On Wed, 20 Sep 2006, michael lunsford wrote:
> I will let those of you who are more knowledable than me analize the
> pluses and minuses of ethanol emissions and power. The most
> significant positive thing I can say about ethanol, other than I
> prefer my ethanol in the form of scotch, is that at least I'll be
> giving my fuel money to someone in America instead of someone in the
> middle east who may be trying to use it to blow us/me up.
While is may "feel good" to make assertions like the above, I would urge
folks to take out thier calculators and do a little math. Not a lot of
math, just a little.
Assuming that a barrel of light-sweet crude is $60, that's a tad over $1
per gallon unrefined. The crude is then shipped to refineries. In the case
of US consumption, the refineries are pretty much all in the US and tended
by Americans. Who knows who owns the ships, and ports of registry are
unrelated to ownership. So presume that there is some US capital
investment in that part of the deal. The transport of the crude and
refining to gasoline probably adds 30% or so to the cost. Note - this is
not a fact, I pulled the number out of thin air. However, if you look at
refined product futures, you will see that the number is not that far off.
Then the product is shipped to distribution and to end users.
BY FAR most of the $$$ involved is in the transport, refining and
distribution, not the actual extraction of the crude.
There's another mechanism in the whole equation that bypasses the notion
of the middle eastern stereotype. That is greed. Without being political,
we have nobody to blame but ourselves in this whole thing. Trying to cast
aspersions to other coutries or cultures just changes the focus and does
not address the real problem. Our greed as consumers and the greed of the
oil companies is the issue, not the folks who happen to be sitting on the
oil.
To be honest, if the crude was such a big issue, why doesn't the US invade
Canada with thier _proven_ reserves? The answer is simple - smoke and
mirrors. 'Nuff said.
> Mike Lunsford
Apolitcally Yours,
rml
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