Gore gas problem plan

If you follow any news, you’ve seen former Vice President Al Gore speak about Energy Independence with some specific ideas about it. Gore’s plan includes investments in solar, wind, and geothermal power. He calls for a promise to all coal and oil workers that they will have guaranteed jobs out in the sun and fresh air.His stand is one that why waste time and money on energy that will not ever decrease in price. Gore has chosen an opportune time to bring his proposals into the media spotlight.
The public is growing weary of all of the political posturing over the price of gas, but seeing zero substantial action coming from Capitol Hill. The most recent proposal from House Speaker Nancy Pelosi would almost be humorous if it wasn’t such an obvious political stunt for the cameras. Releasing 10% of the reserves equates to about 70 million barrels.Many would love to see us use less fossil fuel for energy supply in our country. According to some expert, right now solar, wind and geothermal power are not reliable enough to supply enough power for our country.

What do you think??

Here’s a video of Al Gore speaking about his energy approach:

Scooter buying tips

Have you ever considered using a scooter sometimes to help reduce the amount of money you spend on gas?

According to dictionary.com, a scooter is “a child’s vehicle that typically has two wheels with a low footboard between them, is steered by a handlebar, and is propelled by pushing one foot against the ground while resting the other on the footboard.Also called motor scooter. a similar but larger and heavier vehicle for adults, having a saddlelike seat mounted on the footboard and being propelled by a motor.

Here’s some tips for buying a motor scooter:

1. Where will you drive it? Will you only be driving it locally or will you be driving on more high traffic roads? This will help you determine how fast you need the scooter to go.
2. How much weight do you plan to carry? Will you be the only person on the scooter or do you plan to take a passenger? You need to consider weight in order to check the specifications of what wieghts your scooter can carry.
3. Which scooter should I buy? Much of this is personal opinion. To help you check out some of the manufacturers, we’ve listed some of the manufaccturers with links to their sites.
4. Drive safe! Before you start driving, take a motorcycle driver training course even if it isn’t required by law.
5. Get insurance just like yu buy insurance for your car
6. Consider getting an alarm for your scooter to protect it from being stolen.

As part of my continuing series of buying tips, we’ll share other scooter buying tips in the future. As promised, here’s a list of links to scooter manufacturers:

Aprilia Scooters

Piaggio Scooters

Honda Scooters

Suzuki Scooters

Vespa Scooters

Schwinn Scooters

Yamaha Scooters

Bush says drill drill!

Should we drill more offshore or not? Some environmentalists say “no”. An increasing number of impoverished drivers say “yes! yes!” Bush recently responded to the “drill drill” movement. He’s increasing pressure on Congress to expand offshore oil exploration.

“The only thing now standing between the American people and the vast oil resources of the Outer Continental Shelf is action from the United States Congress,” he said. The case is being made that the that oil companies should drill in about 68 million acres of federal land they have already leased for such use — a move the Democrats say would nearly double U.S. production.

Other folks want Bush to to tap into the Strategic Petroleum Reserve — a stockpile set aside for emergencies — and work with Democrats to crack down on Wall Street traders who are driving up oil prices by buying huge quantities of oil just to resell at a higher price.

Personally, I think we shouldn’t put limits on commodity trading. If demand goes down, that will take care of the market! I’m a believer in the fact that eventually our free enterprise system will self-correct any situation instead of counting on our government “to fix everything.” What do you think?

For the whole Bush story, click here.

Health benefits of walking

If you walk instead of drive when you can, you won’t just save on gas, but your health can improve too!

If you want to live healthier longer, start now with daily walking or exercise. A study in the November 14, 2005 “Archives of Internal Medicine” showed that exercise levels directly related to years lived without cardiovascular disease. 30 Minutes of Walking a Day Adds 1.3 Healthy Years A moderate level of physical activity, such as walking 30 minutes a day, lengthened life by 1.3 years and added 1.1 more years without cardiovascular disease, compared with those with low activity levels.

Those who chose a high physical activity level gained 3.7 years of life and added 3.3 more years without cardiovascular disease. Invest a Little Time for a Better Future An editorial in the “Washington Post” did the math - invest 30 minutes of walking a day and you’ll spend 49 days of the next 12 years of your life walking to gain 1.3 healthy years.

Even One More Healthy Year is of Great Value If you hate exercise, imagine how much more you will hate surgery and all of the bottles of expensive pills you must take. Research Details Oscar H. Franco, M.D., Ph.D., of Erasmus M.C. University Medical Center Rotterdam, the Netherlands, and colleagues used data from the Framingham Heart Study, a study that has followed 5,209 residents of Framingham, Mass., over the past 46 years.

For the whole story click here

Air Force oil diet

As you might guess, the Air Force consumes a lot of oil. And just imagine what the increased price of gas has done to the Air Force’s monthly energy bill! The Air Force want to wean itself from foreign oil and nearly zero out its carbon dioxide output as part of a sweeping alternative energy drive, a senior Pentagon official said on Friday. By early 2011, the US Air Force aims to make sure its entire fleet of bombers, fighters, transports and other aircraft can use a domestically produced 50-50 blend of synthetic and petroleum-based fuel.

