Want Australia to get cheaper better fuel?

[balistic]

I hope no one has a problem with me posting this - its cut and pasted from another source but I believe its a good thing if you want to be able to afford to drive your car in 5-10 years time

[RobertoX]

E85 can't be too bad

[samuel]

Know why they cap it at 10%?

Cause Ethanol EATS PLASTIC

They trialled it in the USA and all the old cars that use plastic components in the fuel system (fuel pumps, needle and seats in carbys etc) got chewed out...

Check the Toyota website for the reccomended list of cars that can handle Ethanol fuels... nothing on the list is made pre-1997!

[Jason]

surly there would be aftermarket ethanol freidly injectors and pumps?

[Tylthidras]

Personally I think fuel is decently cheap and will stay relatively low for the next couples of months. Oil at the moment is around 62 dollars a barrel and i personally think along side most resource analysyt that fuel will drop to around 58 dollars a barrel in the next coming months. I believe that the high fuel cost in the recent months were at the peak of oil prices due to the war on Lebanon and just merely an overeaction by the market and couldnt not be sustained at 78 dollars a barrel. Personally I dont use ethanol in my car and many think it is a alternative route for the government to avoid cutting fuel tax.

[aaaaah]

Higher ethanol content also increases fuel consumption.

[riceburner]

The reason petrol prices bounce up and down is production cost. Plain and simple, Oil today is harder to find/extract. And of course the odd greedy corperate as fuckers.

The recent drop in oil prices is indeed helped because of the war in Lebanon.

Oil companies keep a certain percentage of oil aside for the war, and now the war V's Oil demand is lower the oil companies needs to sell of excess.

Not much really to it is there. I seriously think that if terrorism and war were non existent (ha as if) fuel would be much much cheaper.

[sprintrphile]

ethanol has about 2/3 the energy of petrol.

it isn't really 'eco', CSIRO says from growing the crop to energy out, the benefits are negligible.

also, the govt (ie. us) gives a 38c/L incentive for ethanol which costs 70c/L to make from sugar (petrol is about 35c) - we are losing out on the deal.

People should just drive hachi's and we'd all be ok...

[floody31]

Well I see benefits...
The rubber hose makers, injector, fuel pump and carbie manufacturers will all rake it in as high ethanol content farks our fuel systems. Sales of upper cylinder cleaner should go through the roof as should injector cleaner.
The cane farmers will be back to similar prosperity as they enjoyed when their labour force was south pacific slaves.
Fuel companies will simply find another way to gouge on the price.

Someone tell me why we would get better and more economical results from the government putting 30c/litre into an inferior fuel - surely it would make more sense to subsidise the petrol industry to up efficiency and quality in refining?

Oh and where do the massive funds come from to make this venture work?

A poorly thought out pie in the sky scheme is what this is.

[mrbigport]

i believe the reason petrol prices are so high is because of supply and demand. The oil companies around the middle east etc have been withholding supply of petrol. Thereby increasing the world price of petrol because demand for it is inelastic (i.e regardless of price there will be demand for the product). other countries that have oil increase their prices to the world price so that they can earn profit (im not sure on WTO rules or agreements in the industry so maybe theres a gentlemens agreement on having a world price). According to my economics teacher Australia has enough oil from one of our mines (forget which one) to sell petrol here for 60c/litre for at least 10 years. Also on a global scale, of the four trillion litres of known oil, the world has consumed 1 trillion already.. does it make sense to have it this expensive already theres still 3 trillion left that will take a long amount of years to consume.. does government even have to tax the petrol that much.. dont they make enough from toll booths, fines, ciggarettes and taxes? (income, land tax, customs duty, capital gains tax).. Not really, but that economics and politics for ya..

[btw im not a eco expert, just my thoughts, so dont quote me =)]