Rising Fuel Prices

[freebeard]

Thorium molten salt?

[redpoint5]

I tend to be short term pessimistic about technology, and long term optimistic. On the pathway to becoming a type 1 civilization, controlling volcanic activity is a major milestone. Perhaps one day.

[freebeard]

Controlling the air?



Scott Adams was talking about thermal chimneys today.

Ocean thermal energy conversion
Ocean Thermal Energy Conversion uses the ocean thermal gradient between cooler deep and warmer shallow or surface seawaters to run a heat engine and produce useful work, usually in the form of electricity. OTEC can operate with a very high capacity factor and so can operate in base load mode.Wikipedia

[JSH]

Originally Posted by MeteorGray

Quote: "During all the price volatility for crude oil, Diesel, gasoline, and propane, my electric rate hasn't varied a penny...."

While this may be true today for your particular case, be patient.

The times they are a'changin', just like Dylan predicted.

The more electricity costs the faster solar pays back. The last time I quoted solar on my house I believe it paid back in 10 years at $0.12 per kWh and half the cost was labor.

Originally Posted by Hersbird

It's not the price per gallon which is so bad in the US, it's the percentage of increase in just a short period of time that is concerning. If that trend continued for any length of time, like say a Biden 2nd term, we will be over $10/gallon too. At least it will seem normal with milk at $15/gallon as well.

Sometimes a little historical perspective is in order.

[Autobahnschleicher]

Fuel is still dirt cheap.
Call me when we reach about 5€/L or 23$/gallon, below that fuel costs don't realy matter much in the overall costs of living.

[Isaac Zachary]

It does depend on commute distance and type of vehicle. I know lots of people that commute a little over 150 miles every day in a pickup truck (constuction worker) to get to work. That's about 10 gallons every day at 15mpg. So $3.50 per gallon is $35 a day. $5 a gallon would be $50 a day. And $23 per gallon would be $230 dollars per day. Multiply that by 6 (sometimes 7) workdays per week (about 26 days a month) and $3.50 is $910 per month, $5 would be $1,300 per month, and $23 would be $5,960 per month for the commute.

The reason people commute like that is because of the rising cost of living in certain areas. We're talking some $6,000 per month in wages, but in the area where there's work, $4,000 per month or higher rents for a 2 bedroom apartment. But 75 miles away you can get a place for under $1,000 per month. So $1,000 plus $910 plus whatever other per-mile driving expenses still works out to a lot less than $4,000.

If prices reached some $23 per gallon around here I'm not sure what would happen. The labor shortage would definitely rise even higher, cost of materials would skyrocket and rents would likely skyrocket as well. Wages allways seem like the last thing to rise.

[hayden55]

This is true. Wages are always the last to rise and your employer always like to give you less of a raise than inflation every year. But that's not new. I would say here in the USA we on average get less than half the mpg on avg of the European market, and probably almost drive twice as much. So this really doesn't apply as strictly to us on here but it does to the average human.
I for example probablyu average 45 mpg between all of my vehicles and drive 25,000 miles a year. ~40,000kms

[Hersbird]

Originally Posted by Autobahnschleicher

Fuel is still dirt cheap.
Call me when we reach about 5€/L or 23$/gallon, below that fuel costs don't realy matter much in the overall costs of living.

That is coming from a place of privilege IMO. I know many, many people who have their decresonary income reduced to basically zero with cost of gas even at $3.50/gal. My sister in law with a bachelor's degree and 10+ years with the same company as a supervisor with Head Start inc couldn't afford to rent let alone buy in our simple Montana town. So even with the best reliable economy car she could afford, a stripped down fwd CRV getting 30 mpg on her commute, she spends over $4000/yr on gas at just $3.50/gal. That's 10% of her gross pay. This is repeated over and over again by all the service industry jobs done by hard working barely getting by people. There is no bus, no train, and rent for the simplest place in town is $1500 now. To buy at least $400,000. They are forced to live 20, 30, even 60 miles away. These gas prices and anything higher just further turn people poor. Many now are just deciding to give up, stay home, and live on welfare. Hence a big worker shortage in a supposedly rapidly growing city. It's great for my 16 year old with zero experience. She landed a $12/hr job with flexible schedule and has almost no expenses. There are many $15/hr offers she could take too but she likes the crew she has and likes serving at the retirement home, vs a fast food restaurant. She of course will have to move out of town if she ever wants to live on her own. Bottom line these high energy costs hurt the working poor the hardest. While the rich live close to their job, and can afford a $50,000 EV and then get a $7500 tax break for that, and then stick a $10,000 solar array on the roof and get another big tax break for that, just so they can drive 2 miles to work and then 30 miles on a weekend going to dinner, brewerys, and the theater or something. Yeah, even $50/gal gas would be nothing for them.

[freebeard]

It does depend on commute distance and type of vehicle. I know lots of people that commute a little over 150 miles every day in a pickup truck (constuction worker) to get to work.

Construction worker is an edge case, the job site bounces all over the county.

[JSH]

Originally Posted by Isaac Zachary

It does depend on commute distance and type of vehicle. I know lots of people that commute a little over 150 miles every day in a pickup truck (construction worker) to get to work....

Why would the average construction worker need a truck? Sure the owner of the company would need to own trucks but why does the individual laborer need a truck?

That is a huge difference between the USA and other parts of the world. Here everyone that swings a hammer or turns a bolt thinks they need a truck. Not just any truck - a full size truck with a lift kit. In the rest of the world the company provides the trucks and makes sure materials and equipment get to the job site. The laborer only needs to get themselves to the job site and sometimes that is also take care of by the company owner.