Why aren't people complaining about gas prices?

Maybe they're not complaining about the petrol prices because $4 for a gallon of petrol is actually fairly cheap. It comes out to about $1.05 per litre. Over here in Australia the last petrol price I saw was about $1.35 per litre.

The first time prices shot up to $3 a gallon we were all worried about the collapse of society.

Also:http://ht.ly/4hr5x

edited 19th Mar '11 10:34:08 AM by HungryJoe

There is a hell of a lot of complaining going on around here.

Re: Electric cars: Actually, they're pretty feasible. Look at the Chevy Volt. It has 35 miles of pure electric driving, which is about an hours worth. Then it starts running on gas for 30+ MPG, giving it a range of over 300 miles. It'd actually get me around the same distance as my Honda Fit would with a full tank of gas.

I'm out in the middle of fucking nowhere, and my college commute is 40 minutes one way. I could make 3/4ths of the drive to and from without any gas whatsoever. That's pretty good.

edited 19th Mar '11 11:36:49 AM by Miijhal

I'm pretty sure I heard that making one polluts just as much as driving a normal car for a good while does though.

Does that factor in the pollution involved in extracting, processing, and transporting the gas?

Not sure. Probably not.

@Loli, Miij: I think they're referring to the batteries, which kinda damage the environment due to how they made or something.

Mind you, I'd probably prefer a shift to E-85 and E-100 biofuels.

Why would you prefer a shift to ethanol? Ethanol production doesn't appear to be any "greener" than petroleum extraction.

In some cases it's worse.

Ethanol is less efficient, only slightly less polluting, and impossible to supply the entire nation with without seriously cutting into crops or causing massive ecological damage.

If you're going for a biofuel, algal biodiesel is pretty much the best bet, at the moment, since it's more efficient, less polluting, requires less land, doesn't cut into crops, can be produced in high quantities, and, most importantly, requires little change to the current diesel infrastructure and won't actually effect the cost of diesel vehicles in any notable way (and in fact, may REDUCE maintenance costs). And right now, the technology for it is a few years off (though not by much).

edited 19th Mar '11 5:02:53 PM by Miijhal

Wouldn't it be cool if people bred their own fuel mixtures at home?

I'm going to go with a simple "no" on that.

It'd have to be the same mixture available wherever you went to fill up.

A few people make homemade biodiesel from used cooking oil.

You're just saying that because my algae sent your algae crying home to its progenitor.

Keeping the fuel standardized across houses would be murder. Also, keeping the things functional would be expensive, unlike cooking. People who make fuel from cooking oil know what they're doing. As a rule, the general public doesn't.

Just because I didn't load on smilelies doesn't mean I was serious.

Hmm... it might be better to have small local cooking grease plants that you can bring your grease to and get a bit of a discount on gas. Although it would probably be better for things like lawnmowers and other relatively small things.

You don't actually have to use grease plants. You can just pull up to a fast food joint and use their stuff. They'll give it to you to because they have to ensure disposal and "I'll take that from you for free" is better than "pay me to take care of this stuff".

That only works when almost nobody else is doing it, of course. Everyone starts using it for fuel, suddenly it has value.

True.

I haven't gotten gas since it hit 3.85 here in Hawaii - it's already over 4 bucks, and it's been less than two weeks since I filled up.

Glad I got some overtime hours in recently.

Gas prices will, most likely, be as high as Europe's one day. I just see it as a natural progression of things that will lead to a more public transportation-emphasized future.

Yeah it sucks, especially since I will soon get my license, but there's really not much I can do about it. And to be completely honest, I think it will lead to an overall better future.

If I could magically rearrange the U.S. infrastructure to be based around public transit instead of cars I would.

I would kill hundreds of kittens and babies if it would make the US suddenly redesigned to be more public transportation friendly.