Gas Prices Rising Fast

[gogo]

Anyone remember gas at U$3.17 back in 1981? I do because I was in High School and had a stretch van and a 55cc Yamaha. I knew the per mile cost of driving the van, and passengers had to chip in. Girls rode for free on the "passenger seat" of the Yamaha.
An inflation calculator:
http://www.bls.gov/data/inflation_calculator.htm

gas2.jpg (29.63 KiB) Viewed 163 times

With all of our technology, and of late, drilling technology, its a marvel we aren't exploiting that ancient and pollution-free nuclear reactor at the center of the planet.

[EDIT] I did the inflation calculator backwards originally, its fixed now. It seems I wasn't suffering as much as I thought back in 1981.

[miro13car]

right on motorino magnet,
I am in Alberta and what they do here is wrong.
How much longer ,how much more distruction North of Edmonton.
If they could put that tar sand profit taxes into sort of clean energy fund to finance solar projects.
Lot of sunny days in Alberta = lot of energy to harness
With solar panels efficiency improving and price slowely dropping year after year SOLAR is the future no doubt.
Every house has a roof which can be solar, right?

[boppinbob]

The problem with solar and wind energy is simple. The sun doesn't shine all the time and it isn't windy all the time and there is no efficient way to store excess renewable energy. Hydroelectric, wave action generators, and thermal energy generation is much more reliable. Solar and wind energy can be added to the grid but it will be a long time before they are anything but a taxpayer money pit.

[Dauntless]

I drive a big, powerful, EFFICIENT truck.

2001 Chevrolet Silverado 2500HD Duramax Turbo Diesel, 20/29mpg on 375hp.

[gogo]

I drive a big, powerful, EFFICIENT truck.

2001 Chevrolet Silverado 2500HD Duramax Turbo Diesel, 20/29mpg on 375hp.

Wow, 29 MPG while the engine is making 375 HP is efficient. Regular diesel or biodiesel?

[dogman]

Yeah, I agree. The buying power of your buck in 81 was really bad. But current, similar depression fighting monetary policy has us headed right back to similar buying power as we had in 81 anyway.

FWIW, last time, in 08 I saw some evidence that the high gas price caused some behaviour changes. You started to see F350's driving slow etc. Not this time. They are still driving 80 in the 65 zone in the gas hogs so far. Nobody asking me much about biking. Looks like we pretty much adjusted to it, and having no money for anything but food and gas.

Seriously though, everybody else like europe gets a belly laugh when we whine about 4 buck gas, or high taxes.

I wouldn't bother burning any wood this far south, but I prune about 100 trees every winter. It's fireplace or dumpster, so everybody on the crew that has a fireplace takes some home. If I was reallllly eco I'd sequester all the carbon in the landfill. I pretty much do all my burning during just few weeks of bad weather. Really came in handy in feb 2011, when the big gas turbine electric generators shut off for a week because all the water lines on them froze. Some backup was great to have that time. Rest of the winter, if we get a high of 50F, the solar does the job. Opening the damper on the flue would do more harm than good.

[mvly]

WOW I just filled up my car and eek! it's $4.59 here in Sunny San Diego! The last time I filled up was like $4.09 and that wasn't even that long ago (~2 months ago). Luckily I have my ebike to take me everywhere. It wild be used more often now. Driving is no longer sustainable. If one does it occasionally, then that is fine. But doing it everyday is probably not going to work.

[pyrogaz]

The price today in the slightly more populated eastern end of Scotland's north coast was £1.46/litre for petrol and £1.54/litre for diesel, in Durness over at the other end of the coast which is somewhat more remote it was £1.59/litre and £1.71/litre; that's just plain scary!

I usually post on this forum about Greenpower racing, we've estimated that to race two cars at five events this year will cost us £1900 just for the fuel required to transport the cars and teams.

[veloman]

When you get a whole neighborhood burning wood due to high oil prices, then you start seeing people get lung problems. My old town had some talk about not allowing wood furnaces under certain circumstances.

If you are out in sparsely populated areas, sure, burn wood all you want. But I do not at all support wood fuel in areas where you have house after house next to each other.


