News: Local businesses brace for $3-a-gallon gasoline

That won't do anything. It's a feel good gesture, and probably not a good idea since there IS NO SHORTAGE.

That is exactly right. The is a surplus of crude oil. Right now, the bottleneck is in the refineries. They are in the process of converting from MTBE as an oxygenator. The side effect is that the gasoline distributors have to strategically distribute the gasoline to it's stations and raise prices. Else there will be shortages occuring.

Another problem are those on Wall Street are inflating the cost of crude oil and virtually testing the limits of the demand. The actual oil companies aren't doing anything to fix the prices of the crude oil. The governmental and thrid party investigations find no sign of such business activities. This certainly doesn't stop the big oil from benefiting from this.

Bush also was to call on oil companies, which are enjoying record profits, to increase their investments in alternate sources of oil.

Bush petitioning the oil companies to do something they have been using their power to prevent for many years? I don't exactly see how that is going to work...

All I have to say is that I wish that I had invested in Exxon Mobil (XOM) a few years ago. :)

There's always E85. Invest in farmers. ;)

Chyrsler is expanding their line-up of E-85 and mid-West Senators are calling for Automakers to expand as well.

http://www.brownfieldnetwork.com/gestalt/go.cfm?objectid=D16EED89-0A1B-C561-261F426563BA6BB7

http://www.freep.com/apps/pbcs.dll/article?AID=/20060425/BUSINESS01/604250327

Too bad ethanol's maximum possible production towards E85 will only offset a couple of percent of the US gasoline usage. It doesn't matter if the prices are the same. It takes over 1.5 gallons of ethanol to contain the same energy as 1 gallon of gasoline. Right now, it cost more for ethanol than gasoline.

E85 is not a solution.

Some vehicles will only see a $60 annual cost increase in the switch to E85. This is true for some residents in Colorado.

We have already discussed what is and what is not a solution.

E-85 just happens to be what people seem to want more of. This is of course being judged on the recent slack in Hybrid sales and even more recent push from auto companies and law makers towards E-85.

There is no singular solution, as I'm sure has been discussed in previous pages.

The problem with E85 is finding somewhere to buy it. Here, the Downriver area of Detroit, there is only 1 station that sells it, I think it is somewhere in Dearborn.

That doesn't mean it couldn't be a viable alternative. Its just a matter of producing on the scale of gasoline and for cheaper. Plus getting stations to buy into it as a source and getting them to sell it.

Grady, Look for a lot more E-85 stations by the end of the summer.

I hope so Coastern, my girlfriends Sporttrac has an E85 engine but we can never find E85 for it. I will be turning in my lease truck in Aug., it's a 04 F150, an I think I am going to get a 2006 model, which now has an E85 engine. It sure would be nice to be able to take advantage of that.