Daniel Howes: Prices we pay for gas drive behavior

Yeah, well remember that Ross Perot proposed a 50¢/gallon federal tax increase on gasoline. Too bad he was such a nut case in other ways.

What's interesting is that the retail price of gasoline would not go up

50¢ a gallon if the tax was raised by that much, just as it doesn't rise and fall in lock-step with the price of crude. This is exactly why the oil companies will never allow this sort of a tax, the pie will be split differently if the tax goes up, while the price remains relatively constant.

The price of cigarettes is a good illustration of this. When NY piled on more tax, there were predictions of $7.00 per pack, up from $5-ish. It didn't really go that way at many outlets. Turned out the manufacturers had enough wiggle room to absorb some of the increase.

My neighbors have solar electric. If it weren't for all the slow pokes who provide food and other tangibles at higher prices I would say my neighbor's adventure was a success. There's been enough studies. Just do it!!

Or at the very least try solar water heating. It's easy enough to integrate with conventional domestic (maybe commercial also) water heating systems and can be warming up the hot tank during the day, ready for the evening.

Have I commented before on how few such systems *.ca.us appears to have? And so much spare sunshine. Weird folk. Maybe power is still too cheap there. (But: go Arnie!)

(Side Note: In 1991, during a visit to NZ, I was shown a smart gadget for warming water while camping. Think of a large black plastic water bottle but with one side transparent. Fill it up with unheated water. Lay on a thermally insulated surface with the transparent side turned to the sun. Depending on sunlight, soon the water is warm enough for showering &c. It came with a shower nozzle attached and a loop to hang it by, IIRC.)

I like the idea of using a solar pre-heater, but the last time I checked, the break-even was something like 11 years, or about the life of the solar collector.

I have a Stearns SunShower

someone gave to me. We took it on a trip to the Boundary Waters Wilderness Canoe Area between Minnesota and Canada. On a sunny day, with air temps around 75 Fahrenheit (24 C), it took about 2 or 3 hours to heat the lake water enough so that it actually felt warm. It is a great idea if you are patient, which I am not. It was a lot faster to just jump in the lake to clean off ;-)

I agree with you 110%. I have a 125 gallon storage system and I still feel great after all these years when I hear the shower go just about non-stop for 4 people and the conventional system doesn't have to turn on. This time of the year it does but only to bring the water to 140 degrees from about

100 degrees F. I think about all the service calls for tune-ups and general cleanings my old conventional system required (it was a high efficiency unit too at the time). When my daughter was staying at hospices in Europe she would call home and tell me the hot water was only available for short periods of time during the day. She really appreciated coming home and having a luxury many of us take for granted.

Hospices?

I can vouch for positive experience in both of these subjects. I have solar electric panels on my roof (installed at no cast to me as part of a program that I can talk about further if anyone cares). These work really well and helps the planet while saving me $$$.

I also actually use the black bottle gadget with the nozzle regularly when we go vamping. It works quite well and if you leave it out too long you can burn yourself with the hot water. If you go to folk music festivals where thousands of folks are all camping you will see these all over the place.

The Sun's energy is there for the taking. We just need to take it. Tomes

*brrr??* The temperature in NZ, IIRC, during December which is their midsummer, would have been around that, maybe a bit more. I won't say it got _hot_, just nicely warm. Could be UK/NZians are hearty outdoorsy characters and rate cold as "warm"?

The Sun is a fusion reactor.

Better yet....construct fusion power plants....

Looks like temps in NZ are slightly cooler than the temps in MN during our trip.

I like nights in the 40 to 60 degree temp range for camping, although that makes washing up in lakes and streams a little brisk!

A central power plant is better overall because many dwellings simply don't have enough access to sunlight. But if you've got the view.... I wish I could talk my wife into letting me install a soap stone stove.

To get this a little back on-topic, visit Lertola's Toyota in Proctor, VT. The showroom is heated with a beautiful soap stone stove, and the owner used to have a 2000 GT stashed away.

Ever heard the phrase the nuts are running the asylum? We are all environmentalists in that we do not try to poop where we eat, but the environuts will stop eating so the do not have to live with the poop.

Governments, both federal and local individually and totally, today make as much as five times the profit on a gallon of gasoline than do the oil company, refiner, distributor or the retailers. Gasoline is one of the worlds most competitive commodities, as well as the most competitive fuel used by consumers. Think about, it when you drive down the street and see one station selling gas for

2c less, which one will you patronize? IF the oil companies really could control the price why would it ever go down? If you want to have any control over the retail price per gallon, buy less of. There are only so many places to store gasoline, when they can't sell at a high price they lower the price if they till can't sell to cover the distribution price, they will have to burn it off at the refinery like they did before it became a motor fuel, to get to the part of the crude that pays real profits.

Numerous Congressional Committees have called in the various evil oil executive many time to discover who is making a killing on oil You never hear the result of those investigations because, every time the result is the same, supply and demand. There was a economist of TV last week that said if the Democrats are successful in enacting all of the legislation the have on the table that effect the oil industry the price of gasoline will got up another $1,50 a gallon. The politicians like to make it appear they are going to give you something for free, but I don't believe they will be stupid enough to cause a $1,.50 increase of the price of gasoline, yet alone in the price of diesel fuel.

IF all of sudden we used 20% less crude than we do today, the Depression would seem like a church picnic. The world economy runs on crude oil and whether we like it or not, there is noting today or in the next ten years at least that can replace oil as it is used today, nothing. Some say ethanol but there is no way we can possibly produce enough mental to replace even

15% of the gasoline we use with out adversely effecting the worlds food supply. The price of corn, is going up dramatically as we speak and the supply is going down, because your government giving your tax money to the ethanol industry to subside the cost so as to compete with gasoline. Farmers are not stupid they will sell their corn to the commodity buyer that pays the highest price, just as do crude oil commodity buyers. When one considers the cost of a gallon of gasoline vis v a gallon of water, what are we complaining about anyway?

Speaking of global warming to lower the amount of the so called dangerous hothouse gas known as cardoon dioxide, in the atmosphere, it would not surprise me to hear the environuts propose that we only breath on alternate days and that we cut down more of the trees so they don't die from lack of carbon dioxide LOL

mike

I have a solar hot water heater at my Key West home that costs me a small fortune in 2000. I also need a NG heater for when the 'Free' water is not available. I don't have a problem but how many people can afford to buy both systems, particularly where they have fewer sunny days than Key West? After all wind solar, even gas, coal and oil were all given to us by the good Lord, they are all available for free, it is the cost of getting, distributing and maintaining their energy that costs money. ;)

mike

However what we us to 'take' it is very expensive and not very efficient. One would be better served going the other direction, down. Go down less than 50 feet with a heat exchanger, about the size of a small refrigerator, where the temperature is a constant 55 degrees or so. You can air condition at that temperature and one need only heat it 20 degrees to heat the house, both of which are much more costly to do than heat water ;)

mike

That seems like a practical and ecologically friendly solution; I am surprised that it is not more widely implemented.

There isn't enough BTU's down there per Mike's scenario to reheat a cup of coffee. Good try though. mark_