Local gas prices

[waksupi]

Here is a link, you can enter your zip code, and find out where the cheapest gas in your area is. Updated daily.

http://autos.msn.com/everyday/gasstations.aspx?zip=&src=Netx

[454PB]

Thanks. Won't be too accurate until they update it hourly!

[Buckshot]

.................On my way to work Thursday evening and got off the freeway headed to the yard. The ARCO had regular at $2.97/9. On my way home Friday morning it had gone up 4 cents to $3.01/9.

However these prices aren't really a big deal except to those poor folks drawing lower wages and who have to drive long distances to work. Of course the stuff we buy in stores will have to go up incrementally as the carriers all have automatic fuel sur-charge increases built into their tarriffs.

However, on the way home that Friday AM I didn't see people driving at speeds closer to the posted limit, nor did I see any fewer recreational vehicles being towed down the road, or RV's an motorhomes.

If in the 1970's with the so called gas "Shortage", had I pulled up with a 5000 gallon tanker and announced you could have all the gas you wanted at $3/gal I'll wager I'd have had a line a mile long waiting to get some.

This also kind of creates a windfall profit for the state, in the form of sales tax.

..................Buckshot

[keeper89]

Honestly, I really believe this whole thing is an "engineered" crisis--why was the last refinery in this country built in 1976? Corporate greed is a truly disgusting thing--how many Lear jets and Bentleys does an executive really need? Do you have to have an eighteen hole golf course in your back yard? And the people who really suffer for this greed are the people who are on fixed incomes trying to decide whether to try not to freeze or starve to death because of this.......it really is a crying shame.........:confused:

[Scrounger]

I already know Bush and his gang are thiefs and liars of the most vile kind, but what I don't understand is how this humongus increase in oil/gas prices and its attendant price increases on food and everything else we buy, somehow doesn't seem to increase inflation to trigger wage and Social Security raises? (One sentence, 54 words!!!)

[shooter575]

There are a lot of places to point fingers on this one.One that you dont hear much about is the diffrent formulas of gas used in the country.I know here in SE mich.the blend is diffrent from outstate.It is illegal to that outstate gas here.This is mandated by the EPA.
One of chemical used in the oxygenated fuels is causing all sorts of groundwater problems.Lawsuits abound.So they are quiting making it.The goverment is mandating ethenol as a replacement and they cant make it or ship fast enough.This is causing the local shortages in Philly right now.
If they changed this reg gas would drop .30 a gal.Of cource the tree huggers would scream.
We need coal gasification.We are the Saudi Arabia of coal.The gov of Montana is pushing this.Have heard that is can be done for a profit if oil is over 40 bucks a barrel.Create US jobs where the coal is.Away from the lefties on both coasts.
End rant.

[Dale53]

I traveled 4 1/2 hours this past weekend to a rifle match. Went from Southwestern Ohio to North Central Inidana. The gas was $2.89 in Ohio nearly everywhere (regular) and I saw some right at $3.00. However, in Warsaw, IN I got filled up with $2.65 a gallon. Most areas just outside of Warsaw and on the way home were $2.89 a gallon.

Minnestota (the State of, that is) is building a coal gasification plant themselves. By all accounts, the coal gasification refineries are NOT terribly difficult to build and are relatively easy to expand incrementally. The technology has been in the public domain for some years. Gernany drove their war machine with coal gasification in World War II with this same technology. It is not "pie in the sky" it is proven technology and we DO have 200-300 year supplies of coal. Actually, with this process the gas is free. The high grade CLEAN coke that is produced with this process will pay for the process - the gas is FREE.

I am not destitute and will not curtail my driving as I don't have to. I do not waste gas but I DO use it. My vehicle gets 25 mpg and hopefully, my next one will do better. See you at the matches!

My observation during my weekend trip is that NO one is curtailing anything. I make that trip five times a year and this weekend was the busiest I have seen.

Dale53

[Bret4207]

Cool, clean coke for the power plants to make electricity and gas as a by-product. It'll still cost $3.00 a gallon. and by then Bush won't be in office. Who do we blame then?

[KCSO]

Waksupi
We have one gas station in town, I always know where the cheapest gas is! However when I visit the other side of the county I fill up at the reservation, their no tax gas is 15 cents cheaper. Gas in WMC is 2.879 as of noon and IC gas is 2.729.

[StarMetal]

That's true what Dale said, but it's not as easy said as done. Also for a powerplant to burn coke for fuel it has to be a grassroots plant, that is built to burn coke. Other coal burning powerplants can only mix alittle coke for fuel.

Fuel companies convert coal into easily transportable gas or liquid fuels (see Synthetic Fuels (http://encarta.msn.com/encyclopedia_761558146/Synthetic_Fuels.html)). Coal-based vapor fuels are produced through the process of gasification. Gasification may be accomplished either at the site of the coalmine or in processing plants. In processing plants, the coal is heated in the presence of steam and oxygen to produce synthesis gas, a mixture of carbon monoxide, hydrogen, and methane used directly as fuel or refined into cleaner-burning gas.
On-site gasification is accomplished by controlled, incomplete burning of an underground coal bed while adding air and steam. To do this, workers ignite the coal bed, pump air and steam underground into the burning coal, and then pump the resulting gases from the ground. Once the gases are withdrawn, they may be burned to produce heat or generate electricity. Or they may be used in synthetic gases to produce chemicals or to help create liquid fuels.
Liquefaction processes convert coal into a liquid fuel that has a composition similar to that of crude petroleum. Coal can be liquefied either by direct or indirect processes. However, because coal is a hydrogen-deficient hydrocarbon, any process used to convert coal to liquid or other alternative fuels must add hydrogen. Four general methods are used for liquefaction: (1) pyrolysis and hydrocarbonization, in which coal is heated in the absence of air or in a stream of hydrogen; (2) solvent extraction, in which coal hydrocarbons are selectively dissolved and hydrogen is added to produce the desired liquids; (3) catalytic liquefaction, in which hydrogenation takes place in the presence of a catalyst; and (4) indirect liquefaction, in which carbon monoxide and hydrogen are combined in the presence of a catalyst.

Joe

[454PB]

Part of the problem is NIMBY. Montana and Wyoming are sitting on vast coal deposits, but everytime a power plant or strip mine is proposed, the ecologists stop the plan in it's tracks. Same with refineries, imagine trying to build one anywhere near a populous area. That goes over like nuclear power plants.

I was working for Montana Power Co. in thermal generation when the mine mouth coal fired plants at Colstrip were built.......what a battle! Our governor may want coal gasification, but it ain't gonna happen!