It's like pissing in a swimming pool. A couple people can do it with no significant harmful effects, but when you get a lot of people pissing (driving an ICE, burning wood/oil/coal) in the same pool (neighborhood/city) then you start getting problems.

I wear my pollution mask when I go out on the bike during rush hours. Even the normally lower volume roads can get pretty smelly, depending on wind.


The end result of driving an ICE near living things is nothing different that say, walking up to someone in public and pissing on them. But the means justify the end because *we need to pollute to live*. Yeah, I still pollute, but it's a hell of a lot less than most people. I think I deserve some clean air to breath.

Every ICE car/truck that drives past ought to be paying my medical insurance premiums as far as I'm concerned. There ain't no equity in this world though.

[dogman]

Man, that increase must really be busting your chops Mlvy. Damn, gotta fill up 6 times a year.

I'm bumming myself, still too sick to bike commute, or even think about it. I'll be running at least 10 gallons a week for sure, just to get to what little I work nowdays. Costs me 15 bucks a day to go make 30, but that total cost, not just gas.

[neptronix]

The problem with solar and wind energy is simple. The sun doesn't shine all the time and it isn't windy all the time and there is no efficient way to store excess renewable energy. Hydroelectric, wave action generators, and thermal energy generation is much more reliable. Solar and wind energy can be added to the grid but it will be a long time before they are anything but a taxpayer money pit.

You may have heard of something called a battery. We speak about them frequently on this forum.

[neptronix]

When you get a whole neighborhood burning wood due to high oil prices, then you start seeing people get lung problems. My old town had some talk about not allowing wood furnaces under certain circumstances.

Wood is extremely dirty as a fuel, for sure. Always laugh when greenie type folks yammer on about how wonderful it is. A tree is sort of a carbon sink. You're burning something that releases 5-8 times more carbon dioxide per BTU than gasoline.

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Wood_fuel#Combustion_by-products

[Ykick]

The problem with solar and wind energy is simple. The sun doesn't shine all the time and it isn't windy all the time and there is no efficient way to store excess renewable energy. Hydroelectric, wave action generators, and thermal energy generation is much more reliable. Solar and wind energy can be added to the grid but it will be a long time before they are anything but a taxpayer money pit.

You may have heard of something called a battery. We speak about them frequently on this forum.

Check location...

[neptronix]

Haha, well veloman is from Texas too, so..

[Solcar]

snip

When you get a whole neighborhood burning wood due to high oil prices, then you start seeing people get lung problems. My old town had some talk about not allowing wood furnaces under certain circumstances.

If you are out in sparsely populated areas, sure, burn wood all you want. But I do not at all support wood fuel in areas where you have house after house next to each other.

Just the one house across the little valley gets my throat more irritated when the man there is burning wood. I can definitely relate.

[Jozzer]

The price today in the slightly more populated eastern end of Scotland's north coast was £1.46/litre for petrol and £1.54/litre for diesel, in Durness over at the other end of the coast which is somewhat more remote it was £1.59/litre and £1.71/litre; that's just plain scary!

I usually post on this forum about Greenpower racing, we've estimated that to race two cars at five events this year will cost us £1900 just for the fuel required to transport the cars and teams.

Lol, indeed. A few of us calculated that for the European TTXGP series last year over £25,000 of deisel was burnt just getting bikes and teams to the track. (this doesn't include all the airmiles for the teammemebers/bikes who flew!) When they arrived trackside, they rode for a combined 1400 miles for the whole season. That's £18 per mile...or around 3 gallons per mile??
So much for green racing!

Jozz

[dnmun]

"Just the one house across the little valley gets my throat more irritated when the man there is burning wood. I can definitely relate."

why not go ask the guy to dry the wood for a year or two before he burns it? that will solve the smoke problem.

i don't burn wood because i am a green fanatic. i burn it because it is free and i don't have any other way except for electric heat to keep my shed warm. i only have a wood stove in here.

if i had gas heat, that would be cheaper than buying wood too. the girls in the house use the gas furnace now that they ran outa wood and that is cheaper than buying wood and burning it for heat. but some people don't have natural gas in rural areas too.

in fact i found that a lot of the condominium complexes all use electric heat, no gas at all plumbed into the developments. this is the environmental travesty, heating with electric heat because the developer was too cheap to include gas in the buildings. the city planning agents should be held accountable for that. heat from natural gas is about 30% of the cost of electric heat. 1/9 the CO2 emissions/$.

we have no burn days here too, when the air is stagnant, but i still prefer the smell to that of the cars.

