The U.S. may have high gas prices right now, but at least we are still able to get it. A report released by the Associated Press this morning, says that Zimbabwe, Africa has a shortage of gas, and it’s causing all sorts of problems. Apparently, the more well-to-do have been able to purchase gas coupon vouchers, and station owners were rationing the gas to coupon holders. However, the government just banned the coupon system, and now the wealthy are concerned about how to get gasoline right along with the poorer folks.

 

Government ordered price cuts are also causing businesses to close there, so people are having a hard time finding goods and services. The government ordered price cuts dropped the price of gas too far, to prices that are less than what it costs businesses to import it.

 

There’s a lot more to this story, than I have the time to post this morning, but if you want to know more, you can read the full story here.

 

People always talk about finding alternative fuels to use, and I think that’s a great start, but I wonder if countries like Africa would have the means to produce alternative fuels, or if the people would be able to afford it. In the U.S., alternative fuels like bio-diesel and E85 are becoming more available, but it’s my understanding that you have to have a certain type of vehicle to run the E85, and not everyone here can afford to go out and buy a new car that can use that type of fuel. I’d imagine that’s the case even more so in countries that are less developed. Don't get me wrong though, I'm all for using alternative fuels when and where we can, they're better for the environment and they save resources. The ones developed so far are also comparable in price to regular gas. Basically though, we should be happy that we can get gas, even though it's outragously high priced, and that we still have food on our store shelves.

There was a professor here in Indiana, at Purdue I think, who came up with a way of turning agricutural and alot of other waste products into gasoline as efficient as E85 without diverting crops from animal or human feed. Don't know what ever happened to that, but with all the famines in Africa, losing all of the excess grain that we used to send in aid to E85 production ensures they lose all the way around.
I'll be grateful for what we have for the time being, but wow odes it need fixed.

Something needs to be done for sure