Why Lower Gas Prices are Bad for Us

The Good Human is reminding us all why these low-by-last-year’s-standards gas prices aren’t a good thing. People around the country have been breathing a sigh of relief as gas prices have slid from highs above $4 a gallon to less than $1.50, and it’s easy to understand why. After all, the economy is in the toilet and people are losing their jobs left and right – it’s one less thing to worry about.

But when gas prices were high, there was a lot more motivation to find a cleaner, renewable solution. There was a mad rush to trade in SUVs for smaller, more efficient vehicles and a huge increase in public transit patronage. Now, people are going back to their old habits.

From The Good Human:

I do realize that when gas shot up to $5 a gallon in major cities that people stopped buying oversized school buses to commute alone to work in. I also realize that more people started taking public transportation, too. I get that, it’s a good thing, and it was about time. While the rest of the world has been downsizing their automobiles, riding Vespas, and investing in high-speed efficient rail travel, we were on a binge for what Doug Fine calls “ROAT’s” – Ridiculously Oversized American Trucks. (If you have not read Fine’s book Farewell, My Subaru, you are missing out big time – here is my review.) We could not get enough of these vehicles, and they kept getting bigger and bigger and bigger – until they became a joke unto themselves. I will never forget the time I was in France at an outdoor cafe and a Hummer drove by on those little skinny streets they have. The people at the table next to me (about 3 inches away – this is France we are talking about here) started pointing and laughing at the driver, making fun of the truck. I laughed along too, as I think they are dumb…but a lot of people don’t and found themselves with these behemoths sitting still in their driveway because they could not afford the gasoline to run them anymore. And while the gas prices were hurting my wallet as well, I could not help but be happy that the prices were going to make people think long-term about the cars and trucks they buy; but then gas prices started falling.

You would think that people would have learned a lesson from super high gas prices and realize that another price increase is inevitable. Some people did, and some didn’t, but one thing’s for sure: this isn’t going to last. Reality is going to hit again, and soon.

Link [The Good Human]
Photo credit: Flickr user scottfeldstein

Why is Gas So Expensive? Here’s a Breakdown

As gas prices rise and fall seemingly on a daily basis lately, it might seem like the shift in price is totally arbitrary.  After all, what can happen during one weekend to make gas go from $3.69 to $3.09 and back up to $3.36? A complex set of transactions has to take place before the price of gas is calculated, and The Consumerist has broken it down for us.

From The Consumerist:

The Three Markets: Contract, Spot and Futures

Both oil and gas are traded on three markets: the contract market, the spot market, and the futures market. Each is influenced by different factors and impacts the price of gas at different stages of production. Unlike the futures market, the contract and spot markets are not the kind of markets found on Wall Street; they are informal networks of businesspeople.

The Contract Market
Though it seems like oil companies spend most of their time ruining your day by raising the price of gas, their primary business is exploration. Once an oil company finds a field and coaxes it into producing crude, it takes that unrefined oil and sells to refiners. The vast majority of oil is sold by contracts. A veritable orgy of contracts signed between oilcompanies and dealers, oil companies and refiners, refiners and independent dealers predetermine the fate of most oil and gas.

Refiners plan their purchasing and refining activity to ensure that these contracts are fulfilled. In exchanged for this privileged standing, refiners charge contract customers a premium.

Check out the article on The Consumerist for the rest, including the spot market, the futures market, refineries, gas stations, taxes, and more.  It’s a fascinating look into what causes prices to fluctuate, and as described by The Consumerist, sometimes all it takes is a butterfly flapping in the wind to send gas shooting up in price halfway across the world.  And remember – though you might not be able to do anything to control the price of oil, you can control how much you consume.

Link [The Consumerist]
Photo credit: Flickr user micah.d

Poor Diddy Flying Commercial Due to High Gas Prices

Okay, people.  Now’s the time to get really serious about the energy prices and start doing everything we can to lower them.  The situation has gotten so dire, the unthinkable has happened.  A great and powerful man has been affected.  Despite his fortune, P. Diddy (oh, my bad, he’s just calling himself DIDDY now) has reached a point where he can no longer justify flying in a private jet due to the price of gas. He’s flying commercial, and he’s pissed.  After all, why should America hip hop royalty be forced to mingle with us commoners, sitting in first class with regular, non-famous rich people?

He’s so upset, he’s taken to YouTube to express his feelings and beg his ‘Saudi brothers and sisters’ for free oil.  Yep.

