I watched a lively debate on CSpan the other day regarding a bill in the House of Representatives that would place 70 million barrels of light, sweet crude oil on the market for purchase from the Strategic Petroleum Reserve, and replace it over the next little bit with heavy crude oil. The rallying cry of the supporters and authors of the bill are relief from high oil prices, putting the fear of god into speculators and scaring them out of the market, and to diversify the types of oil in the petroleum reserve to augment its effectiveness towards its intended goals.
First off, It is proven that every time in the tenure of the last three presidents that when the strategic petroleum reserve is tapped, oil has a precipitous drop in price, and that price drop sustains for a good length of time. This would be a great way to provide a short-term fix for oil prices, and to allow us a little time to hammer out details to a more long term solution. I think that this is a more than acceptable compromise to the entrenched positions of both Democrats and Republicans.
Secondly, scaring the speculators out of the market is a debatable position. But it's worth a try. It goes back to the things in my last paragraph. I would venture to say that this pattern has its roots in the behavior of oil speculators, a money hungry group of people that never take possession of the oil that they are trading.
Lastly, the argument was made that the United States leads the world in technology on many fronts, one of which is refining oil, and in particular, heavy crude. In fact, to maintain refinery output, a certain amount of heavy oil should be in the reserve. Almost all of it is light, sweet crude. Besides, with today's technology, we can refine heavy oil as easily or almost as easily as light crude.
Sunday, July 27, 2008
Climate Change
Being perpetually behind on everything, I've come to you almost a week afterwards of Al Gore's groundbreaking speech in Washington to write my comments. All I can say is, how did we let this one slip through our fingers in 2000? Al Gore is such an intelligent man, and I am positive that the United States and the world would be a much better place if he had been elected(I might note that he rightfully won the election, receiving more popular votes than his opponent).
I would like to take this opportunity to share with you the things that I am doing to reduce my energy consumption, and other earth-friendly things.
Squiggly bulbs! These weird looking and seemingly costly marvels of technology make perfect sense. They use about one fifth the amount of electricity of their incandescent counterparts(rough estimate, based on 13w bulb having light output of 60w incandescent), and they last about 10x longer(most incandescent bulbs last around 1000 hours, the squiggly bulbs I purchased claim 10,000). Plus, you can pick up generic versions that are just as good as the name brands. As of late, I have not been a big fan of Wal-Mart, but their recent changes have perked my ears. For the purposes of this post's topic, you can buy a 6 pack of squiggly bulbs for around $10 in their "Great Value" brand. This represents a great value indeed when you factor in the cost of the name brand, how long these bulbs last, and their energy savings. While we're on the topic of Wal-Mart, I would like to commend them on their excellent job of moving away from Chinese made goods towards American made ones.
Fuel efficient cars are a necessity, but not always a reality, especially if your budget for purchasing the vehicle is constrained. I thought the worst when I purchased my vehicle, a 1993 Ford Crown Victoria. V8, huge car, oh Jesus save me now.
But, to my pleasant surprise, the car is not at all hard on gas. It even beats my wife's car, powered by a seemingly eco-friendly four cylinder engine. So now that I am done stumping for Ford(God, the GM gods that I have worshiped for years will surely strike me down for this one), The best way to save gas in whatever you may be driving is to keep it in good running order. Spark plugs and wires, oxygen sensors, tires inflated to proper pressure(!), and regular oil changes. Do not feel bad if for some of these things you cannot afford, oxygen sensors on cars that are more recent are not exactly cheap. But do not ignore the easy ones such as keeping your tire pressures checked. You can also save gasoline by accelerating easy instead of hard. I once owned a Cadillac Sedan DeVille that I could get 24 mpg in. I sold it, and the person who purchased it from me complained often about how much gas it used. He said he was getting about 14-16 mpg. If I can see the treads of your shoes coming out of your fuel injectors, then in all likelihood you are pushing yourself too hard, and wasting a lot of gasoline.
One of the big things that has come about, and not exactly in recent years only, is central heating and air conditioning. But not everyone has it. One way to get around it in the summertime is to have an air conditioner that you can set to a particular temperature setting. This will keep you from using too much electricity from overcooling, and as an added benefit, undercooling if you are the type to turn it on and off to try and keep a steady temperature. Not to mention that its less hassle. So replace that aging beast of an air conditioner, most new models come with this handy feature. Plus, newer units probably use less energy to produce the same amount of cooling power anyway due to advances in technology.
I hope that some people have taken the time to read this post, and to consider how in their lives that they can make a difference. I would also ask for you to go to this website and explore, sign up for updates, and help out: http://www.wecansolveit.org/
I would like to take this opportunity to share with you the things that I am doing to reduce my energy consumption, and other earth-friendly things.
Squiggly bulbs! These weird looking and seemingly costly marvels of technology make perfect sense. They use about one fifth the amount of electricity of their incandescent counterparts(rough estimate, based on 13w bulb having light output of 60w incandescent), and they last about 10x longer(most incandescent bulbs last around 1000 hours, the squiggly bulbs I purchased claim 10,000). Plus, you can pick up generic versions that are just as good as the name brands. As of late, I have not been a big fan of Wal-Mart, but their recent changes have perked my ears. For the purposes of this post's topic, you can buy a 6 pack of squiggly bulbs for around $10 in their "Great Value" brand. This represents a great value indeed when you factor in the cost of the name brand, how long these bulbs last, and their energy savings. While we're on the topic of Wal-Mart, I would like to commend them on their excellent job of moving away from Chinese made goods towards American made ones.
Fuel efficient cars are a necessity, but not always a reality, especially if your budget for purchasing the vehicle is constrained. I thought the worst when I purchased my vehicle, a 1993 Ford Crown Victoria. V8, huge car, oh Jesus save me now.
But, to my pleasant surprise, the car is not at all hard on gas. It even beats my wife's car, powered by a seemingly eco-friendly four cylinder engine. So now that I am done stumping for Ford(God, the GM gods that I have worshiped for years will surely strike me down for this one), The best way to save gas in whatever you may be driving is to keep it in good running order. Spark plugs and wires, oxygen sensors, tires inflated to proper pressure(!), and regular oil changes. Do not feel bad if for some of these things you cannot afford, oxygen sensors on cars that are more recent are not exactly cheap. But do not ignore the easy ones such as keeping your tire pressures checked. You can also save gasoline by accelerating easy instead of hard. I once owned a Cadillac Sedan DeVille that I could get 24 mpg in. I sold it, and the person who purchased it from me complained often about how much gas it used. He said he was getting about 14-16 mpg. If I can see the treads of your shoes coming out of your fuel injectors, then in all likelihood you are pushing yourself too hard, and wasting a lot of gasoline.
One of the big things that has come about, and not exactly in recent years only, is central heating and air conditioning. But not everyone has it. One way to get around it in the summertime is to have an air conditioner that you can set to a particular temperature setting. This will keep you from using too much electricity from overcooling, and as an added benefit, undercooling if you are the type to turn it on and off to try and keep a steady temperature. Not to mention that its less hassle. So replace that aging beast of an air conditioner, most new models come with this handy feature. Plus, newer units probably use less energy to produce the same amount of cooling power anyway due to advances in technology.
I hope that some people have taken the time to read this post, and to consider how in their lives that they can make a difference. I would also ask for you to go to this website and explore, sign up for updates, and help out: http://www.wecansolveit.org/
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