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The Oil Drum has a good article on gasoline blends and how it affects prices.

Why Prices Fall in the Fall

Winter gasoline blends are phased in as the weather gets cooler. September 15th is the date of the first increase in RVP, and in some areas the allowed RVP eventually increases to 15 psi. This has two implications for gasoline prices every fall. First, as noted, butane is a cheaper blending component than most of the other ingredients. That makes fall and winter gasoline cheaper to produce. But butane is also abundant, so that means that gasoline supplies effectively increase as the RVP requirement increases. Not only that, but this all takes place after summer driving season, when demand typically falls off. These factors normally combine each year to reduce gasoline prices in the fall (even in non-election years). The RVP is stepped back down to summer levels starting in the spring, and this usually causes prices to increase. But lest you think of buying cheap winter gasoline and storing it until spring or summer, remember that it will pressure up as the weather heats up, and the contained butane will start to vaporize out of the mix.

And that's the true tale of why gasoline prices fall back in the fall, and spring forward in the spring.

The Oil Drum has a good article on gasoline blends and how it affects prices.

Why Prices Fall in the Fall

Winter gasoline blends are phased in as the weather gets cooler. September 15th is the date of the first increase in RVP, and in some areas the allowed RVP eventually increases to 15 psi. This has two implications for gasoline prices every fall. First, as noted, butane is a cheaper blending component than most of the other ingredients. That makes fall and winter gasoline cheaper to produce. But butane is also abundant, so that means that gasoline supplies effectively increase as the RVP requirement increases. Not only that, but this all takes place after summer driving season, when demand typically falls off. These factors normally combine each year to reduce gasoline prices in the fall (even in non-election years). The RVP is stepped back down to summer levels starting in the spring, and this usually causes prices to increase. But lest you think of buying cheap winter gasoline and storing it until spring or summer, remember that it will pressure up as the weather heats up, and the contained butane will start to vaporize out of the mix.

And that's the true tale of why gasoline prices fall back in the fall, and spring forward in the spring.

Irony overload. Big Oil man doesn't like ethenol and questions opponents motivation. In the article he refers to the Energy Return on Investment and ethanol is only viable is because of the subsidies. This in relation to corn ethanol. Yet Brazil can manage to replace 40% of its forign Oil demand with ethenol. A viable long term solution that actually returns revenue to the local economy through the cultivation of sugarcane.

"I started off on the energy balance of ethanol versus gasoline. We went back and forth on efficiency versus EROI .. corn ethanol would be around as long as the subsidies were there."

"The Brazilian ethanol industry is based on sugarcane; as of 2004, Brazil produces 14 billion liters annually, enough to replace about 40% of its gasoline demand . Also as a result, they announced their independence from Middle East oil in April 2006"

"In my recent essay Vinod Khosla Debunked, I challenged Mr. Khosla to a written debate on his recent ethanol claims"

Why is it deemed necessary to 'debunk' Mr. Khosla. If wrong, then the Ethanol market will wither through the action of the market. I see here you dispute the 40% claim.

Oh, wait it gets even funnier. "Many so-called oil subsidies don't benefit the oil companies at all; they benefit consumers". And I suppose the reverse being that ethenol subsidies only benefit the companies"

Quite frankly I am confused with all these graphs and acronyms that I never heard of. I have a few simple question:br>
How much does it cost to produce a gallon of sugarcane ethanol?
How much does it cost to produce a gallon of oil?
What subsidies/tax breaks do the oil companies get?
What subsidies/tax breaks do the ethanol producers get?

Include the cost of drilling and Oil Rig construction
Include cost of clean up of any environmental damage

I'm sorry but this get even funnier. "I did indicate that as we continue to ramp up corn ethanol, our corn exports will fall and people in 3rd world countries will go hungry". The ethenol industry will steal food from the 3rd world. This is even more bizarre considering it is first world subsidies to the food industry that is currently destroying third world agriculture.

You're just one big shill for big OIL ... * assuming Big Oil actually pays for the oil and doesn't invade some country and liberate it. * EROI = Energy Returns on Ethanol Production.

Irony overload. Big Oil man doesn't like ethenol and questions opponents motivation. In the article he refers to the Energy Return on Investment and ethanol is only viable is because of the subsidies. This in relation to corn ethanol. Yet Brazil can manage to replace 40% of its forign Oil demand with ethenol. A viable long term solution that actually returns revenue to the local economy through the cultivation of sugarcane.

"I started off on the energy balance of ethanol versus gasoline. We went back and forth on efficiency versus EROI .. corn ethanol would be around as long as the subsidies were there."

"The Brazilian ethanol industry is based on sugarcane; as of 2004, Brazil produces 14 billion liters annually, enough to replace about 40% of its gasoline demand . Also as a result, they announced their independence from Middle East oil in April 2006"

"In my recent essay Vinod Khosla Debunked, I challenged Mr. Khosla to a written debate on his recent ethanol claims"

Why is it deemed necessary to 'debunk' Mr. Khosla. If wrong, then the Ethanol market will wither through the action of the market. I see here you dispute the 40% claim.

