Thanks to sliding oil prices...

[Willit Run]

[quote] $1.91 in Indy today.

[Triple_7]

Hey Mushroom...I take it you live around Indy?

$2.07 here in N. Manchester.  Heard it will drop some more tomorrow.  Should land somewhere in the $1.99 range.  Just hope it keeps dropping or at least doesnt go up.  Its nice to finally have a little extra left over on the paychecks to start saving up again

[Mushroom_Farmer]

Hey Mushroom...I take it you live around Indy?

Yep, about 30-odd miles(55-odd kilometers) due west.
I see prices averaging between $1.91-$2.07 today $1.95 in a lot of stations. Higher up north, around $2.25.

[flymo]

84.9 pence for me (worcestershire, UK) and cos ym motehr spent more than

[Alonso]

Believe it or not...

Regular----S/.16.50 that is like $4.71 per gallon

So now people is starting to convert their cars to natural gas (like $1 equivalent to a petrol gallon) and it pollutes less  ;)

[Katahu]

Why don't people just simply take used cooking oil and pour it into their tanks for fuel? Heck, the Mythbusters proved that it works, although it was less efficient. Take a look at Willie Nelson.

BioWillie

Note, the article almost a year old. So don't be surprised.

[Woodlouse2002]

Why don't people just simply take used cooking oil and pour it into their tanks for fuel? Heck, the Mythbusters proved that it works, although it was less efficient. Take a look at Willie Nelson.

BioWillie

Note, the article almost a year old. So don't be surprised.

Cause you need a diesel engine for it. How many Americans have diesel cars?

Whats more, inless you have the means to get it in bulk i.e. you own, or know someone who owns a fish n chip shop you can't easily get it cheaper than normal fuel.

Other than that, all good.

[Bindoe]

My dads company gives him fuel for free. However they compare fuel use to the miles you've driven, so you can't escape putting free fuel in other cars

[Triple_7]

Diesel cars...not to many...diesel trucks though...becoming a little more common

One problem with cooking oil is cold weather.  Just like regular diesel it will gel, and in some cases with used oil it will turn almost solid.  Not very good for winters here in the midwest.  Its tempting though.  My next ruck will be diesel, much better fuel mileage even though it costs more.  A few of us are considering setting up an oil cleaning system that will filter the used cooking oil to clean usable fuel.  Only would be able to make use of it during the summer.  But with enough fast food places willing to give away used oil it would mean a lot of free summer fuel.  Its worth a try.  Not like its going to hurt anything

But with winter almost here and nightly temps already reaching in the 36

[dcunning30]

the weirdest part is this isn't an election year, when republicians will try to get the vote by lowering gas prices.

Here's a hint, do you actually think an american political party has enough mojo, smoke and mirrors, etc.  to cause gas prices to drop worldwide just for short-term domestic political purposes?

In the immortal words of Public Enemy: "Don't believe the hype!"  :)

[Woodlouse2002]

[quote]

Here's a hint, do you actually think an american political party has enough mojo, smoke and mirrors, etc.

[dcunning30]

Several things affect the price of gas at the pump.

1) obviously taxes
2) the cost of refining, transporting, storing, and dispensing the gas
3) the biggest factor requires explaination:

The law of supply and demand:
In a nutshell, when there's a greater supply of a commodity than demand, the price of that commodity drops.  If the demand is greater than the supply, then the price rises.  Now, how do the oil producing nations affect the cost per barrel?  By either increasing or descreasing the supply based on their rate of production.  If they feel they aren't getting paid enough, they slow production, whis means there's less supply, therefore the price rises.  Now how does this price rise?  By the traders on the commodity market.  If the traders feel good about the supply, they'll only be willing to trade at a lower dollar-per-barrel.

Now, if Iran makes threats about oil production (which they did), then the traders get spooked and fear a shortage, therefore the price spikes (which did happen).  If traders see a lower volume of oil coming out of OPEC nations, they'll bid the cost of a barrel higher.  Or is traders anticipate a spike in demand going into the summer travelling months, they'll anticipate a greater demand, therefore the price spikes (which did happen).  Coming out of the summer months, they anticipate demand lowering, and so did the price(whis is happening now).  Also, there's greater worldwide demand.  Everyone knows about China's growing appetite for oil, as well as India.  So the price generally rises everywhere, and there's nothing anybody can do about that.

