Tip of the day

Exercise more!

Here is the scenario: you get home after work, you get out of your work clothes and realize you have a couple of hours of daylight left. So what do you do? Drive to the golf course? Go shopping? Take a joy ride around the local lake? Or you could go for a peaceful 3 mile jog or 10 mile bike ride in your neighborhood. Exercise is something we all could do more of for our own health, it sets good examples for our children (which I don't have), and most importantly, it does not require any Petro. You never know, one of these days our feet may be our only reasonable means of transportation.

The Saudi Summit

What is the Saudi kingdom's stake in all of this and what do they want to see happen? The simplest answer to this is that they do not want the U.S. or any other country to Petropinch. Their worst fear is that we as a country and the industrialized world will become more efficient and become less dependant on the one resource that they dictate. One misconception that is out there is that the Saudi's are enjoying these high gas prices and reaping the benefits of the high price of oil, but instead it has them very worried and very upset with the way the U.S. financial sector is driving up the price, causing people to search for alternatives.

This weekend, the Saudi's will meet to discuss upping the production of crude in an effort to alleviate the skyrocketing gas prices that we are seeing. This comes after our President basically went over there and begged for more oil. This increase in production is designed to send a signal to speculators and is an attempt at bringing down the price of crude. If this does not work, an even clearer signal may be sent out that simply upping production is nothing more than a quick fix to a big problem.

I'm back!!

Sorry I was gone for a while, but I was busy Petropinching - it takes a lot of time when you are always checking the air in your tires, driving slow, parking in the shade, etc.

But seriously, there has been a lot of activity with oil prices and oil speculation, as well as debate about off-shore drilling, so I would like to discuss some of these topics, and also talk about what I have done to Petropinch over the last couple of weeks.

It seems to be getting worse

http://money.cnn.com/2008/06/06/news/economy/gas_prices/index.htm?cnn=yes

Good article

http://money.cnn.com/2008/05/07/news/economy/120_oil/index.htm?postversion=2008050812

The truth is, the price of gas went from $.89 per gallon to about $2.50 per gallon with little change besides alot of complaining. This means that for the longest time gas was completely undervalued in our free market economy. This relatively cheap form of energy fueled the huge growth in our country thru the 80's and into the 90's as we became a society totally dependant on cheap transport. Now, as prices soar above $4 per gallon, I believe we are hitting a tipping point that will not bring about disaster, but will bring about a change in consumer habits. That is what Petropinching is all about. People are talking and taking notice, which will in turn change habits.

The price of a gas of gallon is accurate - if it were to go down we would only start to overconsume again. Hopefully, we can all appreciate the price of gas as it is today and adjust appropriately.

A diversion into plastic

Up until now most of my blogging has been related to gasoline consumption. However, last night I read an interesting article regarding the amount of petroleum used in the production of those unsightly water bottles and plastic bags littering our beautiful landscapes.

According to the Pacific Institute, Americans consumed 31.2 BILLION liters of bottled water in 2006. In order to support the bottling process for all of this water, producers use over 900,000 tons of plastic. The process for making all of this plastic (of which only a very small percentage is actually recycled) requires a combo of natural gas and petroleum. The bottom line is that to make all of this plastic for the bottles of tap water that we carry around uses about 17 million barrels of oil!

Another disturbing statistic concerns those plastic bags that stores like Wal Mart use to bag every individual item. America uses around 100 billion of these per year (about one per day per person). This equates to about 12 million barrels for production using this petroleum and natural gas method.

Just to keep things in perspective, the 29 million barrels used in the production of these plastics per year are only enough to fuel our gas consumption for about a day and a half, but once again, every little bit helps. Cutting back on our fascination with plastic bottles and bags will also benefit the environment greatly.

So go out, buy some of those eco-friendly bags, refuse bags at the counter, and for God's sake, cut it out with the bottled water. Its just tap water! Buy a filter and reuse the same bottle.

Think Petropinch positive!

Very useful sight

Track your milage using the following sight - excellent for measuring your Petropinchability!

http://www.fuelfrog.com/

I have started my account and am looking forward to tracking my progress - let me know if you are using it.

Thanks for the link CD of Boston.

Second Tip O' the Day

Just a reminder to everyone that reads this - the problems that we are facing today regarding gas prices and petroleum consumption can easily be blamed on many different entities: Congress, OPEC, Corporate America, the Saudi Arabians, George Bush, etc. However, the blame needs to rest on everyone's shoulders including me and including you. We cannont continue to be slaves to this one finite natural resource and the only way to change that is to change your habits as a consumer. Take responsibilty - we are all to blame, every single person living in this nation.

Be aware of how you use petroleum. It is not just in your car or in your home, it is in the plastic bags you use, the water bottles you drink out of, and the other items that you may choose to recycle or not. We are a wasteful society that tends to avoid personal blame for the situations that we impose on ourselves. I am not standing on a soapbox here because I am part of the problem, but I hope to make changes in my life and would ask the same of you.

Good luck and realize that the first step to Petropinching is taking responsibility for the problem at hand.

Tip O' the Day

When purchasing gas at the pump, don't top off. This extra amount evaporates by the time it reaches your fuel pump and also releases more fumes into the air.

a couple of interesting articles - form your own opinion

http://www.cnn.com/2008/TECH/science/05/30/Biofuels.opinion/index.html

http://online.wsj.com/article/SB121201723656327625.html?mod=opinion_main_commentaries

Update on Petropinching 2008

Currently I am measuring my latest fillup - I put in 16.5 gallons of regular gas and it cost me a whopping $68.22. So far, I have gone 300 miles and have about a quarter of a tank left. My tires are aired up, my car is relatively empty, but I haven't been driving like I should be - alot of fast acceleration, AC, and hard braking. I am going to measure my mpg this go round, and then be very cautious my next fill up and see what I can change.

Here is my latest tip:

• Anticipate stop signs and red lights: we all know when we are approaching a stopping situation, but we probably wait until the last minute to stop. By doing this, we are wasting a very valuable source of energy - momentum. If we anticipate the stop, we can harness some of this momentum to help us start accelerating again, allowing us to Petropinch.

Think about it.

Let me know how it is going, and please spread the word.