Get the Word Out - For Anyone Who Drives For Work And/Or Heats Their Home With Oil
This is off my usual topic lines, but the enormity of the oil problems in the near future as a result of hurricanes Gustav and Ike, must be looked at by anyone who chooses to look at and deal in reality. The time frame, depending on where you live in the continental United States will shift, but this posting from TheOilDrum outlines a dire scene over the next several months.
For those of us here in the North East, who are already concerned about the very real consequences of the price of heating oil and what happens if we have a praticularly nasty winter - well the thoughts are chilling.
For example, look at insight #5
Insight 5. One of the biggest refined product pipelines, Colonial Pipeline, is now reported to be shut down, because of lack of refined product input.
Colonial pipeline is one of the largest pipelines, with a capacity of 2.4 million barrels a day. It serves the Southeast and the East Coast.
(Apologies, but I tried to copy and paste the graphic into this posting but can't figure out how to do it...you will have to go to the original posting listed above at TheOilDrim. I'd appreciate it if anyone can tell me how to do it back channel.)
Beyond all of this, I am glad that there seems to be a more coordinated and concentrated response by the citizens and agencies involved to all those who have been directly affected by Ike. Good luck and best wishes!
Finally, I have written about "what-if" scenarios in the past, but this material appears to have current and near future reality value...but may also be used as a template for considering how things develop across time to events with truly enormous implications.
2 comments:
Tim, is it possible that this is both a good and bad problem? It's bad that low-income and moderate-income-with-debt families will be stressed unduly. Can it be good since it appears we will not prepare for the impending energy crisis without being coerced by shortages and hardship?
Paul, I totally agree with both your statements.
In the preparation department: I see this as a speed bump of sorts, a "dry run" of sorts, and something which will begin to accustom people to these events. As such it has the potential to toughen people up, to realign life styles, to build resilience, and perhaps to build community.
I spoke with one of my sons and encouraged him to start thinking about forming a car pool, if even just for two days a week. It so goes against the grain of the American psyche. Everyone wants their own horse. No one wants to share their horse. Everyone wants to be able to ride out whenever they want to.
And who knows, maybe these types of events may do more to realign the priorities of large numbers of people more than anything else.
Once someone truly gets bitten by the "I will rush no more" bug all of this hurry up, respond NOW, gotta have faster and newer, "stuff" just doesn't hold as much appeal as it did before.
Truly, the gods must be laughing their heads off.
Tim
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