Gas price worries?

[joannes3000]

Quote:

---

In terms of looking for alternative energies- why is that bad? That makes no sense. Yes the bio-fuel experiment is a disaster. But that is due to agribusiness insisting on using grain instead of stalks for the production of agrifuel. In other words, a good idea that got hijacked by greedy business interests. Brasil's ethanol production is the model we should follow.

It's amazing how much more efficient (6x?) it is to harvest sugar cane instead of corn to produce ethanol. I was reading a stat about how Brazil's most efficient producers can churn out ethanol for 80 cents per gallon. Granted, ethanol is still roughly 30% less efficient than gasoline, but it's pretty evident which method (fossil vs agricultural) of fuel is cheaper overall.

[DrReality]

I think it's a real concern and there doesn't seem to be any solution on the near horizon. I think it is incredibly stupid and arogant of our leaders to be caught in this situation where we have not earnestly developed alternatives to oil. South GA could grow sugar cane and turn it into fuel like they do in Argentina and we haven't done that because of the mentality of leaders. Insane.

[chillzatl]

Gas prices are what they are, everyone needs to adjust their lifestyles. They're NEVER going to drop to what they were again. Oil companies have wanted to get us on parity with the rest of the world for over a decade and with China's increased usage they finally got a way to make that happen. Everyone just needs to adjust. The days of a single mother or single person driving a V8 Suburban are over, as they should be. Oh and stop blaming the government for gas prices (not you, just in general).

As for oil companies "record profits" people need to gain perspective. Their %'s are no different than they've ever been. They're selling more and making more, but the % that is profit is unchanged. It costs them about 1 bil per day to do business. I'm not going to complain because they're increased business means increased profits as well as increased cost of DOING business. The amount of money they invest in new fuels and new ways to get fuel for us is huge. It's not like they're just sitting around smoking cigars and swimming in their giant vault of money like Scrooge McDuck!

The cost of grain is directly related to this pipe dream that is E85. If it weren't for that, grain costs would be only slightly higher than they are traditionally.