ELECTRICCARS.COM GAS FACTS Derived from several sources - Compiled and Presented by Bruce Gast

360 Million gallons of gasoline are sold every day in the United States.   Gasoline is derived from CRUDE OIL which is extracted from the deep underground.   The first offically recognized oil well was drilled in 1859 in Titus, PA USA - The depth was 65 feet. Within a few months several other oil wells were drilled in the area and make shift shacks were used to "DISTILL" keroseen from the crude oil. Much like moon shiners distilled alcohol. This keroseen was easily burned in lamps and used for lighting. Keroseen replaced WHALE BLUBBER oil that was also used in lamps... THANKFULLY!   When these pioneers distilled keroseen from crude oil they were left with a aweful smelling substance called "GASOLINE"... Because this gasoline was too flamable it was generally poured into a nearby stream to flow out to sea... or into the local towns water supply.   At the end of the 1800's Thomas Edison came out with an invention that completely replaced the public's need for keroseen oil lamps...ELECTRICITY!!! Within months people were replacing thier dangerous keroseen lamps with safe and clean electrics. The entire oil business was facing extinction... But there was a new frontier coming... It was being born in small garages around the USA... These were horseless carriages called the "AUTOMOBILE".   Car engines burned GASOLINE! Within a few years the oil companies were working day and night to meet the public's demand for gasoline stemmed from HUNDREDS OF THOUSANDS of cars being built. An enterprising person in these early days of drilling for oil was a guy named John. Instead of taking profits from his oil wells and distilling "shacks" John put his earnings right back into his business and purchased the wells and shacks of those other oilers around him. Within a few short years John D. Rockefeller was a millionaire... In fact J.D.'s business was so overpowering to others in the business he is said to have the first "MONOPOLY". J.D. had the power to "FIX" oil prices, drive competitors out of the business and sell inferior products to the public who were tricked into buying them. After a decade of tyrany the government took hold of the oil industry and Teddy Roosevelt broke up J.D. Rockefeller's oil monopoly which was called "Standard Oil" into smaller competing companies: Amoco, Exxon, etc.   After John D. Rockefeller's "Reign of financial manipulation" the U.S. government decided to try to control monopolies. Laws were created to break up large corporations so that "free competition" would naturally control pricing, eliminating "price gouging", "excessive profits" and "economic terror"... Things that happen with oil prices time and time again! Somewhere around the 80's these monopoly laws were forgotten... The AT&T phone company was one of the first to drive phone bills through the roof, they were finally dismantled in the late 80's. In the 1990's another "monopolistic mogul" created a damaging monopoly in the cumputer industry...By the time the US government was on to his methods he had destroyed several competiting companies, stolen their ideas and sold us all his lousy computers... his name was Bill Gates. The public had been sold down the river, again! We still remember tying */*:dir and having to pay Microsoft $120 to use the computer "we already had paid for"... SUPPORT FREEDOM, BUY A MAC!     In the early 1900's oil was dsicovered in TEXAS... and several other spots in the USA... the oil boom was on! In 1941 with the rise of Adolf hitler in Germany, and his muderous conquest thourghout Europe forced the U.S.A. into world war. By then the oil industry had empowered the auto industry and every other aspect of the U.S.A. to be the most powerful ecomomy in the world... The U.S.A was able to "convert" it's ecomony into "war production"... Auto plants were rigged to build tanks, planes, guns and amunition... Many feel the reason Hitler was defeated was that the U.S.A.'s oil "won the war". It was not until the 1950's that oil was dsicovered in the MIDDLE EAST... A controlling entity was created set oil prices on exports to the "free world"... This was called OPEC, and price "gouging" became an epidemic worldwide, and put several COUNTRIES who were trying to exist in the new "oil economy" out of business! In the 1970's oil reserves were discovered in abundency in Mexico and South America. Mexico sought investment capital from countries around the world. Large scale investments were made, billion dollar loans were secured by the Mexican oil industry and oil drilling rigs and refineries were constructed. OPEC saw this as a threat and forced the lowering of crude oil prices coming from the middle east so low that Mexico (and other countries) could not sell it's oil and turn a profit... Mexico basically went bankrupt, it's