Oh, wait it gets even funnier. "Many so-called oil subsidies don't benefit the oil companies at all; they benefit consumers". And I suppose the reverse being that ethenol subsidies only benefit the companies"

Quite frankly I am confused with all these graphs and acronyms that I never heard of. I have a few simple question:br>
How much does it cost to produce a gallon of sugarcane ethanol?
How much does it cost to produce a gallon of oil?
What subsidies/tax breaks do the oil companies get?
What subsidies/tax breaks do the ethanol producers get?

Include the cost of drilling and Oil Rig construction
Include cost of clean up of any environmental damage

I'm sorry but this get even funnier. "I did indicate that as we continue to ramp up corn ethanol, our corn exports will fall and people in 3rd world countries will go hungry". The ethenol industry will steal food from the 3rd world. This is even more bizarre considering it is first world subsidies to the food industry that is currently destroying third world agriculture.

You're just one big shill for big OIL ... * assuming Big Oil actually pays for the oil and doesn't invade some country and liberate it. * EROI = Energy Returns on Ethanol Production.

"and reason stands that their children will have even better health to look forward to"

Unless, of course, reason is to take peak oil and global warming under advisement.

I think that's a little naive. A lot of money has been invested in hydrogen power, and not much to show for it. Not to mention any technology that involves the mass deprecation of existing internal combustion engines is not likely to be cheap to roll out, or popular in most quarters (not just Big Oil). Why would you expect that they would invest in something outside their expertise anyway? We (the people) really have to take the initiative and mandate research with funding.

That's why things like bio-diesel really have the largest ability to help us on the tail end of peak oil. It's suitable as a drop-in replacement in a lot of environment (for diesel engines), and can be mixed with petrodiesel in colder environments where the viscosity is insufficient. People might want to check out http://i-r-squared.blogspot.com/ or http://www.theoildrum.com/ for more in-depth discussion.

And so you have absolutely no idea how much tax you're paying

how much of my gas prices were tax. Turned out it was something like 80 cents out of the $2.50 a gallon

In the UK, over 60% of the price we pay is duty and VAT as against your 32%.

Within the lifetime of people writing these responses peak oil is going to kick our asses, then that "stupid car," will look very smart indeed.

http://www.theoildrum.com/story/2006/3/1/3402/6342 0#more

And diesel doesn't just have to come from oil, ever heard of bio diesel. Bio diesel also lowers C02 output by 75% because when the plants grow they take up nearly the amount of C02 that is burned. Face it sooner or later the U.S. bug car juggernaut will end, we can do it now and have a smooth transition, or later when it will really hurt.

Read this for some refutation. The article's statement about discovery vs. production since 1971 is so misleading I would almost call it a lie. Look at a graph, which tells a far different story than their 35 year "snapshot":
http://www.theoildrum.com/uploads/44/hirsch_reserv es.gif

Sorry, he really doesn't. I would recommend some reading over at theoildrum.com. The amount of oil we currently use can in no way be replaced by "uneconomical deposits" or wind/solar/nuclear. If they could, it would take dozens of years of hard effort, starting well before oil hit its peak

Once we're past the peak and prices start skyrocketing, it will simply be too late. We may achieve a new balance with new technologies, but it will be with a few billion less people than the earth has now

And for the abiogenesis origin of oil it is not there.
Abiogenesis origin of petroleum not likely

Quote : "There is no way to conclusively prove that no petroleum is of abiotic origin. Science is an ongoing search for truth, and theories are continually being altered or scrapped as new evidence appears. However, the assertion that all oil is abiotic requires extraordinary support, because it must overcome abundant evidence, already cited, to tie specific oil accumulations to specific biological origins through a chain of well-understood processes that have been demonstrated, in principle, under laboratory conditions."


To quote some argument : if petroleum was really formed deeply, it would have to go thru a part of the mantle with high pressure and temperature which would decompose it. And the proponent of all-abiogenesis origin of petroleum proposed no such meccanism up to now.

Furthermore oil exploitation firm sucessfully used the "biogenesis" origin of petroleum to predict and exploit new resource.

As for the field which were told to have abiogenesis origin , like the black lion one, here is a nice debunking article :
The Oil Drum.
A very nice quote : "What is disturbing is that these abiotic oil arguments are presented in the mainstream media (MSM, here CNBC) without any critical analysis. In the short interview format TV allows, Simmons was unable (or unwilling) rebut Smith's claim. Many fantastic and unbelievable claims are being put forward now as people scramble around to dispute oil depletion--abiotic oil is one of these. It is perhaps the most insidious of these false claims with its implicit promise that, to paraphrase Duffeyes, everything is OK because "God [the deep hot biosphere] will put more oil in the ground"."