Are We Running Out of Gas?

September 29, 2008

I sure was happy to own a diesel vehicle this morning in Atlanta when lines of cars stretched over 1/2 mile long at one gas station due to the shortage in Gasoline. With the recent hurricanes and tropical storms pounding the Southeast many Oil Refinery's, suppliers and distributors were shut down. Pipelines were also shut down causing a major delay in the infrastructure. Still, weeks after the storms we are feeling the effects of this shortage.



With the US using about 882 million gallons of gasoline daily it's no surprise that even if our infrastructure experiences a slight glitch, it has a ripple effect right down to the dispenser's we fill up at. According to the EIA (Energy Information Administration) "In 2007 U.S. refineries produced 90 percent of the gasoline used in the United States. Although the United States is the world’s third largest crude oil producer, less than 35 percent of the crude oil used by U.S. refineries was produced in the United States. Net petroleum imports (imports minus exports) accounted for 58 percent of our total petroleum consumption. About 48 percent of our net petroleum imports were from countries in the Western Hemisphere, 18 percent from the Persian Gulf, 22 percent from Africa, and 12 percent from other regions."

So the questions is, If we used more Ethanol would we be experiencing this shortage?

Answer: Possibly not. Really it would come down to wear the Ethanol is being blended and if that location were to be in the path of one of these storms. But in reality you would think it couldn't hurt to have more homegrown fuel's when our supply from overseas gets cut off. And what if it's not a storm? What other potential problems could cut off our fuel supply???

Another question in many peoples mind was; Is this what our future looks like using foriegn oil? Now that's a scary thought! While eating lunch I saw a station with 3 lines of cars at the 3 different dispensers. Finally, one dispenser ran dry and there were a dozen or so people extremely frustrated as they had been waiting to fill for some time. If this is our future then we need to, now more than ever figure out what's going to get people, supplies, food, goods, etc, where they need to go in a fast and efficient manner, most importantly without using foreign energy!

The key's to having affordable Ethanol are sourcing a quality stock for the Ethyl Alcohol process, Building the infrastructure for blending and refining and having an efficient delivery system to get it to the retailers. It seems that when these issues are dialed in the ethanol is more affordable, has fewer quality issues which usually makes the end user happy. In the midwest this structure seems to be well established.

Meanwhile, stations still wait for their fuel deliveries to show up while customers wait patiently at the pump.