Saturday, June 21, 2008

What is the oil price driven by?

The motivation behind this blog comes from the eye catching full page car advertisement that appeared in the daily Toronto Newspaper every single day during this past week.

What are the big shots behind these ad schemes thinking of, if at all? Presumably, they believe with incentives such as gas cards or cheap gas they can encourage consumers to buy more of their fuel inefficient, gas-guzzler cars.

These offers reek with greed. These short sighted auto industry movers cannot think of better ways to keep their pockets full of money.

I am sure they can for example spend portion of their money on improving the fuel consumption of their existing models but I suppose that is going to delay time to market and impact their share of market value!

While we all are anticipating worse news from the oil market, we are being encouraged to waste more of it and be content that someone else is going to pay for it.

Well, the good thing is for every yin there is a yang. If we have full page ads to lure us into buying cars, we have other tools to research about them at the same time.

Take this site for example. If you are looking to buy a new car this is a place to get you started. Here you can find gas mileage (MPG), greenhouse gas emissions, air pollution ratings, and safety information for new and used cars and trucks.

After visiting this page nothing, not even cheap gas for 3 years, can change my mind in what make/model I want to buy. (This is just a rhetoric. I have been using public transit and my bike for the past 3+ years now!)

Wednesday, June 11, 2008

From Forbes network:

The world's proven oil reserves were essentially flat in 2007 while production fell by 0.2 percent, the first decline since 2002, BP reported on Wednesday, when it launched its 2008 Statistical Review of World Energy.

On Tuesday, the International Energy (otcbb: IENI.OB - news - people ) Agency, the energy adviser for the world's industrialised countries, sharply lowered its projection for supply outside the Organization of the Petroleum Exporting Countries.

Concern over long-term oil supplies has driven the recent spike in oil prices and prompted Wall Street banks to raise their price forecast to about $150 and $200.

"For sure, banks tend to focus on supply. It is easy for them to make assumptions of $200," Olivier Jakob with Petromatrix said. "On the other side, we have to look at price impact on demand. That's why the market is so volatile."


Maybe is not as important to know how we got here as it is vital to know we can separately or collectively free ourselves from dependence on fossil fuels.

Friday, June 06, 2008

Getting there by bicycle

I am thinking, if each business adds the direction to its location by bike to its web site more people will be motivated to leave the cars behind. I am thinking malls, shopping centers, banks, pharmacies and etc.
With the price of oil on the rise, with no slowdown in sight, it is becoming imperative to conserve.
Although we knew this was going to happen, after all we hit the $99 a barrel mark 2 years ago, we still feel we have been caught off guard.
Farmers driven by market are selling their crops of corn to producers of bio-fuels. This, along with high cost of energy, has shot the price of food up by 10-20%. There is no hard evidence to prove that bio-fuel is green alternative to fossil fuels.
I digress.
The point is, facilitating commuting by bike by providing information on the bike routes is an easy way of showing commitment to being green.

Sunday, June 01, 2008

The nice part about being a pessimist...

I am not a pessimist. But I like the irony in this quote:

The nice part about being a pessimist is that you are constantly being either proven right or pleasantly surprised.
- George F. Will