drive a miniature car just don't get it. I saw this ad in a local Craig's List just yesterday. At $3.00/gallon, for $20 I wouldn't move my truck out of the garage. At $5.00 a gallon, the person on CL will have to call a moving company and pay for bonding, licensing and insurance, or go back and rent that rental truck again.
You don't get it. The higher costs to produce ever-more difficult to find and extract petroleum are going to drive the price of fuel up over the long-term (not to mention our government's seemingly never-ending fiscal mischief to trash the dollar, which drives the cost of imported oil ever upward). How people react to that individually will be their own decision, but the net effect will be that some combination of smaller and more fuel-efficient vehicles, fewer miles driven, alternative transportation or living arrangements, or money diverted from other parts of the economy is going to be the result. Reality is a harsh mistress, and she doesn't always do want we want her to do.
You think gas prices are going to continue to go up. Buy lots of oil stocks and just sit back and wait. Or, move over to England where gas prices are over $7.00 a gallon. Then you can really b***h.
Even if demand falls they can stockpile it and still continue the same profits. Its not like gas is milk that will go stale .lol
Actually gas and diesel DOES go stale. Your lucky if you can get more than a year out of gas that has been sitting around. Yes it still burns and blows up, but quickly clogs injectors causing your car to stall. Unrefined oil on the other hand can be stored for thousands of years. Alcohol also goes stale, it absorbs humidity like a sponge, but you can easily re-distill alcohol to remove the water, there's nothing you can do to gas to make it good again. Gas stabilizers can extend the shelf life by an extra year, but not sure how clean it runs.
As for gas prices, gas WILL go up, it may not be this summer or next, but eventually it will go up. Probably well before you pay off that big SUV you just brought. Then history will repeat it self, people dying to get rid of big SUV's and Trucks to trade for small cars. The resale value of the big gas guzzlers will be lousy, the value of small cars, even old ones will sky rocket. People have gotten used to paying $3 a gallon and there a big interest buying big SUV's, trucks and full sized cars again.
Exempting Ethanol & Bio Diesel from some of the taxes at the pump was the cheapest & best way to reduce our dependence on foreign oil other than drilling for more here at home. The ethanol tax cut reduced the taxes everyone paid at the pump since every gallon of gasoline contained at least 10% ethanol.
Congress sunset the ethanol tax cut at the end of 2011. See the sudden gas price reversal & spike since new years in the chart below. That is a direct result of higher taxes per gallon & falling ethanol competition. Gasoline prices continue to spiral as ethanol production has dropped every since this tax hike on new years day.
Jan. 25 (Bloomberg) -- Ethanol production in the U.S. fell 0.7 percent to 934,000 barrels a day, the lowest level since Nov. 25, according to an Energy Department report.
The third consecutive weekly drop matches the longest such streak since the period ended Sept. 23. Stockpiles climbed 1.4 percent to 19.8 million barrels, the highest level since the week ended May 27, the department said in a report released today in Washington. Inventories have swelled six straight weeks, the longest streak since Jan. 21, 2011.
Sunsetting the ethanol tax break (subsidy) was actually very wise. Ethanol production from corn is a money-loser without the taxpayer subsidy and it also drove the price of corn up substantially. That benefited the corn farmers, but drove food costs up when a lot of people can least afford it. Until such time as ethanol can be produced from other biomass without massive subsidies that merely bury ethanol's true cost in people's tax bills or in the national debt, the best way we can reduce our dependence on foreign oil is to allow the price of fuel at the pump to reflect the true cost of the fuel being consumed, which will cause people to pursue conservation and fuel efficiency. It's not the "fun" thing that people want, but reality isn't always about what's "fun," easy, or convenient.
Sunsetting the ethanol tax break (subsidy) was actually very wise. Ethanol production from corn is a money-loser without the taxpayer subsidy and it also drove the price of corn up substantially. That benefited the corn farmers, but drove food costs up when a lot of people can least afford it. Until such time as ethanol can be produced from other biomass without massive subsidies that merely bury ethanol's true cost in people's tax bills or in the national debt, the best way we can reduce our dependence on foreign oil is to allow the price of fuel at the pump to reflect the true cost of the fuel being consumed, which will cause people to pursue conservation and fuel efficiency. It's not the "fun" thing that people want, but reality isn't always about what's "fun," easy, or convenient.
Not a money loser, it was a money gainer.
- It removed all the farm subsidy payments.
- It reduced our dependance on foreign oil.
- It kept the money in this country & out of terrorist hands.
- It created 400,000 good paying US jobs.
- It lowered everyones cost at the gas pump by way more than the tax cut.
