There may not be a shortage of diesel fuel yet but there is something else that amounts to the same:
Unaffordable diesel.
A gallon currently sells for about $5.25 per gallon on average.
Interestingly, this is about $2 more per gallon than the current cost of a gallon of regular unleaded. The Biden Thing has succeeded in temporarily tamping down the cost of the latter by draining the Strategic Petroleum Reserve – but diesel prices have not come down appreciably from their spring/summer high of about $5.70 per gallon.
Diesel cost less than half as much two years ago – just before the Biden Thing was selected president.
If you have a diesel-powered car (such as the excoriated-anathematized VW Jettas, Golfs and Beetles equipped with the TDI engines you can’t buy anymore) with a 15 gallon tank, you’re currently paying about $80 to fill ‘er up.
That’s not very affordable.
But not many people are driving diesel-powered cars – chiefly because the car companies haven’t been selling them for about seven years now, ever since the federal government sicced itself on VW for selling them. In italics to emphasize the true nature of VW’s “crime,” which was not “cheating” on government “emissions” certification tests anymore than Matt Strickland’s restaurant, Gourmeltz, was Hut! Hut! Hutted! the other day for supposedly selling alcoholic beverages without an ABC permit.
Gourmeltz was Hut! Hut! Hutted! because Strickland refused to Face Diaper his staff or customers and kept the doors of his restaurant open in defiance of “lock down” orders.
In other words, it was necessary to make an example of him.
VW was Hut! Hut! Hutted! for the same fundamental reason. It had the audacity to sell a whole lineup of diesel-powered cars that were also affordable cars. Most cost less than $25k – and got more than 50 miles per gallon. This was the equivalent – in terms of the threat it represented to “electrification” – that refusing to wear a Face Diaper and keeping the doors to one’s business open was to keeping the public fearful and submissive.
Alternatives always present problems for those who do not want others to have alternatives.
And now, they don’t.
You’d think this reduced demand for diesel fuel would have served to reduce its cost. Yet it has not.
If you happen to own a diesel-powered truck (these are still available) with a 25 gallon tank, you’re paying around $130 to fill ‘er up at current prices. If that persists, how many people will be able to afford to drive a diesel-powered truck? No doubt this will help “sell” $50,000-plus electric trucks such as the Ford F-150 Lightning the government wants people to buy instead.
Diesel-powered vehicles are problem vehicles – from the point-of-view of those pushing the electrification of vehicles. Not only because they go farther than gas-powered vehicles and much farther than electric vehicles – but particularly because it is possible to keep them going independently of a centrally controlled distribution apparatus.
Gas-powered vehicles require gasoline to keep on going. If there’s none at the pump, it is hard to refine your own. Gas does not store very well for very long, either. So even if you thought ahead and stored 50 gallons in a drum for just-in-case, its shelf-life is limited.
Electricity is hard to generate independently in the quantity needed by electric cars. Even on 120v grid power, it takes a day or more to instill a charge in a 400-800 volt electric car battery. If the grid goes down, it will take much longer – unless you have a seriously mighty solar array on your roof or on your backyard.
Diesel, on the other hand, stores almost indefinitely. And many diesel engines can burn bio-diesel, which is “diesel” not made from petroleum. It is made from vegetable oil, animal fats and restaurant grease. In other words, almost anyone can make it.
Themselves.
This presents a dangerous alternative to those pushing “electrification,” which is really more about centralization.
It is most definitely not about the “climate changing” – at least, no more than Gourmeltz was Hut! Hut! Hutted! on account of an issue with its ABC license. Or VW over literally fractional differences in real-world “emissions” that went undetected on federal emissions certification tests.
Diesel is simply too attractive an alternative to “electrification.” And it is almost certainly for that reason that the price of diesel has not come down. And is certain to go up even more – as we get into winter and heating oil demand goes up. Note that food prices are way up – on account of diesel fuel being required to get the food to the stores.
Gas prices will follow.
For political reasons, as the president of the American Petroleum Institute stated recently.
Gas prices have come down – for now – because the Biden Thing drained the Strategic Petroleum Reserve. In italics to emphasize the fact that gasoline is refined from . . . petroleum.
And so is diesel, of course. It is easier – and cheaper – to make diesel out of petroleum because it doesn’t have to be refined as much.
But if most of the petroleum is used to make gas (for reasons of political expedience) rather than diesel, what happens to the supply – and price – of diesel?
Capisce?
So, the current cost of diesel can be seen as a harbinger of the cost of gas to come – Unless the supply of petroleum is increased. API President Mike Sommers says this isn’t likely.
“The Strategic Petroleum Reserve, unfortunately, has become the strategic political reserve. And we have grave concerns about how it has been so politicized. This is for emergency purposes, not to lower gasoline prices during a time during a political season.”
That being precisely what the Biden Thing did do.
As a result, the reserve is at its lowest ebb since 1984 and there is nothing being tapped to refill it.
Or your tank.
The Biden Regime peddles the half-truth that it has “issued 9,000 drilling permits” on federal land. But the full truth is that most or even all of these permits are just that – permits to look for oil. Not a guarantee that there is oil there. The distinction is, obviously, important. Like that between a drug that does not prevent infection or transmission and a vaccine that immunizes.
The Biden Regime knows there may not be oil to find – and that oil companies aren’t going to “invest” in looking for it when it may not be there and even if they did find it, why bother with it – knowing in advance the regime is openly hostile toward them actually drilling for it and to people being able to buy it.
Put another way, the regime wants petroleum to be scarce – and so, expensive – in order to prod people into the centralized and more readily controlled “alternative.” The regime has been explicit about this.
“No more drilling” said the Thing, just a couple of weeks ago.
Which doesn’t mean the Strategic Reserve won’t be refilling. That being the government’s “tank.” To assure its supply of abundant and affordable petroleum. It is your supply that’s to be curtailed. The current cost of diesel gives us a window into what the cost of gas is likely to be, soon.
. . .
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“Gas-powered vehicles require gasoline to keep on going. If there’s none at the pump, it is hard to refine your own.”
