PRICE of FUEL

[RustyJC]

Originally Posted by StStg1

As an example, there is a Shell station on the corner near us. The price of unleaded went from $2.59/ gal to $2.79/ gal. While everyone else around was at $2.59/gal. The price stayed current but the station's gas business was drasticly reduced.. When everyone else went to $269/gal, the Shell station lowered it's price back to $2.69. I think this shows they were trying to get extra $$$ for the gas and had no relation to what they paid for it.

It looks to me like the marketplace worked. The individual station tried to raise its prices and the market responded. Ultimately, they were forced to meet their competition's prices.

Rusty

[TroutScout]

Bakken Oil reserve in North Dakota- Sweet Crude, equal to Saudi reserves:

Dakota Oil Fields of Saudi-Sized Reserves Make Farmers Drillers - Bloomberg.com

[RJay]

Wait until inflation kicks in. The dollar is already trading parity with Canada. The Fed is talking about raising the Prime Interest Rate and on top of everything they're talking about a VAT tax. That alone will kill the RV business.

[vegascouple]

This will make you all feel better.

Exxon tries to limit the tax pain with the help of 20 wholly owned subsidiaries domiciled in the Bahamas, Bermuda and the Cayman Islands that (legally) shelter the cash flow from operations in the likes of Angola, Azerbaijan and Abu Dhabi. No wonder that of $15 billion in income taxes last year, Exxon paid none of it to Uncle Sam, and has tens of billions in earnings permanently reinvested overseas.

[nalcon]

You may be surprised at how much money refineries lost when the gas prices were near $5/gal. Many refineries had to shut down units because the cost of crude was so high. The higher the price of crude oil the lower the profit margin is. Companies such as Valero that only operate refineries (no exploration) suffer dearly when crude prices go out the roof. The stock exchange created the big rise in fuel prices not the oil companies.

[RustyJC]

Originally Posted by vegascouple

This will make you all feel better.

Exxon tries to limit the tax pain with the help of 20 wholly owned subsidiaries domiciled in the Bahamas, Bermuda and the Cayman Islands that (legally) shelter the cash flow from operations in the likes of Angola, Azerbaijan and Abu Dhabi. No wonder that of $15 billion in income taxes last year, Exxon paid none of it to Uncle Sam, and has tens of billions in earnings permanently reinvested overseas.

You might want to read this article from abcnews.com, not exactly a pro-business source. Be sure to read both pages 1 and 2. U.S. corporate income tax rates are driving more and more businesses offshore.

The crux of the issue:

But it's the tax benefit of overseas operations that is the biggest reason why multinationals end up with lower tax rates than the rest of us. It only makes sense that multinationals "put costs in high-tax countries and profits in low-tax countries," says Scott Hodge, president of the Tax Foundation. Those low-tax countries are almost anywhere but the U.S. "When you add in state taxes, the U.S. has the highest tax burden among industrialized countries," says Hodge. In contrast, China's rate is just 25%; Ireland's is 12.5%.

Rusty

[777 Driver]

I’ve been accused many times of being optimistic. This may be more evidence of my prejudice for optimism.

Google “Darpa algae fuel”. Among other hits will be this article from guardian.co.uk. All the articles seem to be making a similar claim about the efficacy of the process.
___________________________________
Algae to solve the Pentagon's jet fuel problem
US scientists believe they will soon be able to use algae to produce biofuel for the same cost as fossil fuels

The brains trust of the Pentagon says it is just months away from producing a jet fuel from algae for the same cost as its fossil-fuel equivalent.

The claim, which comes from the Defense Advanced Research Projects Agency (Darpa) that helped to develop the internet and satellite navigation systems, has taken industry insiders by surprise. A cheap, low-carbon fuel would not only help the US military, the nation's single largest consumer of energy, to wean itself off its oil addiction, but would also hold the promise of low-carbon driving and flying for all.

Darpa's research projects have already extracted oil from algal ponds at a cost of $2 per gallon. It is now on track to begin large-scale refining of that oil into jet fuel, at a cost of less than $3 a gallon, according to Barbara McQuiston, special assistant for energy at Darpa. That could turn a promising technology into a ­market-ready one. Researchers have cracked the problem of turning pond scum and seaweed into fuel, but finding a cost-effective method of mass production could be a game-changer. "Everyone is well aware that a lot of things were started in the military," McQuiston said.

