Yeah, what he said.

 

How about taking the subsidies and special tax breaks away from big oil??? Then talk about the subsidies to develop a fuel source that is 100% USA produced.

Also, what would you suggest be used for an oxygenate now that that MTBE and lead can't be used due to their environmental problems??

Easy to throw stones, but how about some alternatives to what you don't like.

 

How do you do that without lead or MTBE??

 

As I posted earlier and Carlos confirmed with good links, it is about 3% less.

 

While the cost of producing ULSD is certainly another part of the difference, increased supply always reduces prices. The amount of ethanol that is now being used does indeed impact the price of gas (moving it lower).

 

Was that R+M/2 = 104?

 

Those tax breaks go to encouragement of oil companies to drill here. There are huge dis-incentives from permiting, taxes, and requirements that it makes more sense to sending funding to Nigeria to drill.

Also, most tax breaks go to smaller domestic producers to continue reservoir development in the U.S.

Regarding Evil Big Oil, the investment in an offshore development is so huge, you find multiple companies supplying engineering and funding. Primarily because of the real and huge risks.

Okay, here's an alternative instead of throwing stones. Tape an Alka Seltzer tablet to the back of your car, pour water on it, and bubble down the road.

 

Real Alternatives...........

Natural gas powered cars to bridge the gap to advanced battery technology. You get to skip the hybrid Prius' and corn powered cars.

 

The fuel equivalent of Hamburger Helper. Big Ethanol rules you in Washington.

Drill baby drill.

 

Back in those days, unleaded wasn't invented yet. I actually remember seeing the price of that gas go up to a whole $0.439 per gallon and my foolish self saying I wouldn't buy it because it was too expensive.

 

I've got no clue...it was a long time ago and I don't know the method for their calculations.

 

Totally agree with you!
My BBC gasser was ~650-700 hp NA, lower to mid 9's et. My Anglia has an enclosed nose and the Dominator carb on gas would percolate quickly which was a big factor initially in switching to methanol...the extra power I found was icing on the cake.
I would use ~3/4 gal. of C12 to go from pits to staging lanes, do burn out, make run back to the pits and often it would boil over. On Methanol I used ~1 1/2 to 1 3/4 gal, and we did not have E85 available at the time. My friends with similar gassers that run E85 use right around ~1 1/4 gal for similar run. If you look at the BTu content of the fuels it falls pretty much in line. However on the performance end the car made much more power, specially torque on the methanol while running much cooler. My friends in NC with a blown SBC Henry gained 6 mph (115 to 121 mph in the 1/8th) when they switched from race gas to E85! They converted their carbs and changed nothing on the tune initially, not even timing!
Gasoline's lighter ends begin boiling at ~95F, compared to ~150 for alky and ~172 for ethanol. Alky (methanol) carries more oxygen then ethanol and makes a tad more power but they both behave very closely. Ethanol IMO has the benefits of methanol and gasoline without the negatives.
When it comes to performance the numbers tell the story. One can make 1500 hp on gasoline, but its not going to be 93 pump gas, that level of power has been made on E85 and more on methanol.

Octane ratings given back in the day by oil companies was research which shows up as a higher number. Here is an explanation of the different methods.

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Octane_rating

Personally I have no quarrell with "Drill Baby Drill", or varied sources for any fuel type. I worked in refineries for 17 years and I love high performance period.
IMO we need as many "VARIED" energy sources and as much domestic industrial output as possible!

Carlos

 

I emailed Shell and here is their response:

Thank you for bringing your concerns to our attention. Customer comments are important to us as they enable us to improve our service to the public. We are always interested when our customers feel their expectations have not been met.

While there may still be a few markets in the US that offer ethanol-free gasoline, it is likely that all of the stations in your area have 10% ethanol. The Federal Renewable Fuel Standard (RFS) puts an obligation on each gasoline producer to blend ethanol into their fuels. The obligation increases each year, the billions of gallons of ethanol that each refiner is required to blend. It is projected that within a couple of years every gallon of gasoline sold in the US will need to contain 10%ethanol in order to meet these Federal obligations.

The mileage impact of ethanol comes from it's energy content, it is most pronounced in high concentrations like E-85 fuel that can be used in Flex-fuel vehicles where the mileage drop compared to gasoline has been estimated to be 30%. However, since the gasolines available in the US today contain a maximum of 10% ethanol, the mileage impact should be more like 3%.

We appreciate the opportunity to serve you in this matter and look forward to providing you with quality Shell branded products and service in the future.

Sincerely,
Shell Customer Care

 

Thank you Al Bore and the Mega Farm Lobbyists.

 

Just another scam leveled on the American people. Add it to your gas at 10% and get 10% less mileage, so we burn the same amount of fuel to go any given distance. Add to that the money paid to farmers to grow the stuff for ethanol and the 45 cents subsidy per gallon paid to the refiners and we have another greenie deal that doesn't work. Thankfully the new Congress voted to drop the subsidies a few weeks ago.

 

Keep things where they belong - pure gasoline in my car's "gasoline" tank - and ethanol in my martinis, where it belongs!

 

163rd and Biscayne in North Miami, near the corner there is a Valero gas station that sells 90 octane ethanol free.