Last night, my Low Fuel warning light came on. I drove several miles out of my way to our nearest BJ’s Warehouse Club, in an effort to save a few bucks. And while the price there was indeed 5-10 cents less than other local stations, it still cost me over $51 to fill the tank of the minivan. If you drive a big SUV or a truck or a Hummer or something like that, or if you’re reading this from Europe or elsewhere in the world where fuel prices have always been a lot higher than in the US, you probably aren’t wringing your hands in sympathy right now. But crossing any threshold - $50 a tank, $3 a gallon, $10 a pitcher - seems to always have an emotional impact.

But do we really have anything to complain about? I’ve read that gasoline prices in Iraq are really cheap, but driving there for a fill-up seems inconvenient. In most if not all of the “first world,” they pay a lot more than we do in the US. For example, our friends in the UK are currently paying £1.08 per litre of petrol. Let’s do the math. Petrol = gasoline. That’s the easy part. One litre = one liter (haha) = 0.264 gallons. And one £ (GBP - British pound) today is worth a measly 0.5073 US dollars. I’m sure you’ve got it all worked out in your head, but just to confirm your mental calculations, this comes out to $8.07 per US gallon. Are we feeling any better now?

Not really. Because our gasoline prices have risen very dramatically, very quickly. In the past year, the average price for a gallon of regular gas in the USA has gone from $2.867 to $3.418, an increase of 19.2%. (There was a substantial price dip in between, down to around $2.40, which makes the current price that much harder to take.) During the same time in the UK, their price has risen 16.6%. Not too far off, really. But let’s go back five years.

A litre of petrol in the UK cost £0.826 in April 2003, so their cost has increased 31% over the past 5 years. In the US? The average price per gallon of regular gasoline in April 2003 was $1.521. Since then, our price has gone up 124.7%. And we’re not expecting any break soon, are we?

It’s easy to blame OPEC and all those America-haters in that part of the world for this problem. After all, they’re the ones who have set the price per barrel at a record-breaking $115+ this spring. But a significant factor, as evidenced by the difference between the US and the UK, has to be the shrinking value of the dollar. After all, if the dollar is worth a lot fewer Saudi Arabian Riyals and Kuwaiti Dinars than it was a year ago, it’s going to cost more dollars to pay those Saudi and Kuwaiti workers, and to cover all the expenses faced in those countries. So, to reprise the slogan from an earlier presidential campaign (which could well be raised again this year), “It’s the economy, stupid!”

Solutions? Brazil has done a great job of using sugar cane to make alcohol fuel, which is sold at almost all of their filling stations alongside gasoline and diesel, but at a fraction of the price. And a large number of cars on the road there have Flex Fuel engines, which automatically detect what’s in the tank (alcohol, gasoline, or a mixture of the two) and adjust accordingly. We’ve seen some Flex Fuel vehicles come into the US, and we have the option of gas/electric hybrids, but surveys that I’ve seen set the payback for investing in one of those vehicles at much longer than we tend to keep our cars. There’s also been discussion of corn-based fuel alcohol, but it sounds like neither the farmers nor the oil companies like that prospect very much.

I have a friend who rides a Vespa, claiming 75 or 80 miles per gallon. I’d like one, but how many miles would I have to drive, at $4 or whatever per gallon, to make up the $5000 purchase price? Got that figured out in your head? I think that’s a purchase that has to be based on the fun factor, not the fuel factor. For fun, I might buy one, and tell everyone else it’s for saving gas. Or I could buy a Segway. That would be fun AND cool!

We have found one good alternative. When possible, Sue and I bicycle to work. It’s about 5 miles from home to office, so as long as there’s no rain in the forecast, this time of year offers us a chance to save a little money and get some exercise at the same time. Come June, though, it becomes a bit too hot in Florida for that option, especially since the offices of APPX Software do not have showers.

I just read that Brazil had discovered a huge oil field in the ocean off the coast of Rio de Janeiro. I’m going to do everything I can to maintain and expand my friendships in that country, and maybe when I go visit in October, I’ll bring back a few hundred gallons of gas. Anyone know how I would declare that for Customs?

This entry was posted on Thursday, April 17th, 2008 at 11:44 am and is filed under Al. You can follow any responses to this entry through the RSS 2.0 feed. You can leave a response, or trackback from your own site.