Gasoline is Going to Cost Over $7.00 per Gallon

I was watching the news the other night and happened to hear that gasoline prices could reach 7.00 a gallon...WHAT? So, I looked up the news article that reported this amount here. What would happen if that actually happened?

Obviously transportation costs will skyrocket for transporting food and goods to stores...and certainly they will pass this cost to us. I cannot imagine what things will cost then???

Once again, savings will be the mantra, but I don't believe that will be enough. We must find alternative ways to do things...conservation at the top of the list....everything from gas to food, water to electricity, etc.

What would you do to conserve?

To learn more about how you can increase your gas mileage visit http://4ourfuture.com/Tasuvus

Missouri Gas Prices

With no end in sight Congressman Carnahan
urges Congress and the President to act.

In 2001, the average price of a gallon of gas in Missouri was $1.38; now it's approaching $4.

Gas prices have hit new record highs for more than two straight weeks. Despite the urging of the Democratic Congress, the White House has not taken action. The President says "the cost-benefit analysis" of immediate action for consumers has not persuaded him and has chosen to do nothing.

Congressman Russ Carnahan has urged the President to stop filling the Strategic Petroleum Reserve to lower gas prices. The reserve is 97% full now—enough to meet our security needs—and has been tapped before by President Bush and former Presidents Clinton and Bush. Experts project this could lower gas prices by 5 to 24 cents per gallon. In 2000, just the announcement of a reserve moratorium dropped oil prices in the market from $30 a barrel to $20.

Congressman Carnahan and Democratic leadership have also called on the President to urge the Federal Trade Commission to enforce the law--acting on market manipulation authority enacted in the Energy Independence and Security Act of 2007.

Repealing subsidies to Big Oil earning record profits – including Exxon's $10.9 billion quarter - and re-investing in renewable energy is necessary to alleviate the price at the pumps for the long and short-term.

For more information on how you can fight the increasing prices of gasoline in todays society visit http://4ourfuture.com/Tasuvus

U.S. Mail Affected by Rising Fuel Costs

The higher price of gas will affect more than just the cost of food and consumer goods.

Now higher fuel costs are going postal.On Monday, May 12, 2008, the US Postal Service (USPS) will raise postage prices.

The cost to mail a U.S. First Class one-ounce letter will increase to 42 cents while the postcard will increase to 27 cents.

This postage increase covers higher operating expenses.

USPS has incurred higher operating costs due to rapidly escalating fuel prices, as well as rising medical, transportation and other higher expenses.

A one-cent increase in fuel costs USPS more than $8 million in higher fuel costs per year.

USPS receives no tax dollars for its operations and relies on the sale of postage, products and services to cover its costs.

For more information about how you can cut down on the rising cost of fuel visit http://4ourfuture.com/Tasuvus

What if Gasoline Grew on Trees?

Researchers have made a breakthrough in the development of "green gasoline," a liquid identical to standard gasoline yet created from sustainable biomass sources like switchgrass and poplar trees.

Reporting in the cover article of the April 7, 2008 issue of Chemistry & Sustainability, Energy & Materials (ChemSusChem), chemical engineer and National Science Foundation (NSF) CAREER awardee George Huber of the University of Massachusetts-Amherst (UMass) and his graduate students Torren Carlson and Tushar Vispute announced the first direct conversion of plant cellulose into gasoline components.

In the same issue, James Dumesic and colleagues from the University of Wisconsin-Madison announce an integrated process for creating chemical components of jet fuel using a green gasoline approach. While Dumesic's group had previously demonstrated the production of jet-fuel components using separate steps, their current work shows that the steps can be integrated and run sequentially, without complex separation and purification processes between reactors.
While it may be five to 10 years before green gasoline arrives at the pump or finds its way into a fighter jet, these breakthroughs have bypassed significant hurdles to bringing green gasoline biofuels to market.

"It is likely that the future consumer will not even know that they are putting biofuels into their car," said Huber. "Biofuels in the future will most likely be similar in chemical composition to gasoline and diesel fuel used today. The challenge for chemical engineers is to efficiently produce liquid fuels from biomass while fitting into the existing infrastructure today."

