Gas Prices Cause Drop In Miles Traveled
It seems the American public has finally (finally!) reached the point at which it is unwilling to waste gas anymore.
In April 2008, Americans drove 245.9 billion milles, compared to 250.3 billion in April 2007. Indeed, the April 2008 figure is lower than the April 2004 figure.
Amazing, hey everyone go get on a bike, it’s not that bad and you will feel great! Save some money, save the planet!
Adam Grosser On Refrigeration Without Electricity
Checking In With The MySietch Bloggers
Our crop of MySietch Bloggers has slowly grown over the years, but a couple stand out from the rest.
This is a lady on a mission, a mission to make her garden about the coolest place on earth! Seriously if you ever wanted to know what was possible as far as growing your own food check her site out.
Or very own Keith on his mission to expose the crazy and foolish steps some companies will go to in order to pull the wool over our eyes. Check him out as he pokes fun at the many foolish greenwashers that pretend to be green, but fall far short.
Our friend up north, Greenspree has built his own straw bale home, and now works promoting green technology in Canada. Be sure to give him a read.
LTGTTC is a great view of non-profit work in New York. The tales are heartwarming, and heart breaking. It is nice to see someone taking the time to make others lives better.
Do you have something you need to tell the work about? Would you like your own fully featured website (with blog!)? Join our other MySietch users and set up your own website. Click here for more details.
Barack Obama’s Take On Off Shore Drilling
He’s against it, and with good reason.
His words below.
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There has been a lot of discussion over the last week about offshore drilling, so I’d just like to say a few words about that before I open this up for questions.
I understand how badly folks are struggling to pay gas prices that have reached well over $4 in many places. I still remember the man I met in Pennsylvania who just lost his job but can’t even afford to drive around and look for a new one. Along with the skyrocketing cost of health care and college and even food, it is a crushing burden on working families that we have to relieve. That’s why I’ve proposed taxing the record, multibillion-dollar profits of oil companies and using the money to pay for a $1,000 middle-class tax cut that would go to 95% of all families. It’s also why I’ve proposed a second fiscal stimulus package that would mail another round of rebate checks to the American people.
These steps would ease some of the short-term pain of these gas prices. But what wouldn’t do a thing to lower gas prices is John McCain’s new proposal to open up Florida’s coastline to offshore drilling.
In what is becoming a bit of a regular occurrence in this campaign, Senator McCain once had a different position on offshore drilling. And it’s clear why he did - it would have long-term consequences for our coastlines but no short-term benefits since it would take ten years to get any oil.
Well, the politics may have changed, but the accuracy of his original position hasn’t. Offshore drilling would not lower gas prices today. It would not lower gas prices this summer. It would not lower gas prices this year. In fact, President Bush’s own Energy Department says that we won’t see a drop of oil from this proposal until 2017. It will take a generation to reach full production. And even then, the effect on gas prices will be minimal at best.
Believe me - if I thought that there was any evidence at all that drilling could save people money who are struggling to fill up their tanks by this summer or this year or even the next few years, I would consider it. But it won’t. And John McCain knows that.
The fact is, Senator McCain’s decision to team up with George Bush on offshore drilling violates the bipartisan consensus we’ve had in place for decades that has protected Florida’s pristine coastline from drilling.
Just like Senator McCain’s gas tax gimmick, this is a proposal that will only worsen our addiction to oil and put off needed investments in clean, renewable energy. And it’s not the kind of change the American people are looking for. They’re looking for leadership that moves this country forward and actually offers real solutions to the serious challenges we face. That’s why I have unveiled an aggressive and comprehensive energy policy that raises our fuel standards and invests $150 billion over the next ten years in clean, affordable, renewable sources of energy - a policy that promotes realistic energy conservation. And when I am President, I will keep the moratorium in place and prevent oil companies from drilling off Florida’s coasts. That’s how we can protect our coasts and still make the investments that will reduce our dependence on foreign oil and bring down gas prices for good. And that’s what I intend to do as President.
Cape Wind Foes Lose Legal Battle
Nice to see that a couple rich property owners and dirty coal/oil/gas executives can’t keep the public from what it wants, clean renewable energy.
The presiding judge in a lawsuit against the state of Massachusetts and the company that wants to build 130 wind turbines in Nantucket Sound dismissed the bulk of the suit this week.
Barnstable Superior Court Judge Robert Kane ruled in favor of Cape Wind Associates on most of the company’s requests to dismiss five complaints in the case, which challenged the adequacy and jurisdiction of the state’s review of the project under the Massachusetts Environmental Policy Act.
….
he lawsuit against the state and Cape Wind is not the only legal protest to the proposed Nantucket Sound wind farm. There is also a lawsuit challenging the ruling by the state Energy Facilities Siting Board, which overruled a denial of Cape Wind by the Cape Cod Commission. An appeal of that decision is ongoing.
The U.S. Department of Interior’s Minerals Management Service — the lead federal agency in the project’s review — released a largely favorable draft environmental impact statement on the project in January.
A final version of the federal report is due by the end of the year, and a new flurry of legal action is expected to follow its release. (via)
The pattern so far has been thus, Cape Wind gets a favorable ruling from some government agency, the NIMBY’s sue, the NIMBY’s lose, the NIMBY’s find something else to sue about. Frankly it is shameful that these people would be doing this, but at least they keep having to pay for their silly (and wasteful) lawsuits. One day you will be able to go to a few beaches on the Cape and on a really really clear day you will see a beautiful array of wind turbines on the horizon. These turbines will be providing 75% of the Capes power from clean renewable wind energy. Or I guess we can keep burning coal and oil and let global warming destroy the Cape. The choice seems clear, Cape Wind or bust!
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