The public are panic buying fuel in UK

by ballistic 23 Replies latest jw friends

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  BrendaCloutier

  In 1974 when the fuel crisis hit in the US (and gas started out that year at 29 cents per US gallon!) there were lots of things learned to improve mileage. One of the things my mom suggested to me ( a teenage driver - as if I'm gonna pay any attention) was to use the brakes as if there were an egg under the pedal and you don't wanna break the egg.

  These days I drive easy... when I drive at all. We combine errands and very rarely go out for one item only... which is a real "luxury" in driving! Kev commutes to work by bus, and his 1995 Nissan pickup, which gets 20mpg, has only 56,000 miles on it! So I don't feel bad about being an oil energy consumer.

  We keep our heat low in the winter, and with new double pane LowE vinyl windows replacing single pane aluminum, we have reduced our heating costs by 10%. Our electricity here in Portland is about 40% hydro. It used to be 100% until the last 15 years or so. We pay about 8 cents per KWH here. Up a little from 7.5 cents a couple years ago (including most fees)
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  ballistic

  Brenda, going from memory, your domestic fuel sounds cheaper over there as well, our household gas (heating and cooking) went up 4 times last year and they just announced a further increase of 14%.

  An update to the protest which is today - the protestors apparently do not plan on blocking the fuel depots like 5 years ago - but just a peacefull demonstration. To be honest, I'm not suprised because I think the government would use more force than last time.
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  Prefect

  Buy a Toyota Prius Hybryd. The MPG with ours is in the high 50's & low 60's. And we are not driving around slowly. At the moment there is plenty of fuel in our area of Wales.
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  Fe2O3Girl

  Apparently, the UK is doing badly on meeting CO 2 emissions reductions we agreed to in the Kyoto agreement - which rose by 2.5% in the first six months this year. According to this article in the Guardian, the rise in greenhouse gases has been attributed to transport.

  http://www.guardian.co.uk/guardianpolitics/story/0,,1562671,00.html

  I don't know which country gets the blame for the emissions when the UK is importing asparagus from Peru, and I would guess that vegetables don't arrive by sea. But even within the UK, our food distribution network is a mess. Food is not moving 20 miles to the nearest town for consumption, it is moving hundreds of miles to distribution centres then hundreds of miles back out around the country.

  Given the state of our rail network, I would be very surprised if much freight is moved by rail here, but I would be delighted if it is a significant proportion. I would imagine that rail would be a more energy-efficient means of moving stuff, but I have never seen any comparisons.

  Maybe we could start using canals again?!!