- Ethanol saves the USA $36 billion worth of imported crude oil every year & it's tax break only cost us $6 billion less tax collected from drivers at the pump. I will take that 6 to 1 yearly profit on investment any day.
That’s roughly $5.50 to $7.50 of gasoline per gallon.
The same research team, in a study sponsored by the Renewable Fuels Association and released by the Center for Agricultural and Rural Development (CARD), found that the increased use of ethanol reduced wholesale gasoline prices by an average of $0.89 per gallon in 2010. The average effect increased to $0.89 per gallon, and the regional impact ranges from $0.58 per gallon on the East Coast to $1.37 per gallon in the Midwest, according to the study’s authors.
Ethanol did not drive up food prices. China drove up food prices.
You don't get it. The higher costs to produce ever-more difficult to find and extract petroleum are going to drive the price of fuel up over the long-term (not to mention our government's seemingly never-ending fiscal mischief to trash the dollar, which drives the cost of imported oil ever upward). How people react to that individually will be their own decision, but the net effect will be that some combination of smaller and more fuel-efficient vehicles, fewer miles driven, alternative transportation or living arrangements, or money diverted from other parts of the economy is going to be the result. Reality is a harsh mistress, and she doesn't always do want we want her to do.
As one who pumped gas at $0.32 a gallon, I get it very well. Thirty two cents a gallon in 1965 is equal to $2.36 today. Allowing for developing nations competing for today's oil, the increasing difficulty in finding it, increasing environmental concerns regarding its production refining and transport, $3.00 a gallon is probably a bargain. However, if gasoline goes to $15.00 a gallon, there will still be those who have need of vehicles that can move more than the weight of a city commuter.
The good thing is that higher fuel prices will either drive the production of more fuel efficient trucks or those who need a sofa moved, and don't have a truck, will pay more to have it moved. Smaller vehicles are a very small part of energy inflation picture. Gas prices go up, so does a gallon of milk, a dozen eggs, a loaf of bread, Smucker's jelly, Heintz catsup, (add here the list of almost every product found in most malls.)
- It removed all the farm subsidy payments.
- It reduced our dependance on foreign oil.
- It kept the money in this country & out of terrorist hands.
- It created 400,000 good paying US jobs.
- It lowered everyones cost at the gas pump by way more than the tax cut.
- Ethanol saves the USA $36 billion worth of imported crude oil every year & it's tax break only cost us $6 billion less tax collected from drivers at the pump. I will take that 6 to 1 yearly profit on investment any day.
[A study from economists at Iowa State University and the University of Wisconsin[/url] that found that if ethanol production came to an immediate halt, the estimated gasoline price increase would be what the researcher described as “historic proportions,” ranging from 41 to 92 percent.
That’s roughly $5.50 to $7.50 of gasoline per gallon.
The same research team, in a study sponsored by the Renewable Fuels Association and released by the Center for Agricultural and Rural Development (CARD), found that the increased use of ethanol reduced wholesale gasoline prices by an average of $0.89 per gallon in 2010. The average effect increased to $0.89 per gallon, and the regional impact ranges from $0.58 per gallon on the East Coast to $1.37 per gallon in the Midwest, according to the study’s authors.
Ethanol did not drive up food prices. China drove up food prices.
Gee, fancy that a study paid for by an industry association promoting ethanol would show results favoring that industry. Can we say "biased"?
Now, maybe you should consider that all that corn grown to make ethanol was fertilized by fertilizer made by burning huge quantities of natural gas using the Haber-Bosch process--you neglect to mention that little nugget. You also neglect to mention that cultivation of corn requires copious amounts of diesel fuel--of which, thanks to our low-sulfur diesel requirements, we must import a considerable percentage. (Wonder why the US is exporting diesel fuel these days? Because many of our refineries are incapable of producing low-sulfur diesel fuel, so we have to export high-sulfur diesel fuel while we pay a premium to import more expensive low-sulfur diesel fuel.)
Add those things into the mix, and it becomes more clear why ethanol from corn is an energy "loser." Sure, the industry created jobs. Many industries do when a ton of taxpayer money is thrown their way--but those are offset by jobs lost elsewhere when tax or debt burdens grow.
I'm all for reducing our dependence on foreign oil--in fact, I'm in favor of lowering our oil usage in general, but ethanol is not the efficient way to do it. The proof is in the pudding--as soon as the ethanol subsidy went away and people had to pay the REAL, unsubsidized cost of ethanol at the pump, ethanol-blended fuels surpassed regular "no-ethanol" gasoline in price. If ethanol really is cost-effective, it won't need a subsidy. If it's not, then it should go away.
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Or, move over to England where gas prices are over $7.00 a gallon. Then you can really b***h. 