Well, that depends what you mean by “hard”. I looked into this a while back, and it turned out that various people had studied biobutanol as a direct drop in replacement for petrol, even taking a test vehicle through its paces on commercial butanol (the same as biobutanol, only derived from fossil feed stocks and not made by fermenting). That is, it doesn’t even need different or differently tuned engines the way ethanol does.
The thing that relates to your point is, it’s quite easy work to get and concentrate biobutanol, much more so than ethanol. You just ferment it and freeze distill it to the point that some of the biobutanol separates off. All that’s hard in comparison to getting ethanol (say), and that makes it fairly impractical just now, is the loss of what doesn’t separate and of what ends up in different by-products like ethanol and acetone (which was the original desired goal of this fermentation). And, of course, it takes feed stock away from food supply and it might get rejected by modern engine sensors just as biodiesel might.
And there are always gasifiers, like Imbert’s.
“The Biden Thing”? Really? Now you’re falling in with the name-calling crowd? You’re better than that, Eric. We’re all mad, bud. Acting childish is not the answer.
Hi RNS,
I hear what you’re saying. But a point comes when mockery is a useful tool. For example, Face Diapers. Of a piece with the WW II-era ditty about Der Fuhrer’s Face: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=I1583adUqSg
This is even better: https://rumble.com/vr3o0a-ted-nugent-sheep-talk.html
I refuse to dignify evil or idiocy.
That goes for the Biden Thing, too.
Eric,
In Oregon, when Queen Kate Brown reinstated an indoor mask mandate last year a few months after having let the first one lapse, one way that I mocked our Queen’s mask mandate when it was in effect was to wear a face diaper on one ear, and nobody gave me grief for “Not wearing the mask correctly”. While I’m glad that Queen Kate’s reign will end in a few weeks, our new Queen to be, Tina Kotek, will likely be even MORE of an authoritarian than Kate Brown, and try to bring back mask mandates and even SHOVE the anti-human climate change agenda down Oregonian’s throats. Will the people of Oregon stand up en masse this time and say “NO!” when Kotek tries to bring back face diaper mandates? The nearly 48% who voted for Kotek will probably say “Yes your majesty Kotek!”, but will the other 52% say “NO!”? That remains to be seen.
IMHO politicians aren’t mocked nearly enough.
Yeah…like saying “That’s Mister Hitler to you!” Let’s dignify those who have no dignity! Hey…after all, millions of idiots legitimized the buffoonery of the senile coot, just as they did his predecessor(s)…..
Every Democrat is an enemy of the American people.
Hi Fred,
Every “Democrat” is a Leftist. And Leftists are the enemy of the American people.
Based on world history, rightist fascists haven’t been any better.
Bill! Where the hell ya been?!
Name one right leaning fascist and what they did to get that label. Ill wait!
AGREE Eric I drive an 8year old V.W.jetta diesel .In Vancouver Canada I PAID $ 2.40 _ a liter or $ 9.60 -A Gallon .Canada seems to have so much oil that it build a pipeline to the U.S. that Biden cancelled .What you think of that price?
Actually, anyone who participates in a democratic electoral process is an enemy of every individual, for they are advocating, agreeing to, and legitimizing being bound by the “will of the majority” and all that that entails, no matter who wins (And no matter who wins…we all lose.) They render all who disobey the resultant legal process as offenders and criminals.
The so-called right is just as bad as the left- to wit, I give you Richard Nixon, Ronal Reagan (despite his almost libertarian-0sounding words), GHWB, GWB, and one Big Orange Doofus. All of the above may speak words which are a little more moral than those of the lefties, and which placate their intended audience……but when all is said and done, they end up doing the very same things as the leftists, and even empowering those leftists (As Trump did, for just one example, by signing CARES; By Authorizing the BIGGEST military budget in the HISTORY OF THE WORLD (as if in preparation for WWIII…hmmm…I wonder why…) and by being the best friend Israel ever had (So says the Zionist Organization Of America, who gave him award for just that) and the best friend the pharmaceutical cartel ever had- and now, as a reward, the leftists are even refusing to prosecute him for a decade of blatant tax fraud, and will likely let him slide on the stolen documents too……just watch!
Canary in coal mine?
Look at home heating oil prices.
Not one story about the doubling of prices over last year.
Thankyou for that post.
I watch the Business networks. In June of this year home heating oil was at 117% inflation rate. As of this date it is still at 65 % inflation rate.
Reporting on this whether WSJ/CNBC or FOX is crickets.
When you have a fraudulently installed senile puppet in the WH, this is what happens.
The price of diesel has been crashing, but the retail price has held up. Prior periods when this occurred were October 2008, December 2014 and December 2018. All three of these periods share similarities such as Federal Reserve policy tightening, high inflation coming into the period, and rapidly declining economic activity. Let’s see what the next month or two bring in the way of retail prices changes. If the retail diesel price doesn’t fall, something different is happening.
https://basedmoney.substack.com/p/diesel-says-economic-crash?sd=pf
Probably, I find it easier to energize my EV off my solar than figuring out how to home brew diesel.
Hi CST,
Unless you have a very powerful array, good luck charging your EV that way in anything shy of a couple of days. It took 15 hours-plus to mostly (but not completely) recharge the Lightning I’m testing on 120V grid power. Even using 220V takes – this is according to Ford – about nine hours.
why bother responding to an idiot communist like him. it would take 3-4 day to chare with solar panels. in fact if I had the power no one with an EV can plug into the grid they have to use solar power
Hi SPQR,
I know. But I try to be civil – up to a point!
Good luck charging your ev at night. I suppose that would work if you never drive anywhere during the daytime – which is the goal of the 15 minute city the rulers want for everyone else.
How difficult would it be to build a (Real) cooperative producer or refinery? The technical expertise is surely not bound exclusively to any single, current producer. I’m being serious here. If there are enough of us we could most likely even make a handsome profit.
Something that many EP Autos readers have predicted has come to pass, comrades:
“The 2005 Real ID Act, which mandates that U.S. travelers must carry more than a standard driver’s license to board a domestic flight, was set to go into effect on May 3, 2023.
