While everyone acknowledges the need for alternative energy sources, I recently stumbled across an article pointing out just how high of a hurdle liquid petroleum sources set for potential competitors. An ExxonMobil "Perspectives" publication points this out with the following fact: all of the energy concentrated in one gallon of gasoline is enough to charge an iPhone once a day for almost 20 years. The energy density of batteries and current bio-fuels can't effectively compete with that of petroleum fuels.
While on the topic of gasoline, the U.S. Energy Information Administration website posts fuel price statistics. For those who might be interested in the breakdown for the cost of a gallon of gasoline, in March, 2012, they list the average price at $3.85 of which 67% ($2.58) covers the cost of crude oil, 16% ($0.62) covers refining costs, 6% ($0.23) covers distribution and marketing, and 11% ($0.42) goes to taxes. Obviously, there must be some profitability in each of these components and this breakdown would be more interesting if it provided some insight into the typical distribution of profit for each portion of the product delivery chain relative to the ultimate retail cost.
No comments:
Post a Comment