RV Fuel Issues & Prices - Post 'Em Here!

[Dick_A]

All other fuel threads will be automatically deleted. 🙂

[RambleOnNW]

The transition from wood to coal, coal to oil, now oil and coal to natural gas, and then natural gas to renewable energy each have taken and will take many decades. Each transition from one dominant fuel to another has taken 50 to 60 years. For example coal supplied 5 percent of all fuels by 1840 but still supplied only 50% by 1900.

Oil did not surpass coal until 1964.

Read about it in Scientific American.

[tomman58]

Anyone who would discount the drive, willpower and ability of Tesla is a fool. This guy has his eye on the ball and even though he has stumbled (a common occurrence in the progressive world) he knows what he wants and is convinced he can and will do it.
There are always naysayers that point to failures but thank God for the Wright brother, Henry Ford and so on for not paying any attention to them and getting the job done.
Henry would say.... No matter if you think you are right or wrong you are right.

[John___Angela]

LindsayRichards wrote:
I just got the new Samsung J5 Smart Phone. Very slick. Spain's alternatives have been a real disaster. Germany is retreating. I went to LED's on my coach for boondocking and have AGM batteries. The US's hydro is in a declining state (very unfortunately). France is over 80% nuclear and it really helps them. When you say coal is still used in 40% of the US's power generation. That is a lot. It is 12 times greater than wind and solar. It is losing out to CNG though. The US uses 1/6th of the coal used in the world today. The recent EPA ruling had nothing to do with global warming, but were about SO compounds. The global warming decisions are yet to come. They will result in additional scrubbers being added at coal plants and the cost passed on to consumer of electricity. Our air and water are at their cleanest in the last 50 years.

I remember going to disneyland as a kid and couldn't believe the smog. Amazing change now and 10 times the cars. (number pulled out of my a$$) From what I gather natural gas is a better alternative than coal and may work as a stop gap. Re hydro, I think the US will be able to buy more Hydro from Canada as it continues to develop its hydro output. What Canada's problem is now is its delivery grid. 20 to 30 years out of date. The power will be online before the delivery grid is ready by about 12 to 15 years.

Efforts are being made all over the world but if you want to do some interesting googling it is surprizing how much china is now doing to to improve air and water quality. Although they produce a tremendous amount of polution dictated by the sheer size of their population, western nations (with the US and Canada leading the way) still produce more pollution per person than they do by a factor of almost three.

I hope we can look back in 30 years and see the kind of improvements that we have seen in the last 30 years. BUT, I think we need to take chances on new technologies now and not wait until someone else has proved them out. I would rather see subsidies in these areas than big oil which we all know will eventually not be near as much of a player in the real world.

JMHO

[LindsayRichards]

I just got the new Samsung J5 Smart Phone. Very slick. Spain's alternatives have been a real disaster. Germany is retreating. I went to LED's on my coach for boondocking and have AGM batteries. The US's hydro is in a declining state (very unfortunately). France is over 80% nuclear and it really helps them. When you say coal is still used in 40% of the US's power generation. That is a lot. It is 12 times greater than wind and solar. It is losing out to CNG though. The US uses 1/6th of the coal used in the world today. The recent EPA ruling had nothing to do with global warming, but were about SO compounds. The global warming decisions are yet to come. They will result in additional scrubbers being added at coal plants and the cost passed on to consumer of electricity. Our air and water are at their cleanest in the last 50 years.

[John___Angela]

LindsayRichards wrote:
I am all for forward thinking and like I said will be the first to have it, but the simple truth is it isn't here yet. I wish it was, but it isn't. Many countries have lofty goals, but haven't come close. Germany is backing away as quickly and has 6 coal plant being built. I am a big fan of nuclear, but we haven;t built one in 25 years. We have wasted tens of billion dollars for political cronies to build alternative energy plants that failed. Just read today about an electric truck maker going under. We spent over $35 million on it. To me, we would be much better off spending that money on research and less on the politics. Lets get it right and stop spending billions on things that we know will not ever be competitive. We spent $3.5 BILLION on that NV/CA concentration solar plant and it produces electricity at triple the cost of natural gas and has a lot of environmental problems. We keep building the same
old stuff.

