Here’s one for you.
Up front I will state that I am biased and therefore presumably have some slanted opinions plus I do not know the current cost of the end product. Still, to me, with our current situation of being raped by OPEC each time the buggers decide to stick it to the infidels and our determined effort to buy the biggest gas guzzling cars available, it seems like a viable alternative.
In New Zealand, they have no oil wells. As a result, they are being raped by OPEC even more than we are. Their solution? They have developed a way to make gasoline out of wood alcohol GASOLINE! NOT gasohol. Currently, they are happily brewing away thousands of gallons of gasoline and replenishing their reserves so that the gas prices can drop to something below 50% of a persons payroll.
Here, in the States, we developed gasohol, a low cost fuel that actually was a little less polluting that gasoline. Suddenly, when fuel prices dropped, the stuff was pulled because it supposedly ate up the plastic coated needle valves of carburetors and did all sorts of nasty things to motors. OPEC dropped its prices and gasohol all but vanished.
It was suspected that the major oil companies in the States deliberately dropped the product because they were not willing to change over to making cheaper fuels.
Now, New Zealand has developed a way to make gasoline from alcohol, but the American Oil companies are still sucking down foreign oil and American banks are (stupidly) making short term investments based on the price per barrel (like that encourages the price to drop! NOT!
When anything is developed, most of the time, the initial selling cost is high but, the greater the demand for the product, the more facilities put on-line to make it, the cheaper the cost. We guzzle nearly 1/2 of the oil produced by the world. We still have oil companies happily polluting forests and seas. Even the cracking process to turn crude into gasoline pollutes the air. Many gas companies burn off natural gas by the millions of gallons a day, which comes out of oil wells, as an unnecessary by product even though we use it here at $2.75 a pressure gallon.
We have synthetic oil now, much better for our cars and since it has become popular, the selling price has dropped dramatically and more versions have appeared. (Instead of changing the oil at 3000 miles, one is now supposed to change it at 10,000.) Plus, there are now additives to increase the life of our regular oil. (Change it at 6000 miles instead of 3000. I use it in my car.)
Less natural oil used has not increased the price of it, but gas keeps going up. Related?
There are rumors and documentaries and records all over the place – some true – about American oil companies deliberately suppressing fuel saving technologies because they want oil to be used to keep their billions rolling in. (Remember the 1950s? No piston rings, though the technology and knowledge of them were there. The first introduction of them was suppressed deliberately and the inventor almost fired. Read ‘Wheels.’)
Remember recycled oil? Suddenly it is not that acceptable anymore, apparently because of the various chemicals added to the new oils, which react poorly when different brands are mixed together. I recall recycled oil being a big thing for older cars. Some mechanics – long before computers were put in cars – felt it was better for older vehicles.
So, why do we not have gasoline plants going up and churning out fresh gas from wood alcohol? I mean, we can only recycle 1/4 of the reclaimed newspapers and less than 1/2 of the scrap from saw mills gets used. (Many of the new ‘chip’ boards are from chips made by shredding up whole trees – with only a tiny portion being from recycled mill waste.)
Mill waste, old newsprint and such, even hay, can be churned into wood alcohol. I don’t know how much gas is produced per gallon of alcohol, but if it is less than per gallon of crude, then mix the two. Self produced gas should get us off of the regulated greed line of OPEC and perhaps eventually get gas down below a dollar a gallon. (I recall when it was twenty-five cents a gallon for regular. I recall gas wars – which have been forbidden in my city anyhow.)
So, is there a bigger picture behind all this that paranoid me see’s or might I be right for a change in that the oil companies of the US are holding back on the technology to make cheap gasoline? (Oh, by the way. Those plastic coated needle valves which alcohol gas ate up years ago? The replacements were solid brass. Floats also.)
(Waxing nostalgic 
I recall full service, oil being checked, water and brake fluid while the tank was being filled. Free dishware. One guy cleaning the windows with that neat smelling blue stuff while another checked the tire pressure and added air if needed.
Best of all, they called you Sir and Ma’m instead of ‘yeah’ and ‘wha-cha-wan’. You did not have to pry them out of their office chairs either. Between gas stations the prices could differ by as much as 5 to 10 cents a gallon! NOT, like today, 1 or 2 cents.
They didn’t charge you a friggin’ dollar to pull out a burned out blub that you could not get yourself when all they had to do was reach in and jerk it free.
‘Scuse me while I drift back and recall crusin’ and hot cars, and jacked up rear ends, side pipes, chrome rims and being able to take long trips without having to take out a bank loan to pay for the gas.
Plus the cheery, parting reply from the nifty uniformed station attendant: ‘Thank you Sir, and please come again!’
