Date: Sun, 05 Mar 2000 08:58:28 +0100 From: Olaf Hoyer <ohoyer@fbwi.fh-wilhelmshaven.de> To: Alex Zepeda <jazepeda@pacbell.net> Cc: chat@FreeBSD.ORG Subject: Re: Great American Gas Out Message-ID: <4.1.20000305083742.00a4af00@mail.rz.fh-wilhelmshaven.de> In-Reply-To: <Pine.BSF.4.21.0003041855410.342-100000@localhost> References: <200003041741.MAA15002@etinc.com>
next in thread | previous in thread | raw e-mail | index | archive | help
>Yes, but look at the fact that for a fuel injected car with an oxygen >sensor (i.e. Lambada-Sond for many European cars), oxygenated fuel just >means that more fuel is burnt, creating more pollution. Sure the exhaust >is marginally cleaner, but there's also going to be more of the "cleaner" >exhaust. Hi! Well, every german car has to have a three-way-catalysator by now, otherwise the taxes charged will be three times as high... And as of the improvements in engine technology, they use sometimes half the fuel than of 10 or 15 years ago... A modern turbo diesel engine needs 6 litres per 100 km, and with nowadays diesel technology it really is able to burn clean... 1 gallon ~4 litres 1 mile~1,6 km > >In the past twenty years, what has reduced the smog and other pollution >the most has been the equipment added to cars themselves (egr equipment, >catalytic converters, etc), and well the obviously beneficial elimination >of lead in our fuel supply. FYI, the old VW beetle was able to also use unleaded. beginning with some engine series in the seventies. If you knew which engine rev you had, you could use unleaded with no harm to the engine... >Sure, the gasoline tax isn't really all that bad (especially compared to >what it is in other countries). The real problem lies with the oil >refineries managing to make record profits, still price gouge us, and >manage to endanger the lives of nearby residents and employees. Tosco >manged to char broil four of its employees not too long ago, mainly >because of managerial neglence. Yes, here in germany it makes up most of the price at all... 1 litre of diesel is 1,50 DM, normal unleaded is about 1,80DM, and super plus (the replacement for really old ones and highpower engines that would need lead and/or have a high compression) is sometimes a bit above 2 DM. 1 U$~2 DM The owner of a gas station makes a profit of about 0.04 DM per litre, so lots of gas stations turned into small supermarkets that have prolonged (sometimes 24h) opening times, as normal stores have to be closed by 20:00, saturdays 16:00. >Also, when comparing the gasoline prices of America to those of other >countries, consider that the $1.55/gal gas (well the "cheap stuff") >would most likely not be doing too much good for a small high output >engine that requires high octane. Yes, but those people driving those cars whether have money to afford their "hobby", as (at least european) high-performance cars are quite expensive to buy... And for very old cars-the government tries to force them off the streets, because newer ones are somewhat better for the environment, as they are using less fuel, thus polluting less, are in the long run cheaper for the people (they also want to go for some more busses and trains, but the people respective those companies offering transport services simply aren't up to that service yet) to reduce the number of cars, and are somewhat more secure, thus creating less cost for health-care/insurance due to less (fatal) accidents. Regards Olaf Hoyer -------- Olaf Hoyer www.nightfire.de mailto:Olaf.Hoyer@nightfire.de FreeBSD- Turning PC's into workstations ICQ:22838075 Liebe und Hass sind nicht blind, aber geblendet vom Feuer, dass sie selber mit sich tragen. (Nietzsche) To Unsubscribe: send mail to majordomo@FreeBSD.org with "unsubscribe freebsd-chat" in the body of the message
Want to link to this message? Use this URL: <https://mail-archive.FreeBSD.org/cgi/mid.cgi?4.1.20000305083742.00a4af00>