I don't know where you live but here in central CA we are paying 3.97- 4.08 per gallon. Diesel is well over $4.50. OPEC is claiming there is no supply shortage. The speculators are the ones being blamed for the rampant jumps, while the oil companies post record profits. This is inexcusable, it would be one thing if oil companies were in the poor house but the outrageous profit margins indicate something suspicious is going on.
So.... As you are aware of CA has a reputation for being a bunch of eco-friendly tree huggers. As a result there is a larger percentage of people over here converting to bio-diesel- (INCLUDING the Governator Arnold) primarily for environmental reasons. The kicker is cooking oil (even new off of the shelf) is WAY cheaper than diesel. As a result people would rather go to Costco, Winco, or Wal-Mart to and buy bulk cooking oil at about 2 bucks a gallon as opposed to Diesel's $4.50+ per gallon to pour in their tanks.
The oil companies pressured the legislators to pass sweeping legislation that all but outlaws the use of bio-fuels in CA. If a person is to use this they must pay additional taxes to cover the revenue loss as well as apply AND PAY for several permits that licenses them as fuel haulers/ distributors/ special storage handlers/ etc!!! In order to obtain these permits they must jump through mountains of red tape and pay dearly.
Those not complying with these new regulations will face severe fines! How's that for saving the earth? In the end it's all about greed and corruption. Think about it. Decades ago we sent a machine (made by the lowest bidder) to the moon with over a half million moving parts landed it and the crew on the moon, let them drive around, play frickin golf, then returned them safely many times over. We did this with an entire floor worth of primitive computers that didn't have the ability of one of today's laptops. Do you mean to tell me that we can do all of that 4 decades ago but we can't figure out how to get better gas mileage???
To finish off this rant we are in essence pumping money into hostile economies where the vast majority of its citizens would rather see America wiped from the face of the earth. You tell me what's wrong with this picture.
