The Case for “Future-Proof” Flex Fuel Vehicles (FFVs)
Over the next few years you’ll see a change at your local gas stations as more alcohol-blended fuel pumps are installed across the nation. Alcohol-blended fuels like E85 are already available in some areas, and more are coming to market as more FFVs are sold in the United States.
US based manufacturers have committed to making 50% of their new autos FFVs by 2010 and and 85% by 2012. In addition, there is proposed legislation called the Open Fuel Standard Act which will mandate all cars sold in America meet the same goals, so this will mean that all imports sold in the US will meet the same FFV standard. (You can help support this legislation here.)
Since FFV is an widely available and mature technology (there are already millions of FFVs on the road in the US - you may be driving one), adding the capability to all new vehicles sold in the US doesn’t add notably to the cost of making new cars (usually about $100) - and provides a way for auto manufactures to “green-up” their product lines.
Drivers of FFVs will be able to choose what fuel to buy, based on price at the pump, performance needs, personal preference, etc. - just like shopping for any other commodity. You’ll be able to mix E85 with E10 (the current flavor of gasoline almost everywhere in the US) and newer alternative blends like E25 or M50. Using FFV technology, your car will automatically adjust your engines settings to run properly on any combination of gasoline and alcohol fuels.
Unlike more exotic alternative fuels like compressed hydrogen or natural gas, drivers of FFVs are not stuck on a virtual “energy island” of specialized refueling stations. You will be able to travel freely, just like today, as far and wide as you like - choosing your favorite blend of alcohol fuels as you go - or using straight gasoline where no other choice exists.
So if your next car has an engine that burns liquid fuel, makes sure it is “future proof” and check that it’s a Flex-Fuel Vehicle before you buy it, or else you’ll be left without options at the pump when the alcohol-blended fuels hit the wider market.
Perspective on ANWR
Drilling in ANWR is a subject you’ve probably heard alot about. Here is some perspective about the area in question.
Take a quick look at this map. Click on the image to see the original .pdf file, in much greater detail. If you look closely, there is a small red square inside a larger green area that represents the ANWR Coastal Plain. The little red dot is the proposed development area.
By 2010 the US is projected to produce only approx 5 million barrels per day, combined with what we are importing, that leaves us 5 million barrels per day short. Look at the red dot in this picture. http://www.anwr.org/docs/CloseupofareaIII.pdf. That dot is the size of the proposed oil field that could potentially, only drilling will tell, supply the US with what is realistically estimated to produce 18 billion barrels of oil. Do the math, and you will find that means this little red dot could make up our shortage for 3600 days, or approx 10 years. Environmental advances are such that oil production and wildlife can co-exist, the people of Alaska want it, the people of the US want it, and the jobs and economic benefit to our citizenry is undeniable. (Read Source)
ANWR will not solve all of our problems alone.
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“The credibility of OPEC is at stake”
The recent “plunge” in oil prices since the end of summer has motivated OPEC to call for a cut in members oil production by 4.3% - restricting output to 26.3 million barrels-per-day. This is in effort to halt the fall in price, and “re-stabilize” the market.
OPEC surprises with deeper oil cut
OPEC agreed on Friday to curb its output by 1.2 million barrels per day, its first cut for more than two years, to halt a precipitous fall in prices.
The reduction, amounting to 4.3 percent of OPEC’s September production, was deeper than anticipated and the biggest since January 2002. It trims OPEC output to 26.3 million bpd from November 1.
“The credibility of OPEC is at stake,” Algerian Energy and Mines Minister Chakib Khelil told Reuters before the meeting that began Thursday and ended in the early hours of Friday.
OPEC believes that the “right price” for a barrel of oil is $55 to $60 USD - which is still 3 times to cost we paid in January 2002.
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7-11 Fires Citgo
7-11 is creating it’s own brand of gasoline, and giving Citgo their walking papers. Part of the reason is concern over Venezuelan President Hugo Chavez’s anti-US politics. Citgo is a Venezuelan state-owned company.
Convenience store operator 7-Eleven Inc. is dropping Venezuela-backed Citgo as its gasoline supplier at more than 2,100 locations and switching to its own brand of fuel.
The retailer said Wednesday it will purchase fuel from several distributors, including Tower Energy Group of Torrance, Calif., Sinclair Oil of Salt Lake City, and Houston-based Frontier Oil Corp.
A spokeswoman for Dallas-based 7-Eleven said its 20-year contract with Citgo Petroleum Corp. ends next week. About 2,100 of 7-Eleven’s 5,300 U.S. stores sell gasoline.
Citgo is a Houston-based subsidiary of Venezuela’s state-owned oil company, and the foreign parent became a public-relations issue for 7- Eleven because of comments by Venezuelan President Hugo Chavez.
What is E85?
E85 is an alternative fuel for many of todays production cars. It’s 85% ethanol that is created from crops, and 15% gasoline. There are many cars on the road in America today that can burn either gasoline or E85 - these are “flex-fuel” cars. You may own one of these cars, and not even know it.
From: http://www.e85fuel.com/e85101/faqs/e85.php
E85 is the term for motor fuel blends of 85 percent ethanol and just 15 percent gasoline. E85 is an alternative fuel as defined by the U.S. Department of Energy. Besides its superior performance characteristics, ethanol burns cleaner than gasoline; it is a completely renewable, domestic, environmentally friendly fuel that enhances the nation’s economy and energy independence.
You can find out if your car is a flex-fuel car by contacting the dealer where you bought you car and asking them if your’s is a flex-fuel car, or by checking this resources at this site about E85 fuels.
If your car is a flex-fuel car, you can find a service station in your area that sells E85 fuel. Hopefully there is one close enough to you to be convienent.
