Gas tanks are draining family budgets

http://www.twincities.com/business/ci_18158438

High prices at the pump are putting a squeeze on the family budget as the traditional summer driving season begins. For every $10 the typical household earns before taxes, almost a full dollar now goes toward gas, a 40 percent bigger bite than normal.

Households spent an average of $369 on gas last month. In April 2009, they spent just $201. Families now spend more filling up than they spend on cars, clothes or recreation. Last year, they spent less on gasoline than each of those things.

Smart Car Monster Truck

http://www.kfyr.com/cc-common/mainheadlines3.html?feed=426712?feed=426712&article=8635994

A Tale of Two Doomsayers: Harold Camping and Al Gore have a lot in common

http://www.minnesotansforglobalwarming.com/m4gw/2011/05/a-tale-of-two-doomsayers.html

A Tale of Two Doomsayers

By Elmer on May 25, 2011 10:33 AM | No Comments | No TrackBacks

By Elmer Beauregard

Harold Camping and Al Gore have a lot in common

Both are self proclaimed prophets predicting the end of the world.

Both have benefited financially by their fear mongering.

Both of their predictions failed to come true.

Both have changed their predictions to a later date.

The main difference between the two is the press makes fun of Camping but at the same time still supports Gore.

It's been 5 years since Al Gore came out with his film "An Inconvenient Truth" which I refer to as "A Convenient Lie". And it is still held up as the definitive piece on Global Warming. Public schools still show it to their students and politicians are still using it to drive policy.

Even though all of the predictions Al made in his movie have not come true or have been disproved.

• The Oceans Aren't Rising.
• The Polar Bears Aren't Dying.
• The Icecaps Aren't Melting
• The Glaciers Are Growing.
• Plus 2011 is shaping up to be avery cold year.

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Should we trust someone who tells us that a gallon of milk costs $6?

http://www.minnpost.com/steveberg/2011/05/20/28480/were_slaves_to_cheap_gasoline#comment_71046
ONE OF MY REPLIES: "Gasoline is basically a bulk generic commodity. $6 for a gallon of milk? At Aldi it used to cost $2.20 and now $2.50. Hardly anyone charges more than three dollars for a gallon-gallon of milk. Again, if we go generic with shampoo Suave works out to around $5 per gallon. Orange juice costs around three dollars per gallon. The coffee and beer seem "on sale" price where you are basically paying for use of the coffeehouse or bar. It is sort of like calculating food prices via menu prices at a good sit down restaurant.

Eleven 12 ounce bottles or cans of beer are a bit more than a gallon. If you price shop a bit like you would with gasoline a twelve pack of Guinness Stout should be well under $20. 

Should we trust someone who tells us that a gallon of milk costs $6?

ORIGINAL ARTICLE LINK:  http://www.minnpost.com/steveberg/2011/05/20/28480/were_slaves_to_cheap_gasoline

Poll finds Americans want 60 mpg fuel efficiency

http://www.minnpost.com/businessagenda/2011/05/17/28359/poll_finds_americans_want_60_mpg_fuel_efficiency#comment_70735
(#1) On May 17, 2011, Gregory Lang says:

Gosh, darned, golly! A 60MPG car would be really "swell"!!!!!!!!.

The last filling of the tank on my 4 cylinder standard transmission Ford Ranger ran $50. Sending money on gas is "fun" in the same way that we are supposed to buy lottery tickets because it is "fun".

The first thing is that we have to talk of actual "tank to tank" fuel consumption, not that fiction known as EPA ratings.

The tiny detail of the ACTUAL 60 MPH have to do with physics and money. You can reduce weight and frontal drag. Weight reduction can come from new steel alloys. My 2005 Ranger has a lot lighter frame than the early Rangers. If you go to more aluminum and composite plastics you can save weight but these materials are far more expensive. For example the 4 cylinder engine in my Ranger is an aluminum block (with cast iron cylinder sleeves). This saved forty pounds. Losing weight is difficult.

