--- In entrepreneursathome@yahoogroups.com, faithfulfamilyoutlet@...
wrote:
>
> Howard,
>
> Very few people are aware of how the value of the dollar has
affected the recent rise in fuel prices. I am glad you pointed that
out. Here are some really bizarre FACTS regarding our national
energy policy. Since 1985 (Dept. of Energy statistics) our nation
has reduced energy production by 40% - meanwhile we have increased
our consumption by 30%. So as a policy our government is
exacerbating the rise of fuel prices by restricting further domestic
supply (drilling or further production).
>
> The restrictive policy like not drilling for the oil we have (no
mater where it is) and by not allowing for the the building of more
gasoline refineries, because we are refinery limited. We literally
can not make anymore gasoline. We are importing gasoline from
Mexico. The latest refinery being built in Louisiana is the first
one built in something like 30 years in the US (entirely due to
governmental controlled policies). Meanwhile domestic consumption
has increased dramatically as well as international consumption.
More nations chasing a shrinking commodity.
>
> With numbers so large and policies so controlling, it would be a
high risk to "dabble" in this field because the government could (as
it is doing today) artificially move the price up & down with either
monetary policy, energy policy or environmental policy. I don't
think it is complicated - I think it is just high business risk. Am
I saying that if you invented a device that would improve your fuel
economy by 30% - that tomorrow you should not pursue that venture?
Certainly not - I am saying that your investment into that venture
has a high uncontrollable risk because the government could
arbitrarily effectively change the price of oil to make your device
of no consequence. That is the nature of business risk - in oil
related businesses it is necessary to effectively understand how the
price of oil will effect your business - up & down.
>
> What we can do with very little risk is lobby - point out to our
senate & congress-people, governors, state law-makers, etc - that we
know what is going on. They are reducing the domestic supply on
PURPOSE which is driving the price up (law of supply and demand) and
with very little effort their (the lawmakers) policies can and WILL
be linked (come re-election time) to these policies that are causing
the fuel prices to go UP. Tell your lawmakers to imagine the bumper
stickers you will make for their re-election - "VOTE for "(fill in
you elected official)," HE (or SHE) MAKES GAS EXPENSIVE FOR YOU."
>
> So that is one business we could be in, the business of changing
policy through effective communication of the truth. "Lower gas
prices" non-profit organizations - to effect legislation and/or
elected officials or blogs that present the truth. Right now a
great deal of the population believes there is some giant conspiracy
between George Bush, Oil companies and the Arabs. We only get 15%
of our oil from Arab countries. Most of our oil comes from Canada
which somehow manages to drill in the frozen tundra environment and
not disturb the pristine natural beauty of "frozen tundra" - yet our
government chooses to not allow drilling in the Alaskan Wild-life
Preserve area (even though we KNOW there is about 1/2 to 1/3rd the
oil deposit there with respect to the Saudi Arabian known oil
deposits).
>
> These are political facts - we could be oil independent. We
choose to not be and this has financially hurt many Americans. It
is not due to a conspiracy or Arabs or aliens - it is our elected
officials.
>
> Short term - look for products that are made of petroleum that can
be made from non-petroleum based commodities. Then broker those
commodities. In some cases plastic (petroleum base) parts can be
replaced by natural resins or agricultural based oils. I say short
term again because of the huge governmental control of the price of
oil (which is a plentiful & efficient energy producing product) - IF
the price is reduced it could put your whole "alternative" approach
to petroleum out of financial competitiveness.
>
> Environmentalist may argue that we should seek alternatives
anyway - that market is not as big when it comes to price
pressures. That again is a fact - there are many fair weather
environmentalist. If you have competitive alternatives priced
competitively - you succeed. If the alternatives are more costly -
your market shrinks dramatically. It is a very inelastic segment
and price & convenience controls it.
>
> When we reduce the amount of the price that the government
controls of this commodity (oil) - it would be a better business
venture to pursue. That is if the government was not putting high
artificial reductions in supply and there was a dramatic reduction
in natural supply (right now this is not the case - they keep
finding more and more of it every where - they just discovered a
huge deposit in the Gulf of Mexico and off the coast of Brazil).
When the market is artificially controlled - your business case
elements can change dramatically without any market forces. Your
case changes based purely on political ideology which can be
fluctuating and based on perceptions rather than facts.
>
> A couple of things that will reduce your personal fuel expenses
are that gasoline volume changes dramatically based on temperature.
You get less volumetric gasoline when it is warmer as compared to
when it is cooler. Therefore fill up in the morning - when your
tank and the fueling tank is cooler. When gas companies buy gas it
is supplied via temperature adjusted volumetric dispensers. It has
to be to insure the storage tank or the tanker truck does not
overflow - once it gets hot outside. The customer pumps are not
temperature adjusted. So the reality is that you can fill up when
it is hot and (depending on the size of your tank) - once it cools
you really only have 9/10ths of a tank --> you paid for 30 gallons
(hot) - you got 27 gallons once the temperature cooled down. Notice
your gallon gas can - that you fill up your lawn mower with - how it
expands and contracts with temperature. This could potentially
reduce your gas expenses by as much as 10%, which is significant.
> A 1 degree F, rise in temperature is a huge deal in the gasoline
business.
>
> Another gasoline price reducer is the speed of the pump handle -
if you pump at the lower speed there is less vapor produced by the
fuel sloshing around in the tank. The vapor is lost immediately
(especially if the handle has vapor recovery devices). That is you
paid for the volume of gas but the percentage that was converted to
vapor escaped either to the vapor recovery device or into the air.
The slower the pump speed the less vapor produced - again not a huge
savings when gas was less than $2/gallon but now these 2% or 3%
savings are becoming significant.
>
> A potential device that inventors could work on is - gasoline
storage tanks have internal floating roofs to reduce the effective
air space in the storage tanks. Gasoline evaporates very fast -
easy experiment for the scientifically inclined. The floating
sealed roofs in the storage tanks minimizes evaporation - no space
to evaporate. You can invent a bladder device to expand as the fuel
is consumed or an internal floating roof (similar to the storage
tanks). This also points us to the direction that a mostly empty
tank will allow for more evaporation than a mostly full tank (keep
it as full as you can afford to - to minimize evaporation).
>
> Also if the delivery truck is filling the tanks when you arrive at
the station - don't buy gas unless you absolutely have to. The
gasoline is being dumped as fast as gravity allows but this does
stir up the tanks and add vapor to the gasoline and therefore at the
hand pump - you will get the correct volume but some of that will be
in vapor which will most likely escape during fill-up.
>
> I know these are all little tips but if you can save 10% total -
that is huge, now with nearly $4/gallon average prices. I guess we
can ride our bikes more - I do need the exercise. These
alternatives in transportation should also increase in popularity
but those markets will normally fluctuate with gas prices.
>
> The biggest thing we all could do to reduce our petroleum
consumption to nearly zero is convert to the Amish. Not all that
bad of an alternative either. Sorry for the length Howard but oil
prices are a fascinating topic presently filled with a lot of
opinions. The facts are rarely brought out because they disagree
with certain peoples political view of the world. The reality is we
have plenty of oil in the world. This obviously, does not mean we
should waste it. But does it mean we should financially ruin mostly
poor people because we find it politically expedient to garner
environmental support for a certain election?
>
> I hope this helps, God Bless, Ed R.,_._,___
>
> [Non-text portions of this message have been removed]
>
------------------------------------
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