‘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.

Link [Mail Online]
Photo credit: Flickr user futureatlas.com

Americans, Quit Your Bitchin’: Gas in Sierra Leone Costs Over $18 a Gallon

Americans are whining and complaining about gas prices like never before. Gas hitting $4 per gallon is considered absolutely crazy – an all but insurmountable obstacle to going about our daily lives. We here at EarthFirst have professed our beliefs about gas prices and the need for Americans to start thinking differently about transportation before. Now we bring you the reality of gas prices throughout the world: Hello, Americans! We’ve been enjoying artificially low gas prices for decades!

The average in many other countries, including the Netherlands, Greece, New Zealand, Japan, Switzerland and England is around $7/gallon. In Denmark, Eritrea, France, Finland, Germany and Iceland, it’s close to $10. People in Sierra Leone, Africa undoubtedly find other ways to get around considering that gas costs a whopping $18.43 per gallon there.  People in these countries actually (gasp!) take public transportation! The horrors!

Want to pay less for gas? Perhaps you should consider moving to Venezuela, where it costs just 17 cents a gallon. Venezuela is known for its highly polarized political climate, evil overlord dictator and ever-rising violent crime, though you will likely enjoy the food and the view from the plane as you fly in and out. Some of the other oil-rich countries with low gas prices include Egypt, Nigeria, Saudi Arabia, Kuwait and Iran.  I’m sure they’ll welcome you with open arms. Good luck, and send us a postcard.

Link [Wikipedia]
Photo credit: Flickr user Payton Chung

Cooking Grease is Big Business as Gas Prices Soar

Don’t you wish you would have been one of those ‘weirdos’ who outfitted your diesel-engine car to use biofuels? Years ago, when people first started gathering used cooking oil from restaurants to fuel their vehicles, news of it was greeted by the public with amazement and more than a little scorn. After all, gas was still less than $2 a gallon and most people seemed to think we’d never run out. Well, who’s laughing now, bitches? Cooking grease is turning into a booming industry of its own, and the folks who are no longer dependent on petroleum are breathing a big ‘ol sigh of relief as the rest of the population worries about gas prices.

The Chicago Tribune has it:

Restaurants increasingly are being paid for their used cooking oil, icky stuff that historically they’ve had to pay to have hauled away. And sales of kits that allow diesel-powered cars to run on used cooking oil are soaring.

With all the attention, rendering firms are reporting a surge in grease thefts.

Grease’s rising star stems from rising energy prices. Demand for biodiesel is soaring, putting pressure on supplies of used vegetable oil, which can be used to make the alternative fuel.

Restaurants are getting into profit-sharing programs with companies that haul their raw used cooking oil away. Companies that make kits that convert diesel vehicles to burn straight vegetable oil are making money, too – one company, Greasecar Vegetable Fuel Systems in Massachusetts, expects to double their sales this year and are having trouble keeping up with demand.

Some drivers are still hitting up restaurants themselves to get oil for free and running it through filters to catch stray bits of food before putting it in their fuel tanks. Many, it seems, are also going the route of theft, making the business even more competitive. This cooking grease boom just goes to show that when they’re pinched, people get creative. Let’s see more of it!

Link [The Chicago Tribune]
Photo credit: Flickr user jsbarrie

Ooh, What’s That Smell? Gazans Using Falafel Oil to Power Taxis

Gaza is currently under fuel sanctions, making it difficult for taxis to continue business as usual. Luckily for them, people in the region love them some falafel (fried mashed, spiced chickpeas), and the oil can be used to power the vehicles. It makes for some rough running and isn’t great for the cars, but it works, and right now Gazans don’t have much choice.

Treehugger has it:

According to Reuters, Gaza’s taxi drivers say the used falafel oil works much better than the fresh stuff smuggled in from the Gaza-Egypt border. They either beg for it from falafel vendors, or buy it from the vendors who are hawking it for a profit.

