>>>>>>>And here we are with enough oil in Alaska to provide the U.S. fifty years, but we'd rather pay to have the drilling done in another country than in our own.
>>>>>>
>>>>>
>>>>>I may be wrong (and it appear that I usually am), but it was my understand that most (if not all) of Alaska's oil is not gasoline quality. Most are converted to thing like plastics. I wish I could find a link to this.
>>>>
>>>>You are mistaken, indeed. Most likely, you confuse it with either Alberta's tar sands, or with Rockies oil shales. Alaskan oil has good quality, just ask any Californian.
>>>
>>>It's fine quality until it gets to California. Then we blend it with corn or MTBE or whatever else the feel-good flavor of the month is and turn it into an overpriced huffing substance.
>>
>>AFAIK, MTBE is banned in California. Probably, you use ETBE. Current ethanol price is quite correlated to oil/gasoline, i.e. slightly lower to account for transportanion costs.
>
>True, MTBE is no longer the flavor of the month. ;)
>
>Alkylate, or the lack thereof, is the latest additive causing a spike in California gas prices. Ahhhh those laze summer blending days.

West Coast and especially Californian gas is more expensive than in other parts of continental USA; mix of economical and political reasons. Few years ago, I held Tesoro stock that greatly appreciated because of this phenomenon.