The issue stems from activist and Green Party candidate for Washington governor Duff Badgley’s attempts to drive customers away from a new biofuel station in northwest Seattle. Allegedly Badgley and his group, One Earth, have been harassing customers by taking pictures of their license plates and passing out leaflets that proclaim biofuels as a “scourge on humankind.”

Biofuels certainly have a hard row to hoe in terms of reaching sustainability, and the activists have some valid concerns, but a “scourge on humanity”? Really? It’s almost laughable.

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Both Katrina and Rita were category 5 hurricanes and each one caused damage to an estimated 3,000 oil platforms and 22,000 miles of pipelines in the Gulf of Mexico. The following damage is recorded:

52 platforms with major damage

19 of the floating drill units exposed to hurricane force winds went adrift or were damaged

115 platforms destroyed

Eight rigs destroyed

535 pipeline segments damaged

Dr. Nagarajaiah explains that the rigs and platforms may have ongoing damage due to past storms, making them more susceptible to current and future storm surge and wind damage. If and when damage occurs to these platforms, equipment and pipelines the potential for more increases at the pump becomes greater and greater. This Science Daily article states:

When Katrina and Rita struck, gas prices soared as a result of damage to oil facilities. With oil prices at all-time highs this year, U.S. oil production in the Gulf of Mexico has a direct impact on gasoline prices.

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But some recent comments, especially about the Drive 55 campaign that has been in the general media again lately, have me thinking about some particular gaps in our common understanding and, therefore, overall communication.

Interestingly enough, I’m not even an advocate for a change in speed limit laws. I’m not against such changes. But I’m not pushing for them, either.

What I am is a facilitator of a discussion about the matter that is under consideration for the purpose of saving fuel, money, and lives.

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Going from St. Louis to Chicago, then up past Milwaukee before backtracking that route home, my wife and I drove our 2008 Honda Civic, a 5-speed which is rated to get 36 miles per gallon on the highway and 25 mpg in the city (29 mpg combined).

On three gas stops, our mileage figured to 40.25, 39.29 and 39.48 mpg.

That included city driving, traffic stoppages, and miles and miles of construction slow-downs and more stoppages.

Could it be that driving the speed limits, usually 55- and 65-mph on the highways and interstates we used, gave us that boost to get from 36 to 40 miles per gallon?

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The Orlando Sentinal reported:

At the pump, retail gas prices continued their decline, suggesting that cash-strapped Americans are still cutting back on their driving. A gallon of regular slipped another penny overnight to a new national average of $3.73, almost 10 percent lower than record prices of $4.114 a gallon reached July 17, according to auto club AAA, the Oil Price Information Service and Wright Express.

On Friday the discussion about the price of oil centered around OPEC’s recent report showing the demand for oil is down. According to the Baltimore Sun OPEC’s estimate of oil demand is summarized as follows:

In its monthly oil report, the organization forecast world appetite for oil this year overall will fall by 30,000 barrels a day. While forecasting demand growing by a daily 1 million barrels a day this year, and another 900,000 barrels in 2009, the report noted that world demand growth next year will also be “the lowest since 2002,” with demand growth from the major industrialized countries actually declining.

How will this affect the fight for Energy Independence in America?

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And now they want your input on what those sustainable practices and standards should be — they’ve released the first draft of their “Principles and Baseline Practices for Sustainability” (PDF) to the public under a 45-day comment and review period.

So, if you’ve ever questioned the wisdom of growing our own fuel, or you’ve wondered how biofuels can be considered sustainable at all given other seemingly cleaner options like solar, wind and geothermal, now’s your time to speak up.

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Once mandated in the 1970s — but eventually discarded for 65-75 m.p.h. limits handled by individual states — the concept has resurfaced as oil and gas prices have rocketed to record heights.

A news story published this morning in USA Today brought out the naysayers in droves. An overwhelming majority of the story’s commenters online booed and hissed at the notion that they should do any such inconvenient thing.

Some main complaints are being echoed throughout the comments chamber:

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Two weeks ago, the presumptive Democratic candidate for President of the United States, Barack Obama had the gall to suggest that proper tire inflation could actually reduce national gasoline consumption, thereby lowering our carbon emissions and reducing our demand for oil.

GOP strategists saw an opportunity to pounce on this bold claim by Senator Obama. And they, along with their friend Rush Limbaugh, lampooned and ridiculed Obama’s tire pressure assertion as a joke. The McCain campaign even went so far as handing out tire gauges branded with the slogan “Obama’s Energy Plan” to reporters traveling with Senator Obama. Let me just say this, whomever was in charge of that “brilliant” move at McCain HQ should be canned.

Today several more groups were added to the growing list of organizations that stand behind Senator Obama’s claim that properly inflated tires can indeed reduce gasoline consumption.  Speaking on behalf of these groups, and helping to launch the EcoDriving initiative were the Republican Governor of California Arnold Schwarzenegger, and the Democratic Governor of Colorado Bill Ritter.