[neptronix]

If you're talking about Portland and electric heat... depending on the area, it may be "greener" to use electric heat out there, since that area has a good amount of hydroelectric. I don't remember anyone having natural gas heat out there, or ovens/stoves.

[dogman]

Have you looked at your nieghbors woodpile? Maybe he's burning scrap lumber with old lead paint on it, or green dyed rot treated wood, or something equaly vile like junkmail.

Around here lots of mexican elder croaked in the big freeze last winter. This winter they ran newspaper stories to remind people that burning that stuff is quite poisonous. Same thing with oleander, toxic when burned.

Inside any city limits, it should be illegal by now to install stoves or fireplaces that don't have secondary combustion. But there's a cheap fireplace in just about every new house. Common sense is not common at all.

[veloman]

I spent most of my childhood weekends in the summer at a seasonal campground my dad had rented a space at. Lots and lots of wood fires always burning, always hanging out next to the fire at night. I remember always trying to sit upwind from the smoke, but the wind shifted all the time, and you'd get blasted with the stuff.

Add to that many many thousands of miles of biking on fairly busy roads in suburban CT, and I would say that the air I breathed years ago was a lot worse than it is now due to how concious I am of it. I'm considering moving from where I live now since I'm 150ft downwind of a busy road and a smokehouse that often has smoke blowing into our yard, you can smell it pretty well. Most people enjoy the smell, but I rather smell clean natural woods/grass.

It constantly bothers me that I have to live in a polluted environment because others don't care.

If I was a billionaire I'd buy my own large piece of land and develop it into the healthiest, street safe, sustainable community in this country.

[ddk]

...If I was a billionaire I'd buy my own large piece of land and develop it into the healthiest, street safe, sustainable community in this country.

no you wouldn't
more likely is you'd buy your own island

[Arlo1]

...If I was a billionaire I'd buy my own large piece of land and develop it into the healthiest, street safe, sustainable community in this country.

no you wouldn't
more likely is you'd buy your own island

If I had the money I would start my own colony. We would me motor-sport heaven but I would hire some guys to come help the cause like the boys at zero and BRD and tesla. Lots of wind and solar to power it all. But we would burn nitro and all fuels until my team helped me build electrics to be faster!!!! Get up in the morning ride something fun to the field and work on the garden for a good hour then ride something cool to go build cool shit at the shop for a few hours then go ride some more cool shit to go swimming! Then ride cool shit till we fall asleep and do it over again the next day! Yup I just need some sort of grant to get it going.

[Solcar]

Fortunately I recall almost no smoke this year and I don't recall seeing huge stacks of firewood in his yard. Hopefully that will hold in years to come because I would feel it risky to approach him. From what I figure, he is the sex offender that was on the notice cards I used to receive in the mail. That wouldn't surprise me for that area.

[Joseph C.]

Fortunately I recall almost no smoke this year and I don't recall seeing huge stacks of firewood in his yard. Hopefully that will hold in years to come because I would feel it risky to approach him. From what I figure, he is the sex offender that was on the notice cards I used to receive in the mail. That wouldn't surprise me for that area.

You're sort of snookered so. I'd try and forget about it. The only realistic options are to tolerate it, wait for him to move or move yourself.

If you plan on moving I wouldn't be telling anyone there is a sex offender leaving next door.

[Solcar]

You're sort of snookered so. I'd try and forget about it. The only realistic options are to tolerate it, wait for him to move or move yourself.

If you plan on moving I wouldn't be telling anyone there is a sex offender leaving next door.

He might not be there anymore, come to think of it. It was quiet there last summer without the chainsaw running and occasional shouting.