Originally Posted by prathmann

A couple issues with the calculator being used:
1) it's calculating the pounds of carbon dioxide released, not just carbon. More than two thirds of the weight are the oxygen atoms that combine with the carbon;
2) the determination of barrels of oil saved is based on their est. that each barrel when refined yields a little under 20 gallons of gasoline. Technically probably about right with the way refineries operate currently, but misleading since that same barrel of oil is also producing various other hydrocarbon products - heating oil, diesel, jet fuel, waxes, greases, etc. Just based on economics the 20 gal. of gas per barrel doesn't make sense since the price of a barrel of oil is about $100 and if all the refineries got out of it were 20 gallons of gas that they sell for about $70 (incl. tax of about $8) then they'd quickly go broke. So just because demand for gasoline goes down by 20 gallons does not mean that we need one less barrel of oil. It would only save about half that given all the other products that come from crude oil.