“What people need to hear loud and clear is that we're running out of energy in America.”
—George W. Bush, May 2001
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for several years the Chinese have accepted our essentially worthless dollars in order to keep their export-led growth going. They will keep doing that until they decide, that they won't. And when the markets wake up to that (before or after the fact, I can't say) everything will change. No one can say how it will look, but it won't be pretty. For some interesting (if economically heterodox) thinking on the subject, try this: http://www.business-in-asia.com/dollar_crisis.html
Here's a link to the article I remember by Mandelbrot: http://www.elliottwave.com/education/SciAmerican/Mandelbrot_Article2.htm
I think Richard Duncan's work helps to bridge the gap between the economics camp and the energy camp in order to build a realistic scenario for the future. Whether we will have inflation or deflation is a crucial distinction when it comes to planning for the future as the strategies one would employ are very different. Personally, I am convinced that we are headed towards an extremely severe global economic depression. This topic of discussion, and Sunlight's link to the Richard Duncan interview, would make a good separate thread.
Note: Whenever I see the name "Richard Duncan", my first thoughts are of the electrical engineer who proposed the Olduvai Theory. For better or for worse, that's the first association that pops into my mind when I see that name.
The growth of the Chinese coal production has made possible the huge and very energy-intensive infrastructure and manufacturing investments. It is true that the Chinese economic boom has created overheating and financial risks. But they will not realize as long as the real growth is robust - and this will go on as long as the coal production can keep growing at present pace.
The problem is that we know that the growth rates of the Chinese coal production is unsustainable in the long run. At this pace it would reach 3 billion tons in few years. This will not happen. Chinese coal is rapidly depleting. Production is moving to Outer Mongolia which is farther away from the industral centers. China is beginning coal mining in Mongolia, too. This means importing coal. The offcial Chinese sources cite far smaller coal production growth rates in the near future. China has a considerable amount of coal deposits left. But coal has its Hubbert curve, too. Mining becomes more expensive and growth rates will drop.
When this happens, we will have the last rapid burst of energy growth and hence economic growth behind us. That is when we are nearing the global total energy peak. What we will experince, will most likely be a global financial crisis. We will see.
Calculating Peak Coal seems rather difficult. I have seen the From The Wilderness article. To me the estimate seems far too optimistic. The Chinese coal production grew from 1 billion tons to 2 billion tons a year during 2000-2004 (BP). Now the production is double the US production and about 35% of the world production. And the Chinese share of world coal production growth in 2003-2004 was 65%. This means that when the Chinese production growth slows down so will the global production. When the Chinese production peaks - at about 3 billion tons? - the production of the rest of the world will not be able help much. If the Chinese try to maintain the very high growth they will reach the limits soon enough.
The Chinese production will probably peak in 10 years time - or reach a high level, where the growth is slow. This means that world coal cannot contribute much to world energy after that - and this means it cannot offset the decrease in oil (and gas) production after the Peak Oil. This makes the World Total Energy Peak quite likely relatively soon (5 - 10 years) after the Peak Oil. That is why Chinese coal is important.
The Chinese economic growth has been facilitated by the enormous growth of domestic energy supply. The Chinese economy has kept the US economy afloat. When this is no more possible - you guess...
After I googled China and coal I got this link to a good article at GreenLeftweekly by Eva Cheng on Chinese energy problems with all sorts of details from May 30,2004.
http://www.countercurrents.org/peakoil-cheng300504.htm
(copy it into browser- I could not figure out how to show it as a link)
What will trigger what first? Will the US housing bubble burst and reduce US imports thereby busting the boom in China(also India) or will high oil prices(american car habit) and falling coal availability (chinese factory production) cause busts in both countries simultaneously.
At any rate the idea of a global central bank(with global money?) replacing US Dollar/IMF is interesting from an economic standpoint as well as the explanation of US export bubbles for Japanese and East Asian collpases in 1989 and 1997.
First we had Bretton Woods/gold standard and then after Peak US oil we had the USD/Saudi oil(petrodollar recycling and Japanese cheap imports followed by East Asian imports and now Chinese imports). In the last phase we will switch maybe to a world currency and solar / wind power and sustainability without any country/power bloc(US or EU,etc.) dominating. I also like idea of creating world minimum wage ( you also need global unions, same eco and social regulations to make level playing field) to create demand.