“But on Monday, after some 15 years of delays, the Department of Homeland Security pushed back the deadline for enforcement by an additional 24 months. Travelers now have until May 7, 2025 to update their documents.”
https://www.nytimes.com/2022/12/05/travel/real-id-deadline-delay.html
Twenty years, to crank out ‘enhanced’ government ID cards.
This is your US clowngov, at the height of its failing powers.
Just imagine if it, like, tried to fight a war or something. Oh, wait …
Ize goan git me one-a them Real Eye-Dees to protect me from dem terrists! Dem terrists be all sneaky and everything; notice how you never hear ’bout what deyz up to dees days?
Hi Sue,
It’s because the WarnTrrr served its purpose – of terrorizing the public and habituating them to being treated like incoming felons at a prison. On to the next-level “crisis.”
“Warn Trrrr” LOL!!!!!! Added to te list, with ‘Gnomesain’ and ‘Amberlamps’.
-Sue
(Sadly Eric, when trying to make a point about the psy-op and mentioning how they’re suddenly not so concerned with ‘terrorists” anymore, I’ve actually had mature adults -seemingly rational people- seriously say “Yes, those terrorists have been too quiet; they’re probably plotting something! Blah blah blah sleeper cells…blah..thank goodness for Homoland Security!”! There is no helping these people- nor this society or those of us who are trapped in it. Who’d have thunk that adults believe more in fairy tales than even children!)
so you want the govt to force the people to have national ID card in just 3 months?
Debating about the marginal efficiency discrepancies of “green technologies” is a moot point because it is merely a side-show in the current tragic energy crisis that is being created by “climate change” policies that are, and will be, implemented by current policy-makers and governments.
Please see my post below, and again, see THIS:
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=eDWq7-eP5sE
John Kable is 100% correct. Eric and I have been telling this to people for as long as we have known each other, several decades, at least, and longer. Energy IS Life. And the current energy crisis is a cause of artificial attempts to “reduce energy use” which is creating more poverty AND suffering, not anything at all what it is being advertised as.
Watch this J.P. podcast. Facts support the use of more “fossil fuels”, NOT less! I have been aware of the facts as a geology major, for 25+ years.
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=eDWq7-eP5sE
The “climate change” policies being pedaled today are a con and are virtually genocidal, and empirical evidence of it’s application over the last 50 years shows this. We will kill ourselves, and our children with this virtue-signalling CON if it is not stopped!
At least Auntie Entity (Tina Turner) knew it was “Master”, the smart little bastard, that had Bartertown by the short hairs, as evidently he was the only one with the technical knowledge to make methane from pig shit. “Blaster”, though a simpleton, had the muscle to defeat anyone in Thunderdome, at least until Max discovered his weakness. The frustrated nominal leader of BT had enough of Master fucking with her out of ego. Once Max had done her dirty work, although he “busted the deal”, and by BT law, had to “face the wheel”, she didn’t need him anyway, so who’s to say he’d have got his ride back.
Embargo on.
There is another way, at least for the mechanically and technically minded…
Obtain a “stand alone ECU”–one without Wi-Fi access, or one that can disable Wi-Fi access.
Since all newer vehicles already have the catalysts, O2 sensors and fuel injection systems in-place, it should be relatively straightforward to replace the vehicles engine control system with one not accessible from the “cloud”.
Oh snap, you’re a genius!
I owe ya a beer if we ever meet
I am not convinced at all of this electric car future, or that we are going to ditch diesels in our lifetime. I think our society is literally off of it’s rocker and due for a big punch in the face. Did you see Carvana CVNA stock price today, or NKLA?
https://bigcharts.marketwatch.com/advchart/frames/frames.asp?show=&insttype=Stock&symb=nkla&x=61&y=15&time=13&startdate=1%2F4%2F1999&enddate=9%2F15%2F2019&freq=1&compidx=aaaaa%3A0&comptemptext=&comp=none&ma=0&maval=9&uf=0&lf=1&lf2=0&lf3=0&type=2&style=320&size=3&timeFrameToggle=false&compareToToggle=false&indicatorsToggle=false&chartStyleToggle=false&state=9
Is not Tesla TSLA stair stepping down just like NKLA? Is is not logical that Tesla euphoria will pass and eventually Tesla will meet reality of fair valuation – while losing market share to so many other huge auto manufacturers corporations. And did you notice that Elon Musk slipped out of Tesla and is busy with Twitter? Do you think that little sneak knows that his car company is doomed? I do. He got rich farming subsidies while riding high on the save the planet crap.
Startup Tesla copycat company Nikola home page says it’s electric semi is the “fleet of the future”. I doubt that. I think that for the rest of my life diesel trucks will still dominate over the road shipping. And since we are still in the ice age, in a solar minima, I expect long cold winters, and a diesel with a heated cab will beat a battery truck everytime.
I think there is a good chance all this electric vehicle stuff is a flash in the pan. How many car companies have come and gone in the last 120 years? I think that we just completely a Grand Supercycle blowoff wave, and for the rest of our lives we will be in the depths of an economic crisis that will force everyone back to reality. I think all the unicorns will die, and all the rainbows will turn black, and I still do not believe men can have babies. Call me old fashioned.
(BTW the free 12 days of Elliott Wave worth checking out:
https://www.elliottwave.com/free-events/12-days-of-elliott/resources)
Interest rates going back up is a huge slap in the face to spendthrifts who think governments can just spend ad infinitum. Sorry, I do not believe in the free lunch forever economic model. I think interest rates could EASILY shoot back up OVER the 1980 highs. Amerika is a bankrupt banana republic run by lunatics who steal elections. It’s a bad moon rising. Rising rates could easily bankrupt the Federal Government, which is, BTW, just another corporation with huge debts.
Yes Virginia, nation states can go bankrupt. States can go bankrupt. Counties can go bankrupt. Cities can go bankrupt. Municipalities can go bankrupt along with mom and pop businesses and individuals.
