Cedar Creek Voice

(Northern Express Weekly, 6/4/08.)

HOW TO STRETCH YOUR GAS DOLLAR IN ONE EASY MOVE

(Hint: It involves your right foot.)

As gas prices soar, you need to employ the most effective gas-saving tools known to man.  That would be your brain.  Forget the adrenaline rush of punching the accelerator, speeding to the next light, and then applying your brakes at the very last minute.  Think instead of driving steady as a banke3r and knowing the joy of keeping hard-earned cash in your wallet.

This calls for driving with greater awareness.  The new Olivia Newton John “mellow” approach involves sloooowly accelerating when the light turns green and driving at an even speed.  When you spot the next red light or stop sign ahead, lift your foot off the gas and coast to  your stop.   Another tip:  Take advantage of gravity and let it pull  you down a hill, and then enjoy the free ride once you level out. 

Adopting a smoother driving style is the single most important thing you can do to gain up to a 35% increase in fuel mileage, according to a road test conducted by Edmunds.com road.

That’s because punching the gas not only revs the engine faster, it also pumps more fuel into the engine.  The Edmunds.com road testers said that putting on your air conditioning only at high speeds and keeping tires inflated at proper levels helps gas mileage, but not that much. 

Other gas-saving ideas will take a little planning on your part.  Call a friend and share rides to sports events, work, and parties.  Also, list all your errands and doctor appointments and schedule them geographically.  Make a menu for the week so that you go grocery shopping only once a week, instead of several times.

MORE TIPS:

Drive the speed limit.

Take all but the necessary stuff out of the trunk.  Your engine sucks gas in order to move the extra weight.

Last tip, and admittedly the most controversial:   Make like a hybrid car, and turn off your engine at a stoplight.  No doubt, you have heard that it burns more gas to start up a car.  The Canadian Office of Energy Efficiency says it’s studied this argument, and the breakpoint is a mere 10 seconds.  If you don’t believe the Canadian office, do your own road test for a week.

There’s always the option of dumping your gas guzzler now before prices climb higher.  Lots of folks have opted for a bike or scooter during the summer or are investigating the purchase of a smaller car.  If that’s the way you’re going, the top gas sipping choices (in order of highest economy and lowest emissions) are the 2008 Toyota Prius hybrid, a 2005 VW Jetta (1.9-liter “TDI diesel engine), the 2008 Smart Fortwo (three cylinder engine_, and the 2008 Ford Focus SES coupe with a four-cylinder engine, according to an Edmunds.com test and article by Philip Reed and Dan Edmunds, “Gas-Sipper Smackdown!”

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[Editor's Note:  I do not know who the author of the following letter is, just that he is from California.  I do not know when this was written, but the letter refers to paying $3.50 per gallon for gasoline in California --  must be at least a month or so ago, possibly March or April, 2008.  The letter has been circulating around the internet, and it has some valid points to consider.]

HOW TO SAVE MONEY ON GAS:

I don’t know what you guys are paying for gasoline, but here in California we are also paying higher, up to $3.50 per gallon.  But my line of work is in petroleum for about 31 years now, so here are some tricks to get more of your money’s worth for every gallon:

Here at the Kinder Morgan Pipeline, where I work in San Jose, California, we deliver about 4 million gallons in a 24-hour period thru the pipeline.  One day is diesel, the next day is jet fuel, and gasoline, gegular and premium grades.  We have 34 storage tanks here with a total capacity of 16,800,000 gallons.

(1)  Only buy or fill up your car or truck in the early morning when the ground temperature is still cold.

Remember that all service stations have their storage tanks buried below ground.  The colder the ground, the more dense the gasoline.  When it gets warmer, gasoline expands, so buying in the afternoon or in the evening…your gallon is not exactly a gallon.

In the petroleum business, the specific greavity and the temperature of the gasoline, diesel and jet fuel, ethanol and other petroleum products plays an important role.  a 1-degree rise in temperature is a big deal for this business.  But the service stations do not have temperature compensation at the pumps.

(2)  When you’re filling up, do not squeeze the trigger of the nozzle to a fast mode.

If you look you will see thaqt the trigger has three (3) stages:  low, middle, and high.  You should be pumping on low speed, thereby minimizing the vapors that are created while you are pumping.  All hoses at the pump have a vapor return.  If you are pumping on the fast rate, some of the liquid that goes to your tank becomes vapor.  Those vapors are being sucked up and back into the underground storage tank, so you’re getting less worth for your money.

