Jonathan Schlussel: The best way to lower the price of gasoline is more entrants into the market. More oil companies would mean lower prices.
Dee Depung: I have no idea how the Fischer-Tropsch process works, so im not going to comment on it.
Antonia Quinnett: Taxes and regulation maycontinual up the cost, yet only legalizing it would desire to o.k. deliver approximately a drop in cost by using open opposition. correct now drug growers/makers and sellers handle an excellent kind of danger because of the fact drugs are unlawful and the charges mirror that. Taxes and regulation would not keep expenditures low.
Penelope Armond: From what I know of the Fischer-Tropsch process (which admittedly is not much... I only know that Germany used it extensively during WW2 because it did not have much petroleum), is that it typically substitutes petroleum products with other non-renewables like coal. I think it would be a great idea if it could be applied on a large s! cale to exisitng waste products.As for ethanol, I'm not a huge fan. I think ethanol is more environmentally harmful than petroleum. For one, you need the farmland... and since most farmland is used up, you need to intensify farming operations. This may not seem bad, but consider the fact that copious amounts of water, fertilizers and land are needed in this process and you have a series of spin-off problems associated with it as well.... and that's not even factoring the effect of presumably higher food prices (especially for corn and other crops that can be turned into ethanol).As for the free market, it can also have its problems. Take water trading for example (which is one example I'm most familiar with). A farmer may use only 60% of his allocation one year.... but may sell the unused portion on a temporary basis. It seems fair... he is only using 60% but has the water right for the whole thing. He is just acting a profit maximizer. However, that extra 40% will be! used, meaning LESS return flows and MORE water being diverted! . Water trading could actually result in MORE water scarcity (unless of course, environmental hold backs ensure it won't). If you do the same thing to petroleum (or ethanol), the obvious problem will ensue. Fuel prices will drastically decrease under perfect competition, but the fuel sources will be exhausted very quickly creating dire long term consequences. You may not like it, I may not like it... but let's face it we don't pay the TRUE cost for fuel. We pay extremely cheap prices for fuel. You pay less for gasoline than you do a bottle of water or orange juice.... For example, let's say gas is $5.00/gallon (something most people would piss and moan about) but that gallon will take you 20 miles. Well let's go with the next best option... hiring a horse and buggy (for example) to take you 20 miles..... do you reasonably think the driver is going for the low price of $5 for 20 miles? Even factoring in the price of the vehicle, mainentnace, etc.... for what you dri! ve and what fuel you consume it is about 100X more cost-effective than most other solutions. Heck... even if gas was $10.00 a gallon, it would STILL be cheaper than most other alternatives....Show more
Melina Minneweather: The problem is that you must figure in the COST of "developing" those fuels....unless you're one of those people who thinks they'll appear just by asking for them.For example, the infrastructure to refine oil into gasoline is already established...how long will it take (and who will pay for) the methane recovery method?I suppose we could just do what the Brazilians are doing and raze a section of Rain Forest the size of Connecticut every year to grow crops for ethanol...but once again, at what price?...Show more
Antone Bual: OPEC countries jack up the prices because they know that there is no other way to get oil. Breakthroughs in alternative fuel or America switching to primarily American/Canadian gas/oil would be another big hit to them th! at could cause a price drop.Honestly I think Salt water would be a good! alternative if we could get it (you dont want to waste good clean drinking water). Ethanol is the most promising but it comes with a cost because almost everything (livestock wise) is fed with corn in some regard, so it would cause alot of things to go up in price....Show more
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