“Right now, I’m actually – can you believe this? – I’m actually flying commercial.  That’s how high gas prices are.”

Let’s all scrape our pennies together and send them to Diddy Douchebag, cause he’s hurting so much that he can no longer afford to fly around in a private jet.

Link [Huffington Post] + [YouTube]
Photo credit: Wikimedia Commons

Gas Prices Down Again: The Return of America?

Copyright 2008 Tribune Media Services

Gas prices are going down bit by bit each day, and this cartoon frighteningly portrays what could happen if they continue to slide.  The return of America? Let’s hope not. But it wouldn’t be surprising if all of the good that has been done since gas prices started going up instantly was undone if Americans can afford to be wasteful again.

Link [The Week Daily]

Plastic Going Up in Price

We’ve gotten accustomed to plastic being cheap. So accustomed, that we’re now hopelessly addicted to it – we’d be hard-pressed to live without it at this point. But, all things come to an end, and the age of cheap plastic may be going out with the age of cheap oil. Of course, that’s because plastic is made from petroleum, which has gotten very expensive as of late.

From Green Car Congress:

Mitsubishi Chemical Corp., Mitsui Chemicals Inc. and Sumitomo Chemical Co. have raised the price of polyethylene, the most common synthetic resin, by 17% to levels not seen for the past 25 years. The price hike is blamed on soaring prices of naptha, a key raw material refined from crude oil.

Domestic synthetic resin prices are now at their highest level since 1983, when the market was dealing from the fallout of the second oil shock.

Meanwhile, the price of polypropylene, which is used in candy packaging and clothing storage products, was lifted around 37-40 yen per kilogram, or 18%. And polystyrene prices were raised 7-9%, or 15-20 yen per kilogram. The plastic is used in food containers.

Okay, so – plastic is polluting, has negative effects on the health of humans and animals, is made from oil – and now it’s expensive? Sounds like as good a time as any to start trying to wean ourselves off of it as much as possible. We may never stop using plastic entirely, but we can cut back our personal consumption of products packaged in plastic as much as possible.

Link [Green Car Congress]
Photo credit: Flickr user Meg and Rahul

Record Low Number of Drivers on the Road in ’08

Commuters are leaving their cars in their driveways and walking, riding bicycles or flocking toward public transit instead. This is great news to us, since it’s not only reducing vehicular pollution and lowering gas use, it’s also helping to reframe how people think about transportation. The government, however, isn’t as happy about it – specifically, the Federal Highway Administration. You see, the fewer drivers use the roads, the less tax money they get toward highways. This gives states an incentive to push driving, rather than encouraging the public to use mass transit.

From CNN Money:

As high fuel costs led many to rely on other forms of transportation, such as mass transit, and to cut back their miles on the road this year, the reduced driving also sliced tax revenue that would normally go toward highway maintenance, the FHA said.

The federal tax on gas generates 18.4 cents per gallon of regular gas sold and 24.4 cents per gallon for diesel fuel, which gets pumped in to the federal Highway Trust Fund. Some states also add a tax of their own to fund various projects.

The FHA budget totaled $42.18 billion in fiscal year 2008. The Bush Administration has requested $40.14 billion for fiscal year 2009.

As Americans drive less, new ways are needed to fund the national road system, the highway agency said. Even though fewer drivers are using the highways, funding is still critical, party [sic] because of a backlog in highway projects.

In effect, since Americans are using public transit in record numbers, they’re diverting their tax funds toward trains, subways, buses and other forms of public transportation. Deal with it. Instead of constantly working on roads and highways, we need to start putting more money into public transit, whether the Federal Highway Administration likes it or not. This is the way of the future.

Link [CNN Money]
Photo credit: Flickr user jacorbett70

Some Won’t Give up Hummers No Matter How High Gas Price Go

Some folks love their Hummers so much, they just don’t give a damn about high gas prices. Nothing will stop them from driving these monsters. Of course, a lot of the people that say that have plenty of money to burn, so what’s it to them? Sure, Hummers haven’t exactly been welcomed onto the streets by other drivers, and Hummer owners may find themselves the targets of flying eggs. But apparently, all of these factors don’t mean that Hummer lovers are going to give up their precious status symbols.

From USA Today

Maybe mega-SUVs are going the way of dinosaurs. Hummer sales have dropped 40% this year. But these beasts and the men and women who love them certainly don’t behave like endangered species.