“It makes the cars smell like a kitchen — you feel like falafel is following you,” said Ahmed al-Beltaji, crinkling his nose. “Next week they’ll be putting water in there.”

Beltaji runs a falafel stand near a taxi station and started selling his falafel oil leftovers in April. Others are turning to other creative measures –– using cooking canisters to power their cars, or are traveling by donkey or bicycle.

I can eat some falafel like nobody’s business, but I can’t imagine that it would be too pleasant to constantly smell it while you’re driving, considering that it’s mixed with turpentine. That could get you over an addiction to the delicious fried goodness pretty quickly. I also love that one of their alternatives to riding in taxis is to take a donkey. Imagine if this caught on in American cities: seeing Wall Street businessmen in their suits and ties gripping their briefcases while clinging to the back of an ass. How fantastic would that be?

Link [Treehugger]
Photo credit: Reuters

Old Gas Pumps Roll Over and Die as Gas Hits $4 a Gallon

Old fashioned gas pumps with rolling mechanical dials are throwing in the towel. As gas rises to $4 a gallon and beyond, these dinosaurs are admitting defeat – they only go up to $3.999 per gallon and can only count up to $99.99 for the total sale. That’s leaving owners of old gas stations out of luck, since upgrading them to new pumps isn’t an option for most of them.

From MSNBC:

As many as 8,500 of the nation’s 170,000 service stations have old-style meters that need to be fixed — about 17,000 individual pumps, said Bob Renkes, executive vice president of the Petroleum Equipment Institute of Tulsa, Okla.

At Chip Colville’s Chevron station in this eastern Washington town, where men in the family have pumped gas since 1919, three stubby, gray pumps were installed when gas was less than $1 a gallon. They top out at $3.999, only 30 cents above the price of regular gas at Colville’s station.

“In small towns, where you don’t have the volume, there’s no way you can afford to pay for the replacements for these old pumps,” Colville said. “It’s just not economically feasible.”

The problem is worse in extremely rural areas, where “this might be the only pump in town that people can access,” said Mike Rud, director of the North Dakota Petroleum Marketers Association.

The companies that make or rebuild the parts needed to update the pumps are backlogged with orders right now from stations that have enough money to retrofit their existing pumps. New pumps cost as much as $10,000 to $15,000 each, an expense that most gas station owners can’t afford considering they barely make a profit on gas despite high gas prices.

To deal with the problem, some states are allowing gas stations to charge by the half gallon and settle up the price with a calculator. Other stations will have to temporarily close down and many will likely go out of business.

All of this just contributes to the perception (and hopefully fact) that oil is on its way out. These mechanical gas pumps represent an old way that just doesn’t work anymore. Time to move on!  It’s sad for the owners of these gas stations, though - hopefully they’ll find a way to land on their feet.

Link [MSNBC]
Photo credit: Flickr user Mykl Roventine

A Truck that Runs on Wood Fuel: For the Truly Desperate

When gas prices are high and you’re desperate enough to just not give a f#!k, rigging your vehicle to run on wood fuel might just be your answer. All you need are some materials you’ve probably got laying around in your garage, and a lot of patience, because you’re going to be throwing trees into this thing like there’s no tomorrow.

A listener to the Coast to Coast AM with George Noory radio program, Dave B., submitted this photo along with a few others and had this to say about it:

I ran into this interesting character today at my local farmers market that drove up in an old pickup with a crazy looking contraption in the bed of the truck composed of ducting, PVC pipe, a 50 gallon drum, an old furnace, and of course, a lot of duct tape among other many other things.

I had to ask him what in the world was on the back of his truck. It was a wood burning oven that catches the combustible fumes from the wood coals, condenses any moisture, then feeds the fumes into the engine to make it run. I wouldn’t have believed it if I didn’t see it.

Apparently this is a concept that was engineered back in WWII when there were fuel supply shortages. I have never heard of it.