Yah I have read about some of the things you mentioned. Not always encouraging. But we are bound to stumble. The cheapest kW Is not necessary the best KW and expensive power forces us to conserve it or find better ways to use it. The LED bulb is an example of that. Regardless, discussion is good. Watching and reacting to other nations failures and succeses is important and there are some succeses out there. As part of my curriculum I have to read articles that interest me in foreign online newspapers and periodicals. On a daily basis I read articles in Spanish French and German. The interest in renewable energy including hydro, wind and solar is considerably higher in Europe, or at least it appears that way by the numbers of articles a available to read.

Like I said. Discussion is good and I appreciate your take on things. Forgive the spelling errors. I'm on an iphone.

[LindsayRichards]

I am all for forward thinking and like I said will be the first to have it, but the simple truth is it isn't here yet. I wish it was, but it isn't. Many countries have lofty goals, but haven't come close. Germany is backing away as quickly and has 6 coal plant being built. I am a big fan of nuclear, but we haven;t built one in 25 years. We have wasted tens of billion dollars for political cronies to build alternative energy plants that failed. Just read today about an electric truck maker going under. We spent over $35 million on it. To me, we would be much better off spending that money on research and less on the politics. Lets get it right and stop spending billions on things that we know will not ever be competitive. We spent $3.5 BILLION on that NV/CA concentration solar plant and it produces electricity at triple the cost of natural gas and has a lot of environmental problems. We keep building the same
old stuff.

[John___Angela]

LindsayRichards wrote:
Your next car may not have a tailpipe, but the electricity that charges it comes almost all from fossil fuels (smokestacks) and nuclear. Wind and solar make up less than 3.5% and are projected by the feds to be about 10% in 2035. Hydro is being severely curtailed by the environmentalist and now are less than 10%. When alternatives are a good buy (unsubsidized) I will be the first on my block to have them, but I am not going to buy the pie in the sky line being sold here. It is all about what IS possible, not what you want it to be. You can right now generate all of you home power from wind and solar. Just buy it yourself.

I get that there is a way to go but for many households (including mine) all the power comes from hydro and has for decades. The other thing is regardless of how slow the US moves in this direction many countries in the world get significant amounts of power from renewable sources, water, wind, solar, tidal. I concur with being realistic and not following the pie in the sky but we have to walk before we run. I just don't understand the resistance to forward thinking.

[LindsayRichards]

Your next car may not have a tailpipe, but the electricity that charges it comes almost all from fossil fuels (smokestacks) and nuclear. Wind and solar make up less than 3.5% and are projected by the feds to be about 10% in 2035. Hydro is being severely curtailed by the environmentalist and now are less than 10%. When alternatives are a good buy (unsubsidized) I will be the first on my block to have them, but I am not going to buy the pie in the sky line being sold here. It is all about what IS possible, not what you want it to be. You can right now generate all of you home power from wind and solar. Just buy it yourself.

[SRT]

Pretty soon someone will invent a new battery that can run vehicles for several hundred miles or more without a gasoline engine to charge the battery. But I'm "not holding my breath."

[Bumpyroad]

$3.27.9 in south hill, VA
bumpy

[SRT]

There still is a downward trend in fuel prices in our area. $3.49 is the latest price for gasoline. Diesel is "hanging" at $3.99. Even the price of a barrel of oil has slid under $100. :B

[HJGyswyt]

South of Seattle in Bonney Lake Washington (the state) it was a surprise for us being an all diesel family, diesel is now less than gas (for the moment). Filled our GMC Duramax and our TDI Jetta for 3.79 a gallon (diesel) and regular unleaded (gasoline) was 3.89 at the local Fred Meyer grocery store. And I got .60 off filling the truck with discounts from grocery shopping. I don't remember the last time diesel was cheaper than gas. Hans

[time2roll]

tomman58 wrote:
Why would anyone be surprised that as the mileage on cars continues to go beyond 25MPG the price of gas goes up proportionally. Did you really think the fat cats would want to bone down by selling less gas for the same money..come on now!

There are more cars filling up every day.
Just because the US market demand is flat or declining has no bearing on the world market that continues to expand and bid the price up.

[rhagfo]

Well regular here is now $3.79 and diesel is $3.81 it is a great time to own a diesel!!

[tomman58]

Why would anyone be surprised that as the mileage on cars continues to go beyond 25MPG the price of gas goes up proportionally. Did you really think the fat cats would want to bone down by selling less gas for the same money..come on now!

Oh, by the way the NG option for my new 2500 was $11,000.