Last paragraph is pie in the sky of course if real chaos and olduvai are more likely. But it could be the way ahead after some sort of WWIII to compete for last drop of oil post peak oil in the years ahead as in following article looks more likely:
http://www.globalresearch.ca/index.php?context=viewArticle&code=%20CH20060103&articleId=1714
You need a very large steam roller to make the world a level playing field.
A lot of people are already complaining about the much more gentle globalization flattening the world.
Finally Chavez, Morales and others resist IMF and Chevron, Exxon-Mobil and Private water companies, etc. to take back their resources.
The world bank is really US led and the basis of the world exploitation is an industrial economy based in the north on oil - now out of USA and Europe's greedy grasp. So the new colonialism has already started(USA-with Iraq war, China- by buying up all the oil through special contracts). When the oil is gone the USA will be out of the picture as the New Rome. A global currency on equal footing for all or total decentralization with local currencies depending on real resource availability will start. (Maybe all those SUVs can be torn apart for scrap metal and sold to Africans or Asians where they can build huts or something to live in, what else will the USA have left to offer?)
"Question 1: In the book [The Dollar Crisis] you argue that the current International monetary system is in danger of collapse. Could you explain why you believe the present international trade system is a danger to all of us?
Answer: It is the imbalances in the international trade system rather than the system itself that poses the danger. The United States' Current Account deficit is now $60 million AN HOUR! It increased 28% in 2002 to half a trillion dollars, an amount roughly equivalent to 5% of US GDP. This unprecedented trade imbalance has created extraordinary disequilibrium in the global economy. The countries that build up large stockpiles of international reserves due to large current account or financial account surpluses--such as Japan in the 1980, the Asia Crisis countries in the 1990s and China today--develop bubble economies. When those bubbles pop, as they inevitably do, they leave behind banking crises and excess capacity. The governments of those countries must then go deeply into debt to bail out the depositors of the failed banks. At the same time, the excess capacity in the economy results in deflation. Economic bubbles and systemic banking crises can be expected to reoccur and deflationary pressure can be expected to persist so long as the US Current Account deficits continue to flood the world with dollar liquidity."
Chinese coal supply, as well as world oil supply, may hold up longer than currently seems likely if deflation causes involuntary demand reduction. China is as vulnerable to the effects of an unwinding of the global financial imbalance as the US (and others). I can imagine a great deal of social unrest and upheaval in China, exaccerbated by an excess of unmarriagable young men at a loose end. Political destabilization through extreme economic dislocation in China and the US simultaneously would be a dangerous development indeed, and that is what we are facing.
Hegemonic powers-to-be often seem to have an initial setback after the first flush of optimism, then they go on to become global powerhouses, before ending up in the position of America today - essentially bankrupt. I'd recommend a book called The Wealth and Poverty of Nations by David Landes for a historic view of the progression from one hegemonic power to another in the last millenium. It's a fascinating read.
This won't be just China's problem. The US current account deficit in recent years has been tended to be roughly equal to total economic growth in the WORLD. In other words, our consumption is what fuels growth everywhere else. Take away the stimulus from our deficit and a protracted global adjustment will be inevitable.
On the other hand, the Chinese know that the US consumer is getting closer to being tapped out anyway, and that while the US will pay interest in dollars on our Treasury debt when due (we can always print more) the question is, do the Chinese care. No other country settles its international debts with paper denominated in its own currency. We cannot settle our international debts with foreign exchange, and by that standard we are in a slow motion liquidity crisis. China can decide to take the hit (that is, write down its dollar holdings) now, or write down more of them later.
They could also try to push for a gradual adjustment (which for all I know is what they are doing) -- the best of all possible worlds. However as I said in the previous thread, the signals they are sending now, may engender a market reaction that gets out of control.
In the long run though I agree with you, Stoneleigh, that the Chinese will emerge stronger than ever (assuming the world doesn't crash for lack of oil). US, Japanese, and other corporations have built ultramodern facilities in China. The technology they need has been transferred to them, and they can be expected to take things from there.
The US is in a much worse position in my opinion. Its economy has been hollowed out as manufacturing has been exported. The much vaunted service economy amounts to little more at the end of the day than trying to make a living by taking in each other's laundry. The erstwhile middle class has been living the high life on a gigantic credit binge fueled by a global excess of dollar liquidity and the financial system is now a giant Enron waiting to implode, probably quite soon and with relatively little notice. Deflation must be far worse in the US than in China due to the depressing effect of a crushing debt burden (government, corporate and personal) on purchasing power and therefore on demand. A full blown liquidity crunch is very likely in my opinion.
