Much Ado About Gas Prices

markmcb writes "It seems that a week cannot pass without finding big news about gas prices. They're up, they're down ... but why do we care so much? OmniNerd posted an article that aims to put gas prices in perspective. The author takes a look at other commodities and their price variances and applies some simple math in order to make the claim that best-gas-price-hunting is an effort that could be better used on other products. From the article, 'Why the disproportionate emphasis on gas prices in our culture, then? Although some cite a failure of politicians or media populists to account for inflation and purchasing power changes, I think it is simply because gas prices are in your face.'" IMO, the other side to the price of gas is that, especially in developed countries, it has a pervasive effect throughout all layers of the economy — food prices (because of the trucking), schools (busing), etc., etc.

Comments

It's not just gas-at-the-pump prices

[autophile]

It's not just mommy and daddy filling up the family sedan. It's everything that depends on petroleum products. Asphalt, for example. Heating oil. Plastics. And, as the summary points out, transportation of *everything*.

Gas prices is one of those easily understood metrics that happens to affect everything we do (in developed countries).

--Rob

Re:Exxon Mobile

[Anonymous Coward]

Beware: Economics follows.

The demand for gasoline is relatively inelastic. If you raise the price, demand does not fall all that much. So, raising the price often means you would make more money. It's a typical monopoly tactic to restrict the supply of something and artifically raise the price against an inelastic demand, and thus gain more revenue. (See also: Windows.)

If anything, the higher profits associated with this price of gas after the hurricane (when supplies are lowered by other forces) should demonstrate that under normal conditions, the industry is actually fairly competitive, and you're paying a relatively fair price for your gasoline. (Well. Aside from taxes.)

Re:Eh hem, size matters.

[GundamFan]

The trick with small block diesel engines is that they get a much better MPG rating on average so even if diesel fuel is more exspensive than gas per gallon you still come out ahead, plus most new diesel cars (VW Auto Group TDIs anyway) are being built to run on bio-diesel without any conversion.

Re:Eh hem, size matters.

[Alioth]

Thermodynamically less efficient? I beg to differ. Diesels have always been more thermodynamically efficient than petrol (gasoline) engines - even more so now with the most recent engines with refinements like common rail fuel injection.

They didn't really need to change anything

[Squalish]

The only incompatibily is natural rubber fuel hoses (phased out 20 years ago for economic, not green reasons), which biodiesel tends to eat away.

In hot climates, B100 is pretty much a drop-in replacement, with one catch: it'll eat away built up corrosion from years of petrodiesel, causing your fuel filter to clog up initially.

Straight vegetable oil (SVO) works as a fuel, but needs to be at high temperature to have the necessary viscosity, and engines need to be modified with heaters. We fix that by transesterifying it with methanol and turning it into biodiesel. This still doesn't have the cold weather ease of use of petrodiesel, though.

The only major issue with pure biodiesel is that its gel point is in the neighborhood of 25-30F, resulting in fuel lines that clog. For people who will be operating in subfreezing weather for significant amounts of time, various additives are available, including basic petrodiesel (this is why B20 is so much more prevalent in the US than B100). For subfreezing weather over an entire season, an electric heater system is highly recommended - there are already products available tailored to extreme low temperature petrodiesel use.