(3)  One of the most important tips is to fill up when your gas tank is HALF-FULL or HALF-EMPTY.

The reason for this is, the more gas you have in your tank, the less air occupying  its empty space.  Gasoline evaporates faster than you can imagine.  Gasoline storage tanks have an internal floating roof.  This roof serves as zero clearance between the gas and the atmosphere, so it minimizes the evaporation.  Unlike service stations, here where I work, every truck that we load is temperature compensated so that every gallon is actually the exact amount.

(4)  Another reminder:  If there is a gasoline truck pumping into the storage tanks when you stop to buy6 gas, DO NOT fill up.

Most likely the gasoline is being stirred up as the gas is being delivered, and you might pick up some of the dirt that normally settles on the bottom.

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WHERE TO BUY USA GAS:

THIS IS VERY IMPORTANT TO KNOW.  READ ON:

Gas rationing in the 80’s worked, even though we grumbled about it.  It might even be good for us?  The Saudis are boycotting American goods.  We should return the favor.  An interesting thought is to boycott their GAS.

Every time you fill up the car, you can avoid putting more money into the coffers of Saudi Arabia.  Just buy from companies that don’t import their oil from the Saudis.

Nothing is more frustrating that the feeling that every time I fill-up the tank, I am sending my money to people who are trying to kill me, my family, and my friends.

I thought it might be interesting for you to know which oil companies are the best to buy gas from and which major companies import Middle Eastern oil.

These companies import Middle Eastern oil:

SHELL……………………………………….205,742,000 barrels

CHEVRON/TEXACO…………………..144,332,000 barrels

EXXON/MOBIL…………………………..130,082,000 barrels

MARATHON/SPEEDWAY…………….117,740,000 barrels

AMOCO……………………………………….62,231,000 barrels

CITGO gas is from South America (Venezuela), from a Dictator (Hugo Chavez) who hates Americans. 

Here are some large companies that DO NOT import Middle Eastern oil.

SUNOCO…………………………0 barrels

CONOCO…………………………0 barrels

SINCLAIR…………………………0 barrels

BP/PHILLIPS…………………….0 barrels

HESS………………………………..0 barrels

ARCO……………………………….0 barrels

[If you go to Sunoco.co, you can get a list of the station locations near you.]

All of this information is available from the Department of Energy, and each is required to state where they get their oil and how much they are importing.

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(USA Today, 6/14/08.)

DIFFERENT FUELS KEY TO FUTURE

One surefire way to cut fuel costs is to find a substitute for gasoline.

President sh signed legislation this year mandating that ethanol comprise 21 billion gallons–or 15%–of motor fuel by 2015, and 36 billion gallons by 2022.

Today, two-thirds of gasoline sold in the USA contains about 10% ethanol, saving consumers about 10 cents per gallon of gasoline, says Matt Hartwig of the Renewable Fuels Association.  The high mandate by 2015 could boost the per-gallon savings to 20 cents, he says.

By 2012, U.S. automakers plan to roll out large number of flexible-fuel vehicles that can handle blends with up to 85% ethanol.  Yet at such high levels, corn-basedethanol costs 30 cents a gallon more than regular unleaded gas because of its lower mileage, AAA says.

The answer:  cheaper cellulosic ethanol, now being developed, made from switch grass, wood chips and municipal solid waste.  Such ethanol, if widely used, could bring back $2-per-gallon gasoline, says David Fridman of the Union of Concerned Scientists.

“Turning waste into fuel is really the hold grail,” says John Felmy, chief economist for the American Petroleum Institute.

Cellulosic ethanol is at least several years away because breaking down the waste materials into sugar-based fuel is challenging.

Hybrid cars offer a short-term solution.  The Toyota Prius cost $2,000 more than a comparable compact car but gets 45 miles per gallon.  At $4 a gallon for gas, the Prius saves about $700 a year in fuel costs vs. a similar car, assuming 12,000 miles of driving a year, Freidman says.  Waiting lists to buy a Prius can be several months.

Plug-in hybrids, still in development, will get even better mileage but are projected to cost $10,000 more than similar gas-based cars, Friedman says.

And hydrogen-fuel cars have huge potential because hydrogen is ubiquitous.  But there are few fueling stations, so broad use is likely two decades away.  “By 2050, there really shouldn’t be many cars on the road using gasoline,” Friedman says.