With the basis for wealth creation long gone, the credit markets down and out, the workforce deskilled, no means to repair crumbling infrastructure, domestic resources depleted and access to foreign resources curtailed by lack of purchasing power, the US is likely to languish in an economic depression for a very long time - I would think several decades at least. During that time social unrest would be endemic and politics (of either the left or the right) should become nothing short of pathological, with severe consequences for the rest of the world.
"A full blown liquidity crunch is very likely in my opinion." Lack of $, capital ?
I know far too many very intelligent people who seem to think the only way to exhibit strength, at least in international politics, lies in brute force. How will they feel when we can no longer afford the kind of military we have now, and who will they take their anger out on then?
If you allow me to finish wringing my hands: we have no cohesion, no vision of what we want things to be. The Japanese have fought tooth and nail to hang on to their industrial base despite the challenge of lower wage competitors. They remember what effort it took to build it and they still have most of it. We don't even seem to think it's important. If you go to a place like India (I visited in 2003 and 2004 for one month, both times), you find that most educated people want to do things that make the country strong and fulfill its ancient potential.
So much militates against a national vision in the US. The right's extreme vision of economic freedom means that companies can offshore all they want to, and pay CEOs a thousand times what the assembly line worker makes. No wonder nobody buys into anything other than maybe the flag anymore. The media will tear apart any candidate with idealism -- venality is what they are used to, they understand it all too well. They'd rather support a crook they understand than an idealist who wants to do right at least some of the time.
DIFFERENT TOPIC: I've been having a discussion with someone here in another thread who has touted the merits of in-ground or in-pond heat exchangers as a reliable source of residential and business heating in the future. I have my doubts about the usefulness of this technique in cities such as New York, due to the density of apartment buildings and office towers, however a business here locally does have a heat-exchange pond built into their new environmentally-sensitive headquarters, which I hear works for them. They refer to it as a heat sink, so perhaps it is used more for cooling than heating.
The website referenced by the poster is here. I'm wondering, with all of your experience with alternative home energy sources, do you think this technique has merit, especially here in the Northeast, and in towns and suburbia?
I'm looking out my window and if there's any heat left in the ground I think I'd extract most of it pretty quickly. Here of course it often falls below 0 degrees F and winters are lengthy. I'm perhaps more preoccupied than others here about heating as I live in a cold climate, and I'd hate to see the mountains stripped again for firewood if the natural gas runs out.
Also, and if you don't mind a compliment, you recently referred to yourself as perhaps being considered by others a "jack of all trades, master of none." I would counter that you are a master of many trades, and that this trait was common among our founding fathers and the people who built this country. This is a personal virtue that I believe we will again need among our populace if our society becomes less complex in a potentially less energy rich environment.
The level of specialization that now exists in corporations today worries me, because once a person is forced to step out of their area of expertise, they're helpless. When I lived in Europe, the Europeans (and Commonwealth folk) that I worked with had respect for Americans' depth of expertise in arcane areas, but ridiculed them as well for being clueless about history and lacking a general knowledge of world affairs. Should there be a major economic downturn, and these "specialists" are forced permanently out of their nests, it could be very messy indeed as people search for new livelihoods. We can't all open Bed and Breakfasts!
In ecological systems, the specialist species often become extinct when the environment changes. The generalists - those who can counter uncertainty with flexibility - have a better chance. The greater the range of conditions that can be accommodated, the better the chances should be, although there are no guarantees. Unfortunately, intellectual flexibility, though useful, is not sufficient - one must also have practical skills. That's what I'm currently concentrating on, but it's an uphill battle sometimes, to put it mildly. There are times when I don't feel like shovelling out the barn again, digging over the vegetable garden, attempting to shear sheep, hauling firewood or stacking square bales in the hayloft during a heatwave, but such is life. Hopefully it's a viable strategy.
On the subject of geothermal energy, I do think it's a viable option for some, but you'd need a reliable source of electicity to run it if you're planning to depend on it for heating during a Northeast winter. I doubt if it would be enough on its own that far north, unless the house was small and very well insulated, but it could be a useful complement to other things like a good woodstove. The forests would last longer that way.