The ACTUAL mileage difference with a flex fuel seems to reflex the alcohol/gas mix fuel energy. There may be a few tricks like a diesel style common rail direct fuel injection system but this is costly. You can go with smaller engines and possibly use a turbo but the turbo-lag is very annoying. (read up on the turbo-diesel Volkswagen).

Hardly anyone talks about manual transmissions but these save 10% and give 10% more power.

The other way to increase mileage is to decrease the size of the vehicle.

A "conditional" survey includes the reality behind the choice. Like "duhh! No one likes paying money to gas up the car. An added factor is that if you don't drive much a more "spartan" vehicle can suffice and especially in urban areas, a smaller vehicle is more practical. One the other hand if your low usage urban you don't burn that much fuel.

Be careful what you wish for, you might just get it.

New York City awards new conventional power taxicab contract.

I noticed that the New York taxi cab contract is not hybrid though Ford makes the best in the world hybrid passenger vehicles (they send me magazine since I bought a new Ranger.  It claimed that Ford hybrids had gone more than 100K miles without problems).  New York taxicabs would seem the ideal environment for hybrid passenger vehicles.  How come they didn't go with the proven Ford system  if hybrid vehicles are so "swell").  ?????????????????????  I figured that if hybrids really worked without subsidies high urban traffic and trained professional drivers like urban package delivery and taxicab drivers would use them.  New York cabs famously do not carry spare tires.  They have an excellent support service network if they have a flat tire.  Curiously, I noticed that even with this support system the New York cab is not "hybrid".

Oil prices fall again: Is commodities boom ending?

Oil prices fall again: Is commodities boom ending?

http://money.cnn.com/2011/05/04/news/economy/gas_prices_income_spending/?section=money_latest

MONEY QUOTE: "The only other region where drivers spend less income on gas is Washington D.C., where the average household spent just $89 on gas in April, or about 2% of total income"

Gas Prices

Your monthly gasoline bill: $368

Click the chart to see how your state shapes upBy Ben Rooney, staff reporterMay 5, 2011: 8:50 AM ET

NEW YORK (CNNMoney) -- Round-trip airfare from New York to Los Angeles. More than a dozen dinners for two at Applebee's. Two 16 GB iPod nanos.

These are just a few of the things you could have bought if you weren't spending $368.09 a month on gasoline.

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Gas spending and prices by state

Prices at the pump can vary widely among states due to a number of factors. More

That's the average amount American households spent on gas in April, according to an exclusive analysis of data by the Oil Price Information Service for CNNMoney.

The study, which compared average gas prices with median incomes nationwide, also showed that U.S. households spent nearly 9% of their total income on gas last month.

That's more than double what the average American family spent just two years ago, when gas prices were hovering around $2.05 a gallon.

"Gas prices have just skyrocketed," said Fred Rozell, director of retail pricing at OPIS.

After surging nearly 30% this year, the national average price for regular gasoline is less than 2 cents away from $4 a gallon. That's still below the all-time high of $4.114, but prices in many parts of the country have already risen to new records well abve that level.

For drivers in some states, the pinch of high gas prices is particularly painful.

Mississippi is the state where residents feel the biggest bite, with the average household spending over 14% of their total income on gas last month.

Paying for gas forces painful sacrifices

While gas in the state is relatively cheap, Mississippians have some of the lowest incomes in the nation, with the median household earning $36,646 a year.

In addition, many drivers in Mississippi commute long distances and have older cars that lack fuel efficiency, said Rozell.

At an average price of $3.64 a gallon, households in Mississippi spent $434.52 on gas in April.

In New York, where a large chunk of the population lives in urban areas with mass transit, households spent only 5.5% of their income on gas. That's despite an average gas price of $3.99 a gallon in April.

The only other region where drivers spend less income on gas is Washington D.C., where the average household spent just $89 on gas in April, or about 2% of total income.