Gas Prices Skyrocket

I sell motorscooters that get up to 150 mpg, and I am also a scooter commuter. My current gas bill is $4 every two weeks...
I was looking into electric bikes, but the carbon footprint for their production was much bigger and their lifespan was much shorter than my 4 stroke, 125cc, built to last bikes.
My hope is that these gas prices will make us take a deeper look at alternative transportation - not just their MPG, but their production and emission footprint as well.

My little pedally-bike uses $0 in gas every month, with the added benefit of a healthy dose of exercise thrown in for FREE! It generates neither noise- nor air-pollution (those gas bikes are REALLY obnoxious). The parking is amazing. AND I always get to slip right past any long lines at traffic lights. There are towns with better bike lanes, etc., yet I doubt there is a more enjoyable town for biking, considering weather, views, etc. Please, drive less, pedal more!

My skateboard has no negative impact and costs nothing but calories to operate.

Ya I really wish they wouldn't make anti-skateboarding laws, how ridiculous.

That said, those motor skooters aren't that loud and if you don't live within reasonable biking distance of where you are going they can be a great alternative to driving a car. Not everyone has the option of biking to work. Not to mention, studies have been done comparing the extra food that a human typically needs to power a bicycle and looked into the carbon footprint of typical grocery store food itself has on the earth. Although I don't have the specific details, low and behold, this footprint was comparable to the footprint of a low emissions vehicle. So if you aren't eating local, organic produce, then your carbon footprint on your bike or skateboard is comparable to a high mpg car. If you eat non-organic vegetables, they are grown with petroleum based fertilizers and pesticides. If you eat non-organic meat, they are fed vegetables that use petroleum based fertilizers and pesticides. That doesn't include the petroleum used to deliver it to the store.

It's too bad, however, that Professor Dr. Henning Bohn doesn't recognize the real reason why gas and energy prices have risen so rapidly since 2001, when gas was well under $2/gallon.

When the stock market bubble burst, President Bush and the Federal Reserve was under pressure to help curb the resulting recession. To do so, they lowered interest rates and this pumped more money into the economy through bank loans. This extra money helped to increase prices on housing (hence the real estate bubble), education, health care and especially energy (i.e. oil). These are all little pesky things that the government likes to leave out of inflation stats, but it turns out they are a huge portion of people's expenditures each month.

A sound monetary policy based on free market currencies of gold, silver or whatever else people decided to use would do wonders in helping the poor and those on fixed incomes who are on the margins and are hurt most by inflationary policies coming out of the Federal Reserve.

The terrible thing about the unrest in the Middle East to speak strictly in terms of the impact on the United States, is the economy. Its the reason the President has a press conference scheduled tomorrow and Lois is pushing for the release of the Strategic Petroleum Reserves. The recovery is in risk the longer the prices stay up and the Presidents re-election chances become riskier if the economy continues to stall.

There is also the risk of alienating environmental voters in states other than California by agreeing to new domestic oil production. (the President could approve drilling in the channel and the majority of voters here would still vote for him) The standard excuse of if we drill now, it won't affect prices now anyways will not play that well if the opposition agrees but then points out it act to stabilize prices for the future.

Its nice to talk alternative energy (and its the future) but the fact is many people vote with their pocketbooks and the elections next year.

The irony is the department of social services (DSS) currently reimburse its calwork participants at a mileage rate of $0.30 cents a mile. This is supposed to cover necessary cost for driving to approved activities. The rate is supposed to be based on the current regional market rate and updated at a minimum of once a year. The County DSS has the choice to use a mileage rate already established or create its own. If the County DSS creates its own it must be certified by the board of supervisors(BOS) and ratified by the state.
Currently the County already uses a rate for over 11 groups. These have been approved and certified by the BOS. This rate is the same as the IRS mileage reimbursement rate of between $0.50- $0.55 cents a mile during the past 6years.

No record can be found that the current DSS reimbursement rate of $0.30 has ever been certified by the BOS , or the State. But in Oct of 2008 just before the last increase in gas prices took place a little word document showed up that seemed to show an appropriate methodology for establishing $0.30 reimbursement rate. Unfortunately it used the national market gas rate of $2.64 per gallon. At the time gas prices at the pump were already at 3.25, then it went to $5.00.

To this very day the county DSS has continued to use the methodology for reimbursement to calwork recipients with no change in the cost for gas rate. They still get the $2.64 cost per gas...and the $0.30 is what is issued to theses participants.
What is deplorable is tgat recently the county DSS attempted to update its methodology by modifying its gas cost calculation to indicate $3.11 as the current regional market rate,but a closer look at the methodology shows that they never implemented the $3.11 into the cost per mile calculation. Had they done so would automatically changed the mileage reimbursement rate to over $0.30 cents a mile.

It was just a flash of fake compliance.

The $3.11 does not reflect the regional market rate either. Based on a study conducted by DSS they have established what counties make up the "regional market rate". For this area it is Santa Barbara,Orange county,riverside,san Diego and Ventura. In order to calculate the regional market rate you have to use those counties. No one at Santa Barbara DSS even knows they are part of this market.

So...the point is that while county employees and others who have income are covered by the IRS reimbursement rate and are given a reimbursement rate that is updated twice a year...hundreds of needy people who have families and who are trying to get their lives back on tract,like students and welfare to work, are given the shaft. They are told they should be grateful they get anything at all.
What gets me is they are given a legal right to be properly reimbursed.

Maybe the increase in cost of gas will be reflected this time around with calworks participants and their reimbursement rates.
Telldatruth

I keep 10 clams a week in my pocket just driving a little slower because of a great app I found in itunes called MPG Gas CalcuSaver. This app shows it only takes me a couple extra minutes of drive time a day to save a lot on gas - this is a big help these days with high gas prices. The app is easy and totally worth it.

Please consider writing about the app - it could help a lot of people!

We should be like the rest of the world when it comes to inner-city transportation and NOT USE OUR CARS. Those should be used for long trips, or bad weather days, and with multiple passengers.