“I told my wife when we bought this, ‘Honey, we’re investing in steel and rubber,’ says William Welch, a Philadelphia surgeon who, cigar clenched between his teeth, offers a guided tour of his lovingly tended jet-black H1.

“If it was $10 a gallon,” he says, “we’d still be out there.”

Some elephants… are just jerks. (+2 Simpsons Fan Points if you get that reference). Luckily, there aren’t too many of them left, since Hummer sales have slowed down so much that GM’s looking to sell. That means we’re less likely to see 45-year-old housewives barreling down suburban streets in these things on their way to a nail salon, for which we’re thankful.

Link [USA Today]
Photo credit: Flickr user George E. Norkus

National Speed Limit Could Save Millions of Barrels of Gas

If anything could keep speed demons from screaming down the highway at 85 mph, maybe it’s gas prices. Each 5 mph you drive over 60 is like paying an extra $0.30 per gallon for gas. Considering that slower speeds could save a sizable amount of gas, lawmakers like Senator John Warner (R-VA) and Representative Jacki Speier (D-CA) are calling for a 55-mph national speed limit, similar to the one set in the 1970’s during a previous gas crisis.

From Yahoo! News:

The National Maximum Speed Limit of 55 mph was created in 1974, when Richard Nixon signed the Emergency Energy Highway Conservation Act. Prior to that, states had been free to set their own speed limits, but the new law threatened to strip Federal highway funding from any state straying above the national standard. The ostensible purpose of this limit was to keep down gas prices, which had been driven through the roof by an OPEC embargo touched off by the 1973 Arab-Israeli war. And with gas-prices once again sky-high, Warner isn’t alone in talking up a cap on speeding.

Jackie Speier, a first-term Democratic congresswoman from California, is already on the case. Earlier this month, she introduced a bill that would cap highway speed limits at 60 mph – 65 in rural areas. It’s currently awaiting a hearing before the House Committee on Transportation. Warner says he hasn’t contacted Speier, but adds that he’d be willing to “stroll out on the floor” in favor of a speed-limit bill. He has yet to propose a similar bill in the Senate.

A congressional study showed that the1974 law resulted in a savings of 167,000 barrels of petroleum a day, and the volume would be even greater now that there millions more cars on the road.

Of course, there’s always the question of whether motorists will comply. This is a nation of people who feel entitled to doing whatever they want, regardless of the consequences. Sure, lower speed limits – if people actually followed them – could not only save gas, but make the roads safer for all of us. Unfortunately, most people just don’t care. Those of us who do, though, will happily drive 55 mph and enjoy the extra money in our pockets.

Link [Yahoo! News]
Photo credit: PhotopediaPhotos

Fisherman Returning to Use of Sails as Fuel Costs Rise

Commercial fishermen are going back to the good old days of free fuel in response to the rising costs of diesel. By free fuel, of course, I mean wind power – they’re outfitting their boats with auxiliary sails to cut the amount of diesel they go through. Soon, however, they won’t have to rig their ships – a new generation of vessels is being developed that will rely almost completely on sails.

From The Telegraph:

Barrie Deas, chief executive of the National Federation of Fishermen’s Organisations, said a number of skippers were now using sail power to help them travel the long distances between port and their fishing grounds.

“Skippers are putting on foresails while steaming to fishing grounds offshore,” he said. “The whole cost structure of the industry has shifted so dramatically as a result of fuel price rises, and in response, vessels are looking at what they can do to reduce costs.

“Fleets are going to have to find ways of reducing fuel dependency. Everyone is looking for the optimum steaming speed and people are looking at a whole range of measures, including sail.”

Auxiliary sails were common until the 1980s, when engines became more powerful and fuel was plentiful and cheap. One fisherman interviewed for this article said that with his auxiliary sails, engine revolutions were reduced from 1300 to 900 on a 3-hour trip, and they still made the same speed.

It’s pretty awesome that fisherman are going back to wind power – I wonder if pirates will soon do the same. Hey, a bottom line’s a bottom line.

Link [The Telegraph]
Photo credit: Flickr user mikebaird

Some Rural Students get 4-Day School Week Due to High Fuel Costs

Some rural students across the nation are getting what many of us working adults wish we could have – a four-day week. High fuel costs have made it extremely expensive for schools to manage paying for transportation and cooling. Cutting out one day per week has made it possible to avoid eliminating important school programs and to preserve staff in areas like Kentucky, New Mexico and Minnesota.