Probably would not be good if we all did it, but at least I know there is someone in town with a truck that will run no matter what happens with gasoline.

You gotta hand it to the guy for ingenuity. The setup looks like a traveling moonshine still. If this isn’t giving Big Oil the middle finger, I don’t know what is. It’s not very practical, and the emissions factor makes it less than an eco-friendly choice, but it’s definitely funny.

[Update!] Back in 1981, Mother Earth News published this piece on using firewood to fuel a truck. A guy named Chicken John also has one with a pretty interesting setup

Link [Coast to Coast AM with George Noory]
Photo credit: Dave B., submitted to Coast to Coast AM with George Noory

Gas Prices Causing Commuters to Turn to Mass Transit

First, we heard that cities like Washington D.C. are initiating bike share programs. Then, there was the amazing news that about consumers are turning in their monstrous SUVs for smaller, more fuel efficient cars (hurray!). Now, we’re learning that gas prices have urged commuters to take the train, subway or bus instead of their personal vehicles. It seems that the way to change in America really is through our wallets, not through our heads and hearts. Though we’ve been warned for years that we needed to shift our way of thinking about transportation and energy, we haven’t listened, until now – when gas prices have reached $4 a gallon in many cities and are steadily rising.

The New York Times has it:

Mass transit systems around the country are seeing standing-room-only crowds on bus lines where seats were once easy to come by. Parking lots at many bus and light rail stations are suddenly overflowing, with commuters in some towns risking a ticket or tow by parking on nearby grassy areas and in vacant lots.

“In almost every transit system I talk to, we’re seeing very high rates of growth the last few months,” said William W. Millar, president of the American Public Transportation Association.

“It’s very clear that a significant portion of the increase in transit use is directly caused by people who are looking for alternatives to paying $3.50 a gallon for gas.”

This is exciting. It’s a brilliant illustration of why high gas prices are a good thing for America. With the disturbing fact that Americans are the least fired up about global warming despite being the most educated about it, it seemed as if nothing could shake us up enough to make people willing to change. Even the specter of gloom and doom in the form of food and water shortages, towns being so polluted they have to be evacuated and insanely severe natural disasters (hello, anyone remember Hurricane Katrina?) didn’t seem to be enough to spur action. Now we know for sure. It’s all about the Benjamins. Crazy, but whatever works. Now we just need local and state governments to start putting money into transit systems, so people don’t get disenchanted with them when they show their limits.

Link [New York Times]
Photo credit: Flickr user Daquela manera

Surprise! Politicians Threaten to Tax Big Oil, Big Oil Threatens to Raise Prices

The top 5 Big Oil companies pocketed a record $120 billion in 2007 alone, and they’re hissing and spitting at anyone who dares to come too close. Hillary Clinton and Barack Obama are pushing a windfall profits tax and House Democrats are threatening punitive measures if oil companies continue to amass evil overlord quantities of money at the expense of consumers.

CNN Money has it:

Oil industry: Hands off our cash. The industry, of course, doesn’t like the extra profit tax.

“If our profits are taxed, that means we’ll have less capital to invest in new production” and it could raise gas prices, John Hofmeister, president of Shell U.S., recently told CNNMoney.com.

Oil companies have been investing more in new production lately, but that argument is a little hard to swallow given the disparity between the huge amounts of money the big firms have been returning to shareholders versus the meager new oil discoveries.

Amy Myers Jaffe, a fellow in energy studies at the James A. Baker III Institute for Public Policy just finished a two-year study looking at oil companies and how they spend their money.
“These companies are spending a very small amount of their operating cash flow on exploration,” she said. “They are spending the majority of their funds buying back stock.”