oil industry failed miserably and by the 1990's OPEC, who now was exporting most of the oil in the world could name any price for it's oil supplies... Because the monopoly laws created in the U.S.A. had no power over OPEC, ironically the controls created by the country that "invented" the oil industry were useless. By 2001 oil prices drove the world economy into "near crisis" conditions. oil companies worldwide were making RECORD PROFITS while the average citizen whined over the rising prices of not only gasoline, but the effects of higher gas prices... higher priced food, clothing, heating, home prices, etc. By the year 2000 TRILLIONS of DOLLARS in crude oil had been purchased from middle east countries that were governed by Anarchistic kings who built grand palaces while their citizens starved in poverty. One of the most predominant was Saddam Hussein, the facist ruler of Iraq. Iraq's oil reserves were emense and supplied a great amount of gasoline products to Europe. By 2001, his rule of "terrorism and torture" became so known throughout the world it was clear that if he continued to expand the world would without a doubt be faced with global conflict. In 2001 terrorists, support financially by "annonomous middle eastern powers" attacked the World Trade Center located in the U.S.A. Oil money derived from the "free world" empowered furious muslin "extremists" to attack the heart of the "free world". Every time Iraq (and other middle eastern entities) transparently enticed terrorists to kill innocent people the oil industry would rally and raise oil prices... claiming, "conflicts could cause shortages of oil". In truth the oil industry was experiencing record profits from the world's conflicts. Again, the U.S.A. stepped in to control a bad situation and took Hussein out of power in 2003. Many critics of the actions taken by George W. Bush against Iraq claim the U.S.A. only entered into it's "police action" to gain oil reserves. In fact it was fortunate the U.S.A. was able to take hussein out of power before his actions spread. "Everything is relative, we are all related and bonded to this world economy and it's going to get a lot worse before it gets better"... ElectricCars.com owner Bruce Gast 2006.   REFINING GASOLINE FROM CRUDE OIL   Crude oil is found at a depth of 60 feet to 10,000 feet below the surface of the ground   Changing crude oil into gas is done at a REFINERY.   REFINERIES: essentiually BOIL the crude oil and cool the vapors in COOLING TOWERS. Other terms for refining gas from crude oil are "BUBBLING", "THERMAL CRACKING" and "REFRACTIONING".   The first step in refining gas is to heat the crude oil to temperatures up to 700 degress. As the crude oil boils the vapors flow upwards into the towers where they are cooled or "CONDENSED" . At each level of a cooling tower the vapors can be separated into several different types of fuel. These include (From lowest to highest):   Vapors & Gases Released if "safe" Gas Used for your gas powered car, lawn mowers Keroseen (Previously used for lighting in the 1800's) Dielsel Fuel Large motors, trucks, Battle ships Lubrication oils Tars Used for ashpalt   LEAD: Over the next 50 years the oil industry made huge advancements in the refining of gasoline. The challenge involved coming up with a gas that was STABLE enough to be transported, filled into an automobiles gas tank, pumped through the fule line, squirted into the motor's COMBUSTION CHAMBER without EXPLODING PREMATURELY. One additive that allowed this to happen was LEAD.   However, health services were alarmed by the buildup of lead, and lead byproducts on our roads and in our air... so in the 1970's the government reluctanly required ("forced") the oil refineries to find other solutions and reduce or eliminate adding lead into gas.   The number of automobiles continued to rise far beyond predicitions and by the 1980's dangerous levels of toxins were in our air. These toxins were produced by cars... In 1990 the US government mandated a legal act that has probably saved your life, my life and your childrens lives. This was the CLEAN AIR ACT of 1990.   The Clean Air Act, or what we fondly refer to as the "DUH, NO S**T, AIR SHOULDN'T BE BROWN ACT" forced oil companies to devise cleaner burning gasolines and auto manufacturers to build motors that produced less toxins. Today there are more than 55 DIFFERENT FORMULAS OF GAS that are delivered each day to consumers. Many overpopulated areas such as Los Angeles, New York etc are required to use the "cleaner burning" formulas... whereas rural areas can burn less eco-friendly formulas.   Today, even with all the fees, surcharges and taxes a gallon of gas generally is sold for LESS MONEY than bottled water. When you remove the taxes, surcharges and other regulatory fees a gallon of gas is about $1 US, a gallon of bottled drinking water can be over $2 US.