Gasoline

Marylanders are suffering enough under the high gasoline prices and are already buried under car registration fees that we can barely afford. So please don't raise these anymore! Instead look at cuts to the state or raise the "sin taxes" to help pay for this. I beg you no taxes on gas and no more fees. The money just isn't there for us to pay it and I'm sick of tired of hearing Marylanders will get through it. My family and I have never gotten over the last high registration fee of $174.

It isn't hard to recognize an example of false economy in the average household budget. The vegetable gardener who spends $500 on supplies to produce $12 in produce, the inexpensive home repair that falls apart in a month or the avid shopper who saves $5 online but pays an extra $20 in shipping and handling. Yet for some reason many of us are blind to the false economy of providing gasoline at the cheapest price possible regardless of its impact on our lives and society. To put it bluntly, humans have been subsidizing the cost of gas by accepting - without direct charge - the air pollution gas-burning vehicles generate.

WESTMINSTER - The Westminster Police Department this week asked the public's assistance with its investigation of a series of gasoline thefts in the Westminster area. Police said it had received reports of four storage shed burglaries and one theft in the western portion of the city in the Royer Road and Uniontown Road area since mid-July. In each case, only plastic fuel containers of gasoline have been stolen. Investigators said the crimes had all occurred during the "hours of darkness," and in several cases locks were forcibly removed to gain access.

The Obama administration is expected to propose new rules today that would slash the amount of sulfur in gasoline, one of the most significant steps the administration can take this term toward cutting air pollution, people with knowledge of the announcement said. The new rules would bring the rest of the country's sulfur standards in line with California's gasoline program. The oil industry has warned of resulting price increases and has been joined by members of Congress from oil states in criticizing the standards as onerous with few health benefits in return.

Two men suffered burns in Harford County last Thursday evening when they tried to ignite a pile of brush with gasoline, fire investigators said. The incident occurred at 7 p.m. in the rear yard of a home in the 100 block of Robin Hood Road near Havre de Grace. According to a notice of investigation from the Maryland State Fire Marshal's Office, Patrick Mitchell, 25, suffered first and second degree burns, and Christopher Hyman, whose age was not given, suffered first degree burns.

Kerosene sold recently at a Montgomery County service station was tainted with gasoline, and fire officials are asking purchasers to return it.Apparently more than 400 gallons of the combined gasoline and kerosene were sold at the Ashton Freestate service station on Route 108 at New Hampshire Avenue between 8 a.m. Sunday and 9:30 p.m. Tuesday, officials said.Someone had inadvertently delivered gasoline to the wrong tank at the station.The mix-up was discovered after a small fire ignited when a Montgomery County homeowner refilled a space heater, officials said.

Washington. -- A lot of people these days are asking, ''What will be the fuel of the future?'' Some are talking about electric cars and cars that run on natural gas. Others say the answer is ethanol fuel, which is made out of corn.But I am convinced that the fuel of the future -- the one that makes the most sense economically and environmentally, for the foreseeable future -- will be a lineal descendant of the fuels of the past and the present.It will be advanced forms of ''reformulated'' gasoline -- new, clean-burning gasoline that is already coming to the market and that will provide unprecedented environmental performance when used in today's modern automobiles.

A tanker truck containing more than 3,000 gallons of gasoline was recovered in Philadelphia this afternoon, after it was stolen from Kent County earlier this week. Kent County Sheriff John Price said the tanker was found just before 4:30 p.m. by Philadelphia police. It went missing sometime Monday evening or Tuesday morning, officers said. Price said he did not immediately know whether the truck had been drained of the fuel. No suspect has been arrested. The 10-wheel truck was stolen from Alger Oil Inc., a company that services the Eastern Shore of Maryland and Harford County.

NEW YORK -- Gasoline futures on the New York Mercantile Exchange tumbled to their lowest price in more than five months, dragging crude prices lower, as refiners shed supplies that soon won't meet environmental regulations.On Dec. 1, the Nymex will require gasoline destined for certain regions to meet specifications set by the Clean Air Act of 1990. The Environmental Protection Agency's regulations for so-called reformulated gasoline are intended to get refiners to make cleaner gasoline.To make space for the new grades, refiners are selling as much gasoline that won't pass muster as possible.

A South Carroll High School student was burned on his face and arm yesterday when gasoline that had leaked on his shirt in the technology center was ignited, state police said. Another student has been charged with igniting the gas, police said. Ryan Robert Branning, 17, of the 7200 block of Patton Drive in Woodbine was taken about 1:40 p.m. to Johns Hopkins Bayview Medical Center in Baltimore, where he was stable and in fair to good condition with burns and an injury to his shoulder sustained when he fell, police said.