I will not be surprised if Tesla goes bankrupt. I will not be surprised if California state and it’s pension funds go bankrupt. I will not be surprised if Russia absorbs Ukraine and all of Biden’s investment in that shithole is a total loss. I will not be surprised if houses fall 90% or more as mortgage rates go back to normal levels above 8%. I will not be surprised that in a few years 99% of the cryptos are gone and forgotten.
——————–
https://www.fool.com/investing/stock-market/market-sectors/financials/cryptocurrency-stocks/how-many-cryptocurrencies-are-there/
“There are now more than 12,000 cryptocurrencies, and what’s truly astonishing is the growth rate. The number of cryptocurrencies more than doubled from 2021 to 2022. At the end of 2021, the market was adding about 1,000 new cryptocurrencies every month.”
—————-
In my not so humble opinion electric cars will disappear as fast as all these cryptos, they both were driven by this insane optimistic view of the future, which is just a fantasy and decoupling from reality which was fueled by the euphoria of the Federal Reserve pumping up the money supply by 4x, WTF chart of the century:
https://fred.stlouisfed.org/series/M1SL
That is like giving a heroin addict ten times the dose. What happens? Euphoria followed by cardiac arrest. In 2008 the money supply was 1.4 trillion and they jacked it to 20.6 trillion. That is a 14.7x increase. Then these loonaticks were surprised by persistent inflation. That money increase is the real cause of the BOOM and it will be the fundamental cause of the BUST.
Yukon,
I agree- there is no future for ‘lectric cars- the whole thing is not sustainable. That is actually the plan though! EVs are a ruse (as are ever-increasing CAFE standards and emission controls) to get rid of ICE cars. It’s practically to the point already where cheaper older used cars are becoming rare and expensive. Between lowering the production numbers of ICE cars; getting a percent of the people into EVs, and having the majority of cars on the road right now be so complex and delicate that they are economically unsustainable shortly after they are out of warranty, there will be little left to drive for the average person. Private cars will be the realm of the upper-income bracket only.
More and more people will be herded into cities as driving becomes too expensive for country folk.
Notice too how they’ve already abandoned ‘self-driving’ cars? You never hear anything about them anymore, and Uber and most of the automakers have pulled funding on the development of them.
And you are absolutely right about Tesla- a ridiculous company that has never turned a profit; whose product sells at an uncompetitive price, and which is plagued by recalls of just about every car it has made….as more and more people (even the greenies) catch-on to the fact that EVs are far from ‘green’ (Heavier car which use MORE energy; which are reliant upon emission-producing energy, and whose batteries are an ecological nightmare both in terms of manufacture and disposal. Not to even mention the inconveniences of living with an EV are becoming more widely known). If it weren’t for Tesla’s living off of the government teat, they would be long gone already.
Before I knew about EPautos I read about Tesla fraud on Wolf Richter’s site,
https://wolfstreet.com/
https://wolfstreet.com/tag/tesla/
Some damn good charts in those articles and worth a look.
https://wolfstreet.com/wp-content/uploads/2020/12/US-Tesla-share-price-2020-12-12.png
Elon is a poseur, he says he is for free markets yet helps himself to tens of billions in electric car subsidies. Henry Ford never did that. He became the richest man in the world getting on the EV bandwagon.
Elon also pushed the global warming myth, and even made a video about it. So he is either dumb about CO2 or he is criminally insane like all the rest of them. No one worth their salt believes the global warming crap.
You are supposed to believe this super man Elron Muskrat runs a big family and 3 huge corporations (now 4 giant corporations). Do you believe that, I sure as hell don’t, I say he is front man for some money power. (BTW Elron is a slur – L Ron Hubbard the con artist, and Musk RAT)
Agreed as well
Just copy and pasted this around a few places, making popcorn now as I wait for heads to asplode and the Ree’ing to begin 🙂
Eric, you have a bit of a technical error. Natural fuels are refined using fractional distillation, the light stuff comes off first, then some gasoline, then kerosene, then progressively heavier grades of fuel oil, down to bunker fuel and asphalt/tar. In a barrel of crude oil there is inherently a lot more diesel fuel of various types than gasoline. Diesel fuel is inherently far more abundant and used to be far cheaper than gasoline- thus its use in heavy haulers like rigs, trains, and ships.
Also, old school mechanically injected diesels are inherently cleaner than gasoline engines until the 90’s closed loop engine management. As usual, pinheads saw occasional puffs of soot and assumed they had to be dirty, leading to a lot of prejudice against Rudolph Diesel’s “black mistress”
That’s my understanding of fuel refining. It’s more of a distillation process.
A question though. Is it straight up a distillation process where the fuel distills out x amount of each fuel? Or can they tweak the process–through heat or other means–at all to distill a little more of one type of fuel than another? Just curious.
Catalysts are also used in the refining process.
Can you expound on that?
‘US oil refineries use fluid catalytic cracking (FCC) to correct the imbalance between the market demand for gasoline and the excess of heavy, high boiling range products resulting from the distillation of crude oil.
‘FCC units are less common in EMEA [Europe, Middle East, Africa] because those regions have high demand for diesel and kerosene, which can be satisfied with hydrocracking. In the US, fluid catalytic cracking is more common because the demand for gasoline is higher.’
https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Fluid_catalytic_cracking#:~:text=A%20modern%20FCC%20catalyst%20has,zeolite%20used%20in%20FCC%20units.
I used to work at ExxonMobil’s Baton Rouge refinery, founded in 1909. In those early days, probably it was all thermal distillation. Chemistry marched on, though, and now a refinery can be tuned to both the input crude (heavy or light) and the desired final product mix. But not with a mere twist of a dial — this tuning includes heavy, fixed equipment and units.
Thanks Jim. I figured that there was some way to refine fuels with more particular results. Just not sure how it was done.
Yes, that’s inty-resting stuff that the average end-user (like myself) doesn’t know much about and just takes for granted. Only thing I know about distillin’ is that I have a neighbor ’round the corner who got over the ‘Rona by using some good old Kentucky moonshine.
