Gas Watch

[CoolBreeze]

I made some comments about gasoline on Hoppys show today. Here's the condensed version:

The oil companies here make a 7 to 10 percent profit on a gallon of gas. Clothes are about 100% and diamonds about 500% profit. The more gas you sell, the more profit made. When I was a kid, there was ONE car in each family. Now, there's 3 and 4. Add up the weedeaters, ATVs, motorcycles, boats and hundreds of other gas using equipment and you can see the increase in usage. I think the stockmarket (speculators) and the arabs are the reason gas is high... not to mention all the other issues we're well aware of.

I go to Europe every year. Five years ago I paid an average of $5 a gallon for gas. I always wondered how the two major oil companies in Europe (who are also major players in the U.S) could sell gas at half price in the richest country in the world.... us. Moreover, I wondered ... why? The people in Europe adjusted to high gas prices from the very beginning by driving small cars and having great public transportation.

I find it odd, that we're a country where people have so much STUFF... one of the fastest growing businesses is the storage business. We literally have so much stuff that we don't have room for it all, and so we pay to store it. But we bitch about gas.

Here in Kanawha County, we just passed the Excess Levy for the school system. This means that on the average, we begged the government to take an EXTRA $300 or more out of our pockets. And that's AFTER the County already took 70% of our property taxes for the schools.. AND another few hundred dollars for the REGULAR LEVY. In other words, we are taxed THREE TIMES for the same thing. Two of those times voluntarily. But people bitch about gas.

Remember the LAST gas crunch of the mid 70s? Many of you are too young, so here's how THAT went:

Every time gas went high, consumers demanded more fuel efficient cars. This meant SMALLER cars. And what did Detroit give them? JUNK! That's what! Think PINTO! Think Chevette! Think Gremlin! Think Maverick! Think VEGA for Gods sake!

Then... gas stabilized and the economy strengthened. All of a sudden everyone was back to the big cars again because that's all they could trust.

THEN, people started buying smaller Japanese cars because they were built MUCH better. Only one little problem: Americans wanted BIGGER Japanese cars and so the Japanese built them! That was a loss in gas mileage right there, but we didn't mind because we could still afford the gas.

The Japanese can build a lot more fuel efficient cars (and do) but WE wont buy them. Why? Because we've been fed a bill of goods about BIG vehicles being much SAFER than small ones! So it's been a climb to the top to see who could drive the biggest SUVs. If everyone had turned to smaller cars to START with... we'd all have an "even chance" on the highways. Safety is not about big or small... it's about the difference in SIZE. For instance, a Hummer is STILL no match for a tractor trailer! So what are you going to do now... buy a tractor trailer? (Some idiots have actually bought tractor trailer pickups).

People are FICKLE AS HELL! This year they want 50 miles to the gallon and next year they want Hummers.

It's obvious to all that we have money to burn, so pay the price and quit bitchin.

[Dr. Whiplash]

Amen to all that, CoolBreeze.

...The Japanese can build a lot more fuel efficient cars (and do) but WE wont buy them. Why? Because we've been fed a bill of goods about BIG vehicles being much SAFER than small ones! So it's been a climb to the top to see who could drive the biggest SUVs. If everyone had turned to smaller cars to START with... we'd all have an "even chance" on the highways. Safety is not about big or small... it's about the difference in SIZE. For instance, a Hummer is STILL no match for a tractor trailer! So what are you going to do now... buy a tractor trailer? (Some idiots have actually bought tractor trailer pickups).

I just want to add that full-size SUVs are not necessarily safer than many full-size, mid-size and even compact model cars because, being classified as trucks, they do not have to meet car safety standards for various impact scenarios. Your gut instinct might tell you that you're safer rolling a Grand Cherokee than a Corolla, but science indicates otherwise. And the Cherokee is more likely to roll over in the first place.

Most of my Appalachian-American friends don't see it this way, but the evidence shows that drivin' a big ole truck does not provide as much safety as it appears to - often less.