Big surprise: politicians threaten taxes, and the oil companies threaten to raise prices. These guys are hoarding money like – well, like people who see that new technology is being developed that might push them to the sidelines. How dare we talk about taking away some of their precious profits. Their precioussssssss……

Link [CNN Money]
Photo credit: Flickr user Refracted Moments

Why a Four Day Work Week Would be Good for America

Stress has permeated American culture. Heart disease is on the rise, more people are on anxiety meds than ever, people are jetting off to appointments and meetings all day long and even children have rigidly scheduled daily lives. We are a country that could really use a breather. Yet, our culture encourages us to work harder and longer, especially as the economy starts to falter.

Being exhausted, stressed out, anxious and overextended isn’t the only consequence of the tough American work week. Long commutes cause pollution and are a big drain on energy resources. As gas prices are rising, people are trying to find ways to cut back, but our country wasn’t built for mass public transportation and we still have to get to work. The solution that some people are promoting could have a positive effect not only on oil consumption, but American life in general: a four day work week.

The idea is taking root in communities around the country. From King 5 News:

The state of West Virginia is considering a four-day week for government workers there.

Working four days instead of five would mean 20 percent fewer trips to and from work, reducing gasoline consumption by an estimated 65 million gallons per day, not to mention more time with family, and for Mike Cummings, a bit more hope for the future.

“I think this would help with a lot of the planet’s problems, I think it would help with our oil problems and give them a little better life,” he said.

Marion County Florida recently switched to a four-day work week for county workers. They expect to save $250,000 in energy costs this year alone.

Would you work an extra two hours per day, four days a week in order to have a three day weekend? Doesn’t the system of living to work, rather than working to live, seem unfair to you? The idea that we have to spend so much of our lives away from our friends and family, doing things we most often don’t even like doing just so we can support ourselves is a difficult one to swallow, yet it’s the expected system in this country. The thing is, it doesn’t have to be that way.

The benefits of a four day work week wouldn’t just affect oil consumption and our stress levels. The increase in family time could be just what our culture needs, and people need to be able to cultivate interests outside of their employment. Imagine how much more well rounded we’d be as people if we spent that extra day volunteering in our communities, reading books, gardening, exercising and participating in other beneficial activities.

Nobody has identified and explained the benefits of a four day work week better than Aaron Newton at Groovy Green. He’s come up with not three, not ten but sixteen individual benefits to the idea. They include reduced oil consumption, reduced greenhouse gases, reduced worker exposure to pollutants, less traffic congestion, less money spent on roads, reduced personal expenses for workers, fewer auto accidents, less time spent in the car, a reduction in absenteeism, increased productivity, more time with family, decreased labor costs, decreased operational costs, reduced childcare costs, a transition into the informal economy and just plain being happier. Here’s a snippet of what he had to say about it:

Peak oil and climate change could make for turbulent business waters ahead. This country needs more business leaders willing to navigate these waters not by burdening their workforce with limitations or restrictions but with a willingness to try new strategies. Ideas such as this one should be strongly considered by corporate America or maybe it’s time for the Federal government to revisit this issue through law. New ways of working really could benefit both businesses and employees. It’s important in the time ahead not to simply saddle the workers of America with the rising costs of energy and ecological destruction.

There are lots options concerning the number of hours a 4 Day Work Week could contain. Employees could work 10 hours a day and keep a 40 hour work week. Or they could simply eliminate an entire day and drop down to a 32 hour work week. In between is the idea of working 4 days a week, 9 hours a day. But regardless of how many hours people work, the important part to remember is that most tasks are going to get accomplished each week just as they did before. A recent survey by salary.com of over 10,000 American workers revealed that on average, we waste more than 2 hours each day surfing the web or making phone calls to friends.

Increased productivity could be the clincher for companies, who tend to see everything according to the bottom line. Having happier employees that are more satisfied in their lives and grateful for a schedule that gives them more free time could certainly make a big difference. When employee morale is up, more work gets done – it’s simple.