Here are some facts
(there is a small amount of flexibility — up to 5 percentage points — but these percentages are typical:
From a 42 gallon barrel of oil
47% gasoline
23% diesel fuel and heating oil
13% other products
10% jet fuel
4% liquified petroleum
3% asphalt
On a recent trip to the Rockville/Gaithersburg area, I noticed that premium unleaded was more than $1.00/gal higher than regular. It didn’t used to be such a large gap, even just 2 years ago it was around 0.50 or so.
Speaking of canaries, a big honking yellow one just croaked in the used car market:
‘Carvana shares crashed to a record low Wednesday after Bloomberg reported a group of the company’s creditors formed a cooperation pact to prevent creditor fights in the event of a restructuring. The creditor group holds approximately $4 billion of Carvana’s unsecured debt, or 70% of the total outstanding.
“These developments indicate a higher likelihood of debt restructuring that could leave the equity worthless in a bankruptcy scenario, or highly diluted in a best case,” Wedbush analyst Seth Basham wrote in a note to clients.
‘Carvana’s 2030 bonds trade at 41 cents on the dollar, indicating traders believe bankruptcy could be imminent and recovery minimal. The $3.3 billion of bonds due at the end of this decade were trading near 90 cents on the dollar in August.
‘The one-time hedge fund darling has plunged more than 98% this year over a worsening credit outlook, declining prices for used cars, soaring interest rates, waning consumer demand, and a heavy debt load.’
https://www.zerohedge.com/markets/carvana-shares-crash-creditors-form-pact-bankruptcy-risks-explode
As recently as last year, one of Carvana’s founders, Ernest Garcia III, was listed as the richest person in Arizona, worth several billion. (Carvana is based in Tempe.) Today ol’ Ernie is applying for food stamps, I reckon, as his ride gets repo’d.
Living in the Bay Area of CA, I’m surrounded by lefties. The lefties capable of any form of independent thought, and there aren’t many of them, recognize that Biden’s proposals around energy would be detrimental to our prosperity as a society, however, they think there’s no chance of actually passing his proposals, so it’s simply good political maneuvering to ensure future votes for Democrats. They make the same argument about CA’s recent proposal to destroy the state by spending $560 billion to pay $223k in slavery reparations to each black person, and to support Gavin Newsom’s anti-oil legislation to show those evil oil companies how evil they are. It’s truly nuts. They recognize the potential harm, but go along with the party line. This is the minority that recognizes the issues, the rest are complete NPC’s, and behave like howler monkeys in any discussion.
Many lefties I associated with in the past were capable of independent thought and honest debate. I still remember the California of the 70s/80s as a wonderful place. Its now a train wreck full of peeps striving to live the Slug Life.
The pandemic of crap ideas regarding food, energy, housing, and transportation, those seeds were sown in the golden state.
Friend of mine had been driving a diesel Excursion for long-distance towing. He recently picked up a V-10 gas Excursion to use instead, as it’s actually more economical now with the price of diesel being so high- and as a bonus, the maintenance costs are much less on the gasser….and they are actually a lot more reliable (because the modern diesels have such complex high-pressure fuel systems) and much cheaper/easier to repair if something does go wrong. (Remember when diesels were the bulletproof more reliable ones?!).
Tier4 diesel regs are a disaster, but was created to limit competition.
Yep, made the mistake of buying the kid a diesel 3/4 ton.
~$1,000 for annual maintenance, plus towards the end of ownership $5+/gallon diesel fuel.
Pick up an old 300D if you want a reliable diesel vehicle but plan on DIYing the maintenance.
the old VW diesels are more economical…like the 1992 mk2 Golf 1.6 lt. na diesel, analog, no computer… I owned….40 mpg city, 60 mpg highway, it had 240,000 miles…ran great…bought it for $850….12 years ago
and the 2000 mk4 Jetta 1.9 lt. turbo diesel with stage 1 tune (which gave it 25% more power and 20% better fuel economy)……over 40 mpg city, 60 mpg highway, it had 260,000 miles…ran great…bought it for $1000….10 years ago
the 1992 mk2 VW Golf 1.6 lt. na diesel, analog, mechanical injection pump…no computer… I owned….40 mpg city, 60 mpg highway….
if you see one buy it….they can burn 50% used engine oil,,,free stuff…or filtered used cooking oil behind fast food restaurants….free….
some places when cooking oil was cheaper then diesel…people burned diesel…diesel shortages coming….
Amen, Bill! If it ain’t got an injection pump…it ain’t a real diesel. The only thing these modern HEUI and ‘common rail’ “diesels” have in common with real diesels, is that they run on diesel fuel. The old diesels (Pre-Powerstroke; old Benzes, etc.) were bulletproof. You could run ’em without a battery; they’d last literally a million miles; they were cheap to maintain, and they’d never let you down; The modern diesels are the exact opposite.
My Dad has a Range Rover TD6, and everytime he drives, he’ll pass a few stations insisting on going to the cheapest
Pedo Peter, Barry the Limp Wristed Queen and all the other swamp creatures will be gone someday, and when they are, prices will drop.
Still wanna 90s diesel off roader (not a pickup), avoid the emissions crap, mod it a bit for more modernish power and economy, upgrayedd the trans a bit (short shifters and stuff) and daily it knowing the Feds cant touch it due to the 25yr rule 🙂
All this is doing is waking the normies who arent redditing cucks up and with the right regime and stuff, there might be a diesel renaissance
Ok, forget $40k. How many F150 Lightning trucks has Ford *actually* sold at whatever the MSRP for the entry level model to date — whatever that is currently — vs. how many went out showroom doors at trim levels pushing the final total to near six figures or beyond.
And no including sweetheart deals for good fleet customers. Entry level model sales at the MSRP.
Hi Roscoe,
The actual MSRP for the base ’23 F-150 Lightning is $48,769. That’s with the “240 mile range” battery.
I doubt that Ford has actually sold many at that price. Total sales of 13,000 means that the collector market isn’t even satisfied yet, and the dealers will know this.