From Reuters:

“For rural school districts where buses may travel 100 miles round-trip each day, there certainly are transportation savings worth considering,” said Marc Egan, the director of federal affairs at the National School Boards Association.

Egan said about 100 schools in as many as 16 states have already moved to a four-day school week, many to save money on transportation, heating and cooling.

Nevada’s White Pine School District switched just one of its schools to a four-day week three years ago. Now, with energy costs soaring, four other schools in the district are following suit.

“We’re looking at it district-wide with energy costs being at the forefront of the conversation,” said Bob Dolezal, superintendent of Nevada’s White Pine County School District, which is facing a 14 percent budget cut due to a shortfall in state funding.

Damn, how I would have loved having a four-day week when I was in school. The Reuters article doesn’t specify how the schools make up for that lost time – longer days? Shorter summer? Either way, I bet the kids are thrilled to have a three-day weekend. Four-day school week FTW!

Link [Reuters]
Photo credit: Flickr user 416 Style

Behind Automakers’ Petulant Resistance to Higher Car Mileage Standards

Every time the government proposes legislation to improve fuel economy standards, you can practically hear a collective groan from the automobile industry.  In early July 2008, automakers made a big fuss over proposed new mileage standards, saying they’re too tough.  The new standards would require automakers’ fleet of cars to meet an average of 35.7 miles per gallon for passenger vehicles and 28.6 mpg for light trucks by 2015.

This will be the first time the National Highway Traffic Safety Administration has raised its ‘Corporate Average Fuel Economy standards’ (CAFE) since 1985, which is really appalling in itself.  That’s more than 20 years that automakers could have been working on better, more efficient cars.  Instead, they spent that time developing gigantic sports utility vehicles and heavy duty trucks, leading up to a rather sickening pinnacle in recent years with the Hummer.  What’s more, the agency’s mileage standards assume gas prices of $2.42 per gallon in 2016.  What parallel universe are they living in?

Meanwhile, many consumers feel the new standards would be far too lenient.  The Consumer Federation of America wants the standards raised well over what the government has proposed, to 39.5 mpg for passenger vehicles and 30.9 mpg for light trucks.

Even that’s not good enough.  After all, it’s obvious that car companies can easily reach these standards, and far sooner than 2015 – and what’s 35.7 miles per gallon if gas is completely unaffordable or not available at all? Those of us who rely on personal or family vehicles to get around want the auto industry to step up to the plate and start getting innovative.  Challenging times fuel innovation, and it seems like we should be seeing leaders in the industry eagerly savoring this chance to really show us what they’ve got.

What reason is there, we wonder, for automakers to drag their feet like bratty, fit-throwing children on raising mileage standards?  Why aren’t they leading the charge toward the future, with cars that meet and even exceed customers’ desires for greener, more energy-efficient vehicles?

Part of it is fear.  They’ve made good money off the market as it has been for the last two decades. They’ve built their companies around the assumption that they could continue operating like that indefinitely. Completely restructuring their businesses around making more fuel-efficient vehicles will cost them.

Their biggest excuse is that ‘it’s not feasible’.  But, that certainly seems like a weak argument when hybrids as they are today are already more efficient than the proposed standards and are set to become even more efficient as improvements to the batteries and drivetrain systems continue to be made over the next few years.  Plug-in technology is well on the way.  Other alternatives to fossil fuels are being researched and developed at this very moment, and who knows what else could crop up.

Even without raised CAFE standards, automakers will be forced to green up.  They don’t have much choice anymore. High gas prices will undoubtedly be a great catalyst for improved fuel economy, simply because automakers no longer have a choice, regardless of how they feel about the new standards. Having low gas prices for so long encouraged automakers to keep on producing huge, gas guzzling vehicles, and encouraged consumers to buy them. Over the last few decades, car companies grew to depend upon sales of SUVs and trucks as a large part of their profits.  Now, they’re being forced to reevaluate the entire industry.  That’s because consumers have dropped SUVs and trucks like they’re radioactive.

High gas prices, in effect, forced consumers to take responsibility for their share of the problem: they’re now clamoring for smaller vehicles. Consumer desire for big cars and trucks was the biggest obstacle car companies would have faced in making their fleets more fuel efficient, so the rest of the onus is on them.  That doesn’t mean that we’ll never have affordable SUVs and heavy duty trucks again – it just means that most of us can get by on smaller, lighter cars during this shift toward cleaner energy.

