treehugger.com— The Sierra Club has reviewed the environmental records of the eight largest U.S. oil companies and concluded...
Aug 2, 2007View in Crawl 4
Many of these stations get their petrol from the nearest refinery, and are rarely branded until they arrive at the station. In other words, petrol is petrol, as long as it is clean and doesn't have a bunch of additives that contribute to pollution and eat away at your pocketbook. While detergent in your cylinders would seem to make sense in destroying grime and sludge, the reality is, it does nothing but make you feel happy you are taking care of your engine, truth be told, you are likely causing damage to your fuel filter and exhaust system.The same feature of detergents that make them useful for digesting grease, make them dangerous and useless when heated in a combustion chamber. The detergent found in a certain leading brand of petrol, is nothing but dish soap. When detergent is heated above 230 degrees, it decomposes into several aromatic compounds related to benzene. They are poisonous and are not generally further degraded by a catalytic converter, nor do they cause the residue inside the cylinder to dissolve, since detergents only operate when the base fluid they are dissolved in is still a liquid.If you spend money assuming that a fuel is better due to octane level or some additive that will actually reduce energy per liter, then you are wasting money and making somebody else richer in the process.
It's comments like this that give the rest of us cyclists a bad reputation. I'm American, and I bike my fat American ass to work almost every day unless it's raining, but I don't try to push my transportation choice onto everyone else, because I don't want to act like an elitist prick.No wonder the people driving cars don't want to respect us and share the road.
I worked in a Chevron run by a man who had owned several and been in the business for 35 years. He was the smartest and best boss I ever had, business-wise. He told me that octane ratings were a scam, as the law (at least in California) requires *all* vehicles to run at 87 octane.I was there the night they switched all the stickers from 92 octane to 91 octane on the pumps, too. Not a whiff of it in the news for weeks after, allowing prices to remain *exactly* the same. Then they went UP. Yep.Please wake up, people?
When I worked for Chevron, my boss (35 years in the business before retiring recently) there always put regular in his vehicles. He owned the station and wrote off every last cent of the gas he used...but swore that the higher octanes were a complete waste on your average automobile. Fart smucker, Jim was.
No doubt you're one of the 5% of Venezuelans who used to almost exclusively enjoy the profits from oil. Now Chavez is sharing the wealth and you're angry? Can't afford to keep the Land Cruiser on the road? My heart bleeds. Chavez is EXACTLY what South America needs - especially Venezuela. I took a look at your pictures as well ... my first trip to Venezuela was 1989 and back then there was a military roadblock every hour or so. You don't show those pictures ... nor do you show the pictures of the many pre-Chavez riots every time they even THOUGHT about raising the price of gasoline.I support Hugo Chavez.
chronusmcgeeAug 3, 2007
Many of these stations get their petrol from the nearest refinery, and are rarely branded until they arrive at the station. In other words, petrol is petrol, as long as it is clean and doesn't have a bunch of additives that contribute to pollution and eat away at your pocketbook. While detergent in your cylinders would seem to make sense in destroying grime and sludge, the reality is, it does nothing but make you feel happy you are taking care of your engine, truth be told, you are likely causing damage to your fuel filter and exhaust system.The same feature of detergents that make them useful for digesting grease, make them dangerous and useless when heated in a combustion chamber. The detergent found in a certain leading brand of petrol, is nothing but dish soap. When detergent is heated above 230 degrees, it decomposes into several aromatic compounds related to benzene. They are poisonous and are not generally further degraded by a catalytic converter, nor do they cause the residue inside the cylinder to dissolve, since detergents only operate when the base fluid they are dissolved in is still a liquid.If you spend money assuming that a fuel is better due to octane level or some additive that will actually reduce energy per liter, then you are wasting money and making somebody else richer in the process.
armandomAug 3, 2007
It's comments like this that give the rest of us cyclists a bad reputation. I'm American, and I bike my fat American ass to work almost every day unless it's raining, but I don't try to push my transportation choice onto everyone else, because I don't want to act like an elitist prick.No wonder the people driving cars don't want to respect us and share the road.
brapallgoodAug 3, 2007
I worked in a Chevron run by a man who had owned several and been in the business for 35 years. He was the smartest and best boss I ever had, business-wise. He told me that octane ratings were a scam, as the law (at least in California) requires *all* vehicles to run at 87 octane.I was there the night they switched all the stickers from 92 octane to 91 octane on the pumps, too. Not a whiff of it in the news for weeks after, allowing prices to remain *exactly* the same. Then they went UP. Yep.Please wake up, people?
brapallgoodAug 3, 2007
When I worked for Chevron, my boss (35 years in the business before retiring recently) there always put regular in his vehicles. He owned the station and wrote off every last cent of the gas he used...but swore that the higher octanes were a complete waste on your average automobile. Fart smucker, Jim was.
truckerdogAug 3, 2007
My favorite take on this one is at <a class="user" href="http://www.endoil.org/node/313.">http://www.endoil.org/node/313.</a> EndOil is my new favorite site, just in case anyone cares.
canadienseAug 6, 2007
No doubt you're one of the 5% of Venezuelans who used to almost exclusively enjoy the profits from oil. Now Chavez is sharing the wealth and you're angry? Can't afford to keep the Land Cruiser on the road? My heart bleeds. Chavez is EXACTLY what South America needs - especially Venezuela. I took a look at your pictures as well ... my first trip to Venezuela was 1989 and back then there was a military roadblock every hour or so. You don't show those pictures ... nor do you show the pictures of the many pre-Chavez riots every time they even THOUGHT about raising the price of gasoline.I support Hugo Chavez.