Question of the Day - 17 March 2025

I grew up in the foothills of Southern California (Altadena) in the 1960s. Prior to the California clean fuel regulations, the smog was so bad that your lungs hurt breathing and on many days the smog was so bad we weren't allowed to have recess.  All of that changed.  Nevada, especially Las Vegas Valley, is well-served by using this gas.  

A lot of fuel comes from the Phoenix area (5 Hour drive one way) and from Salt Lake ( an 8 hour drive). I know this because I have seen trucks delivering fuel to Nevada stations and have asked the drivers. When I asked the station owners, they all told me it was cheaper to buy fuel from AZ/Utah due to Calif. charges a ton of fees on the purchases. When I told them Calif. can't charge their fees/taxes as it is an interstate shipment they say it is because the sellers demand they take ownership of the fuel in Calif. So Calif gets some of their tax money and fees from fuel delivered to Nevada. 

My first post college job was in Santa Monica during the mid-late fifties.  I spent my time between there and an apartment located west of USC/The Colesseum with weekends in the Sierras or seasonally in the desert.  I rarely ventured east of the downtown library unless I was headed out of town.  One afternoon in late July or August of '59, a coworker and I went to Pasadena to consult with a Cal Tech prof regarding a problem at work.  We went in the Jag roadster I was then driving.  When we emerged from the easternmost tunnel on the Pasadena freeway and the smog hit me, my eyes watered up such that I could barely see.  That was quite an experience.  Solid traffic in every lane, a curvy stretch of freeway, and sixty to seventy mph.  I stayed in my lane by looking down at the lane paint, glancing up to maintain distance from the car ahead.  My eyes cleared in less than a minute--I suppose--but it seemed like forever and, clearly, I've never forgotten.

No need to pay those prices for that eeevil dino fuel.
Just buy a Tesla and fuel it from the grid.
You'll be saving the planet, and Making America Gret Again. Ha!

Why do dogs chase cars? They get off on the fumes. I forget who said that.

When I first started visiting Las Vegas in 2009, gas prices in Las Vegas were around the same as they were at home in Pennsylvania.  Since then we've increased our gas tax ridiculously but gas prices in Las Vegas are actually a lot higher than they are here.  It was about 70 cents a gallon higher than it was at home back in December.

Union Pacific was the main owner of the pipeline, built in 1960, opened in 1961. Sold to GATX Terminals in the 80s

Although Mississippi is the lowest-cost state in the country in many ways, it is also the worst or one of the worst in many ways, so you should think twice about moving there if it isn't a financial necessity.  In general, health care is the worst in the South, and Mississippi's is bad.  Cigarette smoking is entrenched as a way of life in the entire South, and Mississippi is as bad as any Southern state, so you face the prospect of smoke hitting your face and going into your lungs anywhere you go.  Although home prices are low, so are salaries.  The education system is relatively bad.  And the people there (overwhelmingly White, "straight", and either Christian or pseudo-Christian) are more prejudiced against Black, LGBT, or Muslim people than residents of any state except Alabama.  I guess this would be an OK place for you if you were a White bigot who doesn't have health problems, but if you're not, then you should really ask yourself whether you want to live in a place like that.

I think the Mississippi reference was a joke.  "Would you rather live in [fill in the blank]?"

Changing the subject a little--I remember the first time I flew into LA in daylight, in 1980, going through layer after layer of BROWN air.  What made it really bad was that I was going to be out there for two weeks.