Pick Your Poison - Whose gas to buy?

[BuckarooBanzai]

For us east coasters, I try to plan my trips to coincide with a fill up at Hess; they seem to be the lesser of the evils AND they always have the lowest price in town, plus I like their pumps, cuz if I'm only putting $10 in, I can squeeze a trickle of gas out all day no problem after it "finishes"

[fidalgoman]

This is a bit of a Soapbox Rant: The huge problem is with the fuel lusted after by our modern age as much as the dealers who sell it. A long time ago when cars and trucks were rare, it was not so much of an issue. Today however we've gone way past the safe level of production and usage. The difficulty is the entrenched infrastructure that chains us to the gas pump.

IMHO, bout the only safe, non polluting, sustainable fuel source is solar electric. Alternative fuels may lessen the shortfall of oil but doesn't eliminate the problem. Then pollution reduction depends on how all the parts of your car were mined and produced. Be aware that your tires, half your car, the clothes you wear and your household goods and the energy to produce them come from oil wells. We have a vast infrastructure dependent on oil.

Soon with China's and India's emerging economy oil will be un-affordable for most of us. I do agree learning to conserve petroleum products is a good and necessary intermediate step. Again IMHO safe, lightweight, Solar Charged and streamlined cars are the only visible hope for the future. And the technology to build them needs to be simple, safe and economic as well. Until then 100+ MPG is a very real goal to reach for.

[ShadeTreeMech]

The 3 truly sustainable non polluting energy sources available now are solar, hydroelectric, and wind power.

Burning ethanol, biodiesel, and veggie oil still pump pollutants and CO2 emissions into the air, so calling them green I believe is a misnomer.

I don't honestly believe we can do away completely with petroleum use, but surely not burning it anymore is a good first step.

[NachtRitter]

Hydro power is also questionable as a long term sustainable power source...

[gone-ot]

Originally Posted by NachtRitter

Hydro power is also questionable as a long term sustainable power source...

...not if you live near a melting glacier caused by Global Warming (wink,wink)!

[RH77]

Originally Posted by chadfrank1983

ok so what about qt

That's where I fuel-up. They're rated "Top-Tier" by auto manufacturers and the EPA (for gasoline additives), and have a consistent, clean convenience store setup. They have a large processing and distribution center here locally, for their line of fresh sandwiches and other foods. With their local employment and highly-rated additives, I try to fuel-up at their stations whenever possible. Plus, I like having the option to bring in a re-usable cup for fountain drinks / coffee / tea (at a discount), which is handy when I'm on the road.

Since they don't have a crude oil acquisition division (like BP), they draw from the same refined fuel pipeline depot as many competitors. The difference becomes their additives, storage quality, and retail store.

RH77

[Patrick]

Originally Posted by fidalgoman

Soon with China's and India's emerging economy oil will be un-affordable for most of us.

What makes you think that poor Chinese and Indians will be able to afford it and "most of us" won't? Just curious.

[fidalgoman]

Originally Posted by Patrick

What makes you think that poor Chinese and Indians will be able to afford it and "most of us" won't? Just curious.

Thank You for asking.

Well first off because many citizens in these countries are demanding they have many of the items they've been producing for the west. It went from bicycles to motorcycles and now the demand is for small economical family cars. Next you may have noticed strategic oil alliances being created outside the interest of the west. There's also the political wrangling going on internationally for market share of energy resources.

We in the west due to our effective industrial infrastructure and innovation have in the past lead the world in technology and as such used a disproportional share of world energy resources. That is changing. That technology and resources have increasingly been shipped off shore. The imbalance is a result of effective international competition. The rest of the world is catching up and in some sectors surpassing the US.

I do not believe in zero sum games, however IMHO the industrial technology of the past has been assumed to a great degree by other nations. For example, out of all the cars made in the world, what has been the changing share of US involvement, how about consumer electronics and increasingly software development. We can still play the game, but the rules are changing. True some have said that if the US economy tanks so will China's and most of the developed world. So prosper or not things are going to get more expensive, and energy itself along with products demanding lots of it will too. I'm no seer, however I think we need to prepare for an adjustment in the world market. People wiser than I am could tell you a lot more, but that's what I get out of it.

Is it all doom and gloom? Certainly not! The challenges faced by our ancestors spurred them on to greatness. I see no reason why it should not be the same with us. All of us on this Forum know cars should be getting two to four times the fuel economy they do now. Some here have built cars that can get greater than 80MPG while driving normal speeds. What if the car manufactures got it and really built such a car for the common family? What if the building trades, energy production, every sector of our economy took it upon themselves to do more with less? That's the real challenge before us. Will we do what we need to do? It starts with us, proving to the world it can be done. JMHO anyway.

[rmay635703]

I only buy from Renew Energy (a local corn coop) and Kwik Trip.

Sadly Kwik trip always nets about 2mpg less than Renew, Renews lowest grade contains ethanol but is 89+ octane, Kwik trips is 87 octane and also contains ethanol, generally renew is also the same or cheaper as compared to KTs 87 octane.

[photovoltaik]

Great Instuctions .....