Originally Posted by phillyaggie

I really can't understand why someone would lug around 2 tons of metal with them everywhere they go. I see even now hundreds of drivers, all alone in their huge 5-seater cars and 7-seater SUVs, sitting in traffic, and the picture I get in my mind is that of these people bolting on an extra ton of metal to their asses. It's just not a good picture!

Originally Posted by ThisWeekInPhill

There is a lot more than supply and demand at work here. The reality is most of the US population simply CAN'T move to where they could live without a car, and frankly, the oil companies here know this is a fact and they are getting rich off of it. I would love to sell one of our houses (we live between 2 states as we are a blended family that shares custody with our exes) and move to the city, but we'd have to abandon 2 of our kids since their other parent doesn't live in the city, or we'd have to move 3 families, as well as 4 jobs. It's not possible.

The major cities don't have enough room for every family in all of the suburbs and rural areas to move into just to save on gas. And of course no one in the sururbs and very, very few in rural communities are set up to sustain themselves without grocery stores and other necessary stores. Our main house is 15 miles from the nearest store. We have no choice but to keep, maintain and USE a car to live. Without it we would die. Gas companies know this, they are posting record profits, and they will continue to do so. They won't turn back now that they know we have to pay their price to survive.

We do what we can, drive a Toyota Matrix that gets great mileage between states and a decent minivan (4 kids and 2 adults, no choice) when we have the whole family, make city trips together for necessities, etc, but we still spend almost $1000 a month in gas to make sure we have maximum time with the kids, get them to their events, etc.

Originally Posted by ThisWeekInPhill

There is a lot more than supply and demand at work here. The reality is most of the US population simply CAN'T move to where they could live without a car, and frankly, the oil companies here know this is a fact and they are getting rich off of it. I would love to sell one of our houses (we live between 2 states as we are a blended family that shares custody with our exes) and move to the city, but we'd have to abandon 2 of our kids since their other parent doesn't live in the city, or we'd have to move 3 families, as well as 4 jobs. It's not possible.

The major cities don't have enough room for every family in all of the suburbs and rural areas to move into just to save on gas. And of course no one in the sururbs and very, very few in rural communities are set up to sustain themselves without grocery stores and other necessary stores. Our main house is 15 miles from the nearest store. We have no choice but to keep, maintain and USE a car to live. Without it we would die. Gas companies know this, they are posting record profits, and they will continue to do so. They won't turn back now that they know we have to pay their price to survive.

We do what we can, drive a Toyota Matrix that gets great mileage between states and a decent minivan (4 kids and 2 adults, no choice) when we have the whole family, make city trips together for necessities, etc, but we still spend almost $1000 a month in gas to make sure we have maximum time with the kids, get them to their events, etc.

Originally Posted by phillyaggie

Diesel is one of the "distillates" of crude oil. It is more of the bottom of the barrel stuff, so actually it needs a lot more cleaning up. And last year, the EPA came out with what's called Ultra-Low Sulfur Diesel rule, where the need to clean up diesel and remove more sulfur out of it has led to more money being spent at refineries to set up the enhancements to the process. This costs more money, which ultimately gets past down to the consumer. In addition to that, not a lot of refineries in the U.S. can handle the really sour crude, which is high in sulfur. The sweet crude is the one that you see most often quoted; the sour crude sells for about $30 less to the barrel.

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Originally Posted by 3300 MAYFAIR

That's KINDA right

I drive a diesel truck, and I'm pretty up on the fuel.

Diesel fuel is a BY-Product that comes from the refining of gasoline. THAT'S why it was always less expensive. There was more of it, and it required LESS refining than gasoline.

Fast forward to last year.

Now we have ULSD ( Ultra Low Sulphur Diesel ). Refineries now have to remove the sulphur from diesel fuel to comply with new laws. This removal process also removes the lubrication of the fuel, but I won't even get into that, however a new lube now has to be added.

Also keep in mind that there is ZERO difference between diesel fuel and home heating oil. Home heating oil has a red dye put into it so that if it's found in a trucks tank the driver will be heavily fined. The reason why home heating oil is a little less expensive is because it isn't subjected to the road tax that standard diesel fuel is.

Originally Posted by tudor

What would speed up this process would be running more diesel vehicles on biodiesel or installing biodiesel converters in diesel cars and trucks.