Where gas costs under $.50, and why YOU can't have it

Here's an interesting look at the gas prices, from CNNMoney.com staff writer, Steve Hargreaves.

In Saudi Arabia gasoline costs about 45 cents a gallon. In Iran it's 33. Venezuelans pay under a quarter.

More importantly, though, is why they get to pay so little for their gas and why you and I have to pay SO much.

These absurdly low prices are a direct result of massive government subsidies.

it's not allowing the free market to do its job. Higher prices on the open market are not leading to a drop in demand, which is keeping the cost of oil high for everyone else.

"Roughly two-thirds of new oil demand is coming from countries that have subsidized oil markets," said Christopher Ruppel, a senior geopolitical analyst with the consulting firm John S. Herold. "So demand is not going to be affected if oil goes from $60 a barrel to $80."

By no means does this let motorists in the Untied States off the hook. Gasoline consumption in this country has been rising even faster than normal, around 2.5 percent annually over the last couple of months, despite average prices over $3 a gallon, close to an all-time record.

Wow - what's so surprising is that us in the U.S. are STILL consuming that much fuel, even at these prices. That is absolutely staggering. I would have assumed that the sales of alternative energy and smaller vehicles would begin to soar - but apparently the things that you might think are obvious aren't as clear-cut and simple as you thought.

Al

True Story: Bio-refinery MAKES electricity out of trash

When I first read this article, from Michael Behar at Popular Science, I was extremely skeptical. That is until I read this...

Warner and the Purdue team demonstrated the machine for Army officials last November and are building a second prototype to test later this year.

So, then, my next question was - what does this thing do?

About the size of a moving van, the biorefinery is entirely self-contained and self-powered. Feed it 2,500 pounds of trash a day, and it pumps out enough electricity (60 kilowatts) to run a large mess-tent operation or three homes.

The refinery works like a giant digestive tract. After a shredder chews up trash, enzymes digest it into simple sugars, which yeast metabolizes to produce ethanol. Any leftover waste (paper cups, plastic forks and so on) is packed into pellets and burned to produce a gas composed primarily of methane, propane, carbon dioxide and hydrogen. The refinery blends this gas with the ethanol and uses it to run a modified diesel generator.

At this point the biorefinery is super expensive, and pretty big, so a lot of us won't be able to pick one up and use it around the house. But think about the implications of being able to do this kind of thing around the U.S. or the world. STAGGERING!

Now I'm not saying this is the saviour of our human decent into environmental death, (I actually don't think we are completely headed in that direction as badly as others say), but this certainly has to help alleviate some of the nasty pollutants out there.

What do you think?

Al