Sustainability

 

So congress held hearings for many hours on why oil prices were so high, mostly focussing on the effect of speculators in the market. I was wondering if what they were talking about had any merit - in my view, speculation can jack prices up in some markets, like housing - you can only bet it one direction, really - but it depends on how it works. In commodities markets, it's a useful tool for hedging by actual companies.

 

It's was nice to read this article in the NYTimes about how the congressional hearings were mostly bluster. Some good quotes:

Even if you eliminated speculation entirely, the price of oil wouldn’t fall. Thankfully, no one is proposing to go that far ... because even members of Congress understand that futures markets serve a crucial purpose. They help companies hedge their oil prices, and they help energy companies manage their risk, for starters.

The energy speculators I spoke to say that Congress has it exactly backward: the futures market is actually taking its cues from the physical market, where the buyers and sellers of oil do their business. Last week, the Saudis promised to produce an extra 200,000 barrels a day. But it is pricing that oil so high that oil companies are balking at paying for it....

Both speculators and oilmen say that supply and demand is the real culprit. ... said Gary Ross, the chief executive of the PIRA Energy Group, and a well-known energy consultant. “Look at the data.... The world economy is growing by 3.9 percent a year. World oil demand should grow by 2.3 percent just to keep pace. That’s an extra two million barrels a day. We don’t have it! It’s obvious.”

 

I also think there is something else at play. After years of ignoring the rather obvious fact that oil is a finite resource, the world has suddenly become acutely aware of that reality.... That is not speculation at work — it’s market psychology. There’s a big difference. If there is indeed a bubble, that’s what is causing it.

 

A couple scientists from the Scripps Institute released a paper about a month ago that puts even money on Lake Mead being dry by 2021. Just as bad, really, is that they also put a 50% chance that by 2017 the lake will be too low for the Hoover Dam to generate power. The authors give three main reasons: drought, water demand/use, and human-induced climate change.

 

Apparently Lake Mead is currently at so low a point (around 50% of its capacity) that the main water supply 'tube' for Las Vegas is in danger of rising above the surface. The Hoover Dam generates around 2 gigawatts of electricity and serves about 1.3 million people - not sure how it would be replaced if that generating capacity were lost.

Now that it seems that the rest of the US outside of SF and some other crunchy places has caught on to the fact that using zillions of disposable plastic bags might just not be the best idea, the next question is - what's a good reusable bag?

A great summary article on 10 issues in the realm of energy policy. Lots of hype and bluster and this list hits a bunch of nails on the head.

You've probably seen the Monterey Bay Aquarium Seafood Watch list to know what fishies are good or bad to buy.

Want to find restaurants and markets in your area that sell naturally farm raised meats and local produce? the Eat Well Guide allows you to search by zip guide in the US and Canada, and lists places along with what they serve or sell.

A couple reasons from the recent Regional Plan Association newsletter online you should buy food produced locally:

The Energy Information Administration released its far forward looking report on energy sources and consumption in the country. Alternative and biomass sources play a smaller part in our country's future then the current amount of news about them might lead one to believe, leaving our fossil fuel friend coal to do most of the heavy lifting. The report doesn't talk directly about any possible reduction in energy consumption, although I guess it might be implied in reduced rates of energy demand increase.

Learn a little bit about energy consumption, and take a pledge to do your part and reduce your energy consumption at the Six Degrees of Energy Efficiency web site.

This past summer when we were having the heat wave and power failures in Queens, I started to do some calculations on how much power all of the cable boxes in New York City might be consuming even when they were supposedly switched off, because they never really turn off. For my birthday last year I got this device that measures how much power something uses (Kill-A-Watt), and it showed that my Scientific Atlanta built Time Warner leased cable box uses nearly as much power switched off as it does when it is switched on (17W) (so what is the on/off button for? I guess because it is supposed to have one?)

So I came across this interesting article on standby power in electronic devices. Good to see that other people are thinking about this, and what a large problem in really is. Also interesting to note from the article that our current president Bush actually did something useful for the environment in 2001 by dictating that the federal government should purchase low standby power devices.