$4.90 per gallon
We just received our contract price for fuel oil for the upcoming heating season and the price was $4.90/gallon. Our contract price for heating in 2007-2008 was $2.79/gallon. We use about 1,000 gallons to heat our home. We are not going to pay it! We bought a wood pellet furnace and bought 5 tons of pellets that should cover most of the heating season. Listed as carbon free, our pellet furnace will pay for itself with savings in a season! Pellets, at current prices, will save us about $3700/year. Assuming costs increase proportionally, pellets will always save us thousands of dollars in heating costs each year while adding basically no carbon to the atmosphere.
Consumers are going to have to change their spending habits. Since the pellets are produced in Maine, it makes sense to modify our spending and use what makes sense for our region. It would be wise to follow this same approach elsewhere. We have become so used to mega-solutions that we have ignored a more rational regional approach to meeting our energy needs. While solar power is certainly viable almost anywhere, at least as backup power, it would seem to make sense to use it as a primary power source in sunnier regions. Wind turbine generators may be more viable in certain regions, as is hydropower in others.
It is no longer about stopping importing oil. That option has passed. We have been hit over the head by the 2×4 oil rig and consumers need to respond accordingly. While we can hope that a new administration will help our transition to more environmentally friendly and viable power sources, don’t hold your breath. It could be years before politicians, regardless of who gets elected in November, make any kind of transitional financial support available. The power of oil is too entrenched to think that everything will be fine when we have a new president. Time is not on our side. If we wait for Washington to act, we will have lost the planet to the cockroaches. Smart money says bite the bullet and find alternative energy sources now. Buy fuel efficient cars now; unfortunately, they will probably have to be foreigners since Detroit is still in its own dream world. And, while automakers are cutting back on gas-guzzling manufacturing, along with job losses, they don’t get high marks for coming out with an affordable lineup of fuel-efficient cars. Some of their hybrids don’t get as good fuel economy as regular and usual foreign imports; they will be left behind in innovation. Not sure what will happen but the BBC had a report from a British car manufacturer producing a petrol powered vehicle that gets 80mpg. This is apparently done by drastically reducing weight by using carbon fibers for body work. Maybe this is what we can do with all the excess carbon, make cars out of it.
On another front, rising food costs have been attributed, at least in part, to increased use of biofuels. “The Food and Agriculture Organization of the United Nations (FAO) Food Price Index rose a steep but manageable 8% in 2006, but then it was much steeper, 24%, in 2007 and 53% in the first three months of this year alone, an unprecedented increase.” If you’ve bought recently, it’s clear that prices are going up, and as you know, once they go up, they don’t tend to go down too much. With gasoline basically at $4.00/gallon and a forecast of $5.00/gallon for September, it is clear that the consumer must act now to prevent their own demise.
According to Michigan Business (05/31/08) “The steepest increases in food prices since 1990 are hurting grocery shoppers, restaurants and school cafeterias, but they are making others rich.
The winners in the new food economy include farmers selling corn and wheat at near-record levels after years of overwhelmingly low prices. Ingredient manufacturers like Cargill and ADM are flush with profits. Fertilizer and tractor companies are cashing in. Hedge funds that made big bets on rising wheat, soybeans and corn hit spectacularly. Oil and gas companies too – you need natural gas to cook those Wheaties and diesel to transport them across the country.” Rising food and fuel prices are here to stay and there may even be lean periods, but they don’t have to bear the pain.Prudent and wise spending decisions can now soften the economic blow that is lurking very big just around the corner.Australian wheat is suffering from drought conditions and who knows what calamities lie ahead this summer.
Remember, you cannot rely on the government to deal with these problems effectively. Just look at Louisiana and the toxic houses FEMA gave those poor residents for housing. NPR’s recent report on formaldehyde poisoning in FEMA trailers should be a cautionary tale about government agency. In my book, RAPING LOUISIANA: A DIARY OF DECEIT, the government’s incompetence in dealing with disasters is well documented. Between energy and food woes, it would be prudent to plan how it will get through a not-so-short period of economic contraction and transformation. With the power of the stock market, the consumer can drive change in a way that makes sense. Time to wake up, read the signs of the times and take control of your life.