McCain: The Big Oil Candidate

With his choice of Sarah Palin — the Alaska governor who has advocated
drilling in the Arctic National Wildlife Refuge and does not believe mankind is
playing any role in climate change — for vice president, John McCain has
completed his makeover from the greenest Republican to run for president to just
another representative of big oil.

- Tom Friedman in today's New York Times

The Impending Energy Crisis

Oil at $150.00 a barrel, gasoline at $6.00 a gallon or more...this will be a "full blown energy crisis," according to one NBC News analyst. As I wrote to Dan this morning the way it looks we may have taken our last airline flight for a long time. American Airlines in now going to charge for checked bags and oil keeps going up and up. The airlines will have to raise fares drastically to keep up with rising fuel costs. Last night on the NBC evening news analysts predicted gasoline will be $6.00 a gallon by the end of the summer and may even go to $12.00 a gallon in the near future! Small cars are now (finally) becoming in demand. Some analysts think that the rising cost of oil will filter down into everything we buy and cause an economic crisis. WOW...where does it all end?

Jim

PHOTO: Dan booked us into two beautiful Paradors during our recent trip to Spain. Paradors are Spain's official chain of luxury hotels usually situated in historic structures. This one in Santiago de Compostela is a large former dormatory for pilgrims that has four beautiful interior courtyards.

Obama Gets It On Energy

From Google AFB News:

Pitching his message to Oregon's environmentally-conscious voters, Obama
called on the United States to "lead by example" on global warming, and develop
new technologies at home which could be exported to developing countries.
"We can't drive our SUVs and eat as much as we want and keep our homes on 72 degrees at all times ... and then just expect that other countries are going to say OK,"
Obama said."That's not leadership. That's not going to happen," he
added.

Cherry Grove Realities: Oil Price Realities

New York Times columnist Paul Krugman writes today:

If Europe’s example is any guide, here are the two secrets of coping with
expensive oil: own fuel-efficient cars, and don’t drive them too much.

We just came back from a trip to Spain during which we rented a car and drove it for about 300 miles. The car was a Nissan compact but it had plenty of room for the two of us and our bags and it got great gas mileage. That was a good thing because gas was probably about $7 or $8 a gallon. It way past time for Americans to abandon their gas guzzlers, trucks and SUVs. Pretty soon they will have no choice. Our own car is a Saturn compact SUV with a manual transmission and it gets excellent gas mileage, when we drive it, which is less and less. Krugman is right: this is the future for Americans - smaller cars and less driving. Get used to it.

At our Community Association meeting yesterday, it was announced that there would be no Daminex program this year because there is no money for it. Daminex is a pesticide that kills deer ticks that carry Lime Disease. The program costs $8,000 a year for the entire community. Funny how there are some very wealthy people here in Cherry Grove...wealthy enough to buy and refurbish big businesses like the Ice Palace, Top Of The Bay, etc. but there is no money for programs that benefit the people who live here. As usual, what really matters in Cherry Grove is what is good for the bars and businesses. The people who own homes here are just a footnote to what is the real reason d'etre for the Grove.

Jim

PHOTO: Beach Plum in bloom on the Fire Island dunes

Oil Prices Continue To Rise, So...?

...when will the run up in the price of oil have an impact on the economy and on our pocketbooks? If this were June, with the summertime driving season ahead of us, the price of gasoline would probably be approaching $4.00 a gallon. You can't convince me that these prices are not manipulated by the big oil companies with the tacit approval of politicians like Bush. What will happen to the price of home heating oil and natural gas in the next few months as winter sets in? It's anybody's guess, but I wouldn't be surprised to see record prices. We'll pay because we have no choice. We have to heat our homes.

Oil at almost $100.00 a barrel is going to have an impact somewhere soon. Our only national energy policy is to let market forces work, as long as corporations reap the profits, that is. What we really need is an emergency national plan to deal with the energy crisis that we are facing. We need a plan like we had in WWII, that will require forced sacrifice and conservation and in all likelihood, eventual rationing. But that's not what we'll get. Instead, we'll all be forced to pay higher an higher prices for our energy needs until the price of gasoline, electricity, and home heating breaks the back of our economy. For some, the cost of energy already consumes so much of their family budgets that they cannot afford to heat their homes in winter. More and more people will fall into this category if something is not done soon.

PHOTO: One of the boat houses on Philadelphia's boat house row. We walk by these beautiful houses on our daily walks. Local high school and college rowing teams use these houses. The Schuylkill River is just on the other side of the house. When the ice caps melt, all of this will probably be under water.

Jim

Energy: We're Kidding Ourselves...

...if we think that the baby steps we're taking to conserve energy and control greenhouse gas emissions will make any real difference, writes Tom Friedman, in the New York Times. Why? Because oil use by developing nations is exploding and will continue to skyrocket:

Attention Kmart shoppers: the world consumed about 66.6 million barrels a
day of oil in 1990. We’re now consuming 83 million barrels a day. “Demand for
oil has grown 22 percent in the U.S. since 1990. China’s oil demand has grown
nearly 200 percent in this same period,” Margo Oge, director of the Environmental Protection
Agency’s office of transportation and air quality, told the Tianjin China Green
Car conference that I attended. “By 2030, the global thirst for oil is forecast
to increase by another 40 percent if we maintain business as usual.” Such an
appetite would devour every incremental green initiative we make.

We're in deep trouble. Oil will continue to get more expensive and harder to get, and global warming will worsen exponentially.

Is there any hope? Only if we develop some radical new technologies, writes Friedman. I've seen some reports of "Mr. Wizard" types who claim to be able to run their cars on water. Maybe we all ought to pay more attention in case one of these "inventors" actually has something.

Jim

Bush, Gasoline Prices, And The Energy Crisis

I made a two day round trip back to Philadelphia to pick up Dan and Nikko, our cat, and bring them out to Fire Island. It's fun to have the entire family together out here for the summer. The weather on Monday was spectacular. I hope it continues for the entire week and throughout the holiday weekend.

Do you wonder where Bush is when it comes to the record high price of gasoline? Has he made an address to the nation? Has he called his big oil buddies to try to "jawbone" them to hold down the price increases at the pump, produce more gasoline, etc? We know he's not in favor of conservation. Does he have any compassion for the American driving public in the face of record gasoline prices? It seems not.

We need presidential leadership, not a junior president, who is in the pocket of the big oil companies. A real leader will finally have the courage to be honest with the American public. We must rein in our outrageous levels of oil consumption. Automakers must re-tool and produce cars with much higher gas mileage, more hybrids and all-electrics. America must re-invest in mass transit. Americans will have to sacrifice by drastically reducing their consumption of oil, and by paying much higher prices for the gasoline they use. However, the profits should not go to big oil, rather, the money should be used for mass transit, research into alternative energy forms, etc. Breaking the back of our dependence on oil, especially foreign oil, will have the added benefit of defusing much of the causes for the hatred directed against America as a result of our oil-requirements-driven foreign policy and our oil-based wars, e.g., Iraq. We can do it as a nation, but we need leadership. Unfortunately, I don't hear any of the declared candidates for president being honest with the American public about the realities of our energy situation. Who will have the courage to finally tell the truth about energy to America?

Photo: a favorite trail through the Fire Island dunes...in the "meat rack"

Jim