Joel's Page

Maybe it was last week....last month? Oh yes, it was May 21 last year. In one year exactly, the price of oil has increased by $66/barrel. Oil closed yesterday at $133/barrel. Analysts believe the increase isn't over eithe… Continue

You can probably tell that I'm feeling a bit grumpy this week about the world of politics and the complete vacuum of leadership when it comes to energy policy. My ire today is directed towards Congress and the Senate's 97-1 support of redirecting 70,000 barrels of oil a day to refineries rather than to reserves. This particular tidbit explains it:

Currently, about 70,000 barrels a day are

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Surfing around the internet today, I came across the breakdown of useful sites for finding the lowest cost gas stations around. One of the sites, AltFuelPrices.org, also maps out the alternative gas stations for those of you thinking about making the leap to a non-gasoline powered car or truck.

Of course, you could always use the opportunity to save a few bucks and red… Continue

In the latest issue of Fortune magazine, uber-finance expert and philanthropist George Soros explains why he believes US consumers, angry about gas prices, are less important that what's happening in developing countries:

A lot depends on whether the recession hits the developing world as well as the developed world. The impact [of pinched consumers in the U.S. using less gas] is much less than

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This is a little bit late, but if you missed the January issue of National Geographic, it's worth picking up. In particular, the charts that accompany the article "Recycle: The Big Picture" are particularly enlightening. One quickly gets a sense not only of how far we've come, but how far we need to go...not to mention further validation of the US as a consumer culture. The charts, unfortunately are n… Continue