On 2008-04-07, Jay Honeck wrote:
This is probably a topic for a different thread, but it does make you wonder
about the true motives of those who would see people suffer on an
unprecedented economic scale rather than develop our known oil reserves.

I'm not sure about 'suffer'; for instance, gasoline in Ireland is around
60% more expensive than in the United States, yet the Irish GDP per
capita overtook the USA a good two years ago now.

You can maintain a good standard of living while using less oil, for
example, driving a vehicle that gets 35 to the gallon isn't what I'd
call a decrease in living standard over driving an SUV that barely gets
12. Turning off the AC when you're not in the house makes a tremendous
difference. The power company in Texas mistakenly sent me the bill for
the people who moved into my place after I left, and the TNMPE bills all
had a 'last 12 months usage graph' on them. The new occupants used
*twice* as much power as me; I suspect they didn't turn the AC off
during the working day. Incidentally, that place had very little in the
way of good insulation - not even double glazing, and that seemed pretty
typical in the area I lived in. Over here by contrast virtually everyone
has good insulation and double glazing. These things significantly
reduce heating costs in the winter *without* degrading the quality of
life (in fact, improving it, since the home is quieter).

Much of the high energy cost people have done by their own choice. I
choose to operate an aircraft with a large engine for the airframe - I'm
not whining, it's a choice I made.

--
From the sunny Isle of Man.
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