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227 comments on DrumBeat: July 22, 2006

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Mad Maxout on July 22, 2006 - 12:10pm Permalink | Subthread | Parent | Comments top
Of course, the cost of getting the liquid fuel is becuse of dropping EROEI - and you're right. Buck a litre gas is NOTHING yet! The long-range commuters out there are going to be MAD AS HELL and won't have the option to "not take it anymore" except to take up commuting by other means. Even with mere buck a litre gas, a 15 mile commute starts to look a little long-range. Wait until it's like $2 a litre or $3 a litre. The political scene promises to be rowdy. Gas prices are already rapidly closing in on $1/litre. ($3.77 and the stupid 9/gallon)

While commuting is the most obvious thing, those fuel prices as we all know will "trickle down" into climbing FOOD prices among other things. Water will sooner or later start to have its price climb becuse of fuel to pump it. Coal in powerplants that feed electric-engine driven pumping stations will get more expensive as coal is diverted toward liquid fuel to commute with.

Commuting is about the most energy-intensive economic activity I can think of, in terms of value of payload (the pilot) compared to energy used. People take notice when a quarter of their take-home pay goes to that gas pump to get a load of fuel in their car. Already I saw one coworker quit due to gas prices, and another take up car pooling. Both cases are cases of long-range commuters. Sooner or later we all will have to disembark from our cars. Time to consider less energy-intensive methods now for that day that'll come for each of us. The writing is on the wall.

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Prodigal Son on July 22, 2006 - 4:45pm Permalink | Subthread | Parent | Comments top
In other words -- inflationary heat death of the economy.
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fleam on July 22, 2006 - 8:11pm Permalink | Subthread | Parent | Comments top
Haha I just went out for the afternoon and it's hotter than hell out there. For the last few days, people have been sluggish, stores not all that busy. (although Ham Radio Outlet was buzzing with activity, that's where I spent my afternoon and some money on another #$%@$^ radio.)

This heat can't be good for "the economy", although I went to Trader Joe's for some meat, leaves, and high end beer, and noticed one guy had a cart stuffed with enough stuff to feed an army for a week. Guess I should have walked around and noted if people are "shopping different" but I just wanted to get my stuff and get it home before it parboiled in the bag.

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step back on July 22, 2006 - 8:30pm Permalink | Subthread | Parent | Comments top
Interestingly, there are a bunch of "underground weather stations" throughout the area here reporting the micro-climate temperatures

--much hotter than what MSM will admit to

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Nagorak on July 22, 2006 - 7:33pm Permalink | Subthread | Parent | Comments top
I agree that this is very bad and does not bode well for the future.  It's not that we can't commute in more energy efficient ways or structure our societies in more energy efficient ways, it's that the transition may occur too quickly and result in a lot of serious problems.  The housing bubble of the past 5 years happened at the worst possible time, really.  Now we have people buying houses 1 or even 2 hours from their jobs and commuting the whole way, for some over 100 just one direction.  The perfect setup for higher gas prices to just take people to the cleaners.  

That said, a lot of people can cut back on gas usage a lot just by adopting better driving habits (if they realize that their habits are causing part of their excess fuel use) and getting smaller cars.  There's no reason we can't have very fuel efficient small cars that are pretty cheap (don't even need any hybrid technology, look at the gas mileage the Geo/Cheverolet Metro got), so there's hope there too as people start to wake up.  

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Mad Maxout on July 22, 2006 - 8:18pm Permalink | Subthread | Parent | Comments top
I already tend to do my shopping in a way to not divert from my commuting mission's "flight plan" too much. I do that from a pretty much an environmentalist's viewpoint. The gas isn't TOO expensive yet but I know that it will soon enough be.

It's certain that lots of drivers can modify their shopping trips to match their commuting missions. But the problem is that this method of conservation is limited. I have always kept this in mind, but most people so far don't. That's becuse I have always walked before driving and doing so as to minimise Calorie use in terms of general purpose instinct. I merely carried it over to car use.

Some time down the road, I will have to use a bus as a "booster" to get closer to work and use a bicycle as the second stage of the mission to work - if the job remains that is. I hate thinking about it, but that day is liable to come.

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geewiz on July 22, 2006 - 10:15pm Permalink | Subthread | Parent | Comments top
As heard from Perspective on the radio this morning driving in to work, T Boone Pickens is interviewed, and he mentions oil is about to go much higher, and gasoline will hit at least $4 within 6 weeks. OUCH!
He expects oil to hit $100 in the near future, by November as i recall.
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227 comments on DrumBeat: July 22, 2006

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