The Good News, Lower Gas Prices for September… The Bad, We’re Still Running Out
The oil companies are obviously running a little scared folks. We’ve got them on the run as the country is in a panic to find alternatives to gasoline. Hybrid sales are at an all-time high, people are considering hydrogen, electric, and just about anything that will postpone those visits to the gas station.
This newfound consumer hatred for gas, and the slightly weakening demand for fuel (about a 4 percent drop over this past August) has brought a sudden drop in gas prices in favor of the consumer for a change. You can’t make big money on oil when nobody is willing to buy your product.
AAA reports that the gas price trend is continuing to drop and is at a low of $3.671 as of this Thursday September 11th, 2008. There are a few spots where gas remains at $4.00 a gallon, like Alaska and Hawaii, but in general the entire country is seeing some much welcome relief.
While most people will see this as a good thing, there are millions of environmentalists right now cursing this move by the oil companies, as they have had them right where they wanted them all summer, and now people are going to once again slip behind their gas guzzlers and feel just a little bit more secure and comfortable than a few weeks ago.
Don’t let this brief hiatus fool you folks, the country is still in a bit of a pickle and hopefully we can continue to dig us out of this oil dependance and find alternative forms of fuel. Right now, the preferred alternative could be said to be electricity, as it is by far the least expensive infrastructure to achieve at the moment.
Spencer Abraham, our Secretary of Energy a few years back, estimated the nationwide cost of a hydrogen infrastructure at a trillion dollars, with the average cost of a fueling station at a cool million. Electricity, well, just a few thousand plug outlets in public spaces for several Billion and we’d be good to go, at least initially.
But with the good old hurricane season upon us, we can be sure to experience the sickening up and down motion of gas prices, that should rekindle visions of the opening segment of the 60’s television show, Gilligan’s Island over the next few weeks.
Hurricane Ike is currently responsible for a slight hike in prices since Monday, but the oil companies are going to do their best to win their way back into your hearts. You can take them back with a slight sweeping motion and then get on with your life, but just remember, they are a fickle friends. Don’t let this change your initiative to eventually strive towards an alternative fuel vehicle.
If we don’t… we’ll all pay for it. And it will be a whole lot worse than $4.00 a gallon!



This is actually one of the oldest tricks in the book, other than the famous pick-up line, “You must be tired… because you’ve been running through my head all night.” But unlike some of those tired old pickup lines, this trick actually works!
Never use pencil for the marking as it can cause carbon tracking and thus poor spark plug performance.
Remember that you will need to turn the plug approximately a quarter turn or so to tighten, so keep that in mind during your estimation measurements.