I have a geothermal system that came with the house, but it's an old and inefficient (once-through) design. The house is a hundred years old as well, and has a high surface area to volume ratio (good for natural light, but bad for insulation). Consequently, my geothermal system eats electricity like there's no tomorrow and can't keep the house even vaguely warm by itself unless the outside temperature is above freezing. Needless to say, I don't use it much - really only for a little cooling in the summer. My primary winter heat source is an outdoor wood-burning furnace.
If I could have afforded to upgrade the geothermal system (and the house) without going into debt, I might have done so, but I'm not sure the power to run it would always be available. I don't know off hand if one could cost-effectively run such a thing - even an efficient model attatched to an efficient house - from a renewable energy system. That would mean having a battery bank with quite a large capacity in case the grid went down for any length of time. I anticipate difficulties in maintaining the grid, especially in far-flung rural areas.
In areas of high population density (if many people tried to use geothermal in a small area) I think the heat requirement could locally eat into the heat differential between the surface and below. I don't have any figures on the various rates involved, but it's something one might need to think about. Geothermal systems, especially the horizontal ones, can also take more space than would typically be available in town. In older suburbs, where lots tend to be much larger than newer ones, it might be possible, but probably not for everyone.
While it may cost a lot in electricity to heat an old house with geothermal energy, it would also cost a lot in oil. Typically geothermal systems add heat energy to a building equivalent to 4 to 5 times the input electric energy. One gallon of oil is equivalent to about 40 kWh of energy, so the electricity required to be equivalent to burning one gallon of heating oil would be 8 - 10 kWh. Even here on Long Island with 15 cent/kWh electric rates, that's only $1.20 to $1.50, while we're paying $2.50 per gallon for heating oil. In other parts of the country with 5 cent/kWh electricity the advantage would be very much greater. So a geothermal system (apart from the installation cost) should save you a lot of money.
Similar considerations (electric energy provides about 3 times the equivalent energy content as gasoline for motor vehicle propulsion) make electric cars cheaper to run too - except for the battery issues.
What you are effectively doing is using the ground as a long-term energy storage system that absorbs heat through the summer and returns it for your use in the winter. Details would depend on water content and thermal conductivity, but there's plenty of thermal energy down below us to make use of - thousands of miles of planet beneath our feet, after all!
Even in cold parts of the country, the ground a few feet down rarely goes below freezing - it's only the permafrost regions in the north that have the problem. According to the "geoexchange" people there are over a million installations already around the country, so it really does work...
It may be possible (I have no figures on this) to run an efficient geothermal system from an off-grid power supply, if the house were small and well-insulated and the capacity of the off-grid supply were sufficient. I suspect the investment required would be very large however. I couldn't do this with my geothermal system as the house is too poorly insulated and the geothermal design too old and inefficient. For me it makes more sense to heat with wood, especially as my wood furnace provides my hot water in the winter as well.
Newer geothermal systems deliver more heat than mine for the same input of electricity. Also, your house may be better than mine at retaining heat, in which case geothermal may be sufficient for you all winter - perhaps even without incurring an enormous electricity bill. I would just make sure that you have some kind of backup system either for the heat or for the electricity in case of a blackout.
I've lived with electric grids all my life and while there have been short blackouts here and there, the only long blackout that would have made our pipes freeze etc was about 25 years ago when I lived in Newfoundland with my parents, and an ice storm came through knocking out most of the power lines for almost a week. My father had for some reason installed a plain electric furnace (not efficient at all) - we heated our house from the fire place, and it got pretty cold, but didn't have any pipes freeze. In fact, I'd never heard of that happening until I returned to the US, must be some difference in plumbing standards.
The electric grid is incredibly versatile - it will work the same no matter what the ultimate energy sources are. I'm quite happy trusting myself to it.
Large urban areas have heat island effects some of which has been conveyed downward by commercial sized air conditioning systems using ground water as a heat sink. Over the decades this has significantly raised ground water temps enough that now they could be used as a source of building heat in the winter without the use of heat pumps.
