Gasoline
Our never-ending love affair
Okay, admit it: If you don't live in a city with a great public transportation system (and even if you do), there's nothing like the convenience, flexibility, fun and freedom of hopping in your car and driving wherever you want to go whenever you want to go there.
Sure, there's the cost of fuel, maintenance, insurance, tolls and parking. And the pollution it causes. Driving cars, boats, motorcycles and other vehicles can be dangerous. Besides the risk of accidents, whose blood pressure hasn't been challenged sitting in traffic, when lost somewhere, sliding around in the winter or while awaiting a tow? But hey, love isn't perfect, right?
Most of us drive to or from work, commute or pick up our kids at school, run errands, work or recreate with some kind of vehicle or engine that runs on gasoline. In technical terms, gasoline is known as an aliphatic hydrocarbon, which is a fancy way of labeling this fossil-fuel-derived daily staple that comprises hydrogen and carbon arranged in molecular chains. It is produced from petroleum at refineries across America, and unless you live in a bubble, you know how much of it you use and how expensive it is.
Americans alone consume more than 130 billion gallons of gasoline annually. Burning compressed gasoline produces energy; the more horsepower an engine produces, the higher the octane it requires for adequate compression. Burning gasoline also produces numerous toxic gases and releases a variety of cancer-causing pollutants into the air that negatively affect our health and our environment. Higher-octane gasoline costs more and burns more cleanly, but there are many ways to reduce gas consumption and fuel costs, increase efficiency and better protect the environment.
For a start, we mix in additives (biofuels to reduce emissions and MTBE to increase efficiency). Many vehicles can run on natural gas, propane, hydrogen and batteries. Smaller, lighter vehicles and hybrids (which run alternately on electricity produced from burning gasoline) use less gasoline. Shorter trips use less gasoline. Properly inflated tires and well-maintained engines use less gasoline. Reduced idling uses less gasoline. Walking uses less gasoline. You get the picture.
Examining the benefits of alternative fuels, more efficient vehicles and other transportation options are just a few of the many OneThings you can pursue in your quest to help conserve resources and reduce our dependence on costly energy source.