Richmond Refinery Fire

[Alan B]

Well there goes a bunch of fuel. Gas prices will jump.

We are perhaps 10 miles east of the big fire in Richmond at the Chevron Refinery. Huge smoke plumes are swirling around the bay area and there is a shelter in place order for many areas.

[TylerDurden]

Bend over.

The areas near Lake Michigan have been getting reamed since another pipe had to be shut down.

Enbridge restarts Midwest pipeline
2:46 PM, August 6, 2012
Detroit Free Press

The federal government has approved a plan to restart the downed Midwestern pipeline, which is expected to bring gasoline prices in Michigan down in the next week.

The current average for a gallon of unleaded gasoline in Michigan is $3.99, a jump from $3.60 a week ago, according to the AAA Daily Fuel Gauge. The current national average is $3.61.

Experts says Michiganders can expect the price to drop to the $3.80s range in the next week, now that the U.S. Department of Transportation's Pipeline and Hazardous Materials Safety Administration has announced Enbridge can re-start the pipeline in Wisconsin.

"No question about it, it will lower prices (though) not as quickly as people want," said GasBuddy.com senior petroleum analyst Patrick DeHaan. "There will be relief because of this."

Enbridge spilled more than 1,200 barrels near Grand Marsh, Wis., on July 27, PHMSA said.

http://www.freep.com/article/20120806/N ... |FRONTPAGE

[The fingers]

Gas prices in Cali expected to rise 10-20% within the week. Keep ridin'!

[neptronix]

Maybe it's time to stop being such a loyal consumer of oil

[Alan B]

3.95/gallon already at the cheap station.

[neptronix]

3.30 for 85 octane out here in Utah. ( we run slightly lower octane due to the high elevation )

[The fingers]

Up 14 cents in the last 2 days.

[Alan B]

I heard one rough estimate that they lost 1/3 of their production equipment at the Richmond refinery.

[edcastrovalley]

I guess a whole bunch of locals around the refinery are lining up for health damage claims. They deserve it though. They've been living there breathing that air for who knows how long.

Does anyone remember driving by the refinery like 20 years ago? Highway 580 goes right by the refinery on the way to the San Rafael/Richmond Bridge. The air around the refinery in those days had a strong odor that smell like a combination of skunk and burnt oil and it was heavy. As kids riding in the car we would try to hold our breath but it was a couple miles and the road had a speed limit of 45 mph with a few traffic lights slowing you down.

[Alan B]

According to some information from someone who works there, the unit that burned is used for separation of all crude coming into the refinery and there is no spare, so this plant may be severely impacted for some time. This plant is also reportedly the largest on the west coast and responsible for a sizable percentage of production, and there is very little excess production in this part of the world, so the impact may be more than a little significant.

[amberwolf]

Stuff like this that fuels the paranoids. I can see it now: "they burned it on purpose to get the insurance money so they could upgrade it. Plus, they get lots and lots and lots of money from the extra costs people will now pay for gas since it could run shortages for a while, and they all panic about that".

Maybe it's even true.

Problem I ahve with all this stuff is that places that sell things that must be transported there (pretty much everywhere) often raise their prices significantly when this kind of thing happens, even when they have not yet (and may not ever) see any cost increases themselves. Happens a lot at work, with pet food, and at the grocery stores.

[boppinbob]

Maybe it's time to stop being such a loyal consumer of oil

It's a lot easier said than done in the States. The blue print for America's bedroom communities started in ernest in the 40's and 50's and with urban blight it would be hard to change course. Not that it couldn't be done. Before the oil addiction is cured a truly cheap clean reliable source of absolutely dependable energy on a massive scale must be harnessed... and I don't mean windmills, solar cells, or lipo.

[neptronix]

Maybe it's time to stop being such a loyal consumer of oil

It's a lot easier said than done in the States. The blue print for America's bedroom communities started in ernest in the 40's and 50's and with urban blight it would be hard to change course. Not that it couldn't be done. Before the oil addiction is cured a truly cheap clean reliable source of absolutely dependable energy on a massive scale must be harnessed... and I don't mean windmills, solar cells, or lipo.

An answer that is doable today is staring you in the face here on this forum, as well as on the diyelectriccar forum. If your city lacks bicycle infrastructure, then build an electric motorcycle. Put together a plug-in hybrid boost system for your car. There are tons of things that are possible with non-bike frames. Worst case scenario is that you can go oldschool and use marine deep cycle batteries like EV enthusiasts on a budget did back in the early 2000's

[edcastrovalley]

A Shell gas station in Oakland near Highway 880 located about 10 miles from the refinery in question went from $3.99 per gallon yesterday to $4.25 today in one shot! I'm used to seeing increases of maybe 5 cents at a time but this time it's different!

[boppinbob]

boppinbob wrote:
neptronix wrote:
Maybe it's time to stop being such a loyal consumer of oil

It's a lot easier said than done in the States. The blue print for America's bedroom communities started in ernest in the 40's and 50's and with urban blight it would be hard to change course. Not that it couldn't be done. Before the oil addiction is cured a truly cheap clean reliable source of absolutely dependable energy on a massive scale must be harnessed... and I don't mean windmills, solar cells, or lipo.


An answer that is doable today is staring you in the face here on this forum, as well as on the diyelectriccar forum. If your city lacks bicycle infrastructure, then build an electric motorcycle. Put together a plug-in hybrid boost system for your car. There are tons of things that are possible with non-bike frames. Worst case scenario is that you can go oldschool and use marine deep cycle batteries like EV enthusiasts on a budget did back in the early 2000's

A few lithium batteries in series might power a light ev. but they will never power what is left of American Manufacturing

[neptronix]

A few lithium batteries in series might power a light ev. but they will never power what is left of American Manufacturing

Excellent; so help manufacturing out by keeping oil prices lower for them. Save yourself some money in the process too. Build a light EV to use as a daily driver, ride an ebike, hybridize your car, do whatever you can think of... and reap the benefits! everyone wins!

http://ecomodder.com/

^-- and while i'm at it, this is an excellent site to read up on if you are interested in hypermiling or modifying a car for better fuel economy.

[Alan B]

If gas goes up 20% which was one prediction, you can offset that by biking or ebiking to work one day per week, and if you do 2 or more you'll save some bucks.

[neptronix]

If gas goes up 20% which was one prediction, you can offset that by biking or ebiking to work one day per week, and if you do 2 or more you'll save some bucks.

True!


BTW, i was checking out ecomodder and found this interesting project:

http://www.evalbum.com/2958
The mythical $500 EV conversion

Certainly a total piece of crap, but I bet you could throw a few thousand dollars at it and get a project like this up to 40-45mph and have a 25-50 mile range.

[boppinbob]

boppinbob wrote:
A few lithium batteries in series might power a light ev. but they will never power what is left of American Manufacturing


Excellent; so help manufacturing out by keeping oil prices lower for them. Save yourself some money in the process too. Build a light EV to use as a daily driver, ride an ebike, hybridize your car, do whatever you can think of... and reap the benefits! everyone wins!

That is what I do. I ride my ebike to work. I also have a fuel efficient car that I have to gas up once every couple of months.

[The fingers]

Gas jumped 14 cents over the weekend.

[The fingers]

Gas went down 2 cents today; go figure!

[Alan B]

2 cents! A price war!!

Fixed typo in title.