Fuel costs are impacting Maine (taxes, oil, gas)

[JimMe]

Originally Posted by abatardi

Maine tries to follow California when it comes to vehicle emissions in order to be proactive to keep their state clean. When it comes to diesels, you are going to start seeing them introduced back into California (and the rest of the 'hardcore states' to follow soon after) in the next couple years. We finally have clean bio-diesel fuel and diesel engines are getting much cleaner, including turbo diesels and hybrid diesels. Of course, to counter-act this gas saving technology, oil industries have raised the prices of diesel fuel up to 75 cents a gallon in the last couple months. Still gotta make those billion dollar profits.

- aba

Do you know how much the oil companies make on a gallon of gas? Nine and a half cents. Do you know how much the State of Maine makes on a gallon of gas? Forty-six cents. At least the oil companies do something worthwhile for their money. What does the State do?

[JimMe]

Originally Posted by Maineah

I'm with Acadionlion here. Unless something stops the rising fuel cost in it's tracks immediately a recession will be the least of our troubles. It's easy to tell people to adjust and it will pass, and whistle past the grave yard. A great many people in this State have already adjusted as far as they can and still the prices keep rising.
Wait until the independent truckers strike for a taste of what's to come. If you think grocery prices are high now you're going to be paying Alaska prices in the not so distant future.$4.00 is a conservative estimate for a gallon of #2 oil next winter. If prices continue as they have $4.50 will be closer to the truth. That's $1237.00 to fill your oil tank....if you fill four times in a season that's nearly $5000 for just your heating oil. Think it can't happen? Did you ever think gas at $3.00 a gallon would look like a bargain?
People need to be nailing their Representatives and Senators to the wall. These people will do absolutely nothing until their email box is full, phone rings off the hook or an avalanche of mail arrives at their offices.
It's just not lowering the gas price that needs action. There needs to be a REAL effort to support alternative energy proposals and technologies. There are promising technologies available and no not growing corn for fuel....real alternatives which will return fossil fuel back to being a fossil.

Dream on. If you think "alternatives" are going to save the day, you're in for a rude awakening. They can't make a dent in the energy demand. The only solution is to vote out the idiots who have opposed every attempt to exploit our energy resources. This is a man-made crisis--and I'm not referring to OPEC or the oil companies. This is entirely self-inflicted.

[JimMe]

Originally Posted by Northern Maine Land Man

Mainah observes:
" That's $1237.00 to fill your oil tank....if you fill four times in a season that's nearly $5000 for just your heating oil. Think it can't happen? Did you ever think gas at $3.00 a gallon would look like a bargain?
People need to be nailing their Representatives and Senators to the wall. These people will do absolutely nothing until their email box is full, phone rings off the hook or an avalanche of mail arrives at their offices."

Until our two senators cease their obedience to the environmental extremists we won't move towards energy independence. There are oil fields in Alaska bigger than the reserves in Saudi Arabia. The caribou won't mind a bit if we drill there. There is reportedly a huge natural gas deposit in the Gulf of Maine that could be bigger than Sable Island. The lobsters won't mind if we use some. and it's a proven fact that fish do very well around oil rigs. What could possibly motivate our senators to want to choke off our energy supply?

Face it. They reflect the state they represent. This is a blue state, kind of what a drowned person looks like.

[Maineah]

Originally Posted by JimMe

Dream on. If you think "alternatives" are going to save the day, you're in for a rude awakening. They can't make a dent in the energy demand. The only solution is to vote out the idiots who have opposed every attempt to exploit our energy resources. This is a man-made crisis--and I'm not referring to OPEC or the oil companies. This is entirely self-inflicted.

Oil won't last forever then what are you going to do?

[dmyankee]

This could be just the beginning and maybe a profitable industry for the right entrepreneurs. I feel the alternative energy market is ripe for expansion and could do as much for the economy as the Internet boom of the '80s. These devices actually take organic garbage to produce ethanol.

The Air Force is the largest user of fuel in the D.O.D. The B-1 is already biofuel certified and the C-17, soon to be. The Army is running vehicles on this also. These units are being shipped overseas for further evaluation.

With enough foresight by venture capitalists, could this be the wave of the future? Recall that computers were prohibitively expensive for decades and the personal computer was a pipe dream.

Biodiesel Takes to the Sky: Scientific American

FOXNews.com - U.S. Armed Forces Go Eco-Friendly - Local News | News Articles | National News | US News

[Maineah]

Originally Posted by dmyankee

The B-1 is already biofuel certified and the C-17, soon to be.

The B-1 Lancer....My favorite plane!

[K-Luv]

Originally Posted by JimMe

Do you know how much the oil companies make on a gallon of gas? Nine and a half cents. Do you know how much the State of Maine makes on a gallon of gas? Forty-six cents. At least the oil companies do something worthwhile for their money. What does the State do?

Do you know how many gallons of gas an oil company produces? Well let me tell you-a s**t load. They also sell gas to every state and other countries. Up the profit. The state of Maine is not in the business of selling gas to other countries.

Every product is produced for pennies on the dollar. A $2,000 laptop costs under $10 to manufacture. Ad nuseum.

[Maineah]

Originally Posted by JimMe

Do you know how much the oil companies make on a gallon of gas? Nine and a half cents. Do you know how much the State of Maine makes on a gallon of gas? Forty-six cents. At least the oil companies do something worthwhile for their money. What does the State do?

They love us and protect us and make us french toast in the morning!

[Bydand]

Originally Posted by JimMe

Do you know how much the oil companies make on a gallon of gas? Nine and a half cents. Do you know how much the State of Maine makes on a gallon of gas? Forty-six cents. At least the oil companies do something worthwhile for their money. What does the State do?

Link to this please. State gas tax is around 28 cents a gallon.
Gasoline tax information - Maine Gas Prices This is including the federal tax as well for these numbers
fuel tax rates

Just a couple I have found. Would love to see where you arrived at 46 cents a gallon.

[Northern Maine Land Man]

All oil companies have long term contracts with suppliers. Many of those contracts are for oil at $30 or $40 a barrel. The fact that some speculator bid $100 a barrel on a futures contract is not at all indicative of the true cost of oil. NO oil company is paying an average of $90 a barrel or anywhere near it. That said, it is expensive to search for new oil sources. We know where there is a whole lot of oil. Politicians won't let us use those sources. We know where there is additional oil, but we don't know how much, again due to politicians. The Antarctic has oil. We have no idea how much. It could be bigger than the North Slope in Alaska.

In the year 2000, Bill Clinton gave away the Wrangell Islands to Russia. There are huge oil deposits in the Wrangell Islands. They lie off Alaska and Siberia.

"With hardly a mention in the national media, Bill Clinton turned over several U.S. islands to Russia without congressional approval or public debate, stripping American citizens of their citizenship - making them citizens of Russia. The Arctic islands, which lie west of Alaska and north of Siberia, include the islands of Wrangell, Herald, Bennett, Jeannette and Henrietta. The islands in the Bering Sea make up the westernmost point in Alaska's Aleutian chain and include Copper Island, Sea Otter rock and Sea Lion Rock. These islands together have more square mileage than the states of Rhode Island and Delaware combined."