Americans are already getting the short end of the stick when it comes to time off. Compared to other nations, we hardly get any vacation time at all, and when you look at perks like mandatory paid maternity leave and sick days, we look even more stretched and overworked. Employees in Germany, Austria, France, Britain, Spain and Sweden get at least 20 legally mandated days off per year. Doesn’t that make you feel like you’re missing out? Meanwhile, the companies we’re working for are making a profit off of our willingness to perform as ‘labor units’ rather than living, breathing people with lives outside of our work. The rich are growing richer, but those of us actually making the sacrifices haven’t seen our income increase in years.

So, how do we get started? Most of the companies in America won’t make the jump until larger corporations have proven it’s a success. Perhaps if some of those among the 100 Best Companies to Work for – Google, Edward Jones, Goldman Sachs and REI for example – started it up, we could see a trickle down effect as others began following their lead.

Besides that, people need to start demanding more benefits. Imagine if every employee in a major corporation got together and told their bosses they need more time off. Certainly, there are a lot of issues involved in making this switch and it wouldn’t catch on overnight, but even if only a fraction of American workers were able to negotiate a four day work week, we’d be better off overall.

Link [King 5 News] + [Groovy Green]

Photo credit: Flickr user Burning Image + 20th Century Fox

SUVs Going Down in Value, Filling Up Used Car Lots due to Gas Prices

Praise be, y’all, sports utility vehicles are going down in value. Are people actually learning a lesson, here? SUVs are flooding the used car market as people realize that the behemoths are unnecessary, stupid environment killers – no, scratch, that, it’s because of gas prices. Well, whatever works, right?

Ridelust has it:

Most owners who go to a car dealership looking to trade their current ride in for something new usually come out shell-shocked when they learn what the dealership is willing to give them for their trade. Those choosing to turn in their SUV right now will certainly be finding their trade-in value far from what they had invisioned.

According to CNW Marketing Research and the AP SUV sales were down 14% in the month of March when compared to March of 2007. The darling SUV of the American Auto Industry no longer sparkles under the looming clouds of $4/gallon fuel prices. In the face of such a decline in value the only solution for many SUV owners looking to downsize may be to sell their vehicle themselves; a task many owners dread. Even diesel trucks are not immune to the declines in value.

All this has GM concerned that their ‘Green Car of the Year’, the Chevrolet Tahoe 2-Mode Hybrid will suffer a similar fate. The Tahoe Hybrid might get more miles to the gallon, but the $10,000-$15,000 markup probably doesn’t make it worth the cost, especially when depreciation is taken into consideration.

Don’t make any sudden moves, people. We are slowly sliding toward the edge of common sense and responsibility, but we don’t want to scare these SUV-loving folks into realizing they’re actually doing something good for the environment. They’re cringing as they trade in their cars, waiting for the chorus of I-Told-You-So’s, and rubbing it in could well make them want to keep their suburban monsters out of pure spite. The idea of doing things like those fruity Your-a-Peein’s doesn’t sit well with Middle America, no sirree.

Link [RideLust]

Photo credit: Flickr user reedbiotch

McCain, Clinton Both Back the Insanely Stupid Gas Tax Holiday Idea

How do you encourage people to stop using something – give them easier access to more of it? Idiotic as it is, that seems to be the answer as far as presidential hopefuls John McCain and Hillary Clinton are concerned. Their proposed ‘gas tax holiday’ has been slammed by economists, and anyone with half a brain should be able to see that it won’t work.

The proposal involves cutting the 18.4 cents per gallon federal gas tax from Memorial Day to Labor Day, giving Americans a ‘summer break’ from paying the tax, which is put to use building roads and bridges nationwide. Obama is the only one in this three-ring circus that thinks it’s a bad idea, and Clinton in turn has accused him of ‘being out of touch with ordinary Americans’. Yeah, because in this country of brilliant thinkers, the thought process stops after they hear the words ‘tax cut’.

From MSNBC.com:

Economists said that since refineries cannot increase their supply of gasoline in the space of a few summer months, lower prices will just boost demand and the benefits will flow to oil companies, not consumers.

