[Nikki]

Originally Posted by poldim

http://www.baltimoresun.com/business...home-headlines



So an increase of 72% in one month. You, are lucky.

that says per year.

[poldim]

Originally Posted by Nikki

that says per year.

The average bill for a Baltimore Gas and Electric customer will rise by 72 percent - or $743 a year - after July 1.

As of July 1st, its 72% more than it was June 30th.

[Nikki]

Originally Posted by poldim

As of July 1st, its 72% more than it was June 30th.

hmm k, i was looking online and found the average price of electricty by state as of April 2006, and that was interesting..

http://www.neo.ne.gov/statshtml/115.htm

It gives the average the national average as 8.50 cents/kwh and the average for Florida as 10.39 cents/kwh. The lowest average is 4.95 cents/kwh in West Virginia and the highest is 20.81 cents/kwh in Hawaii, second highest were Connecticut and Massachusetts with almost 15 cents/kwh. Our bill this past month was 12.48 cents/kwh.

[akhbhaat]

Artificially inflated gas prices may be the best thing to happen to this country in a long time. Anything that can be done to delay the still seemingly inevitable is a positive development in my mind.

The United States consumes more oil per day than China, Japan, Germany, Russia and India (the next five highest consumers) combined. All in all, the US accounts for more than 25% of world consumption. Do you know how much a drop in US consumption of just one million barrels per day (a roughly 4-5% reduction) would postively affect gas prices and supplies in the short term?

Here's the bad news: the current oil crunch (and associated prices) is very likely to stay for the long term. It's likely to get even worse as worldwide demand increases - especially if we hit the peak (or plateau) of cheap oil production and available supplies begin to diminish at the same time. Demand will eventually (if not soon) outpace supply, and I really hope I don't need to explain what happens at that point. World war would be a relatively kind outcome.

Most of you are so caught up in your petty, meaningless lives that you completely fail to recognize the larger problem at hand. Oh my god, gas is going to be $4/$5/$6 per gallon!!! It's theft - highway robbery! I can't take it anymore! Who cares. Your gluttonous lifestyle can and should take a backseat to the realities of long term picture. What does it matter, you say? There are people in charge to deal with this. "It's not my problem." Oh, but it is...

Blame it on politicians. Blame it on George W. Bush. Blame it on the oil companies. Blame it on everybody but yourself - it's the American way! Here's a poorly kept secret: unless you live in a completely totalitarian system (and none of you do, or you wouldn't be posting here), politicians can't force you to stop buying gas guzzling SUVs and trucks, or ride around for hours on end for no reason (be it frivolous reasons of entertainment or what have you), or substitute a more energy efficient mode of transportation (like walking or biking) for shorter commutes. Of course, there's an air of irony about this statement, as the advertising industry seems to do a remarkable job of coercing people to listen to and buy shitty music or develop bad taste in clothing. Regardless, do you really think most of the politicians in positions of power are truly competent and effective leaders? Of course not - most of them are no more competent than a regional manager for a grocery store chain. Several are even less competent. Most politicans, mayors, governors and the like aren't magicians, and they aren't the world's most talented people - they're just as suspectible to human fallacies as the rest of us. They can't be relied upon, especially given the limitations of their power. And I ought to add that a government which uses democractic system of delegating power suffers from a potentially devastating flaw: the politician who speaks the truth (and in doing so, tells you precisely what you DON'T want to hear) is liable to lose his job, while the one who lies and pretends to know what's going and have an immediate solution in hand on takes power as the lemmings clamor to his side, money and votes in hand. Personally, I've always thought it foolish to place any sort of decision making power in the hands of the impetuous, complusive idiot masses - even if such decision making only extends to the almost ceremonious process of placing officers into positions of power and responsibility.

In any case, reducing energy consumption STARTS with you and only you. The only real solution is to stop bitching about gas prices and how it hurts your precious MTV and McDonalds saturated lifestyle and actually DO something about it. Ration your own use of gasoline, even if it's within your economic means to afford more. Reduce energy use - don't leave lights running and reinsulate your house to reduce the expense of heating or cooling it. Turn off the A/C and open the windows for a change. Cut down on the amount of unnecessary driving you do - take shorter trips. Every bit does help. People lived for thousands of years without modern comfort conveniences available 24/7 - if it becomes necessary, you can, too (or maybe not ). Obviously, you can't develop effective alternative fuels or energy supplies on your own, but you can help create the climate necessary to compel those with the means to act in your favor. It's absolutely amazing how the conservation methods in place during times of shortage in the past are so quickly forgotten once the shortage passes. Well, the shortages are back, and for no small amount of time, either.

