Gas Watch

[Big Media]

$3.95 - Teays Valley

[Clay JD Walker]

Mom said it was 3.99 in Buckhannon...glad to know I filled up at Costco at 3.53 Sunday in preparation of my trip back this weekend...geesh

[Hoosier Daddy]

$3.95 here.

I officially hit the $100 mark when filling the tank today.

Thieving bastards.

[herdgirl72]

Heck...it cost me $30 to fill up the Prius the other day and that was at $3.79 a gallon.....

I'm almost tempted to by a bike to keep at the office for tooling around town.

[Scott Reppert]

$3.99 Fairmont

$3.74 Morgantown

Tomorrow is my "Perryopolis" work day and when I was there on Sunday it was $3.57, so I think I'll wait until I hit the cheapest station on Route 51...

[Dave Allen]

So what is the alternative? We've had callers who have said "everybody in America should park their cars and trucks!". Really? Do you really think that will happen in 2008? Shiiiiiiiiiiieeeeeiiiiiiit!

[cgarison]

$3.95 here.

I officially hit the $100 mark when filling the tank today.

Thieving bastards.

You got a new car?

I paid $3.69/Gallon for 87 Octane in Port Richmond Philadelphia, PA and the pump kicked off just short of $60.00 on an empty GranMa. I was expecting a fill up to be closer to $75.00

FWIW: My record to date is $61.25 for a fill up on the Mercury. My all time record (for the 2003 QuadCab RAM2500 4X4) at the Swastica in Huntington was $108.00 in June 2004 but that big sumbi+ch had a 60 gallon tank. Could you imaging $230.00 to fill that mofo and on a good day you only got 10 MPG unloaded. For normal speeds with work gear expect only 7 MPG.

[genlock]

Are you still an accountant?
Do you really need a 3/4 ton quad cab pickup for red pencils?
I figured you for a Volvo by now.

[AmpedNow]

$3.95

Across the border, it's 34 cents cheaper.

Someone needs to investigate that nonsense.

[Hoosier Daddy]

You got a new car?

Pickup truck. Big fuel tank.

[Arp2]

So what is the alternative?

Push your Democrat politicians hard to stop blocking additional supply. Additional supply is the only solution, and it is a guaranteed solution.

We've had callers who have said "everybody in America should park their cars and trucks!". Really?

No. Reduced mobility equals reduced freedom and gives the left the victory it so strongly desires.

[genlock]

Lots of really fine deals on large pick-ups evident in tri-state area.
Lots are full of F-250's/350's.
No evidence of drilling in ANWR or off Florida coast.
Except by the Red Chinese, who have an oil deal with Cuber.
No new refinery's under construction.

$60 to gas up minivan yesterday.

[Greg Goodfellow]

Our gas jumped up 16 cents in two days to currently $3.95 a gallon. My younger brother waited in line, with 16 cars in front of him, to get gas in the $3.50 range.

Coal liquefaction, baby. We have the technology, but do we have the twenty years to get it online, if we started TODAY?

[genlock]

If I were president, I would sign an emergency executive order allowing drilling in ANWR, off the coastline of California and Florida and construction of refineries in non hurricane prone zones. I didn't know that coal liquefaction actually worked. We do have to start now on doing something. Maybe some sort of national energy policy? More effective would be some sort of thing that actually produces oil. Another TVA project maight be in order. Use Hydro where possible, burn cola where we are now burning oil for electricity. Wind power is possible but I do not like the big propellers. Perhaps a savionius type of generator. Spelling? Solar power has a future if someone could develop panels that con't cost so much. Tidal power could work, perhaps in Bay of Fundy, but only for a limited area. Mayne undersea turbines in the gulf stream. I suspect geothermal power could power all of Hawaii, including automobiles. Cheap electricity could generate Hydrogen and use that for motive power. Atomic power is always a possibility. Right now oil is the problem. And no energy plan for the future.

I wonder about the bubble that is the oil market.
Traders are bidding 127/bbl for oil futures.
One good oil strike will collapse the market and cost those traders much gold
and bring the prices down dramatically.

[cgarison]

Are you still an accountant?

Sorta, Kinda.... I have been back into the accounting information systems stuff for the last few years. The new title is "Business Process Analyst" and I have been spending more time learning quality control methodologies like Six Sigma Kaizen. But I still write up journal entries, reconcile balance sheet accounts and close books for 3 days a month.