“You are just going to push up the price of gas by almost the size of the tax cut,” said Eric Toder, a senior fellow at the Urban-Brookings Tax Policy Center in Washington.

Obama criticized the plan as pure politics and said the only way to lower the price of gas is to use less oil.

“This isn’t an idea designed to get you through the summer, it’s an idea designed to get them through an election.”

Clinton promised to make up for the tax break by imposing a windfall profits tax on oil companies, but hasn’t seemed to consider the fact that she’s essentially offering bags of heroin to a group of junkies who just started considering rehab.

Continuing the cheap gas trend in America won’t do anything to reduce our dependence on oil. It won’t encourage people to cut back. It won’t bolster further investment into alternative energy sources. It’s a dirty bandage on a weeping gangrenous wound.

People might not even get any relief from the tax cut, according to some economists who predict that refineries will likely keep some of it for themselves rather than passing it on to consumers.

At least we can console ourselves with the fact that one of the three main presidential contenders sees the truth to this. It’s not much, but it’s something.

Link [MSNBC]

Photo credit: Flickr user ~~zorro~~

Airlines Slowing Down, Lightening Their Loads to Save Fuel

Would you care if you got to your destination 2 minutes later than usual? Airlines are starting to bet that you won’t even notice, and slowing down slightly will end up saving them big bucks in fuel. Belgium’s Brussels Airlines is the first to try it, slowing their speed by about 10 kilometers per hour and lightening each plane’s load by using lighter seat covers, bringing less water on board for toilet flushing and possibly getting rid of the ashtrays, all of which can add up pretty quickly.

From BBC News:

The airline said slowing its planes by about 10km/h would cut its annual fuel bill by 1m euros ($1.6m; £800,000) and add a minute or two to flight times.

The measures will also reduce the airline’s emissions of global warming greenhouse gases, a spokesman said.
Oil prices have risen steeply recently, adding hugely to airlines’ costs.

Brussels Airlines is looking at nearly 100 ways of cutting fuel use, including more efficient fuel use and reducing weight on its planes.

Undoubtedly these changes are due to strain on the airline’s finances rather than concerns about the environment, but in this case, who cares? What matters is, they’ll result in a huge reduction in fuel use, and if more airlines follow, we could see some dramatic effects. This is exactly the way more companies need to start thinking. Leave it to Europe to pioneer such a simple yet smart concept.

Link [BBC News] via [The Road to the Horizon]

Get Out Your Bicycles! Gas is Heading to $7 a Gallon

Jeff Rubin, a leading economist at CIBC World Markets, has a message for us all: start thinking about alternate transportation. In 4 years, gas prices will likely hit $7-$10 per gallon, making it too expensive for many people.

Treehugger has it:

“Stripping out natural gas liquids, oil production has not grown for over two years, which certainly goes a long way to explaining why oil prices have doubled over that period,” Rubin said. “It is increasingly clear that the outlook for oil supply signals a period of unprecedented scarcity.”

Rubin predicts hybrids will go “from marketing and PR fluff to the core of car production.” People will move closer to where they work. “I think there will be fewer people on the road in North America in five years than there is right now.”

Seems to me as if now is the time for cities all over America to start planning better public transit systems, since not all of us have the luxury of living close enough to walk or ride a bike to our places of work, grocery stores and other essential destinations - and the poor probably won’t be able to make that move. Let’s hope that the powers that be take this seriously.

The good news is, prices like this will definitely get more people to trade in their ridiculous look-at-me gas guzzlers in for something a little more reasonable. I’d venture to guess that we’ll be seeing less Hummers on the road, and I for one am happy about that, because my egg-throwing arm is getting tired.

Link [Treehugger]

Photo credit: Flickr user Brianfit

Five Dollar Gas Plus is The New Reality- Time to Hybrid Up

$5/gallon gas in Gordo, California. Welcome to the new reality.

Link [San Luis Obispo]

Photo Credit: Flickr user Momo The Monster

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