What I hope Four Dollar Gasoline will do

June 6, 2007

Recently Jay Leno told his audience:

"I was watching that movie Mad Max, you know that movie where gas is so precious that people are killing each other for a few gallons. It was set in the future -- I believe it was August."

If you are not happy about today's gas prices, then I am going to make you very sad today.

Our Energy Policy today is not enough. Our auto makers will not take any initiative to reduce gasoline consumtion, or in other words to increase gasoline miles per gallon, because for them, it would recuce the amount of profit they make on the cars they sell. Since the 1970's we have not integrated our policies. The current administration is in denial. As for regulating companies, most companies would welcome Federal rules, so that they wouldn't have to deal with different rules in each state.

Congress is now reworking the Energy Policy Bill, but they will continue to debate the issues for years before they take any action. In a civilized world, government must develop a climate policy as well.

Every American has a stake.

Consumption of Oil in the U.S. is now at 85 million Barrels per day, which is 3 billion gallons of oil per day.

We Americans consume 45 percent of the world's Gasoline, and the U.S. consumes 25% of all the world's energy, but only has 4% of the reserves.

China is now the second largest consumer of oil, and is working hard to catch up with us. By 2030 they will have 250 million cars on their roads as we have now. President Bush, who also cited the rising price of natural gas, said energy sources were being strained by China's growing need to feed its rapidly expanding economy.

Solutions:
  • 1. Diversification Oil, Gas, nuclear, bio-fuels, solar, and wind.
  • 2. Greater efficiency on the part of consumers
  • 3. More research into climate change, and make sure water is treated as a resource.
  • 4. If you are addicted to something, the best thing to do is to stop. You don't just uses less.
  • 5. If you are addicted to oil, you have to stop using it. GO ELECTRIC!

    • What we should avoid:
  • Tar Sands - tough to get with the energy it takes to extract. Very costly and the Water: - be careful of water intensive processes.
  • Using food items to make biofuels. Don't burn edible foods. Use Cedar, switchgrass, and other products that we don't eat or feed our cattle to make cellulosic Ethanol.

    The Energy policy of the last 50 years has been "Cheap and Abundant". Stop making decisions on Political and Market based policies. We need a "Manhattan Project" type of effort to get some new things developed. The Manhattan project was what led to the invention of the Atomic Bomb in a short period of time. We landed on Mars on Sunday, thanks to NASA and JPL and a lot of very smart and dedicated people who engineered, built and sent a 904-pound object more than 422 million miles in 296 days. When the Phoenix spacecraft arrived at Mars, it decelerated from 12,000 to zero mph in seven minutes and in heat that reached 2,600 degrees. If we can make that kind of space travel possible, why can't we make electric cars?

    We need electric cars. Not just electric, but Plug in electric cars. We have to get off of oil. We need to make the energy grid use renewable energy - wind and solar to replace coal. Form 1995 to 2003, we had electric cars, but the AutoMakers sued California and got their Zero Emissions Mandate revoked, so they crushed them all - except for about 300 that are still running today. How in the world, when gasoline costs more than $4 a gallon, are we still allowing tax breaks for Hummers, Escalades and Navigators, but not for hybrids? For more information, please watch "Who Killed the Electric Car?" Then go to PluginAmerica.org and sign the pledge not to buy a car unless you can plug it in.

    Write your Congressman
    Ask your politicians to consider tax breaks for new Cellulosic Ethanol Plants instead of ethanol from corn production. Don't allow your politicians to set goals for change beyond their own term in office. The book, "The World is Flat" by Thomas Friedman mentions that Bush could make the effort to find alternate energy the equivalent of Kennedy's Moon Shot challenge is a great book. It is also a good source of some staggering information on what 1.3 billion people in China will mean to our future oil supplies. I see danger there. Do you? In August, I predict gasoline to hit four dollars per gallon.

    I hope I won't have to hear you say:
    There was a sign at the station near by my house that said, 'We take Visa, Mastercard, Discover Card, and American Express.' After I filled up they took my Visa, Master Card, my Discover Card, and my American Express.



    Now, my personal crusade to end the glut of "Run your car on Water" ads that pop-up everywhere. If you want a quick boost in miles per gallon in your truck, Try This!
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