For their new approach, the UMass researchers rapidly heated cellulose in the presence of solid catalysts, materials that speed up reactions without sacrificing themselves in the process. They then rapidly cooled the products to create a liquid that contains many of the compounds found in gasoline.

The entire process was completed in under two minutes using relatively moderate amounts of heat. The compounds that formed in that single step, like naphthalene and toluene, make up one fourth of the suite of chemicals found in gasoline. The liquid can be further treated to form the remaining fuel components or can be used "as is" for a high octane gasoline blend.

"Green gasoline is an attractive alternative to bioethanol since it can be used in existing engines and does not incur the 30 percent gas mileage penalty of ethanol-based flex fuel," said John Regalbuto, who directs the Catalysis and Biocatalysis Program at NSF and supported this research.

"In theory it requires much less energy to make than ethanol, giving it a smaller carbon footprint and making it cheaper to produce," Regalbuto said. "Making it from cellulose sources such as switchgrass or poplar trees grown as energy crops, or forest or agricultural residues such as wood chips or corn stover, solves the lifecycle greenhouse gas problem that has recently surfaced with corn ethanol and soy biodiesel."

Beyond academic laboratories, both small businesses and Fortune 500 petroleum refiners are pursuing green gasoline. Companies are designing ways to hybridize their existing refineries to enable petroleum products including fuels, textiles, and plastics to be made from either crude oil or biomass and the military community has shown strong interest in making jet fuel and diesel from the same sources.

"Huber's new process for the direct conversion of cellulose to gasoline aromatics is at the leading edge of the new ‘Green Gasoline' alternate energy paradigm that NSF, along with other federal agencies, is helping to promote," states Regalbuto.

Not only is the method a compact way to treat a great deal of biomass in a short time, Regalbuto emphasized that the process, in principle, does not require any external energy. "In fact, from the extra heat that will be released, you can generate electricity in addition to the biofuel," he said. "There will not be just a small carbon footprint for the process; by recovering heat and generating electricity, there won't be any footprint."

The latest pathways to produce green gasoline, green diesel and green jet fuel are found in a report sponsored by NSF, the Department of Energy and the American Chemical Society entitled "Breaking the Chemical and Engineering Barriers to Lignocellulosic Biofuels: Next Generation Hydrocarbon Biorefineries" released April 1 (http://www.ecs.umass.edu/biofuels/). In the report, Huber and a host of leaders from academia, industry and government present a plan for making green gasoline a practical solution for the impending fuel crisis.

"We are currently working on understanding the chemistry of this process and designing new catalysts and reactors for this single step technique. This fundamental chemical understanding will allow us to design more efficient processes that will accelerate the commercialization of green gasoline," Huber said.

For further information on how you can cut the cost of fuel consumption by increasing your gas mileage visit http://4ourfuture.com/Tasuvus

More on Gasoline Prices

CBO released a study today on consumers’ responses to the substantial upward trend in gasoline prices that began in 2003.

Many drivers have responded to higher gasoline prices in the way that they drive, but overall the response has been very small.

Freeway-driving motorists have adjusted to higher prices by making somewhat fewer trips and by driving somewhat more slowly.

CBO used data collected at a dozen metropolitan highway locations in California, along with data on gasoline prices in California, to identify changes in driving patterns: On weekdays in the study period, for every 50 cent increase in the price of gasoline, the number of freeway trips declined by about 0.7 percent in areas where rail transit is a nearby substitute for driving; transit ridership on the corresponding systems increased by a commensurate amount; and on weekends median speeds on uncongested freeways declined by about 0.75 miles per hour.

After increasing steadily for more than 20 years, the market share of light trucks (including SUVs and minivans), relative to all new passenger vehicles, began to decline in 2004. As a result, the average fuel economy of new vehicles has increased by more than half a mile per gallon since 2004 (because light trucks tend to be less fuel efficient than cars). Stricter fuel economy standards for light trucks have also contributed to that increase.

Used-vehicle prices have shifted, reflecting changing demand, particularly with respect to fuel economy: The average prices for larger, less-fuel-efficient models have declined over the past five years as average prices for the most fuel efficient automobiles have risen.

