$1.2 Trillion to OPEC This Year

Yeah, that’s Trillion with a “T”. What am I talking about?

The world will buy about $1.2 Trillion worth of oil from OPEC countries this year. And they’re liking it.

In fact, they like it so much, they don’t want this gravy train to end. But world opinion is turning against them quickly because of high gas prices.

So, last week, President Khelil of OPEC made the ridiculous assertion that the cause of the rise in oil prices wasn’t the collusion of OPEC and Big Oil, it wasn’t rising worldwide demand, it wasn’t even speculators. Who was to blame?

The competition of course!

That’s right, the one group that can really hurt OPEC and put a cap on the price of gas are the guys who generate biofuels. You know, the stuff that we’ll never run out of because it grows out of the ground. I’m talking about fuels like Ethanol and BioDiesel.

So, in response to the claims by President Khelil, the World BioFuels Industry published an open letter to OPEC in the Financial Times last week. You should read it here: http://www.goodfuels.org/opec/.

Happy 4th Of July!

Today we celebrate our Independence. We fire up the grill, grab a beer, get a sunburn and blow things up in the back yard.

If only we really were independent.

Instead we are paying $4+ per gallon of gas and over $145 per barrel for oil. If you see one, thank a Middle Eastern Sheik.

Our friends at DrivingEthanol.org have a solution, and they think we should use today to declare our Energy Independence. You can help by signing their petition at: http://www.thepetitionsite.com/1/declare-july-4th-energy-independence-day

If you watch the news, and have developed the opinion that ethanol is bad because it drives up the cost of grain, or that it takes more energy to produce it than it yields, then you should spend about 10 minutes reading Dark Palmer’s rebuttal, “The Case for Ethanol”.

It will turn your mind around.

“Oh say can you see? By the dawns early light…”

How To Pick Up A Granola Chick

I saw a blog post about the electric cars that are coming out on Dustontheweb’s site (http://dustontheweb.blogspot.com/2008/07/how-bout-them-300-million-batteries.html). Interesting stuff. For reference, he’s talking about these cars:

Tesla: http://www.teslamotors.com/
Fisker Karma: http://www.fiskerautomotive.com/
Volt: http://www.chevrolet.com/electriccar/
Reva: http://http://www.revaindia.com/

I think this is really going to be great once these come into more production here in the states. You have to figure these will sell fast.

Plus you've gotta figure there are some lipstick granola girls out there who like to, err... go fast.

Social Networking Sites For Everyone

You don’t actually have to be a genius programmer to have your own social networking site.

Ning.com has a great system that lets anyone get their own up and running in just a few minutes.

Oh, and it’s free.

If you want to put up your own advertising and use a custom domain, then you’ll pay a few bucks per month. But that’s nothing in comparison to the number of features this system comes with built in.

You can get more information on the company’s website: http://www.ning.com/.

The Evening News Has Serious Competition

No, we aren’t talking about Fox News. Far from it. We’re talking about The Onion (http://www.theonion.com/), a satirical look at the news, media, politics, sports, just about anything and everything.

And best of all, even though it’s fake, it will probably seem more real than the six o’clock news. Ha ha!

Don’t miss their special Election Coverage. Too funny!