How much is gasoline in your area?

[emeryjre]

gas is $3.29 and diesel $4.49 in town by me NW Iowa. Just some info on Ethanol. One bushel of corn produces 2.9 gallons of ethanol, 18 lbs of high protein distillers grain for livestock, 17 lbs of CO2 for beverage dispensers and 1 1/2 lbs of corn oil. The by products $1.35 High protein Distillers Grain, 1 dollar a pound to fill CO2 tank for pop tank dispensers by the way will fill 500 glasses of soda or $17, $2 dollars of corn oil and $5.51 for ethanol = $25.86 income per bu. I have not found out what the O&M is for an Ethanol plant yet so I can't give you the net value. If someone out there could do the research for the cost per Kw on solar that would be great. On the comment above that says they charge their car for free at home where do you get one and have someone install it for you? I believe there is value in both EV and fossil. I am concerned on the bit coin and other high tech industries using tremendous amounts of Electricity. Go SOLAR, WIND, NUCLEAR, DAMN, COAL and FOSSIL. And someone fix our Infrastructure to supply it. Now everyone go on VACATION!

For Solar Power

Here is a link to a calculator from the National Lab of the Rockies

It is a Government funded research center for Renewable Energy

Solar Levelized Cost of Energy Analysis | Solar Market Research & Analysis | NLR

www.nlr.gov

Not sure what you are looking for regarding ethanol plant, but here is a model for ethanol profits

Ethanol Production Profits in 2025

The U.S. ethanol industry entered 2025 coming off five consecutive years of positive profits. The purpose of this article is to estimate the profitability of the nation’s ethanol production for the 2025 calendar year and assess whether the industry continued its impressive run of profitability.

www.agriculture.com

 

[HitchHiker71]

gas is $3.29 and diesel $4.49 in town by me NW Iowa. Just some info on Ethanol. One bushel of corn produces 2.9 gallons of ethanol, 18 lbs of high protein distillers grain for livestock, 17 lbs of CO2 for beverage dispensers and 1 1/2 lbs of corn oil. The by products $1.35 High protein Distillers Grain, 1 dollar a pound to fill CO2 tank for pop tank dispensers by the way will fill 500 glasses of soda or $17, $2 dollars of corn oil and $5.51 for ethanol = $25.86 income per bu. I have not found out what the O&M is for an Ethanol plant yet so I can't give you the net value. If someone out there could do the research for the cost per Kw on solar that would be great. On the comment above that says they charge their car for free at home where do you get one and have someone install it for you? I believe there is value in both EV and fossil. I am concerned on the bit coin and other high tech industries using tremendous amounts of Electricity. Go SOLAR, WIND, NUCLEAR, DAMN, COAL and FOSSIL. And someone fix our Infrastructure to supply it. Now everyone go on VACATION!

If you’re asking about charging at home - you can charge via a normal 110v outlet however that only adds 2-4 miles per hour since it’s a maximum of 15amp. Moving up to a 240v/30A NEMA outlet will get you 20-30 miles per hour at up to 30amp. Going up to a 240v/50A NEMA outlet will get you up to 30-40 miles per hour at up to 50amp. Some folks like us install a dedicated L2 charger, in our case a Tesla Wallcharger (v3), that uses a dedicated 60amp circuit and adds up to 44 miles per hour at 50amps or 11.5kw maximum. We had our Tesla Wallcharger installed in our garage for around $900 IIRC - plus the cost of the charger which at that time was around $400. We could have gone as low as $450 for the install but we chose to locate the charger in the back of our garage which required about 20-30 feet more wire run and conduit for the ideal spot.

Regarding the cost of Utility grid scale solar, it’s between 3-8 cents per kWh, or $38-$78/kWh using LCOE: https://grok.com/share/bGVnYWN5LWNvcHk_a4133ae8-a999-4721-816e-5ce198f03099

Sent from my iPhone using Tapatalk

 

[pedro47]

gas prices in a 3 miles radius in Suffolk, VA. $3.21 to $3.79 per gallon regular gas this morning.

 

[gps60255]

Thanks for the info. The grid I was talking about is not your personal service it was about the grid running through out the US. Many area's need updating and technology upgrades for the new load being put on it by the big users. I think President Trump is thinking about making the Mega Watt user's supply their own infrastructure so not to burden the average household. On the Utility side of use it was the norm the more you use the less cost per unit. We are starting to see the more you use the higher the cost per unit, with some companies asked to pay a hook up charge according to future use. This would help upgrading the existing utility being added on to. This also should follow for water, sewer, gas, fiber and so forth. Its hard to supply a 12 inch water main or any other utility to the industries when from the pump house you have 4 and 6 inch mains through the city to get to to them. So you would have to run a larger main to the area which could be several miles.