E85 has one major drawback, it’s that you won’t go as far per gallon. E85 may cost you as much as 30% in MPG, although this can be offset by lower pump prices, with a net gain of going farther for less money.
E85 is a step in the right direction for drivers who want to help reduce our dependence on foreign oil and at the same time curb the amount of emissions you personally contribute to the global pollution problem.
What’s in a Barrel of Oil?
Ever wonder what exactly is in a barrel of oil?
Product Percent of Total
- Finished Motor Gasoline 51.4%
- Distillate Fuel Oil 15.3%
- Jet Fuel 12.6%
- Still Gas 5.4%
- Marketable Coke 5.0%
- Residual Fuel Oil 3.3%
- Liquefied Refinery Gas 2.8%
- Asphalt and Road Oil 1.9%
- Other Refined Products 1.5%
- Lubricants 0.9%
One barrel contains 42 gallons of crude oil. The total volume of products made from crude oil based origins is 48.43 gallons on average - 6.43 gallons greater than the original 42 gallons of crude oil. This represents a “processing gain” due to the additional other petroleum products such as alkylates are added to the refining process to create the final products.
Additionally, California gasoline contains approximately 5.7 percent by volume of ethanol, a non-petroleum-based additive that brings the total processing gain to 7.59 gallons (or 49.59 total gallons).
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Won’t Return to Gas-Guzzling Habits
A recent article from America’s cheese-capitol indicates that the sustained high gas prices of this spring and summer have changed the gas-guzzling habits of survey respondents, and that the recent drop in gasoline prices will not change them back. Let’s hope there are similar mid-west sensibilities from the right coast to the left coast.
From Wisconsin State Journal
Survey: Driving won’t climb as gas prices fall
MARV BALOUSEK…After more than a year of high prices driven by a range of factors - increased demand, last year’s hurricanes and global instability - gasoline has plunged in recent weeks, selling for $2.51 a gallon at some Madison-area stations. And analysts say prices could drop further, thanks to the end of the summer driving season and stable supply. Natural gas prices also have declined, setting the stage for decreased energy spending for consumers in the coming months.
But area drivers say they haven’t forgotten the summer’s high prices, which saw gasoline approach $3.20 a gallon in Madison, and they say aren’t returning to their old gas-guzzling ways. That’s because many are aware prices could easily go back up…
…Some analysts are forecasting that gas prices will continue to decline, said Pam Moen of AAA Wisconsin. But she said consumers are smart to be wary.”People are relieved and we should be thankful these prices have finally come down,” she said. “But it’s important to understand that nothing really has changed. Until we address issues with our national energy infrastructure, we are going to be vulnerable to the kind of volatility and extreme pricing we’ve seen in the past year.”
Gas prices accelerated the boom in hybrid cars and now play a bigger role in consumer choices, said Neeraj Arora, a UW-Madison professor of marketing research.
“People are going to reflect back on the prices that have changed over the last month or two more than they did three or four years ago,” he said. “My guess is it’s going to become a bigger factor than it has in the past in making a consumer decision on which (vehicle) brand they should buy.”
Jeff Beddow of the National Automobile Dealers Association said it took a long stretch of higher gas prices before sales of less fuel efficient vehicles dropped, and he doesn’t see buyers quickly coming back to gas-guzzlers.
“Typically, changes in consumer buying habits related to gas prices come after a sustained period of time at either a high or low price level,” he said…
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$1.15 per gallon?
Wow… wondering if I should go buy that Escalade I’ve been wanting… maybe some 55 gallon drums…
From The Seattle Times: Business & Technology
Analyst predicts plunge in gas prices
By Kevin G. Hall
September 14, 2006WASHINGTON — The recent sharp drop in the global price of crude oil could mark the start of a massive sell-off that returns gasoline prices to lows not seen since the late 1990s — perhaps as low as $1.15 a gallon.
“All the hurricane flags are flying” in oil markets, said Philip Verleger, a noted energy consultant who was a lone voice several years ago in warning that oil prices would soar. Now, he says, they appear to be poised for a dramatic plunge.
Crude-oil prices have fallen about $14, or roughly 17 percent, from their July 14 peak of $78.40. After falling seven straight days, they rose slightly Wednesday in trading on the New York Mercantile Exchange, to $63.97, partly in reaction to a government report showing fuel inventories a bit lower than expected. But the overall price drop is expected to continue, and prices could fall much more in the weeks and months ahead…
Falling Gas Prices = The Big Carrot?
It seems like Christmas in September here in the US. Gas prices are free-falling to levels we haven’t seen in a while. It’s such a sudden and drastic change that it’s got me wondering “why?”…
From USA Today
9/12/2006Gasoline prices continue to tumble, almost free-falling toward levels not seen in five months.
The nationwide average for regular was $2.618 a gallon, the Energy Information Administration reported Monday. That was 10.9 cents lower than a week earlier.
“The reason prices are going down so far so fast is that they shouldn’t have been that high in the first place. Two reasons they were: fear and speculation,” says Mike O’Connor, president of the Virginia Petroleum, Convenience and Grocery Association. It represents gasoline distributors who operate about 4,000 stations.
O’Connor says $2 gasoline “is more likely than unlikely” if the Gulf of Mexico isn’t hit by hurricanes and if there isn’t a flare-up of tensions in oil-producing regions.
So gasoline prices are likely to be down to $2/gallon as long as there are no oil-platform eating hurricanes or a flare-up of tensions in Venezuela and Canada (or was that some other oil-producing regions they had in mind)? Wow, that sounds great… I’m not convinced this is the whole story. Let’s keep digging and reading…