One thing that will likely happen during the shift to more fuel-efficient vehicles is that prices will rise a bit for consumers.  Without those SUV profits, automakers will be forced to raise prices on their current lines of compact cars as well as new models that debut in the next few years.  While consumers will have to swallow those price increases up front, the vehicles will be less expensive to run over time.

The funny thing is that the Big Three automakers – GM, Ford and Chrysler – have seen huge drops in profits because they failed to anticipate this shift toward smaller, more fuel-efficient vehicles.  Strange, when it seems as though everyone else could see it coming from miles away, but perhaps they were too busy rolling naked in money, luxuriating in the profits brought to them courtesy of low gas prices and at the cost of the environment.  It almost seems as though they’ve engineered their own downfall, and they’re just now starting to realize it as plants close and thousands of workers are laid off.

GM, for one, is finally accepting reality and said just yesterday afternoon that they’re prepared to make hard choices in order to survive.  They plan to sell off $4B – $7B worth of assets in order to afford upcoming changes to their product line.  We hope to see more of that in the upcoming months.  The loss of jobs is, of course, very unfortunate, but hopefully those people will be able to become a part of the new, greener industries starting to sprout up.

The times, they are a-changin’, and the auto industry is going to have to change with them, just like everybody else, like it or not.  The only way out is through.  As we all try to find our way out of the Era of Oil and into a better, greener future, it’s going to be a bit painful for everybody, but there’s no doubt that it will be worth it in the end.

Link [CNN]
Photo credit: Make Your Own Gas Station Sign

Make Your Own Gas Station Sign

Wheee! Make your own gas station sign! It might help you quell the urge to do it in real life.  Being a smart ass is fun, but, you know, that could get you arrested and stuff.

Link [Atom.smasher.org]

Some States Shorten Work Week to Save Gas

Great news! Americans suffering from high gas prices might get some relief in more ways than one. Several state governments are going the way of the four-day workweek in order to save gas, which will hopefully set an example for governments and companies across the nation. We’re big supporters of this idea for many reasons, and really hope it catches on.

From The Wall Street Journal:

Seeking to reduce state energy costs, Utah Governor Jon Huntsman announced Thursday that the state would close administrative offices on Fridays, while extending hours on Monday through Thursday.

The idea is to work longer during the week and reduce the amount of trips to and from work.

Following suit just in time for soaring summer gas prices is New York’s Suffolk County Legislator Wayne Horsley. His plan: Let employees work four 10-hour days from July 1 through Sept. 30.

And with no gas respite in sight, the concept is spreading to states such as California, West Virginia, Minnesota and Georgia.

But a 4-day work-week could create change that goes far beyond saving money and energy. According to an article in human resources journal Workforce Management, it could lead to “a revolution in the office that will result in productivity being the central value of work, rather the number of hours logged by employees.”

Just think of how nice it would be to have that extra day every weekend to relax, spend time with your kids, enjoy your favorite hobby, or get things done around the house. You would barely notice the extra 2 hours a day on the 4 days you’d have to work. It might just make you feel like you’re working to live instead of living to work.

Link [Wall Street Journal]

‘Pulse and Glide’ to Save Gas

A group of five ‘efficiency aficionados’ drove an unmodified 2nd generation Toyota Prius to a fuel economy record of 109.3 miles per gallon over 1397 miles in Pittsburg, PA using a driving technique they call ‘pulse and glide’. This was in 2006, but many people still don’t know about ‘pulse and glide’ and how it can save them gas – even if they’re not driving a hybrid. It could cut down on pollution, too, due to decreased emissions while the car is in neutral.

From Metrompg.com:

Pulse and glide works like this: let’s say you’re on a road where you want to go 60 km/h. Instead of driving along at a steady 60, you instead accelerate to 70 (that’s the pulse), and then coast in neutral with the engine off down to 50 (that’s the glide). That’s it. Rinse and repeat. And repeat. And repeat…

By doing this, you’re still averaging 60 km/h, but it turns out that pulse and glide is significantly more efficient than driving along maintaining a steady 60 km/h.

Metrompg.com put the technique to the test in a Geo Metro, modifying the technique to eliminate the ‘turning the engine off’ part, since that wouldn’t be practical – he just put the car in neutral during the ‘glide’ part. (If you’re not familiar with hybrids, the engine shuts off automatically when you lift of the accelerator).