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Recently, Canadian investment bank BMO Nesbitt Burns’ deputy chief economist has suggested that high gas prices are making a difference in commuting behaviour. According to a note from Statistics Canada, service station receipts went up by 2.4% in May, while gasoline prices grew more than 3 times that: 8.8%. This suggests pretty strongly that high gas prices have induced commuters to change their driving behaviours. People are starting to leave their cars at home and taking public transit, working compressed workweeks or just carpooling. Anything that might allow them to save on fuel costs.

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This story contains additional media. Click here to view the media.

I’m pretty sure whoever shot this was breaking the law, or, at the very least, House Rules — but I’m quite glad they did. I’m always entertained by politics as theater.

More posts on oil, offshore drilling, and gas prices:

• Obama Campaign Seeks to Make Gas Prices Irrelevant
• Poll: Americans Don’t Think More Drilling Will Lower Gas Prices
• Is McCain Serious About Cap-and-Trade? Economic Adviser Forbes Doesn’t Think So
• New McCain Ad Blames Obama for High Gas Prices
• McCain Credits Bush for Drop in Crude Oil Prices, White House Basically Replies: ‘Wasn’t us’

From Senator McCain blaming Barack Obama for high gas prices, to the House GOP’s recent (and ongoing) faux-libuster demanding an up-or-down vote on increasing domestic oil drilling, there’s no doubt that the Republican Party is pulling out all the stops to make oil the wedge issue in the upcoming election.

But speaking today at Michigan State University, Barack Obama revealed his “New Energy Plan For America,” which he said would create 5 million new jobs and eliminate our need for Middle Eastern oil in 10 years.

Obama’s plan would release light oil from the emergency oil stockpile and replace it later with heavier crude. Light crude oil is easier to refine into gasoline than heavier oil. In 2000, President Clinton used a similar tactic to make oil available at a time of rising oil prices. Obama’s new plan would also create a windfall profits tax on oil companies and a $1,000 energy rebate for families (read it here: Barack Obama’s New Energy Plan For America).

Obama’s remarks today in Michigan are part of a coordinated push-back against his Republican opponent. As part of that push, the Obama camp released a new television commercial linking McCain to Bush, Bush to McCain, and both of them to Big Oil. This story contains additional media. Click here to view the media.

“Our dangerous dependence on foreign oil has been 30 years in the making and was caused by the failure of politicians in Washington to think long-term about the future of the country.”

“What Senator McCain neglected to mention was that during those 30 years, he was in Washington for 26 of them.”

Related Posts:

• Why Liberals Should Be Happy Obama Changed His Position On Offshore Drilling
• 5 Reasons Why We Don’t Need a Windfall Profits Tax on Energy Firms
• Poll: Americans Don’t Think More Drilling Will Lower Gas Prices
• Obama Campaign Seeks To Make Oil Prices Irrelevant

Photo: Transplanted Mountaineer via flickr under a Creative Commons License

The movie title Gas Hole likely conjures varied humorous, if not-quite-sure-where-this-movie- is-headed, ideas in the minds of prospective viewers.

Maybe then it is highly suitable that the term came from the angelic mind of a child, simply trying to put a term to that hole-thingy where we insert gas pump nozzles to fuel our cars.

Suitable – and an unwittingly appropriate description of what has been happening in recent decades of oil pricing and auto manufacturing.

In Gas Hole , the girl’s uttering of the name that became the film’s title is one of the few that breaks the movie’s queasy sense of tension. It is an otherwise mind-boggling documentary of the history of oil prices, the attempts to develop alternative fuels and the related efforts of government and corporate interests.

The discomforting questions…

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Turns out, 50% of people in the US are wiser than I thought: there is no quick fix or simple solution.

Another interesting result from the survey: 48% of consumers don’t see McCain or Obama as having a particular advantage when trying to work with the auto industry to bring more fuel efficient or plug-in vehicles to the market in the future.

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That’s 195,000 Vehicles.

The U.S. Postal service is looking to move away from petroleum based fuels as quickly as possible since, as Environmental Leader reports, a 1-cent increase in a gallon of fuel costs them an additional $8 million annually.

It looks like USPS will be getting a free fuel-cell test-vehicle from GM’s Project Driveway, which is providing select customers around the country with Equinox Fuel-Cell vehicles.

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Sometimes it takes an energy crisis to make us realize the value of old technology. As oil prices soar, tall wind-powered ships are looking like an increasingly viable alternative.

The first commercial cargo of French wine to be transported by sailboat in the modern era is due to arrive in Dublin this week after a six-day trip. The 108 year-old boat, chartered by French shipping company Compagnie de Transport Maritime a la Voile (CMTV), is carrying 30,000 bottles of wine.

Though the ship travels at a top speed of eight knots— half the speed of a modern cargo vessel—it is completely pollution-free. The 50,000 other merchant ships traveling the world emit 800 million tons of carbon dioxide each year.

