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How bout those gas prices?

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The average income of a Chevy Volt owner is $170,000. That's about the same income as the average BMW owner and $40,000 more than the average Lexus owner. The rebate is $10,000. Read rebate as "money the government took from you, under threat of violence, to give to someone else." I'm not sure the electric car, nor the rebate, is doing much to help the specific people truly struggling due to gas prices. Personally, I hate taxes and tax rebates, but if we're taking taxpayer money to do some good, then giving $10,000 to someone who makes $30,000 so they can buy a car and perhaps work somewhere nicer, further from home, would probably help everyone a lot more. I'm sure a lot of construction guys could use $10,000 towards a new truck about now.
 
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The average income of a Chevy Volt owner is $170,000. That's about the same income as the average BMW owner and $40,000 more than the average Lexus owner. The rebate is $10,000. Read rebate as "money the government took from you, under threat of violence, to give to someone else." I'm not sure the electric car, nor the rebate, is doing much to help the specific people truly struggling due to gas prices. Personally, I hate taxes and tax rebates, but if we're taking taxpayer money to do some good, then giving $10,000 to someone who makes $30,000 so they can buy a car and perhaps work somewhere nicer, further from home, would probably help everyone a lot more. I'm sure a lot of construction guys could use $10,000 towards a new truck about now.

$170,000! O.O WOWZAAAA!!!! Doesn't really make sense though, unless they evaluate the Volt as a car people buy just for fun. My dad has owned cars that cost more than than a Volt even before any subsidies, and his income isn't 170,000. Actually, if I had 170,000, I'm pretty sure I wouldn't spend it on a Volt.
 
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High gas prices will mean higher grocery prices, higher pretty-much-anything. Those of us with low-middle incomes will be hit hard if prices go up very far very fast.

OTOH, we will never get serious about exploring alternates to petroleum based transportation until the prices really start to hurt. I am excited about recent research into algae based fuels. By the looks of the early results, we will need very little in the way of change to the transportation infrastructure to make use of algae derived fuel. That's something that can not be said about almost every other renewable fuel source, including ethanol. And changing infrastructure is a MAJOR block in converting away from petroleum.
 
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High gas prices will mean higher grocery prices, higher pretty-much-anything. Those of us with low-middle incomes will be hit hard if prices go up very far very fast.

OTOH, we will never get serious about exploring alternates to petroleum based transportation until the prices really start to hurt. I am excited about recent research into algae based fuels. By the looks of the early results, we will need very little in the way of change to the transportation infrastructure to make use of algae derived fuel. That's something that can not be said about almost every other renewable fuel source, including ethanol. And changing infrastructure is a MAJOR block in converting away from petroleum.

"Under my administration gas prices would necessarily go up and as a result the use of fuel would go down. This is how I would fight climate change and reduce the use of fossil fuels" - Barack Hussein Obama

I guess the plan to "fundamentally change society" is scooting along nicely. Bringing everyone to the same level is good I guess, though I'd prefer to be part of bringing people up instead of down. "Somehow we have to figure out how to boost the price of gasoline to the levels in Europe" was what Energy Secretary Chu said, so at least we have an idea of what that stated target and goal is.
 

dtravis7


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Gas priced just went up here in the last hour!. $4.05 here for a low.
 

rman


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in my area

reg $4.35
prem $4.55
 
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We are at $3.93 as of last night. I love the craptastic NY gas tax and the forced E10 we have to deal with.
 

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We are at $3.93 as of last night. I love the craptastic NY gas tax and the forced E10 we have to deal with.

We're hovering around $3.75 or so here - and most of it is 10% Ethanol.

We do have a few stations that sell Ethanol-free gas at a premium of usually $0.20/gallon. I've experimented with it on occasion and see no discernable difference in mileage. But then, my car is somewhat of a pig on gas, regardless of the conditions.

I'll definitely be downsizing next time around as my kids are getting older and require less luggage and smaller car seats now when we travel.
 
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We're hovering around $3.75 or so here - and most of it is 10% Ethanol.

We do have a few stations that sell Ethanol-free gas at a premium of usually $0.20/gallon. I've experimented with it on occasion and see no discernable difference in mileage. But then, my car is somewhat of a pig on gas, regardless of the conditions.

I use the nonoxygenated gas for long term storage. It lasts much longer than the ethanol blend. It's also much kinder to small engines like generators and chain saws when it sits for months. I've not seen better gas mileage from it, but my Jeep and my Hemi weren't designed with fuel economy in mind. The ability to store it for 3, 6 or even 9 months is worth it sometimes, but it does cost you. I'll add that if you monkey with tuning engines, nonox takes timing advances much better without detonation.
 

cwa107


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I use the nonoxygenated gas for long term storage. It lasts much longer than the ethanol blend. It's also much kinder to small engines like generators and chain saws when it sits for months. I've not seen better gas mileage from it, but my Jeep and my Hemi weren't designed with fuel economy in mind. The ability to store it for 3, 6 or even 9 months is worth it sometimes, but it does cost you. I'll add that if you monkey with tuning engines, nonox takes timing advances much better without detonation.