A recent article ("Pumping Up the Price" Feb. 26) on gasoline prices should make it clear to readers that the price of gasoline is no longer the result of inefficient fuel use or too much demand. Unfortunately the focus of the article was evidently on the impact of the recent gasoline price hikes to Marylanders and their corresponding life choices. However, the article gave scant attention to the cause for these rapid-fire price hikes. Oh yes, we are told temporary price hikes are expected in the spring when refineries switch to "more environmentally friendly" formulas.

The governor of Virginia has thrown a new wrinkle into a Maryland debate by calling for abolition of the commonwealth's gas tax and increasing the sales tax to pay for roads and transit - a move that would alter the competitive balance between the two states. This week's proposal by Gov. Bob McDonnell, a Republican, is part of a five-year $3.1 billion plan that seeks to address that state's lack of money for transportation projects - which parallels a similar shortfall in Maryland - by shifting from a dwindling revenue source to one with the potential to grow with inflation.

The nation's leading travel organization Friday urged the Obama administration to block the sale of E15, a new ethanol-laced gasoline, that could damage as many as 228 million vehicles that are not designed to run on it. After years of controversy, the Environmental Protection Agency in June approved the sale of E15, a blend that contains up to 15 percent corn-based ethanol, for cars made after 2001. But AAA said its survey shows that 95 percent of consumers were unaware of E15 and the potential that it could damage engines and void warranties.

The latest chart tracking Baltimore-area gasoline prices looks a bit like a sandwich cut in half diagonally, so steep is the decline. A gallon of unleaded has fallen about 28 cents per gallon (nearly 8 percent) since mid-October and is expected to fall further - despite the Thanksgiving and Christmas holidays, the busiest travel times of the year. That's substantial, but it's also little noticed by most Marylanders. Economists aren't forecasting a sudden upswing in the job market.

The Exxon Mobil Corp. asked Maryland's highest court Monday to erase most of the more than $1.5 billion awarded in two lawsuits over a large gasoline spill that Jacksonville residents claimed polluted their well water, left them fearful of getting cancer and made their property worthless. The oil giant's attorneys asked that new trials be held only on property value issues. That would leave the corporation and homeowners to argue over which homeowners to compensate for losses in property value.

The use of ethanol in gasoline has a long and sordid history ("Food or fuel?" Aug. 3). By the early 1990s, EPA regulations had reduced tailpipe emissions from new cars by over 95 percent of 970s levels, and only about 3 percent of the hydrocarbons in the atmosphere were from automobile exhausts. Nevertheless the government legislated the use of reformulated gasolines containing oxygen to facilitate complete combustion. This lead to the inclusion of MTBE in gasolines. After oil companies spent tens of billions of dollars to build government-mandated MTBE plants, ground water contamination from leaking fuel storage tanks forced the government to abandon MTBE and replace it with ethanol.

Gasoline leaking from a Ford Bronco ignited and caused an explosion Saturday morning that slightly injured a man in North Laurel, a deputy fire marshal said.Joseph Herberson of the 9000 block of Old Scaggsville Road received first-degree burns on his face shortly after 11:30 a.m. Saturday, said State Deputy Fire Marshal W. Faron Taylor.Mr. Herberson was working on a 1988 Ford Bronco II in his garage when gasoline began to leak from the Bronco's fuel line, Mr. Taylor said. A battery charger ignited the vapors from the pool of gasoline, he said.

While gasoline prices have fallen nationwide since last Memorial Day, Maryland motorists will find themselves paying more for a fill-up as they take to the road this holiday weekend.Thanks to the new nickel-a-gallon boost that raised the state's gasoline tax to 23 1/2 cents a gallon, Marylanders are facing some of the highest prices in the mid-Atlantic region, and gas dealers along the state's borders are finding it difficult to compete."I would say 20 percent of the dealers [along Maryland's borders]

Two men suffered burns in Harford County last Thursday evening when they tried to ignite a pile of brush with gasoline, fire investigators said. The incident occurred at 7 p.m. in the rear yard of a home in the 100 block of Robin Hood Road near Havre de Grace. According to a notice of investigation from the Maryland State Fire Marshal's Office, Patrick Mitchell, 25, suffered first and second degree burns, and Christopher Hyman, whose age was not given, suffered first degree burns.

In less than 200 years, the free market and respect for individual liberty took this nation from a rough frontier to a global economic superpower. Today, however, state-level economies are clearly headed in the wrong direction, with the negative consequences of their actions being placed squarely on the backs of Americans. As Marylanders, we have a battle in front of us that will literally cost us billions. Unfortunately, our state has decided to respond to a tough economy with back-breaking tax increases and various regulatory controls.