Cumulative F-150 Lightning sales:
‘Ford reported selling 2,062 units in November of the all-electric F-150 Lightning, which was one of the first battery-electric pickups to launch in the U.S. earlier this year and so far is the best-selling with a total of 13,258 sales.’
https://www.detroitnews.com/story/business/autos/ford/2022/12/02/ford-sales-down-in-november-but-automaker-hits-ev-milestone/69695874007/
Ford claims to have reservations for hundreds of thousands of Lightnings. But the number actually delivered and paid for is 13,258.
Buy now; quantities are limited! /sarc
they tried to kill it, now they are cutting off the fuel for it….
no fuel (diesel) = no food…..it fits in with the wef agenda 2030 depopulation agenda using starvation, etc.. diesel…….the life blood of the planet…civilization was built on cheap energy…mostly diesel….
The diesel engine might be mankind’s most important invention, it does most of the heavy work on the planet. In heavy equipment for construction and mining, in ships, trucks, trains, and powering generators for electricity.
The entire military is dependent on diesel engines, in trucks, tanks and ships.
These people are insane………How the EPA Spent 35 Years Killing the Diesel Engine
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=jNtySQdn0zo
An EV costs more per mile for fuel then a VW ice diesel, and emits more pollution more per mile then a VW ice diesel.
So they ban the diesel and force you to buy an EV = insanity.
VW diesel 100 mile fuel consumption = 1.36 gallons @ $4.00 gallon = $5.44 = $0.05 per mile
EV 100 mile fuel consumption = 41.66 kwh @ $0.40 = $16.64 = $0.16 per mile
The $16.64 isn’t the only cost…….the tesla $22,000 battery is used up, worn out in 100,000 miles.
ATTENTION: this works out to $22.00 per 100 miles it is costing you for the battery.
Add the $22.00 to the $16.64 = $38.64 = $0.38 per mile
The Volkswagen Golf BlueMotion has emissions of 85g CO2 per km. it is even cleaner (less emissions) than a Toyota Prius or an EV….
A current-model large EV car with a battery produced and charged in an average European Union country emits about 88 grams of CO2 per kilometer,
A law might come out forcing EV owners to buy a 2014 Volkswagen Golf BlueMotion diesel to help reduce emissions….lol
Why are they pushing EV’s that get 20.8 mpg when there is a fuel shortage?
Plus an EV costs 7 X more to run then the ice diesel Golf, in a recession when people are broke that is insane….lol
Should be still selling these:
the 2014 Volkswagen Golf BlueMotion diesel, capable of a claimed 88.3 mpg imperial, or 73.5 mpg U.S….. 100 mile fuel consumption = 1.36 gallons
An Ev is 25% efficient in turning original source of energy, petroleum in this example into mechanical energy to push the car down the road.
95.1% of all electrical energy comes from so called dirty non green sources, so EV’s aren’t green…lol
(green source solar and wind supply 4.9%)….
The next problem is solar panels and wind turbines, the 4.9%, are not green at all, they are very damaging to the environment, they are very expensive, dangerous, huge real estate hogging, unreliable, dirty energy.
solar panels, lithium batteries and wind turbines are all catching fire, they are very dangerous…
In comparison power plants use .001% of the amount of real estate that solar and wind use, if the 100% switch to solar and wind is made, there will be no farmland left, you will starve to death..
Thermal efficiency of power plants using coal, petroleum, natural gas or nuclear fuel and converting it to electricity are around 33% efficiency, natural gas is around 40%. Then there is average 6% loss in transmission, then there is a 5% loss in the charger, another 5% loss in the inverter, the electric motor is 90% efficient so another 10% loss before turning the electricity into mechanical power at the wheels.
33% – 6% – 5% – 5% – 10% = 25% efficiency for EV’s.
(under not ideal conditions it might be 12% efficient).
NOTE: a diesel is 50% efficient….lol…
What test drivers are actually getting driving EV’s in the real world is they are getting 2.4 miles of range for every kwh used or using 41.66 kwh to go 100 miles. EV trucks are way worse.
So to end up with 41.66 kwh of electricity which is equivalent to 1.20 gallons of gas to push the EV 100 miles down the road 4.80 gallons of fuel were burnt to generate the electricity in the power station, remember net 25% efficiency.
100 miles using 4.80 gallons = real 20.8 mpg, EV’s are getting a real 20.8 mpg…lol
VW diesel 100 mile fuel consumption = 1.36 gallons @ $4.00 gallon = $5.44 = $0.05 per mile
EV 100 mile fuel consumption = 41.66 kwh @ $0.40 = $16.64 = $0.16 per mile
The $16.64 isn’t the only cost…….the tesla $22,000 battery is used up, worn out in 100,000 miles.
ATTENTION: this works out to $22.00 per 100 miles it is costing you for the battery. Add the $22.00 to the $16.64 = $38.64 = $0.38 per mile
so these EV owners complaining about the battery replacement cost aren’t too bright, that cost is part of the cost per mile to operate an EV they didn’t think of and the manufacturer lied about by not informing them. maybe they should sue for false advertising. It is like a deferred fuel cost.
This means the EV costs 7 X more to run then the ice diesel Golf
so this VW diesel gets 3.5 X better fuel economy then the 20.8 mpg EV
and the EV costs 7 times more to run….so what do they do?….they ban the diesel and force you to buy the EV…..why?
Emissions CO2 per km. …. the ice Golf is cleaner then an EV
The Volkswagen Golf BlueMotion has emissions of 85g CO2 per km. it is even cleaner (less emissions) than a Toyota Prius or an EV….
A current-model large EV car with a battery produced and charged in an average European Union country emits about 88 grams of CO2 per kilometer,
This means the government should be forcing EV owners to buy the cleaner ice diesel Golf…lol
The leftist/communist/psychopaths did their inversion again…lol…the EV’s pollute more, damage the environment more then ice cars.
2014 Volkswagen Golf BlueMotion for sale… $6403.00….buy one…
https://www.motors.co.uk/volkswagen/golf/trim/bluemotion/year/2014/used-cars/
In comparison power plants use .001% of the amount of real estate that solar and wind use, if the 100% switch to solar and wind is made, there will be no farmland left, you will starve to death..
Hope ya ain’t mad I copied and pasted you, Anonymous Assassin:
https://s3mag.com/switzerland-moving-to-ban-evs-true-or-false/
Wow….
