Hold on...

[Mitera Nikkou]

I was just thinking about this bio-fuel stuff, and I got to thinking... Shouldn't oil be bio-fuel? I mean, one of the main constituents of life aside (carbon), doesn't oil come from decayed vegetation/plant life?

[Gee-chan]

I guess by bio-fuel they mean recent biological resources, rather than ancient ones like oil which are fossil fuels.

[Mitera Nikkou]

Yeah, but aged or not, it's still from biological properties. You don't see anyone changing the name of wine when it has aged long enough, do you? I guess they just label ethanol as bio-fuel to act as some kind of positive reinforcement for the product.

[Flannery]

I'm all for the use of bio-diesel. What got me all hot and bother is the fact the Diesel (A fuel which requires less refining) is more expensive than Gasoline. Why is that?

[Mitera Nikkou]

I think it's because you can get better fuel mileage with diesel. It might not seem like it with all of the trailer trucks that use it, but they use it because the demand, with the sort of energy required to move so much weight around, requires more than what gasoline can offer. If the trailer trucks ran on gasoline, you can bet that they'd run out of it much faster than if they had been using diesel.

[Kether]

The Biogenic theory of Petroleum generation is a capitalist myth! Learn the Truth, Comrade.

[Flannery]

That may be true. But there is money to be made in trucking. Just alone the transportation and freight can cost a company several thousand. Now the fuel is the way to stick it to them. It raises the price of freight, and the cost of shipping. Right now, fuel prices is causing many of the smaller companies to go under.

[Mitera Nikkou]

That probably wouldn't be so bad in America if this country wasn't economic-retarded. When it comes to vehicles and their fuel, a lot of other countries are way ahead of us. Although it may be more about how much easier special interests can rob our country than actual intelligence.

For instance, while I'm unsure of how other countries handle it (or a region, such as Europe), I know that America doesn't measure gas under temperature-controlled conditions. The price that you see is based on the volume of gas at sixty degrees Fahrenheit, but gas expands as the temperature rises, so, say, during the Summer you'll be at the pump paying for a measure of gas that isn't actually there. And if that isn't bad enough, it's traditional for the gas prices to be jacked up during the Summer.

[Flannery]

I personally think Australia has hit the mark. I love their cars, they are safe, reliable, relatively affordable, they handle and drive very well, and they get great gas millage. The only reason why I can't buy one? Emission standards and insurance. I mean come on? what insurance company would insure car with the steering wheel on the right hand side, and in a country where we drive on the right hand side of the road?

[Lanzerus]

Yeah, once i turn 18, i am moving to england, and i will be getting better money for my gas, and car, not to mention, they drive cooler over there, on top of THAT over in Germany the price for a manga is equal to $3 U.S.D. where here its, anywhere between 7 - 10 dollars for one.

so yes, better economy, roads, and cheaper manga, for us animerds.

[Helel]

For instance, while I'm unsure of how other countries handle it (or a region, such as Europe), I know that America doesn't measure gas under temperature-controlled conditions. The price that you see is based on the volume of gas at sixty degrees Fahrenheit, but gas expands as the temperature rises, so, say, during the Summer you'll be at the pump paying for a measure of gas that isn't actually there.

While this is technically true, also consider than in the winter the gas is denser, so you're getting more than what it would seem, supposedly. Roughtly, it balances out. But, if you wanna be finicky, setting a standard temp for measuring something to whatever reason is pretty much standard anywhere in Science and Engineering. It's not so much that we're lazy- it just makes the math easier. See my Sig.

And if that isn't bad enough, it's traditional for the gas prices to be jacked up during the Summer.

Supply and demand, as they say, for the summer. People are driving, that means more people needs gas, so gas stations take advantage of such. Simple economics.

[Mitera Nikkou]

So it doesn't balance out. If we drive more during the warmer months of the year, then wouldn't we be buying more gas that isn't there than extra gas? I suppose it depends on where we're talking about, since some areas of the united states rarely get cold enough to have snow, but you've got to consider how irresponsible it is. The government should try to win the public some money if the same company practices temperature-controlled conditions in one country and not in ours. And the money won could be sent into the infrastructure and give people more work/jobs.

[Helel]

So it doesn't balance out. If we drive more during the warmer months of the year, then wouldn't we be buying more gas that isn't there than extra gas? I suppose it depends on where we're talking about, since some areas of the united states rarely get cold enough to have snow, but you've got to consider how irresponsible it is. The government should try to win the public some money if the same company practices temperature-controlled conditions in one country and not in ours. And the money won could be sent into the infrastructure and give people more work/jobs.

But think about why people are driving more in the summer. It's not for the sake of driving more, or because they can't during the winter, for some reason. It's because people are traveling, on vacation and such. So I don't think it's a matter of irresponsibility- or anything that the government can control.

Regardless, remember that most fuel tanks (from experience, anyways) are kept underground, to avoid any crazy exploding tanks due to overheating, so the overall temp of the fuel is kept more consistent to prevent explosions in the warmer months, or to prevent freezing in the winter months (which... I think is unlikely, but yeah). But as a liquid, the fuel's volume shouldn't change a whole lot. You can look into this, but I don't think that'd qualify has hard ball irresponsibility on the government's part as a matter of regulation or that companies are trying to shortchange people.

Now, if fuel was stored above ground, that'd be a huge safety hazard, but the whole matter of measuring fuel at a standard temp is just a matter of convention to keep things simple- if they carried out such regulations, it'd cost money, and be passed on to the customers, as per the recent measure of more fuel efficient vehicles.

Oh, and as an aside, the U.S. isn't paying NEARLY as much for fuel as Europe and other countries yet, since said countries have such huge taxes on their fuels already. If it were the same in the US, this recent fuel cost increase wouldn't be nearly as dramarific as it is right now. That and if people hadn't gotten complacent with cheap fuel and bought gas guzzling monsters. Of course you're going to complain if your big honking truck gets like 15 miles per gallon and fuel costs nearly twice that amount it did a year ago. If you just bothered to have a zippy car that got at least twice that amount per gallon, it wouldn't be close to as painful as it is for the truck drivers, anyways. So yeah, otherwise the U.S. would have more fuel efficient vehicles like other places which have had expensve fuel for ages now, but the market permitted Americans to purchase the gas guzzlers without much pain. Until now. That's Economics for you.

Right, so derailing aside.

Bio fuel is just the way to market the fuel that is 'grown' and this 'bio' rather than mined like most fuel is. It's a zing word, and if you tried to use that to describe normal fuel, people would totally just look at you like a moron and buy fuel from someone else, even if the literal use of the word is totally right.

[Selena Aninikkou]

It's the same sort of idiocy used when people argue "artificial vs. natural"; technically, EVERYTHING is natural, unless you want to make the bizarre and utterly stupid argument the human race can act outside of nature (uh, NO)...