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In fact, the poll finds, the public overwhelmingly believes (76% to 19%) that policymakers should focus on investing in new energy technologies including renewable fuels and more efficient vehicles rather than expanding exploration and drilling for more oil.

When asked the question: “Looking to the future, which one of the following do you think should be a more important priority for government: Investing in new energy technology including renewable fuels and more efficient automobiles, or expanding exploration and drilling for more oil?”, more than three-quarters of respondents favored new technology and renewables.

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Gas Prices are Killing Large Cars and Trucks

Ford Motor Company announced today it will be scrambling to realign its North American Manufacturing operation with the realities of consumer needs today.

With gas prices above $4 / gallon, most Americans are shying away from giant gas-guzzling vehicles in favor of smaller fuel efficient models. Starting in December, Ford said it will accelerate production of new fuel efficiency technology, double their hybrid production and lineup, and downsize vehicles across the board. By 2010, Ford says 2/3 of its spending will be on small cars and crossovers, and it will pull six small European models to the US by 2012.

“While we have no intention of giving up our longtime truck leadership, we are creating a new Ford in North America on a foundation of small, fuel-efficient cars and crossovers that will set new standards for quality, fuel economy, product features and refinement,” said Mark Fields, Ford president of The Americas.

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]]> http://gas2.org/2008/07/24/like-gm-ford-decides-theyd-better-start-producing-smaller-more-fuel-efficient-cars/feed/ http://redgreenandblue.org/2008/07/23/mccain-credits-bush-for-drop-in-oil-prices-white-house-replies-wasnt-us/ http://redgreenandblue.org/2008/07/23/mccain-credits-bush-for-drop-in-oil-prices-white-house-replies-wasnt-us/#comments Thu, 24 Jul 2008 00:34:54 +0000 Timothy B. Hurst http://redgreenandblue.org/2008/07/23/mccain-credits-bush-for-drop-in-oil-prices-white-house-replies-wasnt-us/ The presumptive Republican presidential nominee John McCain on Wednesday credited the recent drop in the price of oil to President Bush’s lifting of a presidential ban on offshore drilling. “The price of oil dropped $10 a barrel,” said McCain, who argued that the psychology of lifting the ban has affected world markets.  But the White House didn’t go quite that far.

When asked about the McCain statement, presidential spokeswoman Dana Perino said the recent drop in price could also be a product of diminished demand.

“I don’t know if we fully deserve the credit, but I do think that it was important to send a signal to the market that we are serious about moving forward.”

At last check, a barrel of light, sweet crude oil fell to $124.47 on the New York Mercantile Exchange on Wednesday. That’s down from more than $140 a barrel earlier in the summer.

Related Posts:

• “Bush Administration Proposes ‘Fire Sale’ of Rocky Mtns. For Oil Shale Development”
• “Bush Lifts Executive Ban on Offshore Drilling - Why it Matters and Why it Doesn’t”
• “McCain Calls for More Offshore Drilling - What Else Would he Say in Houston?”

Photo Credit: jurvetson via flickr under a Creative Commons License

]]> http://redgreenandblue.org/2008/07/23/mccain-credits-bush-for-drop-in-oil-prices-white-house-replies-wasnt-us/feed/ http://gas2.org/2008/07/23/samsung-to-invest-163-billion-in-indonesian-biodiesel-project/ http://gas2.org/2008/07/23/samsung-to-invest-163-billion-in-indonesian-biodiesel-project/#comments Wed, 23 Jul 2008 14:39:19 +0000 Nick Chambers http://gas2.org/2008/07/23/samsung-to-invest-163-billion-in-indonesian-biodiesel-project/

According to an article in the Jakarta Post, an official from the Indonesian government has spilled the beans on Samsung’s plans to invest up to $1.63 billion dollars in what’s sure to be a controversial acquisition of land for growing oil palms and construction of a biodiesel plant in Indonesia.

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]]> http://gas2.org/2008/07/23/samsung-to-invest-163-billion-in-indonesian-biodiesel-project/feed/ http://gas2.org/2008/07/17/opinion-biofuels-food-prices-and-global-warming-roundup/ http://gas2.org/2008/07/17/opinion-biofuels-food-prices-and-global-warming-roundup/#comments Thu, 17 Jul 2008 15:58:50 +0000 Nick Chambers http://gas2.org/2008/07/17/opinion-biofuels-food-prices-and-global-warming-roundup/ The current rate at which biofuels are falling out of favor is largely founded on biased ideologies, which have been shaped by widespread political and corporate agenda-pushing from all sides of the fence.

But first, a digression.

Part 1: When an egg was just an egg

I remember a time when an egg was just an egg. Nobody argued about that. It was a blissful time. Yet, for all its strengths, it was a fragile time held together by unsupported conclusions and limited knowledge.

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