Image: eschipul

Recently, I had the pleasure of sharing thoughts with my friend as gas began to run out all around Nashville. Evidently Hurricane Ike had caused some problems with supply and there wasn’t any getting to Nashville. I didn’t think much about it at the time, since the day before Ike hit prices jumped a few cents in New Jersey, where I was at the time.

However, in retrospect, this scare seemed to crop up after the storm has gone through and prices in NJ had gone down. Perhaps I should’ve wondered why it was just Nashville that was running out of gas, and not anywhere else in the country. Either way, the Nashville gas shortage turned out to be little more than a bit of public anxiety mixed with some well-placed misinformation.

Recently, CNN reported on how the gas crisis, which left 75% of stations completely dry was started all little more than a rumour, which became self-fulfilling as people ran out to get gas in record numbers, sucking the pumps dry:

Williams said some drivers were following gas trucks to see where they were headed, and lines at some stations were a mile long. Fuel was continuing to enter the city, however, as pipelines were working and barges were coming in.

He likened it to Southerners rushing out to stock up on bread and milk when they hear it might snow.

Perhaps what we can learn from all this, however, is not that people can get a little crazy over gas, but that a functional, large scale public transit system is not only convenient and safe, but will be there for us when gas is not. Electric cars may be years off yet, but electric trains have been around longer than most of us!

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Time to put on your oopsies hat, folks. Recently a couple from Dartmouth, Mass. Accidentally set their apartment building on fire by storing gasoline in plastic jugs in the same closet as an air conditioning system.

Oops. Seriously. They were holding about 45 gallons of gasoline in there, hoping that they could wait out high summer gas prices. Of course, that wasn’t a good idea. Much like selling cigarettes by a gas station.

Many people may have similar experiences with trying to buy propane at a low price, or really any other commodity that changes price daily. However, please don’t let the desire to be a savvy buyer kill you or burn your neighbor’s place down!

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Image: wickedchimp

Source: CBC

It may seem a little silly, but in this coming age of expensive gasoline, every trip we make to buy something is going to have to be a decision about whether or not it’s really worth it. That $10 book at the book store could easy become $15 if your car isn’t very efficient and the drive is longer than a few miles. The same can be said of going out to get coffee, groceries, or even Take ‘n’ Bake pizza.

EcoModder forum member Ben Nelson recently posted about his inventive approach to getting pizza without using any gas. He took his DIY electric motorcycle, which is already pretty sweet, and attached a little delivery tray to the back, the likes of which I haven’t seen since the last time I was in Japan (where almost all deliveries are done on Honda Super Cubs):

There’s no arguing that the bike itself isn’t a sweet ride, but it gets even better when you see that not only can you carry a pizza, but that you have room for an extra-large:

Of course, the bike has to get its electricity from somewhere, but since it’s much more efficient than an internal combustion engine it uses less and can get power from renewable sources like green energy providers or your home’s own solar panels.

So, I applaud Ben for his creative methods of reducing gas use, and hope that others will follow in his footsteps. Especially with gas prices hitting all-time highs in the US, the case against gasoline is getting incredibly strong.

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