bootlegger
Enginerd
- Joined
- Jul 12, 2017
- Threads
- 9
- Messages
- 1,765
- Reaction score
- 593
- Location
- Mount Pleasant, SC
- First Name
- James
- Vehicle(s)
- Ex 2008 Mustang GT Owner
Just a few points (speaking as an ex-oil petrochem guy)...The car is $33k, $110 more a month for gas is my monthly full coverage insurance payment. Car was paid off 3 months ago. I have been following spot prices on oil and gasoline for 4 years. I understand fuel blends ( which is bs in itself). Ethanol is a waste of an additive with less energy per gallon and more harmful to the ozone per gallon than regular unleaded gasoline.
My problem is with the chart graphs for the past 10 years. The spread is abnormal compared to previous oil/ gas prices considering normal operations under normal conditions. Last time we paid prices anywhere near this was when oil was $128 a barrel not $70 as of today. Supposedly there is an abnormal condition with 2/3of our refineries being offline. No one monitors this for accuracy.
I work in the power generation field ( not living above my means) as turbine engineer. When we have outages which are twice a year, the price of electricity does not spike during that time. We have to buy it on the open market but our customers don't see a surge. Sure rates increase periodically as do ins, gas etc.
There is for sure price gouging going on here in Ca. Has been for some time. My average calculation over a 5 year period in this state has been $.48a gallon.
Ethanol is far from a waste of an additive. It's an oxygenate, and a great source of octane. It's safer and cheaper than any other alternative. "Worse for the ozone" isn't such a big issue, as gasoline combustion emissions had minimal contributions to the old ozone issue. The key now is reducing carbon emissions and reducing the need for fossil fuels. EtOH is pretty good for those issues. The biggest negatives are some increased ground level emissions (harmful to lungs), reduction of lubricity (harmful to fuel pumps), and increase in solvency (harmful to older hoses and seals). Those of us running E85 know what an amazing fuel it is for the performance enthusiast. I wish more stations sold it, as it is cheap and high octane. If I were in Cali, I would be looking for E85 stations and take the plunge.
As for gasoline prices, people love to whine about taxes. But taxes aren't the core of the issue in Cali. While your taxes are high, less than $0.50 per gallon goes to taxes. There are many other reasons that explain your high prices. Two standouts I see are lack of pipelines and strict regulations for fuel refining/blending. https://www.latimes.com/business/la-fi-gasoline-manipulation-infobox-20150706-story.html
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