Useful "Facts"

I got these from Anne Nelson, when she gave a talk based on Al Gore's organization:

1. Each five miles per gallon over 60 is equivalent to adding 20 cents to your price of gas.

2. Junk mail uses as much energy annually as 2.8 million cars.

3. Bottled water uses as much enrgy per yesr as 100,000 cars.

I don't know how accurate they are.

Hybrid Cars

About a year ago I estimated that hybrid cars would only make sense if gas went up to $5-6 per gal. Now the Columbus Dispatch (22 May 2008) has reported updated estimates. They find three models where you are ahead at $4/gal., which is the current price. One of these is the Honda Civic. However, the comparison is for the top-of-the-line Civic. If you buy a low-end Civic (we are very pleased with our current one) the hybrid only saves you about 1,000 gal. over 100,000 mi. The price difference is about $7,500. So the hybrid still doesn't make sense economically.

Gasoline to Climate Change -1

I plan to write an essay which starts with high gas prices and show how they rationally lead to the well-known methods of preventing global warming. The key is that going away from petrol will lead to more electricity usage - irregardless of what we use - ethanol, hydrogen, plug-in, etc.