Going The Distance

How far can you travel on a gallon of gasoline? For decades the big automakers have thwarted efforts to raise the Corporate Average Fuel Economy (CAFÉ) standard. They thought they were safe from the winds of change when George W. Bush was elected. They miscalculated and are now, because of their stubborn recalcitrance to improving vehicle fuel efficiency, being told they can expect requirements for significant upgrades to the CAFÉ standards!.

Four factors have caused them to come under the spotlight:

1. A large increase in crude oil and transportation fuel costs


2. The loss of political control in the Senate


3. A miscalculation about their former allies in Congress and the administration, and


4. The awakening of the electorate to the reality of global climate change.

Suddenly before Congress are proposals for cars to achieve 30 to 35 mpg and the trucks to get at least 23 mpg within the next five years. A competing Senate proposal goes further in calling for a 27 mpg rate for trucks in 2011. Dick Durbin (D-IL) has proposed an across-the-board legislation to increase CAFE standards to 35 mpg on both light trucks and cars by model year 2017. Current standards only require an average of 27.2 miles per gallon (MPG) for cars and 21.6 mpg for light trucks.

Meanwhile, an independent fuel economy panel is reported to have concluded that SUVs and trucks can be built with substantially better fuel economy, and that U.S. competitiveness would not be impacted by increasing the standard. Auto companies were shocked with that news. Although the panel did not reach a conclusion as to level of the achievable mileage standard, the report said that existing technologies could add as much as 12-14 mpg to cars and 11-13 mpg to trucks.

The auto manufacturers may have been shocked (hardly), but probably not their network dealer owners that hear complaints on the sales floor that customers want to get better mileage. How big has been the outcry? Consider that Hummer dealers are now offering to perform unauthorized modifications to their new vehicles to boost MPG even though doing so violates their own warranty

So what is the average consumer to do while we wait again for Congress to catch up with the needs of the nation? Buyer options are wide.

» Buy a more fuel efficient vehicle such as the hybrid Toyota Prius. Find and compare cars!
» Drive more efficiently.
» Maintain the existing vehicle for optimum efficiency
» Take fewer trips by consolidating trips.
» Move closer to the user’s typical destinations so as to reduce commute and shopping time and distances traveled.
» Stop using the inefficient automobile and either walk, bike, ride-share or use mass transit whenever available.
» Reduce the weight of the vehicle. This is primarily how auto manufacturers have been improving mpg. They’ve gone to thinner windows, aluminum, magnesium and plastic components, lighter frames, and smaller primary and spare wheels and tires. Drivers can keep their vehicles empty of extraneous junk, including those sand bags and concrete blocks used last winter for improved real wheel traction. For every extra 100 pounds you carry in your vehicle, you reduce gas mileage and fuel economy by roughly 2%.
» Buy or lease a hybrid vehicle.
» Already have a hybrid? Convert it to a 150 mpg plug-in hybrid or wait for the anticipated OEM version.
» Retrofit the vehicle for biodiesel or electric use.

You can make a difference in global warming and save money by using transportation fuels efficiently. Every gallon of gasoline saved cuts emissions of carbon dioxide, the key greenhouse gas, by about 25 pounds.

Cheaper Gas

We all get excited when we see falling prices at the gas station. At their core many citizens think oil pricing is just one big conspiracy. They see stories in the news of crude oil process dropping and grow skeptical when the retail price doesn’t immediately follow the trend.

Unfortunately, gasoline is a commodity subject to supply and demand. High demand usually results in lower supplies and higher prices This is particularly the case during summer when driving tends to increase.

Gas prices are also subject to other factors such as shipping (tanker, pipeline and semi-truck) costs, distance from refineries or terminals, dealer competition and pricing strategies of the big name gas marketers. The price of crude oil affects only about 50% of the retail price. Refining contributes about 15% of the cost. State and local taxes vary widely but on average contribute about 25% of the price at the pump. The rest is marketing, distribution, and pure profit. Source

So where do find the cheapest gas? Online, of course! There are two types of sources for timely gas pricing. One collects real data from volunteer consumers like you, and the other aggregates data from credit card transactions from many tens of thousands of gas stations across the country where fleets purchase gasoline for business use. And, boy, do we have a lot of gas stations. I count more than 40 along the Highway 13 corridor between Murphysboro and Marion

Motor Trend gas data

Wadda Ya Mean, Ya Sez Ya Can’t Sell Me $1.00 of Gasoline!

Ever tried to buy only ONE dollar of gasoline? You can’t do it! You can buy 99.9 cents worth, but never an even dollar's worth, or $2.00, or $3.00 for that matter.

Why is that? Several reasons. Foremost, we are quite befuddled by fractional math. Sure, 4 divided by 2 = 2, but exactly how many gallons of gasoline can you buy for $10 at $2.04 and 9/10ths a gallon? The addition of 9/10 cent to the price of a gallon of gasoline makes impossible the purchase of one gallon of gasoline at the advertised price. And it makes our mathematically challenged brains crash into a state of befuddlement. For some reason, consumers have just accepted the fact of fractional gas pricing. Imagine if all groceries, postage stamps and tuition were sold like that?

So why do you think we do it with gasoline? Well, some research says that a difference of two-tenths of a cent (about 30¢ for an average fill-up) may be enough to sway consumers' buying decisions. “Because of this, service stations quickly react to the price posted on the street corner by their competition and adjust their price accordingly. If not, they risk the possibility of losing their customers.”

Don’t lose a lot of sleep over this issue. What you ought to be worried about is why paying for a gallon of gas will likely always result in getting more or less than what you should. Did you know that gasoline volume changes approximately 0.058% for every 1ºF change in temperature. Hey, its just Boyles Law at work. “The energy content of a gallon of gasoline purchased by a motorist in Nome, Alaska in January could, theoretically, be as much as 8-10% greater that that of a gallon of gasoline purchased by a motorist in Marion, IL (center of the universe, I’m told) in July.” So 10 gallons in Alaska might be 11 gallons Illinois. But, they still have the identical energy content. You pay for 11, but really only get the value of 10.

Robbery you say? Fraud and conspiracy? Maybe. As this website describes, only a few places have adopted the readily available technology that automatically adjusts the price of gasoline as it exits the fuel pump nozzle: Canada and Hawaii. Iowa had the technology in place "from 1985 to 1989 before special interests reinstated the deceptive pricing practice. "

Is temperature compensated gasoline sales the ultimate answer to high prices. Of course not, but wouldn't be nice to end a system that is inherently confusing and misleading? Even most local communities could require the changes if the people wanted it.