That reminds me... I meant to put some Stabil in my lawnmowever, chainsaw and power washer before I put them in the shed for the winter.

I see some siphoning and hard starts in my near future... you should have seen what I went through trying to get my snowblower started for the first time this year ;)

Now, do you use a treatment in your gas, or are you actually able to find nonoxygenated gas in your area?
 
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That reminds me... I meant to put some Stabil in my lawnmowever, chainsaw and power washer before I put them in the shed for the winter.

I see some siphoning and hard starts in my near future... you should have seen what I went through trying to get my snowblower started for the first time this year ;)

Now, do you use a treatment in your gas, or are you actually able to find nonoxygenated gas in your area?

I do both. I stockpile the nonox in containers, and fill up the Hemi with it directly from the pump. The Jeep get's the nonox, but only when I rotate through the stockpiled gas every 3 or 4 months. I add Stabil or Seafoam to the stockpiled gas. I add the same Stabil or Seafoam to the Hemi, as it sits in the garage for about 6 months a year on a full tank of nonox. The blower, mover, snowblower, saw and generator all get Stabil added to the mix as well, so I never have to drain them. All this allows me to keep 25 to 50 gallons of nonox on hand for power outages, seasonal price hikes and the unexpected. I found a local BP near me that still sells nonox. The link below lists stations in the US that sell it:

Ethanol-free gas stations in the U.S. and Canada
 
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Before I put my lawn mower away for the winter, I run it until it's out of gas. With the engine now hot, I drain the oil. Then I pull the spark plug, put a couple large spoonfuls of motor oil in that hole, and pull the starter rope slowly a few times after each spoonful. That's what the owner's manual says to do.

I don't save old gas for the next season. Fuel stabilizer only works for several weeks, so I;m told. Now that my snowblower is not a 2-cycle engine model, I just keep using my fuel (with stabilizer added) until the can is empty.

I also do not use gas with ethanol for my small engines.
 
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If I could I would get an electric car in a heartbeat I am so sick of oil companies impeding the flow of progress while having their cash flow go through the roof.
 

CrimsonRequiem


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If I could I would get an electric car in a heartbeat I am so sick of oil companies impeding the flow of progress while having their cash flow go through the roof.

Sounds good on paper but they aren't exactly that much more efficient. >_<" Energy crisis and renewable energy source is definitely a problem that we are struggling with right now.
 

vansmith

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I'm all for renewable sources of energy that are better for the environment but electric cars don't really solve anything. If everyone had one, the grid would have to take on a much larger burden and given that the techniques to create electricity aren't all that clean as it is (40% of the global supply of electricity comes from coal for example), you'll end up just shifting and not solving the problem.
 
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The cheapest gas around me, via GasBuddy, is $3.45.9 for regular. $3.89.9 for premium.
And, $3.73.9 for diesel!
 

RavingMac

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I'm all for renewable sources of energy that are better for the environment but electric cars don't really solve anything. If everyone had one, the grid would have to take on a much larger burden and given that the techniques to create electricity aren't all that clean as it is (40% of the global supply of electricity comes from coal for example), you'll end up just shifting and not solving the problem.

I agree!

The problem is we need a different transportation solution, one that doesn't involve 2000 lbs of machine to move 200 lbs of human. And, that is adaptable to the different lifestyles we all lead.
Doing things the way we currently do results in a minimum 90% waste because of the work expended moving the vehicle (average 10 times passenger weight) that serves no real purpose.

Don't know what that solution is, but I'll know it when I see it.
 

CrimsonRequiem


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I agree!

The problem is we need a different transportation solution, one that doesn't involve 2000 lbs of machine to move 200 lbs of human. And, that is adaptable to the different lifestyles we all lead.
Doing things the way we currently do results in a minimum 90% waste because of the work expended moving the vehicle (average 10 times passenger weight) that serves no real purpose.

Don't know what that solution is, but I'll know it when I see it.

Teleportation! :p
 

RavingMac

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vansmith

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Doing things the way we currently do results in a minimum 90% waste because of the work expended moving the vehicle (average 10 times passenger weight) that serves no real purpose.
I had an engineer friend tell me recently that gas powered engines are only something like 20% efficient. Talk about waste! So, not only do you have oversized hunks of metal moving small objects (us), they're doing it in an incredibly inefficient fashion.
 

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