With the engine idling, and the car in neutral, the average mpg shown on the ScanGauge in the glide down from 90-70 km/h was 550 mpg. When you average that against the 34 mpg of the pulse, it works out to an average of 64 mpg. Now we’re at an 8% increase over the steady-state mpg.

I would name the difference between the two techniques “full” pulse & glide (neutral, with engine off in the glide) vs. “mild” (neutral, with engine idling in the glide).

So, now you know the next time you find yourself cruising down a lonely road at a steady speed, you’re not getting the best mileage you could. You could be pulsing & gliding to maintain the same average speed, and saving lots of fuel in the process.

This technique isn’t always practical in real-world driving; it’s best for those long lonely roads where they’re aren’t many other cars around. Of course, it’s all a bit more complicated than the summary above – get all the details at Metrompg.com.

Link [Metrompg.com]

Beleaguered Airline Industry Forced to Start Going Green

Things are looking pretty grim for the airline industry, which has suffered major setbacks in the last couple of years due to rising fuel costs. They’re not just dealing with how to stay in the sky without charging customers outrageous prices, though: environmentalists are forcing the industry to finally take responsibility for the huge amounts of carbon emitted by air travel. All of these factors have airlines scrambling to save themselves, and they’re finally putting some real innovation to work in the process.

From Wired:

Virgin Atlantic recently made a test flight of a Boeing 747 fueled by a mixture of kerosene and biofuel derived from coconut and babassu oil. But the emphasis is on algae, led by Boeing’s recent commitment to the alt fuel and efforts by JetBlue and KLM Royal Dutch Airlines to turn pond scum into fuel.

Christopher Surgenor, editor of GreenAirOnline, says algal fuel is the most promising alternative because “It has the right properties for a jet fuel and can be produced in comparatively large quantities.” But others say it’s too early in the game to pick a winner, and Arvi warns that narrowing the research to one field “is self-defeating. It stifles innovation.”

For all the advancements in engines and airframes, the system we use for moving all those planes around is stuck in the 1940s. Airlines say replacing the radar-based air traffic control infrastructure with a satellite system would reduce fuel consumption and cut emissions by 10 to 15 percent while making the business of getting planes in and out of airports more efficient. Adopting a more efficient means of approaching airports — called “continuous descent approach” — would further cut fuel consumption and emissions while also reducing noise.

Unfortunately, none of these solutions provide a quick fix for the problems that are plaguing the industry today. It’ll be 2-3 years before we see next generation aircraft, and modernized air traffic control is at least a decade away. Analysts say that alternative fuels won’t be anything more than a pipe dream for at least 5 years. And there are some critics who are skeptical that green initiatives will do anything at all for the industry and are simultaneously denying greenwashing accusations: “We care about the environment and we want a clean planet. We just don’t want the industry to get ruined in the process”, says Ernest Arvi, CEO of aviation consultancy The Arvi Group.

They’d better figure out something quick, because with oil prices reaching new heights nearly every day, soon the everyday person won’t be able to afford air travel.

Link [Wired]
Photo credit: Flickr user lrargerich

Maps Shows Areas of America Hardest Hit by Gas Prices

Being poor sucks, especially when your shitty job is 20 miles down the road and gas is $4+ a gallon.

The New York Times has created this graphic to show the areas of the country struggling the most with high gas prices.  Unsurprisingly, they’re mostly poor, rural areas where there is no public transportation and destinations like grocery stores, schools and places of employment lie far down the road from home.  The hardest hit areas are dark orange on the map, with the places faring best shown in dark purple.

Clearly, we need solutions and we need them fast – and I think those of us in the cities can expect it to get a lot more crowded in the coming years.

Link [The New York Times]

California Woman Starts Fires to Protest Gas Prices

Talk about getting hot about high gas prices (forgive me, that was a terrible pun). One woman in California is so irate, she decided that setting fire to two gas station bathrooms – and, inexplicably, a Starbucks – was the best way to ‘take a stand’ against rising gas prices that are putting a pinch on Americans’ wallets.

InsideBayArea.com has it:

Police received a report at 10 a.m. about a woman using a fireplace log and lighter to burn the restroom of an Arco gas station at Camino Tassajara and Tassajara Ranch Drive in Danville, Williams said. A gas station clerk put out the fire and then called police.

Soon after, police received a report of another restroom fire, this time at a Chevron station at Crow Canyon Road and Camino Tassajara. A fireplace log again was used and a woman matching the description of the suspect in the Arco case was reported in the area, Williams said.