Now, domestically (USA), Chicago will always have high prices compared to most of the nation.  Blame that on taxes.  California will always have higher prices as well.  Blame that on taxes and California requires a special refining process which adds cost.

[dcunning30]

No. But the ruling political party certainly has the power to temorarily reduce fuel prices in their own country. I think thats what he was getting at.

That may be his opinion, but it's an uninformed opinion.

What (too often in my opinion) is politicos raise up straw man arguments that have little basis in fact to score political points.

In spite of the read meat that gets served up by accusing policial leaders of manipulating oil prices for political purposes, the leaders in a democratic country have little affect on oil prices.  Several years ago, gas prices spiked in the US and Clinton announced he would open the strategic oil reserves to help lower the prices.  It played very well with the public.  What did happen was the oil became available on the commodity market, and much of it was sold to european buyers who were willing to pay more than american buyers.  So it had little affect on domestic prices.

[Triple_7]

Well...so much for the dropping

Not wanting to start a big argument here but...

Say what you want about political not being involved.  But a certain president called ours the devil and now theres a supposed boycot or whatever...and magicaly our gas price just jumped 10-12 cents over night  Personaly I find that a bit fishy...espectialy since theres only one Citgo in this town yet all 4 stations here and all those around us have also jumped.

Supply and demand...if there is a boycot and a lot less people are buying the gas from the local stations (which from the looks of them today there really was a lot less people at the pump) therefor there is more supply meaning price SHOULD go down...not up

[Politically Incorrect]

Thank you dcunning30, finally someone else that actually knows how commodities work and understands not everything is based and affected by politics alone.
It  is obvious that reading many of these post that thier information is gathered by what the media wants you to belive instead of actually researching and learning for themselves.

Oil is like gold a commodity that will vary on a daily basis. And if they would figure in the cost of a barrel to how much gasoline you get out of a barrel, the cost of the refining, transporting it to the local station, the insurance it cost to do that, and then the cost for the station owners to store and sell it they would quicky realize that gasoline is relatively cheap and always has been as far as any commoditiy goes.

Government and politics is the first excuse people use when ever they are unhappy about something, and always makes a fine argument but also makes you appear like a muppet when you have no facts to back it up another fine example besides oil is Global Warming, alot of talk but nothing to back it.

If you want to blame the Government how about starting with the Public Education System? There is plenty of proof here in this forum that Public Schools lacks a lot of educating

If our Government or anyone elses had that type effect over oil then you wouldn't see price increases worldwide but more locally. When oil goes up in cost it goes up eveywhere. Our Government or anyones Government does not set the price of a barrel of crude.

And as dcunning has mentioned a great majority of that cost is Tax, here in Tennessee we pay .40 cents a gallon tax, you remove that tax and our current price in town would be well bellow $2.00 a gallon.

So you see the Government has no control over the cost of a barrel of crude but they do over the tax. So there is your only logical complaint.

Supply and demand...if there is a boycot and a lot less people are buying the gas from the local stations (which from the looks of them today there really was a lot less people at the pump) therefor there is more supply meaning price SHOULD go down...not up

No it shouldn't! Why should the store owner face a loss for people not buying as much, he had to pay for the gas in his tanks at the higher price. So he shouldn't have to charge less for it and take a loss. His price would go down when he refills his tanks at the lower cost then you would see the change refelected.

This works the same when a price increase is expected, say he paid $1.90 per gallon for the gas in his tanks at the present time, and the anticipated cost of oil is going up tommorow, he would have to raise his price today to compensate for how much more a gallon he will have to pay in his next delivery.

Its all business and dealing with a commodity, any quick google search and you can find all the real information on how this works, but if you want to reamin looking the fool then keep beliving what the media wants you to think. Or as usual take the easy way out and blame Government.


Im still waiting for the "What about the children" complaint mixed into this oil debate. "I can't afford to take my kids to soccer with the cost of gas, when is the President going to do something about this!?"