More on gas prices...

[ukaviator]

Bio-Diesel

Any of you guys ever experimented with Bio-diesel?

My dad lives in the UK where gas is now $8.50 per gallon -- oh yes you heard me right, $8.50 per gallon!! (80% of which is tax, but thats not the point).

Point is, he is thoroughly pi$$ed of with it and decided to take matters into his own hands. He now owns a BMW Diesel that gets 600 miles per tank which he makes himself from Bio-diesel costing him $0.70c per gallon!!

The car runs smoother, quieter, and no black smoke on start up.

I had a go for fun, dont own a diesel car, so tried it in a diesel generator ... works a charm!
Might be something to consider if things keep going this way.

Noticed today gas prices in CA $4.30 per gallon -- ouch!

 

[CrimsonEclipse]

Come on Jet, we all know you have extra money for expensive fuel.

You're a pilot! You MUST be rich.

CE

I'm sorry....I'll let myself out.

 

[jetflyer]

LOL Crimson,

I'm young, but live WELL within my means.

I was about to buy a 250 hp 6 cylinder Nissan Altima SL for my wife last year when I learned about peak oil. We were also about to buy a house, and I have delayed that for a long, long time.

Instead we live in an apartment with two paid off cars. My wife only has an 18 mile roundtrip to work and we are investing like mad in gold, silver, energy and alternative energy. My returns have been amazing. I hope to become a millionaire off my knowledge.

So no I'm not rich yet but I hope to be Gotta love greed.....

Jet

 

[jetflyer]

UK,

I considered getting a diesel Jetta and trying it, but realized it would just be cheaper to keep my paid off gas guzzler. A lot of people are getting the vegetable oil from local restaurants and turning it into bio-diesel. Not a bad idea.

Jet

 

[MJG]

Excuse the slight thread drift here, but I find some irony in this discussion as it relates to this season's plot on the TV show 24.

Basically without rehashing the whole thing, the premiss of this season is a plot by the President of the United States to use terrorists as a pawn to bend Russia over the table and grab control of most of their oil supplies. All this in an effort to ensure the the American public, who are also the voters who keep politicians in office, can afford to heat their homes in the winter. High energy prices will be blamed on the politicians so in order to save their own skins they have to secure more oil for the future.

Funny but maybe Hollywood, you know those bunch of hippy Liberals, are more in the know than we think. Of course it could just be that they have very creative writers for the show.

Back to the topic at hand, sorry again for the drift. As someone else already said, I'll let myself out.

 

[jetflyer]

MJG,

Great point. I'm watching "24" this year and think the writers believe what some conspiracy theorists believe. Actually MJG, the president on "24" was going to allow the terrorist attack to justify American's presence in the Middle East, not Russia.

There are conspiracy theorists out there that say that Bush and Cheney with help from high ups in the FBI and CIA knew about the 9/11 attack beforehand and "ALLOWED" 9/11 to occur so we could "JUSTIFY" our presence in the middle east to "SECURE" the oil for decades to come, especially as Peak Oil is hit.

Jet

 

[LarryinTN]

This equates to an extra $800 per year for me and my wife to go to work in the morning.

You burn 10½ gallons of gasoline per day? That's nuts. How long are your commutes, what type of cars do you drive?

 

[LarryinTN]

Some interesting facts regarding the oil industry...

The oil industry has a profit margin of about 3% on gasoline sales. i.e. You pay $10.00 at the pump and they make about 30¢ profit.

The oil industries overall profit margin is about double that for gasoline at around 7%. i.e. They sell $100 in petroleum products and they earn about $7 profit.

Coca-Cola earns a profit margin of over 20%.

 

[Ill Mitch]

You burn 10½ gallons of gasoline per day? That's nuts. How long are your commutes, what type of cars do you drive?

I did the math quicklike with my cell phone. But we burn though about 5.5 gallons per day. The current price over here is $3.10 per gallon.
We both drive little 4 bangers that get 30MPG. We used own a big ol' Trooper, but got rid of that once gas started going up.

HA HA..I transposed a number somewhere...the increase is about $300 per year. It is still not chump change considering that the hike in my expenses happen in a two day period.

But I drive more than the most commuters. 80 miles per day. Let's cut it in half and do some huge averaging here. Figure $150 per year is the increase, 200 million drivers (like the original poster said). It is about 30 billion that is being taking out of the economy and burned away in exhaust fumes.

 

[LarryinTN]

Your $300/yr is $25 per month. That is not a budget buster.

$150/yr is $2.88 per day and that's still driving more than average.

It may look scary on the signs but it really isn't that much more.

 

[jetflyer]

LJ,

I agree it's more just "Scary" or fear from looking at the signs.

