The 1980 rationing plan would shift whatever petroleum was needed to agriculture and other essential services before making it available to the public via rationing. This would be diesel since tractors, harvesters, trucks, and trains can’t and don’t burn gasoline.
Now that clean diesel can be made, you have to wonder why we make gasoline. Look at a few of the advantages of diesel engines. Why on earth do we make gasoline-burning cars (98% burn gasoline, 2% diesel)?
- Diesel engines are 45% efficient, gasoline engines 30%.
- Diesel fuel has 15% more energy than gasoline.
- Diesel engines last twice as long and are far more reliable. It takes a lot of energy, minerals, and other resources to make new vehicles. Now is the time to make things last and stop our “throw away” economic system
- Diesel fuel takes less energy to refine than gasoline
- Diesel fuel is less explosive, doesn’t release a large amount of flammable vapor, and has minimal carbon monoxide emissions
- Diesel engines create less waste heat in cooling and exhaust
What about burning diesel in gasoline engines?
You can’t. Your engine probably wouldn’t start, and if it did, would run and smoke terribly. Your engine might be okay, but it would take a very expensive fuel system flush to get the diesel out. If you tried to put gasoline in a diesel vehicle, you’d almost certainly suffer catastrophic damage to the engine and damage the sensitive emissions control components and system.
Refineries should make more diesel than gasoline
Done. Because fracked natural gas is so cheap, America’s refineries can refine raw petroleum cheaper than refineries elsewhere, so we import oil, refine about a million barrels a day into diesel, and export it. This also helps keep our remaining 149 refineries operating. On May 16 2014, petroleum was refined as follows: 54% diesel, 24% gasoline, 16% kerosene (jet fuel), and 5% bunker fuel (ships, fuel oil). (EIA Petroleum & Other Liquids Weekly Refiner net production).