And so it begins- “Switzerland considering banning non-essential EV use during winter”.
The true purpose for the pushing of EVs: To ultimately control us and restrict our travel. Just watch Switzerland’s scenario magically expand to …..everywhere in a short time.
Jokes on the people who bought them
Once I can, getting a classic without computers, so they can’t track me. Then I’ll leave my phone behind as well. Curious though if they gotta tracker in my insulin pump though
Peru EXPLODES in protest over trucker and farmer regulations
the wef controlled leftist/communist government is trying to get all trucks older then 1999 off the road
Peru is in upheaval over rising gas prices, inflation and cost of living. The government is placing mandates on farmers and truckers at a time when life is already hard for them. Why are globalsts doing this to working people?
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=f23dBZlYA0I
maybe that is the future….they start by just banning any ice vehicle manufactured pre 1999…..
They can pry my future classic from my cold, dead hands. If I go down, I’m taking as much of those sons of bitches down with me
Biden and his totalitarian party (with no fight from the spineless republicans) want emulate Stalin and the SOVIETS OF THE 1950’s, starve the country side and keep the cities fat and happy! Are there roundups and gulags in our future?
Seems to me every state needs it’s own version of the electoral college system for any state-wide office or issue, just to help eliminate urban leftist hellholes from imposing their degenerate “beliefs” on the rest of an otherwise conservative state. Say, one vote per county. Of course, non-corrupt elections would also be necessary. Yes, I realize it’s a pipe dream!
I’ve been advocating that for decades.
An statewide electoral college system would break the stranglehold that the leftist urban centers have over the rest of the state’s population.
The electoral college system would force candidates to consider and campaign in all counties, not just in major population centers.
Unfortunately it will never be implemented…
Part of getting inflation under control is to get the dollars out of the United States. This played out well during Obama’s reign, and the O’Biden regime is back to the old playbook. Cut domestic production under the guise of looming environmental disaster, buy overseas oil with inflated currency (pushing the dollars out of the United States) and blame consumer demand for the spot price. Added bonus is a revolution or two in shithole countries when the pesants can’t afford bread, and f*** the E.U.
What I can’t figure out is what exactly is wrong about the plan, other than the morality of artificial scarcity.
It isn’t just getting the food to stores, you have to grow and harvest as well, good luck with your Palouse region wheat harvest using battery power, the scope of this areas wheat production is mind boggling:
https://youtu.be/3iuKQKKJWqI
The sad thing is there is nothing at the ballot box you can do to redress your grievances with this regime. The ruling class have put their fingers on the scale, either literally with various voting fraud schemes such as ballot harvesting, mail-in balloting, ballot-box stuffing and election day that lasts weeks or by demographic replacement via mass invasion of low-IQ third worlders who always vote for the party of lollipops and stick-it-to-the-(white)man rhetoric. Either way, voting has been made pointless. Waiting in line to vote as 10 fresh-off-the-boat people already on welfare and bussed to the polling place (and likely paid to be there) cancel your vote 10 times is madness.
The way to strike back at the system is simple: Stay home. Don’t vote in federal elections. When participation sinks into the 20% to 30% range, the legitimacy of the system will be challenged. Of course, the regime could make voting mandatory and do away with that, but let’s not give them any ideas.
They intend to starve us. They intend to immiserate us. They hate us and want us under their heels. Sick, sick people. All under the guise of “it’s for your own good.”
Hi Dr. –
Yup. Have a look at the map of Georgia’s run-off election results. 90 percent of the state is red – but blue won. The urban proletariat rules Bartertown now.
Participation will be 100% once (((they))) print out the ballots needed to win.
Energy is life. The state is weaponizing energy. Making war on life.
It is a tax. The gov needs revenue, always does, the way to get it is to charge people more for energy, the big oil companies are then taxed. Taxes are then taxed.
The gov does find a way to extract a pound of flesh from the taxslaves.
WTI is under 75 USD, Brent is 79 USD. Down about 35 USD from the recent highs about a year ago or so. A 30 percent drop from the 110 USD range for a barrel of oil.
All corn, soybeans, sunflowers, wheat, barley and canola have all been harvested for the year. Farmers had the fuel for combines and semis, all crops are binned or sold.
After you farm for 30 years, you can easily save ten grand each year, you’ll have 300 grand in the bank. Farmers have deep pockets these days and buying diesel fuel is a 2000 gallon purchase to fill the tank on the farm.
One uncle began farming at the age of 21, after 30 years of profits, he had a 195 foot tall concrete grain house built with 330 thousand bushel capacity. 40 years ago, I filled the thing up to the top. 45,000 bushels of barley were in one silo. Grain bugs love barley, so you have to treat barley with phostoxin to kill zee bugs. You don’t eat them, you want beer from the barley.
Beer is taxed at 9.5 percent, it is an outrage. You can make your own, that’s more work, easier to drive to the beer store and buy it.
Grow your own diesel fuels with canola, sunflowers, soybeans, you can make bio-diesel, peanut oil works too, the original diesel fuel.
drumpish if you’re going to treat it like a tax, it’s a modification of the MMT way to take care of inflation. If there’s too much cash sloshing around the economy, raise taxes to suck it all back again.
Because micromanagement is better than nothing, right?
‘As a result, the reserve is at its lowest ebb since 1984 and there is nothing being tapped to refill it.’ — eric
Truly, the left hand of Big Gov doesn’t know what the right hand is doing. By launching US-supplied missiles onto targets deep in Russia, “Biden’s” fierce little puppet Zelensky (Person of the Year, according to the Lügenpresse) is doing everything possible to launch WW III.
It was for risky moments like this that the ‘Strategic’ Petroleum Reserve was created. Full-on naval warfare, including attacks on VLCCs, would quickly halt incoming crude oil deliveries. But “Biden” sold off half the SPR merely to win a 51-49 Senate majority and lose the House for his anti-carbon DemonRat party.
That is, “Biden” has demonstrably, in broad daylight, compromised national security for shabby partisan purposes. He should be impeached, convicted and removed from office without delay. In his 50-year career, old Joe was never anything but a lowlife, boodling ward healer. Now he’s actively destructive, a menace to our security and way of life.