The work is part of a broader Pentagon effort to reduce the military's thirst for oil, which runs at between 60 and 75 million barrels of oil a year. Much of that is used to keep the US Air Force in flight. Commercial airlines – such as Continental and Virgin Atlantic – have also been looking at the viability of an algae-based jet fuel, as has the Chinese government.

"Darpa has achieved the base goal to date," she said. "Oil from algae is projected at $2 per gallon, headed towards $1 per gallon."

McQuiston said a larger-scale refining operation, producing 50 million gallons a year, would come on line in 2013 and she was hopeful the costs would drop still further – ensuring that the algae-based fuel would be competitive with fossil fuels. She said the projects, run by private firms SAIC and General Atomics, expected to yield 1,000 gallons of oil per acre from the algal farm.

McQuiston's projections took several industry insiders by surprise. "It's a little farther out in time," said Mary Rosenthal, director of the Algal Biomass Association. "I am not saying it is going to happen in the next three months, but it could happen in the next two years."

But the possibilities have set off a scramble to discover the cheapest way of mass-producing an algae-based fuel. Even Exxon – which once notoriously dismissed biofuels as moonshine – invested $600m in research last July.

Unlike corn-based ethanol, algal farms do not threaten food supplies. Some strains are being grown on household waste and in brackish water. Algae draw carbon dioxide from the atmosphere when growing; when the derived fuel is burned, the same CO2 is released, making the fuel theoretically zero-carbon, although processing and transporting the fuel requires some energy.

The industry received a further boost earlier this month, when the Environmental Protection Agency declared that algae-based diesel reduced greenhouse gas emissions by more than 50% compared with conventional diesel. The Obama administration had earlier awarded $80m in research grants to a new generation of algae and biomass fuels.

For Darpa, the support for algae is part of a broader mission for the US military to obtain half of its fuel from renewable energy sources by 2016. That time line meant that the Pentagon needed to develop technologies to make its hardware "fuel agnostic", capable that is of running on any energy source including methane and propane.

The US Air Force wants its entire fleet of jet fighters and transport aircraft to test-fly a 50-50 blend of petroleum-based fuel and other sources – including algae – by next year.

The switch is partly driven by cost, but military commanders in Afghanistan and Iraq are also anxious to create a lighter, more fuel-efficient force that is less dependent on supply convoys, which are vulnerable to attack from insurgents. Give the military the capability of creating jet fuel in the field, and you would eliminate that danger, McQuiston said. "In Afghanistan, if you could be able to create jet fuel from indigenous sources and rely on that, you'd not only be able to source energy for the military, but you'd also be able to leave an infrastructure that would be more sustainable."

McQuiston said the agency was also looking at how to make dramatic improvements in the photo-voltaic cells that collect solar energy. She said making PV 50% more efficient would create a future when even the smallest devices, such as mobile phones, would be ­powered by their own solar cells.
_______________________________________________
It's my understanding that Diesel fuel isn't too much different from jet fuel.

Anyway, it would seem to me that the ability to produce any biofuel from a renewable (non-food) source would be a good thing and have the ultimate effect of driving down all fuel costs.

But, I've always been an optimist.

Take care,
Stu

[Pusherman]

Stu, Excellent research and data on bio-fuel. I too am an optimist, and I believe we will be able to 'grow' much of our fuel needs in the future, while being able to take advantage of new technologies for much of our driving needs, whether it be compressed natural gas, hydrogen, or electric, or the next invention to come along.

[Rich and Cork]

Where is the outrage towards Obama and his oil company cronies with fuel prices rising 50% in one year!!!

[wwalpole]

There's more to life than fuel mileage

[RustyJC]

Originally Posted by Rich and Cork

Where is the outrage towards Obama and his oil company cronies with fuel prices rising 50% in one year!!!

Ummm....do you think the following trend in NYMEX crude oil prices may have had anything to do with it??




Rusty

[SRT]

Originally Posted by StStg1

I agree change is constant.

SNIP

Like many of us, we are on fixed incomes from pensions and SSA. With everything going up and no COLA, we are forced to chose between gas for RV trips and necesitites like food and medicine. Hope Congress relalizes there is an increase in cost of living and does something about it. JMHO

That's where we are at. I don't want to spend too much money this year (especially for motor home fuel) while too much uncertainty exists.