RE: [GreenYes] Fw: How To Drive Down Gas Prices

[muna@iafrica.com]

On 15 Apr 2002 at 12:07, David Markert wrote:

> Truth be told, $3.00 a gallon IS cheap.  I'm waiting for prices to go
> up so that they reflect the true cost of the ecological damage done by
> our fossil fuel-dependent society.
> 
> I'm hoping higher gas prices will restore some sense to SUV owners and
> will reinvigorate the movements to raise fuel efficiency standards and
> pursue alternative fuel sources.
> 
> Of course, with the current administration I fear that higher gas
> prices will only serve as a justification for drilling the hell out of
> our national parks and wilderness areas.
> 
> Note, this is not an endorsement of the pricing practices of gasoline
> companies nor OPEC.
> 

and Bruce wrote:
"Get out of your damb cars, car pool, bike, walk, Segway, use the damb mass transit 
the way it is meant to be used!!!
  
Bruce Arkwright,Jr.
Erie's Efficiency & Solar Society"

Who was it that said "there is no such thing as a free lunch?" Simple logic will show 
you that if something is "cheap" it simply means that there are more external costs - 
i.e. someone else, usually through environmental harm, is actually paying the price - I 
have said before that a more accurate price for petrol (your gasoline) would be in the 
range of R50 (your $5 or so) per LITER - about one-fifth of your gallon.. so $25 per 
gallon would be closer to reflecting the true cost - so any action towards driving the 
price down simply harms someone else along the line, often outside your borders - at 
the oilfields, or tankers, or whereever ...

surely, all of us have a capacity to think in a very Green manner, and even our gut 
would tell us something is wrong with the current energy paradigm... here is a 
possible scenario (food for thought?)

some renewable energy technologies are "intermittent" i.e. can guranteed supply 
power for, say, 35% of the time - what if we:
used the power when available to pump ordinary air into takns, compressed
transfered that compressed air to the latest design of engines which runs off 
compressed air
and had many of these pumped storage places.. at least as many as gas stations...

no oil (nearly); low cost fuel; minimal pollution; creates many jobs, according to those 
who know; minimises reliance on imported energy; and one could probably go on...

do people think it possible?

Muna
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