Comments on: Tuesday Turnip

By: Sid Morrison

Sid Morrison — Wed, 13 Jun 2007 13:36:06 +0000

hmmm… my posting keeps getting truncated! I was using a “less than” symbol… maybe that screwed it up. Here’s the rest.
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Nowadays, vehicles go “closed-loop” so quickly (less than 20 seconds), there is really no emissions benefit. The ethanol remains required though, as a giveaway to big-contributing agribusiness giants like corn processor Archer Daniels Midland and to line the pockets of corn-farmers (especially in the election-critical State of Iowa!) . There are other “special requirements” for fuel in certain areas (notably California) that all drive up the prices, but the use of Ethanol is the major boondoggle scam.

Straight talk from Sid.

By: Sid Morrison

Sid Morrison — Wed, 13 Jun 2007 13:32:00 +0000

Aaron raises excellent points! Also, government tinkering with the specific blend requirements add a lot to the cost as well. Case in point: oxygenated fuel is required at some times of the year in many parts of the US (in some places ALL the time). The oxygenate added (formerly it was generally MTBE, but now generally Ethanol) costs a lot more than the gasoline it replaces and provides less energy contnent. This raises the cost of the fuel in those areas.

Originally the oxygenate mandate was done to reduce emissions during warmup on older technology cars. Nowadays, vehicles go “closed-loop” so quickly (

By: Aaron

Aaron — Wed, 13 Jun 2007 12:39:36 +0000

The relative prices are primarily a function of taxes (California and NY) and subsidies (Iran and Venezuela). The politicians can make you pay whatever they’ve determined is the “right” price for your community. If the price they encourage is less than the actual price, then you’ll end up paying for it some other way….

By: Emily Jane

Emily Jane — Wed, 13 Jun 2007 02:52:45 +0000

Nice to hear NY being misrepresented, cheap gas is $3.50+ in Humboldt, Ca. Everyone here thinks the rest of the country is being let off easy.

By: sporkk

sporkk — Tue, 12 Jun 2007 20:23:09 +0000

I wish gas were $2.76 in my part of NY. We’re up to $3.50+ depending which station you go to.

By: Steve Rayle

Steve Rayle — Tue, 12 Jun 2007 17:13:30 +0000

You missed Caracas at about 10-12 cents per gallon.