It's a psychological level people will have to get used to.

Then again if you take a couple hundred from every American in the country, like Mitch is saying, that adds up. This will definitely affect the discretionary income of Americans and especially the poor. Places like the "Dollar Store" and "beer" and "cigarette" companies will be hit the hardest

Plus people the last couple years were cashing out the equity in their homes like an ATM. That is stopping, plus people with ARM loans on their HOMES are about to see in the next year to two years, their loan payments adjusted upwards several hundred dollars.

I predict the economy to begin slowing sooner and more than the Federal Reserve and Ben Bernanke would like.

Jet

 

[TrafficInSight]

When gas was at $2.50 I paid 150$ a month for gas. This was about 2 months ago. Now that it's $3.15 I'm paying 190$ a month.

Great.... only a 40$ a month increase....

Of course now everyone talks about $2.50 gas like it's always been that way. I think that the constant rise and fall of gas prices is a psychological thing designed to get us conditioned to higher prices. It went from $1.50 to $3.15 in the course of a year which is a $100 a month increase. I'm finishing college in one of the most expensive areas in the entire freaking universe so things are already razor thin.

Care to guess how much my pay has gone up?

 

[Smacktard]

In "Celebration" of oil hitting $75 today, I decided to make a bunch of gross assumptions and see how much the oil companies might profit related to our price increases. Here's a simple calc (USA only, sorry Euros!):

Let's assume:
-200 million people drive per day
-Each drives 30 miles/day
-Each averages 20 mpg, giving about 1.5 gals burned per person per day

-This gives 300 million gals of gas burned every day in the US

Assume a $1 increase in the per gallon cost (we should be so lucky!)

-This would give a $300 million per day INCREASE in revenues.
-This is about $110 billion/yr INCREASE for the US oil industry.

There's a lot of money out there in the oil industry!! I've made a lot of big assumptions, but the point is to put the cost increases in perspective. Do you think most of this increased cash is going to operations? Is it profit? Where is it going?

Oh no, another lame response to 'The Evil Oil Industry'. Instead of repeating the incorrect emotional blathering you hear on the boob-tube, why not just dig a little to see what is really going on? Profit margins for Big Oil are less than most other industries, somewhere in the neighborhood of 8.5%. For those that don't understand that, for every dollar Big Oil spends to produce, they make about $0.08 cents. Or, for each gallon about $0.20 cents. Banks, tech industries are about double that, are they making excess profits too? You're just confused because the dollar amounts are so huge. Also take a look at the government's take, it's more than double what the oil industry makes. And note the key word there, makes, the goverment doesn't have to invest, produce, hire, create, manufacturer the gas/oil, they just reach in for the 'free' money. Here are a few links to get you on your way...

http://www.washingtonpost.com/wp-dyn/content/article/2005/10/27/AR2005102702399.html


http://txfx.net/2005/10/30/mommy-what-is-a-profit-margin/


http://moneycentral.msn.com/investor...ins&Symbol=XOM

 

[AeroBoy]

Some interesting facts regarding the oil industry...

The oil industry has a profit margin of about 3% on gasoline sales. i.e. You pay $10.00 at the pump and they make about 30¢ profit.

The oil industries overall profit margin is about double that for gasoline at around 7%. i.e. They sell $100 in petroleum products and they earn about $7 profit.

Coca-Cola earns a profit margin of over 20%.

While this might be true, I can choose tap water (free) over a $1.50 Coke because buying a soft drink is optional. However, if I want to commute to work (and thus earn an income) I MUST purchase gasoline for my car. Like everyone else, I don't have any alternative. I can choose only to buy from one station or another station at pretty much the same price (give or take a few pennies per gallon). And at least Coke goes on sale at the grocery store every other week. I can't remember a gas station having a sale on gasoline, notwithstanding the PR radio gimmicks where they sell gas at the station's radio frequency for an hour or two. So comparing profit margins of a monopolistic industry with one that isn't doesn't wash--it's comparing apples with oranges.

 

[AeroBoy]

Also take a look at the government's take, it's more than double what the oil industry makes. And note the key word there, makes, the goverment doesn't have to invest, produce, hire, create, manufacturer the gas/oil, they just reach in for the 'free' money.http://moneycentral.msn.com/investor/invsub/results/compare.asp?Page=ProfitMargins&Symbol=XOM

The auto fuel taxes are collected for upkeep of the road infrastructure. The roads weren't paved, nor were the bridges and overpasses built, for free. And they need to be maintained, which costs lots of money. I am more than happy to pay the fuel taxes as long as the road are in good shape (i.e. no potholes that will swallow up my car). So it's not "free" money. If you're looking for free money, I suggest you contact Halliburton and ask how you too can get no-bid government contracts.