Do you really need a 3/4 ton quad cab pickup for red pencils?

No, but my co-worker (Process Control Analyst) in the department needs one considering he performs our corporate SOX audits with a rag-tag team of interns and volunteers from all divisions.

I figured you for a Volvo by now.

(cough, cough, gag, hack, cough, cough) Just because I have a huge conservative streak does not mean that the fire is dead. I am having a huge time trying to find a replacement to my GranMa because I want rear wheel drive. I went out to trade the car last year in late November and again in mid to late December and the only car that appealed to me for the price was the new Caddy CTS. Or another GranMa.

(sigh) Guess it is off to get struts and tires on the Marquis. Probably buy that Caddy in a couple of years.

[cgarison]

Coal liquefaction, baby. We have the technology, but do we have the twenty years to get it online, if we started TODAY?

It was online and didn't work in Catlettesburg, KY for several years in the late 70's/early 80's. When I was accounting for the old Ziegler coal operations (former Massey properties) in 2001, I had on my books the Gillette Wyoming coal liquefaction pilot plant that had just been idled because the process was not economically feasible. Plus it was easier to spray coal with pine pitch and sell it as "Synfuel." KRT in Kenova made a fortune with that fake synfuel crap and help push several coal produces in Appalachia into bankruptcy.

And now this fall, coal has no friends in the election. Sad day for my home. Another 4 years in Philly.

[Dr. Whiplash]

...I am having a huge time trying to find a replacement to my GranMa because I want rear wheel drive. I went out to trade the car last year in late November and again in mid to late December and the only car that appealed to me for the price was the new Caddy CTS. Or another GranMa...

Have you checked out the new Pontiac G8? Based on GM's Holden (Australian) flagship sports sedan. Positive review in this month's (I think) edition of Car & Driver. The 6cyl and 8cyl both attractively priced.

[cgarison]

I fear the G8 GT is going to have Mustang GT insurance rates. I love these cars, but I am not will to pay Allstate as much per month as my car payment to keep the vehicle legal.

And I was wanting a Towncar, but I handled like a sludge pump and made the GranMa feel like a sports car by comparison.

[Greg Goodfellow]

Didn't Hitler extensively use coal liquefaction, primitive though it may have been? Decades later, I find it hard to believe we can't do it. A recent guest on 'Decision Makers' claims to have the process down, but is running out of money. If anything he claims to do is feasible, why not subsidize his effort and others?

We also had a pilot program for synthetic fuels in Marshall County decades ago. It didn't last long, either. Without a sound and common-sense energy policy, we are at the mercy of the middle east. They could turn us into a third-world country virtually overnight.

[Dr. Whiplash]

I saw a short news blurb recently to the effect that South Africa manufactures much of its gasoline from coal and the Sasol corporation with that expertise has been trying unsuccessfully to gain interest and support in the USA.

Here's a quick sketch from the US Dept of Energy website:

South Africa has a highly developed synthetic fuels industry supported by abundant coal resources, offshore natural gas and condensate production in Mossel Bay, and natural gas imports from Mozambique. Sasol, with a capacity of 160,000 barrels per day (bbl/d) from coal-to-liquids (CTL), and PetroSA, with a capacity of 45,000 bbl/d from gas to liquids (GTL), are the major producers of synthetic fuel in South Africa. Together, the two firms supply approximately 40 percent of the South African fuels market.

Sasol is the world’s largest manufacturer of oil from coal. Sasol uses coal-to-liquids (CTL) technology, which makes synthetic gas from low-grade coal at liquefaction plants located at the Secunda and Sasolburg refineries. The synthetic gas is then converted into pipeline gas and liquid fuels, which include liquefied petroleum gas (LPG), jet fuel, kerosene and petrochemicals. As of December 2006, Sasol was considering the possibility of constructing an additional 80,000 bbl/d synthetic fuels refinery, which would be located close to the Waterberg coal deposits near Gauteng. The South African government would like to see the refinery built as it would help satisfy future energy demand in the county, while helping to reduce foreign oil imports.

And Greg, this article says it's a "refinement" of the old Nazi program! http://www.slate.com/id/2152036/