Why you pay $4/gal of gas.

[stevensonmat2]

I was under the impression that gas cost more because our dollar is failing.

[screwballl]

this may be something worth looking into to remove our dependence...

FOXNews.com - Scientists Find Microbes That Eat Garbage, Excrete Crude Oil - Science News

"Ten years ago I could never have imagined I'd be doing this," says Greg Pal, 33, a former software executive, as he squints into the late afternoon Californian sun. "I mean, this is essentially agriculture, right? But the people I talk to — especially the ones coming out of business school — this is the one hot area everyone wants to get into."
He means bugs. To be more precise: the genetic alteration of bugs — very, very small bacteria — so that when they feed on agricultural waste such as wood chips or wheat straw, they do something extraordinary. They excrete crude oil.
Unbelievably, this is not science fiction. Pal holds up a small beaker of bug excretion that could, theoretically, be poured into the tank of the giant Lexus SUV next to us.
Not that Pal is willing to risk it just yet. He gives it a month before the first vehicle is filled up on what he calls "renewable petroleum." After that, he grins, "it's a brave new world."
Pal is a senior director of LS9, one of several companies in or near Silicon Valley that have spurned traditional high-tech activities such as software and networking and embarked instead on an extraordinary race to make $140-a-barrel oil from Saudi Arabia obsolete.
"All of us here — everyone in this company and in this industry — are aware of the urgency," Pal says.

edit: and the original and much longer story here:
Scientists find bugs that eat waste and excrete petrol - Times Online

[PTRMAN]

This is exactly how the free market is supposed to work. Prices go up and people look for a way into the segment - either buying something that could operate better in the space, starting up their own company or looking for alternatives.

In this case it appears this alternative method could be viable.

[screwballl]

the original story (in my edited post above), I think is looking at it from the wrong direction.

The closest that LS9 has come to mass production is a 1,000-litre fermenting machine, which looks like a large stainless-steel jar, next to a wardrobe-sized computer connected by a tangle of cables and tubes. It has not yet been plugged in. The machine produces the equivalent of one barrel a week and takes up 40 sq ft of floor space.
However, to substitute America’s weekly oil consumption of 143 million barrels, you would need a facility that covered about 205 square miles, an area roughly the size of Chicago.
That is the main problem: although LS9 can produce its bug fuel in laboratory beakers, it has no idea whether it will be able produce the same results on a nationwide or even global scale.
“Our plan is to have a demonstration-scale plant operational by 2010 and, in parallel, we’ll be working on the design and construction of a commercial-scale facility to open in 2011,” says Mr Pal, adding that if LS9 used Brazilian sugar cane as its feedstock, its fuel would probably cost about $50 a barrel.

Stop the mass production level of it. Keep it limited to individual gas stations or homeowner subsidized pumping stations.
Get a water heater or gas pump sized machine hooked up to the outside of a persons home and the person keeps an eye on the display which will tell them when it is time to buy more microbes. Use modern technology for safety so that it will only activate and pump the fuel with an authorized person's fingerprint (like the parents/homeowner to keep the kids or a stranger from messing with it). Keep the city/county/state/federal governments out of it (outside of regulation) or we will see the special interests step in and force the large scale gas corporation type setup. Then we see $4-5 per gallon again within months of the pilot program and we get nowhere in the end... other than a way for them to continue to shaft us but this time with a guaranteed long term profit, spanning a much longer timeframe since fossil fuels from the ground won't last much longer.

[PTRMAN]

Finally - this is part of the solution to the energy problem here...

McCain calls for building 45 new nuclear reactors
McCain calls for building 45 new nuclear reactors

[alyssastep]

BBC NEWS | Middle East | Dubai plans 'moving' skyscraper

[Hitman]

Originally Posted by stevensonmat2

I was under the impression that gas cost more because our dollar is failing.

It certainly doesn't help, but not the main reason. Our gas prices are not the only ones that are skyrocketing. Prices all over the world are going up. Last I heard Germany is paying over $8 a gallon, so it's not just us who are suffering from rising gas prices.

[alyssastep]

Originally Posted by Hitman

It certainly doesn't help, but not the main reason. Our gas prices are not the only ones that are skyrocketing. Prices all over the world are going up. Last I heard Germany is paying over $8 a gallon, so it's not just us who are suffering from rising gas prices.

Yeah, European countries charge a lot more for gas. In Britain, once the liters are converted to gallons and the pounds to dollars, it's nearly $10 a gallon (in London, anyway). However, this is due to the EU countries taxing a lot more than the US does, in order to encourage public transportation (among other factors, such as not wanting to be so incredibly dependent on foreign oil).

According to a speech Bush gave this past Saturday (his weekly radio speech, interested people can look it up), if we tapped into Alaska, we could supply ourselves with 10 million barrels, roughly the equivalent of 2 decades of oil from Saudi Arabia. I know people object to this because of the environment and wildlife, but scientists have developed ways to extract oil that are less environmentally harmful than the refineries built 30 years ago that we now rely on.

But I don't know. It's one of those situations where you face a significant trade-off, no matter what the choice is.

However, I did read that OPEC actually had to lower their prices because demand decreased from people not being able to afford gas. So...yeah. It's just one of those things that needs to balance out, and none of the factors (Iran, oil supply, the cost of shipping, the decrease in the dollar's value, etc) are easy to control.

Stupid poli sci major making me actually interested in this crap..

[Hitman]

Originally Posted by alyssastep

Yeah, European countries charge a lot more for gas. In Britain, once the liters are converted to gallons and the pounds to dollars, it's nearly $10 a gallon (in London, anyway). However, this is due to the EU countries taxing a lot more than the US does, in order to encourage public transportation (among other factors, such as not wanting to be so incredibly dependent on foreign oil).

Hell in Germany it was more expensive to take the train then it was to drive most places. Of course I wasn't paying German gas prices (AAFES is good from something), if I was it probably would have been cheaper to take the train. In Amsterdam, Paris, Munich and other cities you had to take the subway because of traffic, but that's all big cities. Germany has no method to the madness when it comes to train stations though. In the town I lived in of about 7k people there was no train station, but the village down the road of about 1k people had one. I never figured that one out.

[alyssastep]

Originally Posted by Hitman

Hell in Germany it was more expensive to take the train then it was to drive most places. Of course I wasn't paying German gas prices (AAFES is good from something), if I was it probably would have been cheaper to take the train. In Amsterdam, Paris, Munich and other cities you had to take the subway because of traffic, but that's all big cities. Germany has no method to the madness when it comes to train stations though. In the town I lived in of about 7k people there was no train station, but the village down the road of about 1k people had one. I never figured that one out.

Nonsensical madness, the world is full of.