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20060424 Monday April 24, 2006

Gas Prices Denver Apparently gas prices are way up. I wouldn't have known this, but the lady cutting my hair the other night mentioned it. I think I've filled up my car 5 times this year. The only thing I use it for now is Ski Trips and Airport Runs. Ahhhh, the joys of a bicycle commute and living in the center of town. Of course, on days like today (when it's starting to snow), it's nice to be able to work from home. Posted in General at Apr 24 2006, 06:22:50 PM MDT 11 Comments

Comments:

Damn strait. I have been walking to work for over a year here in Portland, OR. Best thing ever invented. My panic level has gone way down. I just use gas to get to the river to wet a fly now ;) Mike

Posted by Mike Herrick on April 24, 2006 at 08:51 PM MDT #

Damn, that's cheap. Gas costs 6,42 USD a gallon in Germany.

Posted by Hendrik Noot on April 24, 2006 at 11:49 PM MDT #

Yes, prices in the US are still too cheap. Americans are the biggest energy wasters of the world. Do you really need all these big trucks with lots of horsepowers? I've heard that some manufacturers (like Mercedes) will offer Diesel engines in the US, maybe that's a little improvement.

Posted by Lars Fischer on April 25, 2006 at 01:47 AM MDT #

+1 for Lars - I was about to remind these facts. The US are a fantastic country but they need to learn some obvious facts. (by the way, the french too! I am french and we are only beginning to do some research about new energies. But this is another pb)

Posted by Gabriel on April 25, 2006 at 02:35 AM MDT #

Not sure if those outside the US can get to it or not, but here's some information on how much the US does consume:

http://www.cia.gov/cia/publications/factbook/docs/rankorderguide.html

Check out the consumption reports for almost every kind of fuel.

Now, I'm not sure what the per-capita consumption is but I'm guessing that might make it look even worse.

Yep, we're spoiled. There's many things about the US I'm proud of, but this ain't one of them.

Posted by Troy Kelley on April 25, 2006 at 06:43 AM MDT #

http://news.yahoo.com/s/nm/20060425/pl_nm/bush_energy_dc_4

If you take a look at the profit margins of the US oil companies it just takes a little common sense to know that somebody is taking advantage of price swings. I'll stop now :-)

Posted by Troy Kelley on April 25, 2006 at 08:22 AM MDT #

Wow. A lecture from Europeans on economic waste. That's somewhat akin to getting lectured by the Chinese on the evils of sweatshops. ;-)

Posted by Jason on April 25, 2006 at 10:32 AM MDT #

It's not from whom do you receive the lecture but are you prepared to listen.

Posted by Srgjan Srepfler on April 25, 2006 at 11:09 AM MDT #

As a US citizen I can say that americans are tooooo reliant on cheap energy. We've built our way of life around it. Suburbs pave over rich farm land, and forests. We prefer to live in places that cannot otherwise support life - Vegas, Desert southwest. Our commutes are insanely long. We import everything from China. Next rush hour, count the number of cars you see which have 2 or more passengers. My company subsidizes a bus pass, and it runs me about $7.00 week to commute to work.

If you've never heard about the theory of "peak oil", check out, Peak Oil. It doesn't say that the world is running out of oil, but it does say that it will get harder and more expensive to produce oil, and ultimately the world will begin producing less and less. Unfortunately, the global economy is reliant on Oil for more than just gas. Everything that is manufactured requires energy.

Posted by m@t on April 25, 2006 at 12:30 PM MDT #

Note: one have anyway to notice that the whole US society works with cars. Because of geography: one need a way to travel. Oil is just essential.

Posted by Gabriel on April 25, 2006 at 12:57 PM MDT #

Cars are a necessity but for many things there are alternatives like electric trains, electric cars, seg-ways :) The problem of course doesn't dissapears, how do you generate all that extra electricity? These days all the lobbies are trying to sell us that nuclear can be safe, or old termal (often toxic) plants get reopened. The resources are getting thinner and the world growth is on "accelarate". For us Java heads I guess the first thought that comes to mind is that if things continue like this they just "won't scale".
We need some genious like Tesla to show us the way to the future (if they didn't buy him or shut him up already). One thing we can all do is: be more aware of ways to save energy, recycle, buy energy efficient products like Intel Core Duo, 21" LCDs and small european cars (because they use less gas, look cool and might just get you laid).

Posted by Srgjan Srepfler on April 25, 2006 at 07:18 PM MDT #

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Matt Raible is a Web Architecture Consultant specializing in open source frameworks.
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