If the entire country reduced their daily dependence upon oil, then available supplies could be stretched that much further until a permanent workable solution (if there even is one) can be implemented. There is more than enough ambition lying around to motivate the right people to get the job done in a timely manner, provided that they can be shown the alternatives. It might even accelerate the process. At least do something.

By the way, I'm the farthest thing from an ecomentalist green freak there is. I couldn't give a fuck about trees and otters and animal cruelty so long as there's enough around to keep the planet a comfortable place to live. I'm just a free market economist and an objectivist who's very worried about the numbers I look at every day, and the prospects for the future of industrialized society. I'm not a luddite philosopher - just like all of you, I want to preserve as much of my comfortable lifestyle as I can, and access to the technology and industry that maintains that lifestyle. I want to continue to drive cars and enjoy pre-packaged food at supermarkets and listen to my iPod. However, unlike most of you, I refuse to bury my head in the proverbial sand and pretend that if I don't think about it, things will be fine - somebody else will figure it out for the rest of us. WRONG. That somebody needs to be you and me. In the end, you can never rely upon anybody but yourself. I do realize that ignorance is bliss, but living in a state of bliss just means that it's that much harder to take the fall when reality finally hits.

[LH1]

Damn akhbhaat you brought the meat on that post.

Originally Posted by akhbhaat

Most of you are so caught up in your petty, meaningless lives that you completely fail to recognize the larger problem at hand. Oh my god, gas is going to be $4/$5/$6 per gallon!!!

I like you am definitely not some environmentalist nut, but high gas/elec. prices should be the least of our concerns. The larger problem at hand is Global Warming. At some point we are going to pay the price for pumping so much CO2 into the atmosphere. We're not going to stop doing that anytime soon so GW will just keep progressing.

[poldim]

Will read while sotally tober tomorrow...

[akhbhaat]

Well, I had to be a bit harsh to grab people's attention.

Originally Posted by LH1

I like you am definitely not some environmentalist nut, but high gas/elec. prices should be the least of our concerns. The larger problem at hand is Global Warming. At some point we are going to pay the price for pumping so much CO2 into the atmosphere. We're not going to stop doing that anytime soon so GW will just keep progressing.

I actually read one paper claiming that the ready supply of oil would run out before we could even do irreversible damage to the global climate. That's certainly something I hadn't considered before. Of course, if the supply of cheap oil does actually last for another three decades (as some studies - including a recent USGS work - suggest), then global warming will become a huge concern. I don't think it's been decided yet whether global warming is a result of human activity or a natural occurance as part of a larger cycle, but more and more people seem to think that human activity is having at least some impact. Either way, better safe than sorry, I say.

One thing for environmentalists to consider is the fact that coal (of which the world - and the US and China in particular - have HUGE reserves of) is now being championed as an intermediary replacement for oil. As we all know, coal is even more damaging to the environment than oil.

In any case, our species has limped past, over and through near-catastrophes for centuries, but the problems we must deal with in the upcoming century (global warming, exhaustion/overextension of resources, severe overpopulation) are much more demanding than anything we've faced before. If I am to live long enough to see it, I will be pleasantly surprised to find that modern industrialized civilization survives the next one hundred years.

[NaTuReB0Y]

I think the U.S. has like 150 years worth of Oil Reserved......

[akhbhaat]

Originally Posted by NaTuReB0Y

I think the U.S. has like 150 years worth of Oil Reserved......

The US doesn't even produce enough oil to satisfy it's own demand, and hasn't since 1970. At current pumping rates, there are estimated to be a number of decades left, but extraction will invariably have to increase to keep pace with demand.

If you're talking about the Strategic Petroleum Reserve, it's only intended to dampen the effects of a short term supply shortage. If relied upon completely, the reserve only contains 27 days worth of oil at current consumption rates.