Total U.S. sales of midgrade and premium gasoline have declined gradually since 2000, even as consumption of the less expensive regular formulations has increased. Although consumption of the different grades of gasoline depends strongly on what kinds of vehicles consumers drive (and on manufacturers’ fuel octane recommendations for those vehicles), it also might have been influenced by the general increase in gasoline prices since 2003.

The study notes that the response of consumers to higher gasoline prices has important implications for policies that affect gasoline consumption, including CAFE (Corporate Average Fuel Economy) standards for cars and light trucks. Because higher gasoline prices increase the demand for vehicles with better fuel economy ratings, they reduce the economic costs (and fuel savings) of adopting more-stringent CAFE standards. At the same time, to the extent stricter CAFE standards improve fuel efficiency beyond what consumers would choose in the absence of such standards, they reduce the per-mile costs of driving — which would partially reverse some of the effects of higher gasoline prices discussed in this study. The federal tax on gasoline, by contrast, reinforces rather than neutralizes the behavioral and vehicle choice effects of higher gasoline prices. It also immediately affects all motorists’ incentives to reduce gasoline consumption, whereas CAFE standards primarily affect motorists only after they replace the vehicles they were driving at the time the standards were implemented.

David Austin, an economist in CBO’s Microeconomic Studies Division, wrote the report. In addition to his work on gas prices and CAFE, David has done research in the areas of liability policy and toxic emissions; Clean Air Act regulations; consumer benefits of new technologies; and allocation of emissions controls, and research and development in the pharmaceutical industry. He has been at CBO for six years; prior to that was at Resources for the Future for eight years. He received his undergraduate degree from Stanford University and his economics Ph.D. from UC Berkeley. He also has a master’s degree in statistics from Yale University. And he has an impressive track-and-field record, including a mile best of 4:19.

For information on how you can cut the cost of your fuel consumption click on http://4ourfuture.com/Tasuvus

Americans Using Less Gasoline

U.S. drivers are doing something they haven’t done for nearly two decades — consume less gasoline.

Gas consumption so far this year is down about 0.2 percent compared to last year, according to the Energy Information Administration.

The federal agency is predicting that gasoline demand will be down 0.4 percent this summer and 0.3 percent for the year.

That may not sound like much, but it would be the first time since 1991 that there’s been a decline in annual gas consumption.

And it would be only the eighth year since 1951 in which demand for gasoline has declined.The federal agency noted that the decline was occurring in part because of a slowing economy. But it also said that higher gas prices were having an effect on demand.

“Sustained higher gasoline prices are beginning to show up in lower gasoline consumption,” said Tancred Lidderdale, an analyst for the Energy Information Administration.

Both gasoline and diesel prices are now at record levels.Here are two charts from This Week in Petroleum to show where retail prices are:Notice that instead of falling in the winter, both gas and diesel prices remained at high levels.

I think this is an important contributing factor to the slowdown that occurred in the fourth quarter.

Also consider the following graph of oil prices:Oil has been in a rally for almost a year and a half. Notice the market has continually advanced through previous resistance levels, consolidated gains and then moved higher.

However, we're moving into the summer driving season when demand typically increases:
Since last fall, the average U.S. retail price for regular gasoline has been close to or above $3 per gallon in large part due to high crude oil prices.

High crude oil prices are expected to remain an important reason why retail gasoline prices are projected to stay above $3 per gallon for some time to come.

As the chart below indicates, we are now in the “time of the season” when gasoline demand begins to increase.

As seasonal demand increases, prices tend to rise as well, all else equal. Even though U.S. gasoline demand has been lower than year-ago levels so far this year, EIA still expects that rising gasoline demand over the next few months will drive retail prices higher.

So, while gasoline prices have risen above $3 per gallon mostly due to high crude oil prices, increasing gasoline demand will likely take retail gasoline prices to $3.50 per gallon and above, even if year-over-year gasoline demand is negative.

The simple fact that more and more gasoline will be used over the next few months will probably be enough to cause retail gasoline prices to increase, even if crude oil prices begin declining, as EIA is currently projecting. Additionally, the cost of making “summer-grade” gasoline (“summer-grade” gasoline produces less smog) is significantly more than making “winter-grade” gasoline, helping to raise retail prices even further during the summer months, all else equal.

Finally, I have two words: India and China. Simply put, US demand is no longer the only driving force of the oil market.

