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Anyone capable of discussing gas without politics? Anyone?

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Are gas prices bugging you? - Let the bugs make oil. (Times of London)

“Ten years ago I could never have imagined I’d be doing this,” says Greg Pal, 33, a former software executive, as he squints into the late afternoon Californian sun. “I mean, this is essentially agriculture, right? But the people I talk to – especially the ones coming out of business school – this is the one hot area everyone wants to get into.”
He means bugs. To be more precise: the genetic alteration of bugs – very, very small ones – so that when they feed on agricultural waste such as woodchips or wheat straw, they do something extraordinary. They excrete crude oil.
Unbelievably, this is not science fiction. Mr Pal holds up a small beaker of bug excretion that could, theoretically, be poured into the tank of the giant Lexus SUV next to us. Not that Mr Pal is willing to risk it just yet. He gives it a month before the first vehicle is filled up on what he calls “renewable petroleum”. After that, he grins, “it’s a brave new world”.
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Small wonders eh? So how big a fermentation plant would be needed to feed America's need for oil?

The closest that LS9 has come to mass production is a 1,000-litre fermenting machine, which looks like a large stainless-steel jar, next to a wardrobe-sized computer connected by a tangle of cables and tubes. It has not yet been plugged in. The machine produces the equivalent of one barrel a week and takes up 40 sq ft of floor space.
However, to substitute America’s weekly oil consumption of 143 million barrels, you would need a facility that covered about 205 square miles, an area roughly the size of Chicago.
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If we tell Obama his hometown has to go so we go big on home-brewed oil would he buy it?
 
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BuckeyeTillIDie;1184500; said:
Gas prices wouldn't be an issue if the asshole car companies would release cars that could get over 100+ MPG. I fail to believe that there isn't the technology to accomplish such a MPG rating now.
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its basic thermal physics. the internal gasoline engine is only about 15-20% efficient because we simply can't get it hot enough.
 
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BuckeyeTillIDie;1184500; said:
Gas prices wouldn't be an issue if the asshole car companies would release cars that could get over 100+ MPG. I fail to believe that there isn't the technology to accomplish such a MPG rating now.
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No single entity can really be "blamed" for high gas prices. It has been our culture. The "American Dream" is a house and property out in the suburbs. Rather than stay in the cities, everyone wanted to move out. And move out we did because we had hit the oil mother load here in the States in the first half of the 20th century.

Our whole economy became based on oil, and one of those facets became transportation. We all wanted to live the American Dream and so we all left the cities to buy houses in the 'burbs. Commuting 20, 30, 40 miles a day (or more) to work and back wasn't a problem because gas was dirt cheap. Everything was run on gas-powered cars and trucks, while trains and other centralized transportation slowly withered away.

Then we hit peak oil production here in the US around the 1970's and in a the course of a decade became almost completely dependent on foreign oil. Now foreign sources of oil are either running out, becoming harder to find, or are hotly contested (culture clashes, war, whatever). Thus, price of oil goes up (it doesn't help that in the past 7-8 years the value of our currency has tanked, meaning a dollar doesn't buy as much oil as it used to). Oil is expensive, so gas is expensive.

For the past hundred years we've built a culture that's 100% dependent on cheap gas. Now all that has to change. And quick.
 
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rocketman;1186876; said:
No single entity can really be "blamed" for high gas prices. It has been our culture. The "American Dream" is a house and property out in the suburbs. Rather than stay in the cities, everyone wanted to move out. And move out we did because we had hit the oil mother load here in the States in the first half of the 20th century.

Our whole economy became based on oil, and one of those facets became transportation. We all wanted to live the American Dream and so we all left the cities to buy houses in the 'burbs. Commuting 20, 30, 40 miles a day (or more) to work and back wasn't a problem because gas was dirt cheap. Everything was run on gas-powered cars and trucks, while trains and other centralized transportation slowly withered away.

Then we hit peak oil production here in the US around the 1970's and in a the course of a decade became almost completely dependent on foreign oil. Now foreign sources of oil are either running out, becoming harder to find, or are hotly contested (culture clashes, war, whatever). Thus, price of oil goes up (it doesn't help that in the past 7-8 years the value of our currency has tanked, meaning a dollar doesn't buy as much oil as it used to). Oil is expensive, so gas is expensive.

For the past hundred years we've built a culture that's 100% dependent on cheap gas. Now all that has to change. And quick.
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Change? Yes, but I'm affraid this country will be mired in red tape and politics debating what to do. The change will be slow and methodical. We don't want to react too quickly because Big Oil may not like it.

The changes will be those that are self imposed like carpooling, packing a lunch, conservation, tuning our cars, not taking unnecessary trips, being fuel minded. Then we should move toward electing officials that do more than talk. Maybe even move closer to work (although that may be harder to do now). Oh, let's not forget mass transit, busses, trains and monorails. We could find a resurgence of interest in elevated monorails that would interconnect key businesses, airports, malls, and shopping. These thing will take some getting used to, a paradym shift needs to occur. Change starts with an idea and the will to do it.
 
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