Forgive me, but i do not have Office on this system so i will type this tripe out here. spelling grammar and other crap.... bite me you get what you pay for.

Grouse's plan for reducing the cost of gas.

1) Lower the federal profit on a gallon of gas. right now about 18cents is federal tax. That is twice the profit margin of exxon mobil. Exon mobil has a 9 cent profit margin. This last quarter they had their largest ever proffit. Some 9 billion. that means our federal goverment had an 18 billion dollar profit from Exxon sales alone. Halve the federal profit margin to 9 cents per gallon to compete with private industry.

2) Standardize gas across this nation. Part of the reason gas is so high is that we have some 57 varieties made across the states. Make 3 levels of gas standardized to meet strict standards in 89,93,95 octane levels. Right now our few refineries must produce these (hienz 57 varieties) and ship them to their individual destinations. this is extremely expensive and in-efficient.

3) build up todate refineries. We have built no new refineries in 30 years. build Double the number of current refineries and phase out the old ones, as the old ones phase out replace it with a new one. This will allow us to have shorter pipelines, shorter transfer times and less confusion in gas when coupled with a nation gas standard.

4) Rebuild, and build newer faster pipelines for transporting gas, desiel, jet, and heating oil. Right now places like oregon and washington only have (if i remember correctly 2 pipelines) When one shuts down for required maintence the price can spike as much as 10c due to a lack of supply. Federally schedualed maitenance can take 3 weeks or more.

5) Open up drilling on the off shore of california, and into the gulf of mexico. yes we have some current rigs, but there are many many more places that could be drilled using small foot print rigs. These sites are all past the visibility range from shore.

6) open up anwar on a rotational basis. Set up federal contracts for 50 years. Open up only 1/25 of anwar at a time. build the nessisary pipeline infastructure to support the new drilling.

7) Build more nuclear power plants, use vitirafacation tech to secure any waste material into an inert form for storage in yucca mountain like facilities.

8)paypal me 100 usd for reading my diatribe.

 

The consumer (us) is going to be the one to foot the cost of those capital investments. Also, on a cost analysis matrix, it depends. The cost of building a new refinery to ASME codes far outweighs the cost of building more pipelines. The additional cost of having a refinery closer to urban centers is higher insurance premiums. Transfer time has little to do with it, as gas is not that perishable of a commodity, so long as the 'goes inta' roughly equals the 'goes outa'. However, there is a need for more pipelines, and inspections and maintenance of existing infrastructure. Recall the refinery explosion in Anacortes that killed workers, and the natural gas pipeline explosion in Bellingham that killed civilians.

I'm with you there, but California has been spectacularily unwilling to foot the cost of its own energy consumption, even though they have the majority of the consumers in the nation. I personally believe that CA needs a higher premium on all of its energy costs until they are willing to contribute to the supply side of the equation. A large majority of the electrical power from Bonneville Power, Four Corners, and Palo Verde all go to California, who has little to no production capacity of their own

AMEN! Hallalujah! I'm definatly with you there, but then again, I'm biased since I am a mechanical engineer at a nuclear plant. We make over 1200 Megawatts of electricity cleanly and safely, and at a lower cost than a coal-fired plant can do it. If coal plants had to pay for their free ride on the environment, then we'd be way more than competitive. My plant has zero emissions, none! We are ISO 14001 compliant, which few industries can claim.

Then only thing I'd change is that 1) spent nuclear fuel does not need to be vitrified. It is already contained, which is the purpose of vitrification. Vitrification is for all of the wastes created by the medical industry and especially the defense industry. 2) spent nuclear fuel should be recycled / reprocessed in a breeder reactor (which could also make electricity), and turned back into usable fuel. This is a practice that is not currently allowed in the U.S., however is done very sucessfully in Japan, France, Germany and the U.K. This would really reduce the amount of spent fuel. Even without recycling, all of the comercial reactor spent fuel takes up very little volume, compared to all of the polution created by burning fossile fuels. 3) Commercial nuclear power needs to pursue MOX licenses. This means using Mixed Oxides, which is a blend of uranium and plutonium. The plutonium is to come from the defense stockpiles. This is a true 'swords to plowshares' solution. Currently, about 1/3 of the uranium in my plant's reactor came from the Soviet Union. We are taking weapons grade uranium off the world market and using it to make electricity. Beautiful! Imagine using all of the excess plutonium there is out there from START II weapons reductions and making electricity from it too. 4) Widespread use of nuclear power to manufacture hydrogen gas. Fuel cells are the wave of the future, and clean, cheap hydrogen gas is going to be needed. Using nuclear power to create this is one of the best solutions there is. See The Hydrogen Economy
Actually, explore all of: http://www.nei.org/

 

I'll get right on these two, IMMEDIATELY. They shud happen at about the same time, BTW.

You are right about the cornucopia of flavors, and teh additional cost this adds to our fuel. I'd add an additional, lower 85/87 octane level, so that Kia and Hyundai drivers'll have something to put in their tanks, too[8D]

 

Sounds like a solid plan to me. Too bad none of it will happen.

 

Jeb Bush and The Terminator, wont allow any refineriesdrilling off their coastlines.. those bastards!!!!

 

i wish that would happen

 

Better yet, put both Jeb Bush and The Arnold to work on offshore drilling rigs off their state's coasts for a couple of years. They may come back knowing a few things.

 

Gas just went from $2.90gal for 92 Premium, to $3.18gal for 92 Premium, over night... [:@]

 

How about:

1) Spend more money researching a depandable fuel source that doesn't destory the environment.
2) Don't drill in ANWAR...

 

You do that.!!!