The high price of oil and gas makes wood pellets a heating alternative, particularly in the Northeast, which relies on oil to heat homes. Wood pellets are made from sawdust, shavings, or ground wood chips which are compressed under high pressure and turned into pellets. The International Energy Agency (IEA) released a report about the wood pellet industry in November 2007. The report covered ten years, from 1997 to 2007.
Image: Magnetic Air Cars, Inc.
With fuel prices rising and supplies dwindling, more and more inventors are turning their creativity towards cars that work without the need for barrels of gasoline. True, there have been a number of vehicles released that run on electricity but now designers are turning to another precious resource – air.
The print advertisement for Pulstar pulse plugs claims they are “an alternative to spark plugs that are scientifically proven to improve your car’s fuel economy.” Pulstar’s website states that the pulse plugs represent “the technological advancement in spark plug design in the past 100 years.” Rather big claims for a product that costs $25 a piece ($50 for a pair).
It's as simple as the name of the company's diminutive, inexpensive yet iconic product, the Civic. Honda Motor Company has built a world-beating business rooted in a straightforward social commitment. As Tetsuo Iwamura, president of Honda North America puts it, ". . . We want to make Honda the company that society wants to exist."
It would be nice to think that politics was about honest people putting forth honest positions for citizens to chose among, but instead we have Newt Gingrich telling Fox viewers that gas stations make higher profits selling air than gas, so "Sen. Obama was urging you to go out and enrich Big Oil by inflating your tires instead of buying gas."
Extraordinary. via ::Think Progress
Check and fill your own tires. It's a personal responsibility. The places we buy fuel, a.k.a. "Service Stations," are nothing of the kind any more. Full service with a smile is a faded marketing myth. So, get an air pump or compressor and use it. You'll save money and live longer.
Why "Do It Yourself" Is The Best Solution
Not only is the world no longer "flat," greener jobs are coming to the USA as a result - in factories with 'down-home' supply chains. People don't need to lobby or protest to make it happen. By subsidizing it's own oil demand growth, China has effectively added a 9% tariff on its exports.
Useful for thinking about foreign policy choices, peak oil uncertainties, and, of course, cost.
Via::USEIA, International Energy Outlook 2008 with Projections to 2030, Cumulative (ppt file)...
Jimmy Carter in his Famous Cardigan Sweater
At least that is what the Atlanta Journal-Constitution says, and they might have a bias. However they do point out that:
Beijing is "trying it's best to improve the environment" for the Olympics, largely by shutting down factories. But to really improve the environment in Beijing in the long term the government will need to focus on a much smaller but more prevalent carbon and particulate emitter: the car.
In the cheap fuel era heavy seats and leg room were the norm. Free drinks, too.
While it hurts American motorists to go to the pump these days, in Scandinavia 8 U.S. dollars is the average for a gallon of gas and still it hasn't seem to slow most motorists down too much. But in transport-intensive industries saving fuel is prompting a number of new strategies.
Green driving
With no end in sight for high fuel prices, the pressure is on for the world's truckers to take steps to cut back on fuel use or price themselves out of business. This task means changing driving styles as well as implementing aerodynamic changes to their vehicles. The latter technique is estimated to have the potential to save 2.4 Billion gallons of fuel annually.
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