mercedo's Journal: The Rise Of Crude Oil Price

The rapid inflation of crude oil price has been in progress. 40% higher than last year. Gasoline price by one litre is 131 yen right now, because one gallon is equal to 3.785 litre, one gallon of gasoline is 495.8 yen, which is about $4.23. ($1=Y117)

This so affects every nook and cranny of entire life here in Japan. But I must admit this society is so stagnant still, unbelievably. Inefficiency has prevailed everywhere. Japanese people cannot change themselves on their own, but they are vulnerable to pressure out of other countries, especially from USA.

I'll just beat a dead horse here...

[kesuki]

Right now, in minnesota one can buy a gallon of 'E85' (the flex fuel alternative) for $2.20 Regular E10 (I can't remember if minneosta changed to E20 yet or not.) is $2.70ish. Yes, one needs to buy a special car, I wish FORD would switch it's st. paul plant over to flex fuel vehicle production... instead of closing it down.

Arguements have been made about if 'corn ethanol' is that viable, and perhaps not for wide scale roll outs, but a lot of other potential ethanol sources are viable. Switchgrass comes to

Re:I'll just beat a dead horse here...

[Allen Zadr]

The only reason it's a "dead horse", is because they are much harder to find than the commercials let on. THe first flex fuel push was in 2001, and there were more flexfuel models then than there were in 2005 - when I bought my car.

Even for the cars that are available (like the Ford Focus), it's only on the 'Fleet Sales' models (which are near impossible to find). Maybe, come 2008, we will probably see a lot of flexfuel vehicles in the commercial market... but by then we'll have lost another two years

Re:I'll just beat a dead horse here...

[kesuki]

flex fuel really took off in brazil though. i think the main problem is that ethanol production from corn doesn't really 'tap' the suns energy, so mush as allows the corn growers to overproduce and always have a 'plan b' on what to do with excess corn, and corn stalk. great for corn growers but it's hard to make a push for flex fuel when people see it as just helping corn growers. i tell you what though if demand for ethanol went up, there would be a lot of farmers considering switching to switchgrass pro

Re:I'll just beat a dead horse here...

[mercedo]

If we could utilise the maximum possibility the material has, we wouldn't have to worry about the cost of fuels any more. For the moment it is important to reseach and develop new alternative fuels.