IRONCHEF wrote:
I live in California. We are usually the first to make said changes in things that contribute to air quality. And it catches on. The point being, of course the air isn't isolated within state lines and of course motorists go from state to state burning varied fuels..but other states will adopt the measures until it's a nationwide effort. I can't believe you're arguing that. Our air is actually measurably better. I work in a law office with CEQA attorneys (the guys that write the books law students study on environment quality) and they make the air clean by arguing with those laws politicians use to score points with. Removing lead was because of California. can you argue that importance? MTBE was removed because of California. Emissions controls in CA sold cars are modified and regulated through our SMOG checks at vehicle registration. Powerplants and other industry in California are all reducing tons of polutants daily because of these laws. So it's not just political maneuvering..the stuff actually works.
Of course we now have China going nuts over there polluting our mountain tops with soot from their industrial boom that will grow well beyond our height of pollution levels. The atmosphere is getting very thick because of this..and our spring water we all drink daily is getting polluted (drink purified or distilled water now!!). what we did for European skies over the last century or so, China is doing to us now..and they'll be way more out of control than us since they don't even employ an air standards group in their government. Oh, and they (along with India) are producing insane demand on oil causing it to skyrocket as well (yeah! on topic!).
Oh yes, $200 a barrel will have the same, if not better effect on us than what the '73 oil crisis had on us. Only now instead of producing Pintos and Pacers...we'll move to ugly little cars that run on urine or hair gel...that will explode if rear ended.
I think what Stingray is getting at is that the
number of unique mixes of gasoline--nationwide--keeps the producers from realizing economies of scale. They keep having to produce specific blends for specific areas instead of one blend for the entire country. If they were able to do that, then supply would likely increase, and the producers would have more flexibility in responding to regional shortfalls.
Instead, they are mandated to produce multiple unique blends for specific regions, when, as he pointed out earlier, vehicles that travel cross-country (or inter-region) have multiple mixes in their tanks, totally negating the rationale for unique mixes. If the CA mix was made the national standard, then I would expect to see the price/gal drop nationwide, as the bottlenecks caused by these multiple blends would be eliminated.