[Lester]

Well, the Smart Car does really well in crash tests... unfortunately there is no "Crush" test done on what happens when one meets an SUV.

[Big Media]

Think Chevette!

Dude.... Don't be dissin' the Chevette. That's just wrong.

[Big Media]

This video sums up this thread nicely.

http://www.break.com/index/did-you-know ... r-gas.html

[David Paleg]

Breaking News:

CNN reports that gas stations will start showing PORN movies on the

screens of the pumps so that you can see someone else get screwed at

the same time you do.: !!

[AmpedNow]

This video sums up this thread nicely.

http://www.break.com/index/did-you-know ... r-gas.html

Heh. I'd love to visit Dubai. They've literally created something out of nothing.

That would be like waking up one morning to hear that the hills around Charleston will be leveled to make way for 2,000 ft skyscrapers, 10-lane freeways, a subway system, and an upgrade to Charleston Yeager International.

Seriously, why can't we do something like this here in the US? All I see around me is old, crumbling infrastructure...

We are not #1 in so many things anymore.

Anyway, they have and are using many of our gas dollars to build that city, mainly because their fuel reserves will be depleted within a decade. They are diversifying their economy.

Maybe WV can take a hint, and get away from this "Coal is King" crap.

/rant

[Lester]

Dubai is the smart one. They know that some day the gas will run out, and they'd damn well better have a "plan b".

[Big Media]

Looks like my prediction of a return to communities wasn't far off.

MSNBC.com
$4 gas helping revitalize small towns
Rural residents choosing local shops over distant malls
The Associated Press
updated 12:45 p.m. ET, Wed., July. 9, 2008

THOMASVILLE, Ala. - Residents in once-sleepy Thomasville have started complaining about traffic jams on Route 43, which runs right through the town.

Much of the new traffic is coming from shoppers, squeezed by $4-per-gallon gas, who are staying closer to home instead of driving 100 miles each way to the nearest malls in Mobile or Montgomery.

"I just don't drive as much," said Herman Heaton, a 72-year-old retired lumber mill worker, leaning against a Chevy Silverado pickup that now costs him $80 to fill up. "We don't go to Mobile as much as we used to for shopping." Heaton said he now spends about $600 a month on gas, about 10 percent of his income and about double what he spent last year.

So now he says he's shopping locally.

More here: http://www.msnbc.msn.com/id/25606812/

[lastone]

As one who has worked in the industry; here are some facts for you.


With the exception of the "California" formula, basic gas is the same.
87 octane is 87 octane everywhere in the country (by federal law).
You would have to go to the chemistry to find the difference.
(E85 is alcohol deluted gas.}

It is what is added to the gas that makes the brands.
This is usually done at the distribution point.

Companies that refine oil and sell gas at their own stations make a proffit
several times before the gas gets to you.

Let me explain some.

Company "Y" says it refines oil and sells oil and gasoline.

Company "A" buys and pumps out the oil. It is owned by "Y"

Company "B" buys the oil from "A" and hires company "C" to ship it.
"B" and "C" are owned by "Y" also.

Company "D" is the refiner. It receives the oil, makes the gas and stores it for "Y"

Company "F" is a distributor. It ships the gas to "Y"s stations.
It too is owned by "Y".

Company "G", perhaps just a proffit center of "Y", is the gas station that sells to the
public.

Now lets count how many times a proffit was made.


"B" buys oil from "A".

"C" moves it for "B".

"D" makes gas out of it for "Y".

"F" buys it from "D"

"G" sells it to YOU.

"Y" made a proffit FIVE TIMES off the origional product !

Any wonder we're talking BILLIONS here.

JUST ADD YOUR STATE TAX.

The letter "E" was not used for I don't need a legal filing against me. .

There is nothing illegal about it. Many 'production' type companies do business this way.

There is also nothing that prevents American oil from being sold to other countries.

There is nothing that prevents Amercian natural gas from being sold elsewhere.

America does not come first when it comes to our fuels and minerals....or people, or
health, or jobs, etc., etc..

IT'S JUST ABOUT THE MONEY, BUB!

jmo