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Holidaymakers forced to take slow boat
Ben Webster, The Times UK
Thousands of families will have to take the slow boat on holiday this summer as rising fuel prices force ferry companies to withdraw high speed vessels.
Many of the ferries, which travel at more than 40 mph, were designed in the 1980s and 90s when oil was a quarter of its current price. They use more than twice as much fuel as a conventional ferry but travel twice as fast. ..
Gunnar Blomdahl, Stena’s chief executive, told The Times that Stena would have to consider withdrawing all its HSSs if, as some forecasters were predicting, the oil price rose from the recent level of $70 (£35) a barrel to $100 a barrel.
The cost of fuel for a crossing is eight times higher for an HSS than for a conventional ferry. The HSS uses gas oil, which is similar to kerosene used in jet aircraft and four times the price of standard marine fuel. It consumes 90,000 litres of gas oil on a 220-mile round trip on the North Sea, compared with the 40,000 litres of marine fuel used by a conventional ferry. ..
The HSS Discovery is being stored, awaiting a buyer, at the Harland & Wolff shipyard in Belfast. Mr Blomdahl admitted that she might never carry passengers again and be scrapped, despite having at least 15 years of working life left. ..
Even on slower ferries, companies are trying to conserve fuel by installing equipment that runs the engine at the slowest speed possible.
(29 May 2007)
Contributor Norman Church writes: This is nothing to the knock on effect this sort of thing could have on future life with slower commerce and business as the price increases and oil becomes less readily available. The whole pace of life will have to reduce, which may not be a bad thing.
Nobody wants to pay the price of going green
Tyler Hamilton, The Toronto Star
Everything is relative. As Torontonians complain and raise their collective fist over high gasoline prices at the pumps, keep in mind that our fellow Canadians out in Vancouver are paying up to 20 per cent more.
Guess what? British Columbia has a healthier and more robust economy than Ontario. “Outstanding job creation,” were the words used by the Conference Board of Canada. Vancouver actually promotes the use of hybrid taxis in their city and allows low-speed electric vehicles on some roads. Vancouver is also arguably the centre of clean-technology innovation in Canada – for the moment, at least. Could there be a connection here? ..
The message here is that we shouldn’t be afraid of rising electricity rates. Indeed, we should encourage it. By doing so, we motivate our communities to become more efficient, competitive and productive, and we end up achieving a level of energy savings that counteracts the higher costs we impose on ourselves. It also reduces the need for new power plants, translating into additional cost savings. ..
(28 May 2007)
Pump prices hit home more in Kentucky
J.W. Elphinstone, Seattle PI
As gasoline prices flirt with all-time highs ahead of Memorial Day weekend, the drivers hit hardest aren’t the ones paying the highest prices.
In an index released this week, Oil Price Information Service, a source for petroleum pricing, broke down who’s paying the most taking into account local gasoline prices and local monthly income.
The biggest losers are drivers living in Clay County, Ky., who shell out 14.78 percent of their monthly income to buy gasoline costing $3.156 a gallon. While the price there is far lower than the retail average in San Juan County, Wash., which is the highest in the country at $3.926 a gallon, Clay County’s average monthly income of $1,423.67 is the lowest nationwide, making any increase in gasoline prices much more painful.
For their part, drivers in San Juan County use 6.78 percent of their monthly income on gas. ..
(25 May 2007)
Gasoline to cause severe financial problems
Alan Fram, Associated Press
WASHINGTON — Nearly half the country thinks near-record gasoline prices will cause serious hardship, prompting ever more people to consider trading their gas guzzlers for more fuel-efficient cars, an AP-Ipsos poll says.
Yet there are signs that more people also are clinging to their driving and vacation habits while grudgingly accepting the higher price tag. The government said this week that prices for a gallon of regular gasoline had hit a nationwide average of $3.22, nearly 50 percent higher than in January and pennies shy of the all-time mark.
Forty-six percent said they expect spiking gasoline prices to cause them severe financial problems, said the poll, released Friday at the Memorial Day weekend’s unofficial start of the summer driving season. That measure of public pocketbook pain is up slightly from last year and appreciably above the 30 percent figure of June 2004, when AP-Ipsos first asked the question. ..
Gasoline consumption grew last week by 1.2 percent over the same period a year ago, as measured by four-week periods calculated by the government’s Energy Information Administration. That was slightly less than officials expected.
Overall, when asked whether rising gasoline prices would cause financial hardship for them or their family over the next half year, seven in 10 said yes, about the same as last year. The number who foresaw a “serious hardship” was up from 43 percent to 46 percent.
Of those who said the higher costs would seriously hurt them, two-thirds said they compare prices before refilling their tanks — a practice about evenly shared among genders, races and income levels. Seventy percent overall said they have tamped down their home heating or air conditioning, a slight increase from last May. ..
(26 May 2007)
