Sunday, April 23rd, 2006
So which of these countries should take the lead in reducing CO2 emissions?
Archive for April 23rd, 2006
Phat ride Saturday
Sunday, April 23rd, 2006So for the third consecutive weekend the Urthels rolled out to Afton for a wee bit of climbing. On the ride was A-dog and B-daug and S-dawg and P-doggie.
It seems like each time we ride out there we go faster and I climb better which is tremendously satisfying. Not that I am really climbing well but things are moving the right direction. Today I actually hung with S-dawg on the second rise out of Afton until he smacked me down.
The most enjoyable part of the ride is the rolling roads from Afton towards St. Paul. Not that Woodbury is a particularly attractive community but it’s always the part of the ride where we drive the pace and work on a smooth rotation. It’s fantastic to ride with a group of riders that you can trust not to do anything stupid when you are just a few centimeters off their wheel. Each rider takes their quick turn at the front before being overtaken by the next rider in line. It looks easy when you watch riders who know what they are doing. But throw in a couple of riders who can’t make the smooth transition between being at the front and dropping back, or who can’t ride smoothly from the back to the front, and it can be twice as hard to keep the rotation going. It’s a lot of work in the first place so there is no reason to make it harder.
Next week is Ken Woods road race. Hopefully all the road work we have done the last few weeks will pay off.
(sent wireless via T Mobile MDA)
Gas Prices
Sunday, April 23rd, 2006US oil giant Exxon Mobil has posted a quarterly profit of $9.9bn (£5.55bn), the largest in US corporate history, on the back of record oil and gas prices…And earlier this week, House Speaker Dennis Hastert said oil firms must act responsibly to avert legislative efforts over the profits.
I find it hard to believe that, with Republicans in control of government, any legislation to control profits of oil and gas companies would ever pass. I am not interested at the moment in debating whether such legislation should be considered.
Instead, my question is, what is the motivation for oil and gas companies to do anything to take less profit and lower the price of gasoline?
We are addicted to cars in this country and cars run on gas. What else are you going to fill up your car with?
Go stand next to a freeway during rush hour and watch the type of vehicles that drive by as well as how many people are in those vehicles. Sure, you will see lots of smaller, more fuel efficient cars, but you will also see lots of trucks and SUVs and sporty cars all of which burn more gas than is required to get their owner from point A to point B. You will also notice that the overwhelming majority of these vehicles have only 1 person inside.
We have shown very little interest in limiting our consumption of gasoline in this country. If you owned a company that sold a product that nearly everyone used, used taxpayer funds to create build the network in which the product would be used, and noticed that nearly all who used the product showed almost no interest at all in limiting their use of the product, what would you charge for the product? If you were a smart business person, as much as possible!
We are tied to gasoline for only one reason. We don’t care enough not to be tied to gasoline. Oil and gas companies should charge as much as they can for gasoline and make their record profits because people don’t care enough to look for any alternatives.
Maybe someday gas prices will rise to the point where people seriously begin to debate the question of why we are so tied to this product. Maybe then a competitor to gasoline will come along and give people an alternative. Until then you’ll still see Hummers and Suburbans and other big gas burners out there cruising around with only one occupant. This hilarious thing is those are the people that you see on TV complaining about the price of gas. Notice that they are usually being interviewed…at the gas station filling up.