A third call came soon after, when a restroom was reported on fire at the Starbucks, at 11000 Crow Canyon Rd.

No structural damage occurred in any of the restrooms, Williams said.

Craig was spotted by a Danville police sergeant at a nearby McDonald’s restaurant. She had eight logs with her, Williams said.

Apparently, she woke up in the morning and thought, ‘what can I do about high gas prices? Oooh, I know! Where are my arson supplies?’ It must have been funny for the people who were sitting near her in McDonalds before the cops came in, wondering what the hell this crazy lady was doing with eight fireplace logs.

*Note: Drew Barrymore was not involved in this particular incident.

Link [InsideBayArea]

Cars Littering the Sides of the Road as They Run Out of Gas

$4 per gallon does suck. Don’t get me wrong, we’re happy that high gas prices are forcing people to cut back on driving, ditch their SUVs and invest in renewable energy. That’s the positive side of the coin. On the other side, people really are pinched and having a hard time coming up with the cash to fill their tanks up all the way. As a result, the streets are littered with cars as people are running out of gas more frequently.

From The Huffington Post:

Though national statistics on out-of-gas motorists don’t exist, there’s plenty of anecdotal evidence that drivers unwilling or unable to fill ‘er up are gambling by keeping their tanks extremely low on fuel.

In the Philadelphia area, where the average price for a gallon of regular broke $4 on Friday, calls from out-of-gas AAA members doubled between May 2007 and May 2008, from 81 to 161, the auto club reported.

“The number one reason is they can’t stretch their money out from week to week,” said Gary Siley, the AAA mobile technician who helped Saba.

“Some of them are embarrassed. … They say, ‘I was trying to make it till Friday,’ and they couldn’t do it,” said Siley, who has assisted numerous out-of-gas motorists.

No doubt, putting $30 worth of gas into your car only to see it barely creep out of ‘Low on Gas’ is unpleasant, and it’s a growing reality for many people in America. We’ve budgeted for driving personal vehicles to be fairly affordable, so now that it’s getting out of reach, we’re having a hard time adjusting.

It’s time to start putting pressure on our local and state governments to get better public transit programs going. Even if you can afford gas easily, or don’t personally deal with it because you don’t drive often, helping out those people who are truly hurt by gas prices is a great cause. Another option is to offer to share gas expenses with friends and family by carpooling as often as possible – to work, to the grocery store, to the movies. As cheesy and cliched as it may sound, coming together can really help as all through the transition from the age of oil into an age of sustainable forms of energy.

Link [Huffington Post]
Photo credit: Flickr user johntrainor

Adults in Britain Should Have to Carry Carbon Ration Cards, Say MPs

MPs are pushing for a controversial new program in Great Britain: carbon ration cards. Every adult would have to carry one and would need to use it when filling up at the pump, buying airline tickets and using energy to power their homes. Britain has been trying to find a way to cut CO2 emissions without penalizing the poor, and the Environmental Audit Committee sees it as the fairest way.

From Mail Online:

Under the scheme, everyone would be given an annual carbon allowance to use when buying oil, gas, electricity and flights.

Anyone who exceeds their entitlement would have to buy top-up credits from individuals who haven’t used up their allowance. The amount paid would be driven by market forces and the deal done through a specialist company.

MPs, led by Tory Tim Yeo, say the scheme could be more effective at cutting greenhouse gas emissions than green taxes.

B For the scheme to work, the Government would need to give out 45million carbon cards – each one linked to a personal carbon account. Every year, the account would be credited with a notional amount of CO2 in kilograms.

Every time someone makes a purchase of petrol, energy or airline tickets, they would use up credits. A return flight from London to Rome would, for instance, use up 900kg of CO2 credits, while 10 litres of petrol would use up 23kg.

Mr Yeo, chairman of the committee said personal carbon trading rewarded those with a low carbon footprint with cash.

I have no idea whether something like this would actually work, but I like this line of thinking. Making people personally responsible for how much energy they consume would be a great way to control CO2 emissions. Undoubtedly, though, citizens would be angry about it – it’s definitely an idea ahead of its time. The system would have to be fairly complicated in order to account for those who live in the country and depend upon their vehicles for transportation, are housebound and need to heat their homes during the day and those who work at night when little public transportation is available. I’d like to see them work on the idea further, though.

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