George is working on it in the USA and Brazil is nearly self sufficient by means of Ethanol this year.
What is really happening in NZ?
Wednesday, April 19, 2006
?? Fuel prices ??
With fuel priced at more than $1.60 per liter in NZ and hovering just above $3US per gallon in the USA isn't it time that something is done to stabilize the cost of fuel? I still think investing in alternative fuel research now will pay off in the future... Hydrodgen, Ethanol, biofuel.......
George is working on it in the USA and Brazil is nearly self sufficient by means of Ethanol this year.
What is really happening in NZ?
George is working on it in the USA and Brazil is nearly self sufficient by means of Ethanol this year.
What is really happening in NZ?
Subscribe to:
Post Comments (Atom)
8 comments:
A test
Thank god I can walk to work - that all i can say.
Yes indeed........
What's happening in NZ? Pretty much joining the rest of the world hand-in-hand in putting up as best as can do with the price of gas. Trouble is, when I worked out how much it would cost me to bus from St Johns to town ($40/week retail, or $120/month bus pass), the car, doing 9 km/L at $1.70/L, still works out to $18.88/week. And the car will still depreciate despite lack of use, insurance and rego and WOF still cost the same. I reckon, if I could afford a newer one, I'd get a turbodiesel. The Skoda Fabia vRS does about 16 km/L, at $1.22/L, even with Road Tax, works out to about $10.25/week.
Do you have to pay for parking Tony?
Auckland needs a train system that works.. Busses need to be a bit cheaper for people to embace them as they do overseas.
Car wear and tear is less on the bus. As for alternative fuels, the greenies claim they all take more than a barrel of oil to produce the equivalent of a barrel of oil of them. I think it's crap though.
If a barrel of oil stays above $30 US per barrel (In Brazil) it is less expensive to produce ethanol.... Alternative fuels should not have to be a 'Greenie" policy. It akes sence to have a fuel producing industry in our country. Nice to know that we would not be reliant on overseas oils that are extremely expensive at the moment.
I don't pay for parking -- I get up early and get to Parnell early, park for free, walk about 1-1.5 km each way. It's true, you need to refine more than a barrel of oil to get a barrel of petrol, but what doesn't get turned into petrol becomes by-products like asphalt, lubricants, etc. Save for the Road User Charge (which drops the Skoda's $10.25/wk down to about $6.25, which is what it should be), if we're doing the same distance but using less of the earth's resources in doing so, isn't that ecological? As for wear and tear, unless you're a sales rep doing 30-40K per year, the actual wear is insignificant in most moving parts like the engine or transmission. The brakes, especially on an automatic, would probably bear the brunt. I've had a NZ-new 10-year old car with full history and only 124K at the time, but the breakdowns I had were nothing to do with wear, more of age. With newer cars, as they age, you need to drive them a bit else their parts break down from lack of use. As for buses, I agree, cheaper is better. Aucklanders don't like driving, but they NEED to. There is a cost to running a bus, and Kiwis do pay practically the full cost, whereas other cities overseas have them subsidised, which is why they're cheaper. Try that here, they'll rob Peter to pay Paul. Lose-lose. Alternative fuels will need to be developed, and I reckon it's going to happen, especially as the oil-producing countries are now in danger of being controlled by militant extremists. Ethanol from Kiwi potatoes or Brazil, diesel from coconut oil means we can either make it ourselves or import them from poorer countries which could use the money for their own development.
Post a Comment