In other words, everything has a cost...................frequently the average Joe (or any other name you want to use) doesn't have any, or perhaps limited, awareness of it.

With the thread on Gas Pricing flourishing, and the "news" all abuzz with stories, there is lots of discussion about ways to "get even", or "show those evil oil companies", or "stick it to them Opeckerheads", whatever, we're hearing folks clammer for some of the proposed alternatives again.

We often hear we're entering the "Information Age". The notions of the world getting smaller, the internet, satelite communications and the instant "news" transference that begets, and the general adoption of English as the default international language all contribute to a flood of ideas that sometimes becomes overwhelming. For those that can't cope denial sets in and they take the position equivalent to sticking their head in the sand. Others will study diligently to find out as much info as they can so that they can make viable decisions. Pick which group you want to be with and live with the results. But beware of your political or social biases blinding you to undercurrents that will punish you.

Just gonna throw out some random info on a few of the ideas that pop up and see if there's any decent discussion.

All decisions flow from a basic fact or assumption. For the sake of a discussion of our automotive fuel needs I think we need to start from how much we use/need. Burn these numbers in your head, think about them, and realize the enormity of the issue at hand.......................................or stick your head in the sand, whichever feels better for you.

Current usage of gasoline is 9.1-9.4 million barrels per DAY. A barrel is 42 gallons. At the low end, that's about 382 million gallons per DAY.

The last new refinery built in this country was completed in 1976. The general concensus is that environmental restrictions, building code hurdles, and public sentiment (NIMBY-not in my back yard) essentially preclude the economic construction of new plants.

Our existing refineries when operating at 100% capacity (meaning no down time for break downs, maintenance, refitting, improving......no interuption at all) can produce around 8.8 million gallons per day.

Our current refining and distribution system for motor fuels (gasoline and diesel primarily) has been developed over a 100 year period. This includes not only the refineries, but distribution pipelines, interim storage terminals, truck/barge transportation systems, local storage terminals, and the local fueling facility (so called gas stations and private fueling facilities). Nearly all of this, except the local station, is "invisible" to the average consumer. But just because they don't have an awareness of it doesn't mean it's not necessary.

Our country consumes about 12% of the worlds crude oil production. The largest national user. We are also the most productive, and largest economy. We run that economy on fuel. Without fuel, we stop producing. Since we are the most productive, we make better use of each unit of fuel we consume compared to the other's. Trying to make us feel guilty about the amount of fuel we use implies to me that there is another agenda. Can and should we try to do better? Sure, besides it's still in our nature, despite attempts to drag us down to the other's level in the name of "fairness". If you think the Kyoto Accords is about anything other than dragging the power of the USA down then go read the thread on the UN voting records again. But we have nothing to be ashamed of where we are until someone of significance moves ahead of us.

Alternative fuels

First and foremost don't lose site of the production and distribution comments above. Most current discussion of alternatives largely ignores the significance of distribution and storage. Most alternative fuels require new facilities and equipment to handle them. Those that don't, require current systems to be upgraded (e.g. alcohol fuels are more corrosive than straight gasoline). Where does the capital (primarily money) come from to do this?

Ethanol. Gasohol contains 10% ethanol, 90% gasoline. E85 is 85% ethanol, 15% gasoline. Rah rah says it's grown in America and is a "renewable" resource. Car enthusiasts are excited about the 100-105 octane rating of it. Doing research on this you find more sites promoting it, mainly in the Midwest where corn is an abundant source for raw material to produce ethanol. A few things to keep in mind. Ethanol is more sensitive to water contamination. It's also more sensitive to contamination by other fuels in the handling system (pipelines, transport trucks and barges). It has poor cold start characteristics (that's mainly why there's still 15% gasoline in E85) and is more prone to vapor lock (although with tank mounted electic pumps that's a minor consideration). The most undisclosed "issue" of ethanol is it's lower energy content. A gallon of ethanol contains about 2/3 the energy of a gallon of gasoline. This is where it starts to get tricky. Let's say a gallon of gasoline costs $2.10. That means that in order to be "fair", for an equivalent amount of work (mileage, distance traveled, material moved by powered equipment, etc.) E85 would need to be priced at 2/3 of what gasoline is, say $1.40 in this example. Doing an internet search the best range of pricing I could see is $1.60-1.80 for E85. Since these sites weren't dated I have no idea what time frame this is. But for people concerned about price, just looking at the pump numbers isn't enough. In the example above the E85 buyer is paying 20-40 cents MORE per gallon than the gasoline user in REAL cost. Maybe some of our midwest friends can give us a more accurate picture of today's street price for E85. But here's another kicker. The price of ethanol fuels is further distorted by the heavy hand of government. The only way that ethanol is any kind of price competitive is through two forms of tax manipulation. The producers of the alcohol get government "hand outs" in the form of tax credits, and the feds/states often waive a portion of the fuel tax. Of course the things that the fuel tax is supposed to pay for still exist and cost the same, so that money has to come from some other taxing source. See what I mean by no free lunch? Since most sites I found were pro-alchohol, it's virtually impossible to find out what the real premium paid for a gallon of E85 is once all the hidden costs are considered. If I had to guess it's at least 50 cents.

But let's say we're willing to pay that premium in the interest of "energy independence". An honorable goal. Attainable? Let's do some math. Again, since most sites I found were pro-alchohol I'm going to assume that they present a best case scenario. I was only able to find one figure for a per acre yield of alcohol, I didn't really have a lot of time to dig much deeper. That source said 2.7 gallons. Given planting, growing, harvesting, and processing time I'm going to assume only one crop per year. That means it takes a year for one acre to produce 2.7 gallons. Remember the number at the top I suggested you burn in your brain? To meet just ONE DAY of current demand would require 141,000,000 acres of corn. That's before taking into consideration the lower energy content of ethanol, add another 70,000,000 for that. My calculator doesn't have enough digits for me to figure what a year would take, but I think you get the idea.

Part of the reason that alcohol fuels need subsidies to compete with fossil fuels it the cost of producing that acre of corn. In order to have that "renewable" raw material you need seed, meaning more acres dedicated to growing seed corn that doesn't get processed into fuel, or any other of the food products we get from corn. Beyond the land necessary, there's the cost of planting, maintaining, fetilizing, harvesting, and transporting the corn to the processing plant. BTW, where's the capital come from to build enough processing plants to meet the need?

Methanol is another alcohol that's used for motor fuel. It has similar 10% blends, up to 85% which is called M85. It's mainly made from natural gas. Another nasty little secret is that we're already stressing our natural gas supplies, and again, governmental regulation has caused severe disincentives to natural gas exploration and production. So where's the "raw material" to make sufficient quantities of methanol. Methanol has many of the handling short comings of ethanol, and has an even lower energy content. It takes 1.7 gallons of methanol to equal one gallon of gasoline.

Alternative power sources. Most of these technologies are in their infancy. It takes time to develope them to the level necessary to be safe, reliable, and cost effective replacements for current gasoline powered, otto cycle engines. Where does the capital come from to do that developement? If your first thought was "the federal government" then where do they get it. We're already spending in a deficit to take care of all the other "needs" we have. And that subject would dwarf this one for scope of discussion. Suffice it to say that we're already wasting too much of our federal budget on non productive, non national defense things and can't really afford to pay for advancing these technologies. And blaming Bush alone is stupid because this problem has been with us for 60 years at least. A nanny state is too costly, allocates resources ineffectively, and undermines the advancement of our culture and civilization.