True Jim,
The Biden thing cancellation of the Keystone XL pipeline on his first day in office revealed his true colors; there’s lots of oil out there, just not for us serfs.
RE “Note that food prices are way up – on account of diesel fuel being required to get the food to the stores.”
What’s that formula? ‘Problem, reaction, solution’?
‘Future of Farming’
“Electrification isn’t just about using batteries as the power source. It’s about using electrical drives to replace engines and hydraulics. Electric motors have huge torque at low speeds, they’re more efficient, more reliable and lighter.”…
https://www.deere.co.uk/en/agriculture/future-of-farming/
Yeah, we can just pull a tank full of electricity out to the field to charge up the tractor, combine, semi, and anything else that might be low on charge. I run some Deere equipment, not because I think it’s great, but because they are the only choice for some applications. I don’t trust Deere one bit, they are a globalist company just like so many others.
RE: “Yeah, we can just pull a tank full of electricity out to the field to charge up the tractor”
They drag wires along to do that. Some of the videos they have out showing how this type of setup works is downright creepy imho.
I no longer think of these those with big ag systems as farmers, they’re Industrial Agriculture.
Deere claims it’s going to compromise with the right-to-repair movement:
‘Starting in May 2022, farmers and independent repair shops will be able to buy through its online store a version of its Customer Service ADVISOR diagnostic service tool. It will follow up in 2023 with “an enhanced customer solution” allowing owners and independent mechanics to download software updates to the machines from a Deere data network.
‘Farmers have complained that currently, they must call on Deere-certified technicians to do that work, effectively preventing them from making their own repairs.
‘Deere said the software will allow customers “to clear and refresh codes, take diagnostic readings, and perform limited calibrations specific to the customer needs.” The software starts at $1,200, though the product can be more expensive depending on the type of machine and the version that farmers and repair shops need.
‘Deere designs its machines to automatically shut down when computer systems sense safety or environmental problems. A diagnostic code will appear on the machine’s screen. According to an FTC complaint, farmers need software to figure out what the diagnostic codes mean and how to fix problems. In some cases, the machines go into “limp mode” and require separate software to authorize the repairs and return to normal operation.’
https://tinyurl.com/54znybpz
Wonder how that’s workin’ out. Anyone heard any updates from aggrieved sodbusters?
helot,
“They’re more efficient”
Perhaps, but generating and delivering that electrical power is probably the very least efficient means to transport power. That’s why a propane or natural gas heat generating appliance is cheaper to operate than an electrical one. At least until the Psychopaths In Charge manage to tax and regulate them into more expensive.
>That’s why a propane or natural gas heat generating appliance is cheaper
Maybe not for much longer.
where I live (SoCal), the price of NatGas has *quintupled* since 2020.
April 4/1/20 20.307 Cents per therm
December 12/1/22 105.329
https://www.socalgas.com/for-your-business/energy-market-services/gas-prices?utm_source=IBMMailing&utm_medium=email&utm_campaign=Email%20Winter%20Prep%20(All%20Customers)%20(15395872)%20Day%205%20(1)&utm_content=&spMailingID=21656885&spUserID=Nzg4MTYzNDUzOTY0S0&spJobID=2500414850&spReportId=MjUwMDQxNDg1MAS2
Besides that, SCAQMD decrees “no burn days” for wood burning fireplaces, because particulate emissions. Fortunately, they do not have an army of enforcers (yet).
FJB
Hi Helot,
Electric motors do produce tremendous torque. The problem is powering them – and for any duration. And “lighter”? The motors, maybe. But not the batteries.
The Lightning pick-up that’s arriving today weighs three tons.
>batteries as the power source
Batteries are not a “power source.” They are only a power storage device.
A “power source” is what generates the electricity to charge the battery.
This is also known as a “prime mover,” which, historically, has been some type of heat engine.
Deere is being disingenuous, at the very least.
It’s astounding how ANYONE STILL approves of the bumbling, senile old IDIOT in office, given the way he’s resorted to acting like a KING or DICTATOR, and his regime has been trying to DESTROY this country for the sake of implementing the technocratic/ globalist agenda, unless they’re morons or they WANT this anti-human agenda the Klaus Schwabs of the world are attempting to FORCE on the masses.
The Biden Thing has been attacking AMERICAN oil production since Day 1, and yet, there are some truly brain dead people who believe the blatant LIES that high gas prices are NOT from Biden’s anti-oil policies but from “Corporate greed” or “Putin’s Price Hike”.
John B,
“It’s astounding how ANYONE STILL approves”
Easy. First you send everybody to public school for 12 years, and then you censor and censure any and all who expose your lies. “Idiocracy” is not a failure, it’s an astonishing victory, by design, for the Psychopaths In Charge.
Hey John what choice do they have? They were told to stick to the planner’s plan. By playing along so far they’ve been able to keep the plates spinning, the credit card under control and get paid 8 hours for 2-3 hours of actual work. No reason why anyone would ever think that’s going to change for the worse. And when it does they again will turn to their planners to fix the problem that’s “above my pay grade.”
My childhood best friend just closed a trucking company he built from nothing. Citing the price of diesel, taxes, labor shortages, license fees, etc. he finally decided it wasn’t worth the trouble. So, he liquidated his assets and now a bunch of people are unemployed; the state / fedgov tax feeders will no longer fleece him; and everything he worked for is down the shitter.
Sad tale.
A cautionary tale?
…And so goes Western Civilization. One bite at a time.
Idk.
Seems the ever advancing erroneous regs have a fringe benefit for gov and big biz. Small biz is having a harder and harder time dealing with all this. most likely by design, and/or the big biz lobbyists know what they are doing.
And it will continue until enough people man up and refuse to obey illegitimate government. It’s not a god damned democracy and the various governments are only granted a tiny and strictly limited set of privileges. Everything else should be resisted politely, firmly, and forcefully. But always the vast majority are cowardly pussies who will do what they’re told and support and truckle to the enforcers.