A trip to Scotland to attend a relative”™s graduation with a Ph.D. from the University of Edinburgh, gave a welcome opportunity for a fresh perspective on our common problems. The first thing that caught our eye was the news that Prince Charles is running his DB5 Aston Martin on wine. Wine? Sounded like a rather princely solution to the fuel crunch.
For the skeptical, a follow-up column in The Guardian explained exactly how to make the royal bio-fuels. A Gloucester-based organization called Green Fuels helped to locate 8,000 litres of surplus white wine (what makes wine surplus?) from a nearby vineyard for a mere 1 pence a litre, ran it through the distillery, boiling off the wine”™s 11 percent alcohol, condensing it and removing any remaining water.
Green Fuels ended up with hundreds of litres of 99.8 percent pure ethanol, which they topped off with alcohol extracted from fermented whey collected from local cheese makers.
A tune-up of the Aston”™s carburetors to allow more fuel into the engine and it was ready for its wine ride ”“ 85 percent ethanol and 15 percent petrol. After covering costs and adding duty Green Fuels sold the ethanol for about $2 a litre. Petrol in the UK is about $11 a litre, however with far more efficient cars that go a lot further on that $11. We are indebted to Ian Sample of The Guardian for this insight into yet another way to keep the car on the road. Sample does point out that the product is no answer to the average guy because of the difficulty of acquiring the ingredients and because the whole mess is highly flammable, bringing to mind the frequent explosions that used to be heard in the Appalachian Mountains as the result of mishaps creating home brew.
The global affect
On a more sobering note, one headline in The Guardian read ”“ “Confidence plummets as Europe catches America”™s cold” with a survey of France, Germany and Italy and their struggles with the credit crunch and the falling value of housing. While Germany is in a fairly robust state because of a solid export and manufacturing sector, inflationary pressures are affecting consumer confidence. The article revealed the fact that Germany has the lowest rate of home ownership on the continent and few Germans even bother with credit cards, preferring to just save, save, save. The American slowdown and the weak dollar are cause for increasing worry in the EU nations. Ah, the benefits of globalization.
The obesity epidemic in this country has also managed to cross the “pond” and various strategies are being explored to get a handle on the problem. But the real gold rush is into green energy. Interestingly, The Guardian”™s discussion of this hot topic was denominated in dollars, possibly because the investment in energy efficiency reached $1.8 billion with most of the money being invested in capital projects in the U.S. even though this country”™s legislation supporting such investment lags far behind Europe. The International Energy Agency claims that every dollar invested in energy efficiency on average avoids more than $2 needed to create new supply. This is a mantra that needs to be said over and over again. Conservation must be the first line of defense in a shrinking energy market, not an afterthought. This is a message that has yet to reach the current administration, excited about the prospect of ginning up the nuclear industry after a long sleep. There is no discernable interest on Wall Street, however, in putting up the billions needed for this stunningly inefficient solution to the energy problem.
Ghostburbs?
The pain at the pump in the U.S. was explored in “Gas guzzlers and ”˜ghostburbs.”™” Observing the severe disruption caused by soaring oil and petrol prices, The Guardian noted the commuter belts in the U.S. they described as becoming “ghostburbs” as the reality of commuter costs and the dominance of the ubiquitous SUV have made getting to that beloved “castle” a true nightmare.
Incredibly, Americans drove 11 billion fewer miles than in 2007, a 4.3 percent drop in vehicle miles traveled (VMT), the first downward trend in 30 years. The American commuters”™ rush to find mass-transit alternatives must be amusing to the British who have been coping with high gas prices (half of which are self-imposed taxes, by the way) for decades and hence have a far more comprehensive rail network to show for it. Not only will high gas prices affect the type of cars Americans will be buying in the near term it is gong to have a profound impact on where Americans live. The trend, according to the article in The Guardian, is to move back to the city center, thereby reducing commuting time dramatically. That is how our plight is viewed in the British Isles. In the U.S,, however, we are still being told “Americans will never give up their cars.” Never? What an outlandish statement. Only if the average citizen has limitless funds to keep fueling that car can that statement make any sense at all. It is another sop from the auto industry and we fall for it every time.
Disturbing trends
“The shift to thrift” addressed another aspect of life in this new economy. This perspective focused on life in the U.K. as it is evolving. The sub-head read: “People will soon have to live more modestly as the age of turbo consumerism comes to an end and the rich-poor gap grows wider.” This is a statement that deserves some serious contemplation on this side of the pond. The percentage of the turbo consumerism mentioned to the total economy in the British Isles is unknown at this moment but the percentage in this country is well-known. It is 75 percent of the total economic output. If consumer spending is significantly reduced here, as is most likely, we have some rather serious restructuring in front of us. But it is the second part of the statement in The Guardian that is even more problematical. Historically, when the gap between rich and poor becomes intolerable there is revolution. Those are the historic facts, friends. It really is not a matter of making sure the top 1 percent has money for investment to keep the economy going. It is a matter of basic fairness, which this country has prided itself on supporting. We are heading pell-mell into very disturbing waters, way beyond the matter of how are we going to power the next wave of economic growth.
Surviving the Future explores a wide range of subjects to assist businesses in adapting to a new energy age. Maureen Morgan, a transit advocate, is on the board of Federated Conservationists of Westchester. Reach her at mmmorgan10@optonline.net.
