Gas prices reach all-time highFollow

Despite the fact that there have been a number of studies done to show that increases in gas prices have nothing to do with limited refinery capacity or the events of hurricane katrina I am blind in my faith that it is merely the reult of supply and demand in our free market system!

Everything is alright. Or so I am told!

$3.29 as of this morning at the station down the block from me in Des Moines. I suppose over 10 billion in profit just isn't enough money.

Got me looking at a hybrid pretty intensely.

Edited, May 22nd 2007 8:39am by Kaelesh

Mr.Katie has been researching a company that switches motors from gas to hydrogen. All in all it would cost us about 3K or so but we are thinking it would be worth it. He and some guys he works with have been tinkering in the garage with creating an engine that runs off of hydrogen. So far it's on a small scale but they are doing it.

Mr.Katie being a mechanic by profession would decrease the amount of money we'd have to pay to fix any break downs. Seeing as it would pretty much run off of distilled water I'd say we'd make our money back in a very short time.



Also on the topic of cost, can you really put a price on the environment? Being able to run an efficient engine with out adding more harmful gases to the environment is awesome in my thoughts.

Edited, May 22nd 2007 8:58am by Katie

I bet it's longer than you think. How much is a gallon of distilled water in Texas. In MI, it's about $2.19, only about $1.00 cheaper than a gallon of gas. Considering an inital investment of $3,000, that's a hell of a lot of water you have to run to be able to break even on the change.

Especially, being an experimental engine, even given that your husband is a mechanic, there will still be considerable cost in parts and labor.

I'm not trying to discourage you on the deal, just trying to make a point, that trying to go green to save money, doesn't always save as much as you would like, or think.


My car is a flex fuel vehicle, I'd love to run E85 in it all of the time, but my gas mileage on E85 is about 15 - 20% less than on regular gas (the energy output of ethanol is less than gasoline). Since E85 doesn't cost 15 - 20% less (until gas reaches about $4.50), I'll continue to run gasoline.

Hence the disclaimer at the top. In your case it would be a smart move. I've seen people at work sell a car that was just paid off, bought a new Honda Civic hybrid (for approx $26,000), now have car payments for another 5 years, and are saving about $25 a week in gas money. That to me, is not a smart move.

Got me looking at a hybrid pretty intensely.

Coming from a left wing nutjob like me this will sound strange but...

Current generation hybrids are a scam. From a real world MPG and emissions standpoint they offer virtually no advantage over less complicated cheaper more feature rich gas powered equivalents. If you were *actually* looking to save money on fuel, and not concerned about image or whatnot, you'd be vastly better off getting a turbodisel. A Jetta TDI gets about the same gas mileage in real world use as a Prius, is far far far more drivable and cheaper to maintain and has a lot more utility.

We have a Prius at work as one of the checkout cars. Aside from an ingrained animosity I have towards that car because it is too damned small, it drives ok. And it does save fuel costs. The main issue we've had with it is that it is a maintenance hog. Particularily the oil system. For some reason that keeps failing at inopertune moments. That, and batteries have a finite lifespan. Eventually that massive battery bank will need swapped out. Thats not going to be cheap.

I guess I will just continue to suffer economically while enjoying the drive.

I always thought the "Gas is cheaper than [Liquid]" argument was stupid solely because my car doesn't run on cola/milk/orange juice/Windex/etc so the price of those isn't really relevant to me in the context of my car.

Obviously Mr. Katie and his friends have been reading Popular Science way to damn much this month with way to much beer.

I for one think it is a bigger issue than most people believe. We recycle and I try to make sure I buy recycled items when I can but this is another larger step that I think more people should make. I would rather pay more and know that I'm doing my part to help the environment than to pay less and ignore the bigger picture.

You guys can't be serious. Paying an extra 30 cents for a gallon isn't breaking any budgets, especially when you consider many people don't bat an eyelash at paying $3.75 for a cup of coffee at Starbucks.

All this talk about gas prices is just so much whining. Curtail your Lotto ticket expenditures and the money you save will more than make up for the price of gasoline.

Moreover, the price of gas is directly tied to the gubbmint's taxes on it. If you did the same to milk, for example, a gallon of Da-iry's wonder elixer would be well over six bucks. Add to it that the Speaker of the House who has been complaining loudly of price gouging, yet steadfastly refuses to allow offshore drilling off California's coast or development of the ANWAR oilfields, it is just silly.

Totem