<VV> Re: Fool fuel

[Padgett]

>NOT if the hardline environ-extremists lighten up and allow drilling
>in US territories to divorce us from middle-east oil.

Personally am all for keeping our reserves and importing as much as 
possible so long as the price stays low (and anything under $5/gallon is 
cheap energy) and we save ours for when everybody else runs out.

There is also the small matter that not all oil is suitable for gasoline, 
some is usable only for diesel and bunker fuels. Dunno if true but was once 
told that is why we export most of the Alaskan oil brought down by the 
pipeline to the far east, it is not suitable for even poor gasoline.

As to gasahol, that is money spent here instead of there and stays in the 
Amurricn economy. From a marketting standpoint, does the corn that would be 
used being diverted from another demand or is it surplus ? Would it be 
edible if not made into gasahol (a lot of corn is suitable only for 
feedlots and some, not even for that). True cost depends on many many factors.

Point I am trying to make is that the "price of gas" is a very complex 
subject particularly when discussing alternate fuels. Just comparing the 
production costs or "net energy" really does not say very much but the fact 
is that from an energy efficiency standpoint, gasoline engines are terrible 
but still cheap in total cost to run.

Padgett