 

[pedro47]

Mobile gasoline before noon was $3.14 per gallon..
Now that Mobile gasoline is selling for $3.49 per gallon.

Here is the kicker less than a 3/4 mile from the Mobile station is a Wal-Mart Murphy gasoline station.
Wal-Mart regular cost $3.79 per gallon this morning.
This afternoon the cost is $3.99 per gallon.

 

[Brett]

Thanks for the info. The grid I was talking about is not your personal service it was about the grid running through out the US. Many area's need updating and technology upgrades for the new load being put on it by the big users. I think President Trump is thinking about making the Mega Watt user's supply their own infrastructure so not to burden the average household. On the Utility side of use it was the norm the more you use the less cost per unit. We are starting to see the more you use the higher the cost per unit, with some companies asked to pay a hook up charge according to future use. This would help upgrading the existing utility being added on to. This also should follow for water, sewer, gas, fiber and so forth. Its hard to supply a 12 inch water main or any other utility to the industries when from the pump house you have 4 and 6 inch mains through the city to get to to them. So you would have to run a larger main to the area which could be several miles.

I'm hoping the "infrastructure" will eventually be on the roof - no plugs - no gas

.

 

[AnnaS]

March 3, 2026 - $3.39/$3.49
March 17, 2026 - $3.69/$3.79

 

[PigsDad]

I'm hoping the "infrastructure" will eventually be on the roof - no plugs - no gas

View attachment 123262


.

How will that work when it is parked in the garage?

Kurt

 

[CO skier]

I'm hoping the "infrastructure" will eventually be on the roof - no plugs - no gas

View attachment 123262


.

"Kilometers of (solar) charge" capability. Do not drive all those extra 10 or 20 miles at once.

And those expanded rooftop solar panels will literally "wave goodbye" at highway speeds.

 

[geist1223]

What Plans are there to eventually dispose of all those Solar Panels in an Enviromentally safe way? Currently they are being thrown in Landfills. Old Blades for Wind Turbines are simply be stacked in fields around the Country. Companies that build windmill farms should be required to post a $500m Bond for every 50 or part thereof of windmills.

 

[TolmiePeak]

What Plans are there to eventually dispose of all those Solar Panels in an Enviromentally safe way? Currently they are being thrown in Landfills. Old Blades for Wind Turbines are simply be stacked in fields around the Country. Companies that build windmill farms should be required to post a $500m Bond for every 50 or part thereof of windmills.

How much should a coal fired power plant be forced to bond for spewing toxic gases into our atmosphere?

 

[emeryjre]

Not arguing the point, was only talking about farmed acres and unless your in Hawaii or tearing up the rain forest in Brazil you can not make more. Not the Rocky mountain. There are many livestock farmers that put solar up next to there buildings to offset the costs of electricity and outages for short term. I believe they received grants for them not sure what percentage? Don't believe you would see many wind farms if it wasn't for the $10,000 per year per unit. There are several counties in Iowa that do not allow any more wind farms. They are spread out only one per 80 acres or so. They do take up to 1/2 acre or more each with access road. which makes it a pain to farm around. Don't forget ladies widow's own most of the ground hear in the Midwest. I'm glad to hear that California has no coal plants. In our area not a very big percentage of cars are electric (battery charged) vehicles but what there is many are charged by coal fired generators. I'm sure as time goes on they will do better on costs to charge them. To each their own.

Did you know that 64% of Iowa's electricity comes from wind turbines
The electrical rates average 13 cents a kilowatt hour
The rate is below the national average of 16 cents a kilowatt hour
The electrical rates have been falling as the percentage of electricity produced by wind has risen

 

[emeryjre]

What Plans are there to eventually dispose of all those Solar Panels in an Enviromentally safe way? Currently they are being thrown in Landfills. Old Blades for Wind Turbines are simply be stacked in fields around the Country. Companies that build windmill farms should be required to post a $500m Bond for every 50 or part thereof of windmills.

What plans are there to deal with millions of tons of fly ash from coal

 

[CO skier]

Did you know that 64% of Iowa's electricity comes from wind turbines

Yo! gps60255 versus 1-2% from solar power.

Those on using farm land for solar?