William Anderson, an assistant Air Force secretary, said the goal was to reduce energy demand, look for cleaner power sources and to reuse captured carbon commercially, for instance to enhance the growth of biofuels or improve oil well production.Anderson said the effort on synthetic jet fuel had been spurred by the 2006 challenge to the nation from President Bush to wean itself from its “addiction” to imported oil. Anderson said jet fuel from coal produced 1.8 times more carbon dioxide between production and consumption as jet fuel from oil, but he said most of that additional amount could be captured during production of the synthetic fuel. Coal was abundant in United States and renewable energy sources could not meet growing energy demands.

For the whole story, click here.

Here’s a related story…

Gore lays facts of climate change on the table
Gore Calls for US to Use Renewable Energy by 2018
»
by: David Stout, The New York Times

Gore lays facts of climate change on the table

Former Vice President Al Gore introduced an ambitious plan to rely completely on clean, renewable energy within the next decade.

Former Vice President Al Gore said on Thursday that Americans must abandon fossil fuels within a decade and rely on the sun, the winds and other environmentally friendly sources of electric power, or risk losing their national security as well as their creature comforts.

“The survival of the United States of America as we know it is at risk,” Mr. Gore said in a speech to an energy conference here. “The future of human civilization is at stake.”

Political energy tracker launched

As Presidential election campaigning heats up, everyone is increasingly interested in the energy positions and viewpoints of the Presidential candidates. It is a topic I recently started following since it is so critically important for the future of this country. That’s why I decided to launch tommorrow, an Obama and McCain news watch service that tracks the latest news stories. You’ll read their comments about energy and comments others are making about these candidates. I hope you find the service as useful as I think it will be for everyone. Enjoy the service starting this Monday. To access the service, all you have to do is click on the category Presidential Politics near the top of this site and select which of the two candidates you want to read about. Every day new stories will be available.

Shale oil the solution?

Is shale oil our salvation? I first heard about shale oil on a television news program. What the heck is this shale oil stuff anyway? According to Wikipedia, “oil shale extraction refers to the process in which kerogen, a mixture of organic chemical compounds found in oil shales, is converted into synthetic crude oil through the chemical process of pyrolysis. In this process, oil shale is heated in the absence of oxygen to a temperature at which oil shale is decomposed and kerogen is pyrolysed into a petroleum-like condensable shale oil—a form of non-conventional oil—and combustible shale gas (shale gas can also refer to gas occurring naturally in shales). The process also produces a solid residue in form of spent shale (char). Decomposition of oil shale begins at relatively low temperatures (300 °C (570 °F)), but proceeds more rapidly and more completely at higher temperature. What does all this mean? Well, to boil it down to my understanding, you see there are these rocks that have this oil in them…and we have tons and tons of these rocks available…and there’s a process we can use to get oil from the rocks..(If you have a “thirst” for more dry details about shale oil, check it out a wikipedia here.

Here’s some extracts of info from a site called shale oil now: “America has an Estimated 1 to 2 Trillion Barrels of oil locked in shale in the Midwest. That could be as much as 8 times the total proven oil reserves of Saudi Arabia. America could be energy independent within 5 years. (This is primarily in the Green River Formation, not the disputed Bakken Formation.) “Any alternatives to our oil economy are at least 30 years away (possibly never). While there are many ways of extending our oil supplies, and I vigorously support and promote all of them, we can not HOPE our way out of our energy challenges. You can’t run your car on a tank of HOPE. Suggested alternatives simply do not rise to meet the enormous quantity of energy we need. Alternatives are a drop in the bucket of what we need.” So what will it take to access this tremendous oil resource? I’m just learning about this alternative but will share info about it as I learn about it– it’s all part of posts I continue to write about alternative energy.

Gas dip for drivers

Something happened today that I wondered if it would ever happen again…In case you missed this headline news item, oil fell below $130 per barrel today! That prompted a rally on Wall Street. In a related note, high prices seem to be driving demand down. U.S. drivers this month are driving 5% less than a year ago. So maybe the law of supply, demand, and prices really works– even when it comes to gas.

By the way, if you really want to follow gas price trends, let me recommend that you regularly check out our gas data center. We’ve put a great deal of work gathering sources of info and data to give you a comprehensive picture of gas price trends and related info. Our plans are to continually expand it. Visit our gas data center and you’ll find such information as:

* The cheapest gas price at your location!
* National price trends;
* Historical gas price trends; and,
* Gas pricing maps.

Watch Boone Pickens Plan

If you haven’t heard billionaire T Boone Pickens has taken out advertisements to promote a plan for energy independence. Here are some videos of Pickens:

Here’s a video of the Pickens plan:

Here’s a longer version of the plan:

Here’s Pickens on CNBC:

55 miles per hour returning?

Remember when the maximum speed limit was 55? That was way back in 1974 when the nation faced the Arab oil embargo….Gee, why didn’t we become more proactive about energy independence back then? Good question, right!

In 1995, we were permitted to “put the pedal to the metal” again and the 55 mph limit was dropped…Deja vu—-well requiring us to drive no more than 55 is back on the table again in Congress.

In a recent discussion, Republican Senator John Warner from Virginia asked Energy Secretary Sam Bodman to caclulate how much we would save at 55 mph- when enacted in the past the savings was 167-thousand barrels of oil a day. Savings could be greater today.

What do you think? Should Congress re-enact the reduced speed limit? You know, besides saving gas, it would save lives as well…

Here’s some related stories:

Next Page »