There are now over 2 billion more people who've seen their standard of living increase.

To learn how you can cut down on the cost of your fuel consumption visit http://4ourfuture.com/Tasuvus

Last Years Gas Prices Around The World

To learn more about how you can cut the cost of fuel visit http://4ourfuture.com/Tasuvus

Assumptions about Gasoline Prices

I think there is an unspoken assumption among our citizenry that the government runs the oil business. We seem to think that the government controls gas prices (sort of like the Federal Reserve controls interest rates), and we interpret fluctuations in gas prices as a measure of the government's ability to manage world affairs. In truth, gas prices are simply the short-term indicators of a constantly fluctuating free market.

Fluctuations in price are natural. The spike due to the Chavez crisis in Venezuela had nothing to do with the economic health of the country. Yet it probably bummed out millions of people, making them wonder if the world was indeed going to hell.

Thus, the price of gasoline is to "Main Street" what the Dow Jones/Nasdaq indices are to Wall Street: rather meaningless figures by themselves, which are taken as reflective of something much more than they are.

The daily gasoline consumption by the U.S. is around 360 million gallons a day, which (using an estimate of 100 million households) comes out to about 3.6 gallons per day per household. The 360 million gallons is not a direct measured figure, but is an estimate obtained by taking 43 percent of the daily crude oil consumption of 19.5 million barrels, since 43 percent is supposedly the fraction that winds up as gasoline.

What Muslims Think About Gasoline

In an interesting article in the Los Angeles Times, Jeremy Rifkin — who is writing a book about hydrogen power — reported that many Muslims see oil as the Great Equalizer.

"Many younger Muslim fundamentalists view oil as 'a soft loan from Allah.' They see oil as the great equalizer, a spiritual as well as geopolitical weapon that, if Islamized in the service of Allah, could lead to the second coming of Islam."

What Christians Think About Gasoline

"Fossil fuels are one of the Creator's greatest gifts to humankind."
Let's run with that idea. God apparently gave the U.S. enough oil to get us all hooked on the stuff, but he gave the Muslims a lot more so that they'll have plenty of it to sell us when we run out of our stocks. Nice little power play. Whose side is God on?

To learn more about how to cut the cost of fuel visit http://4ourfuture.com/Tasuvus

TAKE CONTROL OF RISING GAS PRICES: DON'T LET YOUR MONEY EVAPORATE

Here are some gas saving maintenance and driving tips that really work:

Vehicle gas caps - About 17 percent of the vehicles on the roads have gas caps that are either damaged, loose or are missing altogether, causing 147 million gallons of gas to vaporize every year

Under-inflated tires - When tires aren't inflated properly it's like driving with the parking brake on and can cost a mile or two per gallon.

Worn spark plugs - A vehicle can have either four, six or eight spark plugs, which fire as many as 3 million times every 1,000 miles, resulting in a lot of heat and electrical and chemical erosion. A dirty spark plug causes misfiring, which wastes fuel. Spark plugs need to be replaced regularly.

Dirty air filters - An air filter that is clogged with dirt, dust and bugs chokes off the air and creates a "rich" mixture - too much gas being burned for the amount of air, which wastes gas and causes the engine to lose power. Replacing a clogged air filter can improve gas mileage by as much as 10 percent, saving about 15 cents a gallon.

Fuel-saving driving tips include:

Don't be an aggressive driver - Aggressive driving can lower gas mileage by as much as 33 percent on the highway and 5 percent on city streets, which results in 7 to 49 cents per gallon.

Avoid excessive idling - Sitting idle gets zero miles per gallon. Letting the vehicle warm up for one to two minutes is sufficient.

Observe the speed limit Gas mileage decreases rapidly at speeds above 60 mph. Each mph driven over 60 will result in an additional 10 cents per gallon. To maintain a constant speed on the highway, cruise control is recommended.

Combining errands into one trip saves gas and time. Several short trips taken from a cold start can use twice as much fuel as a longer multi-purpose trip covering the same distance.

Avoid carrying unneeded heavy items in the truck. An extra 100 pounds can cut fuel efficiency by a percent or two.

For additional information on how you can cut down on the increasing cost of fuel visit http://4ourfuture.com/Tasuvus