Good grief. I regularly drive between the Rocky Mountains and the Mississippi River in NE, KS, IA -- certainly representative of the "grain belt" farmland. I have not seen a SINGLE solar panel.

I HAVE seen lots of Wind Farms that have ZERO effect on "acres of grain is used to feed livestock and other commodities."

 

[TheTimeTraveler]

.


I'm currently visiting Las Vegas. Price of Regular grade gasoline is $4.14 per gallon on Tuesday, March 17th.

Also an FYI: Las Vegas is due to hit 100 degrees on Friday, March 20th.

If you have a chance be sure to see the Wizard of Oz in the sphere! Really a fantastic experience! The sphere took about six years to build and cost over $2 Billion dollars to construct.

















.

 

[PigsDad]

How much should a coal fired power plant be forced to bond for spewing toxic gases into our atmosphere?

Not to mention the environmental damage due strip mining coal.

Kurt

 

[TolmiePeak]

What plans are there to deal with millions of tons of fly ash from coal

Much of it ends up in concrete.

 

[gps60255]

I believe in Iowa they have used coal ash in with Asphalt in the roads. Along with so many things its (I think things are great) like wind turbines, bit coin, lg. capacity electric grids, solar fields, large disposal fields for turbine blades, Batteries and so forth as long as (THEY ARE NOT IN MY BACK YARD). I have even listened to the bird lovers all upset that they are disturbing the migration course of the birds. The blades of turbines are made of PETROLEUM and cannot be recycled AND MOST ARE 90 FT. LONG. Like I said they are all useful! God gave everyone of us the power to choose! But the government has a say so on who they are going to subsidize each 4 to 8 years.

 

[emeryjre]

Not all of it is going into cement, wallboard, etc., etc.

Here’s the clearest, most up‑to‑date picture we can assemble from authoritative sources
how much coal fly ash is currently sitting in U.S. holding areas (ponds + landfills):

Roughly 55–60 million tons of coal fly ash are stored each year in U.S. ash ponds and landfills,
based on the fact that U.S. coal plants generate ~92 million tons of coal ash annually,
of which ~72 million tons is fly ash, and about 60% of all coal ash is disposed of rather than reused.
restservice.epri.com

This does not include the enormous legacy ash already accumulated over decades, which is far larger.

1. Annual Coal Ash Generation

• U.S. coal plants produce ~92 million tons of coal ash per year.
  restservice.epri.com

2. Fly Ash Portion

• Fly ash accounts for ~72 million tons per year.
  restservice.epri.com

3. How Much Is Stored vs. Reused

• About 40% of coal ash is reused (cement, wallboard, etc.).
• About 60% is disposed of in
  • Surface impoundments (ash ponds)
  • Landfills
    restservice.epri.com

This includes fly ash + bottom ash + boiler slag, but fly ash is the majority.

What About Total Legacy Ash Already Sitting There?

The question “how much is currently in holding areas” is trickier because:

• The U.S. has decades of accumulated ash, much of it in unlined, leaking ponds.
• EPA has not yet published a full national inventory of legacy ash volumes.
• Utilities often under‑report or have incomplete historical records.

However, EPA has stated that legacy coal ash is one of the largest toxic waste streams in the country,
Many sites contain millions of cubic yards each.

✔ Annual addition to holding areas:

~55–60 million tons per year are added to ponds/landfills.

✔ Total legacy ash:​

Likely hundreds of millions of tons, but no authoritative national total has been published yet.

EPA’s ongoing CCR rule expansion (covering legacy ponds) is expected to force utilities to disclose these inventories.

 

[pedro47]

Look for prices to hit $4.00 per gallon or more before Saturday.

 

[Brett]

Did you know that 64% of Iowa's electricity comes from wind turbines
The electrical rates average 13 cents a kilowatt hour
The rate is below the national average of 16 cents a kilowatt hour
The electrical rates have been falling as the percentage of electricity produced by wind has risen

and solar generated electricity

 

[Rolltydr]

$369.9 for regular at Costco in St. Augustine this morning.

 

[emeryjre]

and solar generated electricity

In this case, not so much
Coal is still at around 20%
Hydro Power makes up a lot
Solar is only around 1%
They have enough wind to keep the turbines spinning
Hydro power is their baseload

But keep up the support, it is recognized

 

[1Kflyerguy]

$369.9 for regular at Costco in St. Augustine this morning.

Really hoping this was a typo... triple digits...

 

[Krteczech]

$ 3.99 and $ 4.59 @ Safeway, Estes Park, CO