- How can we reconcile this dire outlook with recent economic growth touted by the administration? (the growth is mostly fiction)
- Is the growth a mirage? (Investigate the GDP inflation deflator)
- Are they fooling around with the numbers? (Only the inflation, employment, GDP ones - that I am aware of, on a serious scale)
- Are they factoring in increased real estate valuations as the basis for growth? (real estate asset re-mortgage has funded near 50% of US GDP growth over the last 4 years)
-Or has the growth been real but is now about to come to an abrupt end? (Changes in US econostats make me think that reported growth of 2% is equivalent to recession, I expect US growth to average 1% in 2006 by current econostats. The growth was not really real and is really ending)Yes, the future does get painfully messy, work out the skills you may need and get proficient in them where you can. Clock ticks, you have between 6 months and 5 years IMO.
Most americans are incredibly unaware of geography and history, much more so than europeans. That will hurt them in the coming years. In contrast, some travelling americans have shamed my ignorance. I would say that the most aware americans are the equal and better of most but the average american is less aware than a Kalahari bushman (except on significant issues like movie and TV stars).
Any car addicts out there starting to work on living without one? My weekend included 400 mile round trip thrown together with no avanced warning and no use of my personal car.
http://www.donalfagan.com/html/trikes.html
As with recumbents and velomobiles, I look at all these electric cars, Zap, Tango, Smart, etc., and wonder about the COG in relation to the narrow wheelbase. Even heavy SUVs can be prone to rollover:
http://www.consumeraffairs.com/news04/ford_sporttrac.html
I like the look of the Twike, which is finally available for ordering in the US, but getting facts/prices out of the US dealer is like pulling teeth. I'd be interested in test riding one to see how it handles in turns. I'd rather not tip over in traffic and get squashed by an Escalade.
My latest plan is to simply convert our Elantra to electric, and ride my bike as much as possible. I'll probably have to get a folding bike this spring.
sigh
Maybe Ann Arbor city council can be convinced to put stables downtown ;-)
There are also a lot of four-wheel recumbents which should be marginally more stable than trikes: QuadraSprint, Rhoades Car, PedalCoupe, Lightfoot, QuadriBent.
BTW, on Mhz channel, the Euro news show "Journal" just announced rumours that Daimler-Chrysler is going to spin off the Smart Car division.
The Twike folks claim 4 - 8 kWh for 100 km. I'm guessing that the pedals are factored in.
Anybody know of a good online ev forum? Or for that matter a place where I can buy 200ah 6 or 12 volt batteries for a good deal?
In cities where mass transit is lightly used, I think it would make sense for transit authorities to implement Free Urban Adventure Weekends, where people could use mass transit one weekend per month at no charge. The purpose would be to get people to learn how to use mass transit in a low stress environment, literally an "Urban Adventure."
Transit authorities could presumably get corporate sponsors for the additional cost, which should be fairly modest. For example, we might have the Dallas Free Urban Adventure Weekend, brought to you by ExxonMobil.
The Big Island is still kind of rural for public transportation. The bus doesn't run very often. Still - you can't beat the price.
Could you send me an e-mail at westexas@aol.com? I have some questions about Kona.
Jeffrey Brown
Rick
Is it a feasible plan??
Brazil Fills Up on Ethanol
After nearly three decades of work, Brazil has succeeded where much of the industrialized world has failed: It has developed a cost-effective alternative to gasoline. Now, the country expects to become energy independent this year.
http://groups.yahoo.com/group/energyresources/message/86509
Wolfowitz doesn't want an oil exporting country spending money on the military. Why would that be?
Venezuela regains control of 32 oil fields
Peter Howard Wertheim, OGJ Correspondent
RIO DE JANEIRO, Jan. 9 -- Thirty-two privately operated Venezuelan oil fields returned to state control with the start of the new year, the government said.
The deadline expired at midnight on Dec. 31, 2005, for all private companies with contracts to independently produce oil. The companies will now have to agree to joint ventures that will give Venezuela's state oil company, Petroleos de Venezuela SA (PDVSA), majority control.
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z
Energize America - A Blueprint for U.S. Energy Security (Fourth Draft)
Interesting opinion piece on energy geolpolitics and the political advantage Russia gains from its large energy resources.
Dutch pension funds sue Shell over reserves
By OGJ editors
HOUSTON, Jan. 9 -- A group of 26 Dutch pension funds, led by Stichting Pensioenfonds ABP, filed a shareholder securities fraud suit against Royal Dutch Shell PLC seeking "hundreds of millions of dollars" in damages for what it calls improper accounting for oil and gas reserves during 1997-2003.
http://ogj.pennnet.com/articles/article_display.cfm?article_id=245091
Here's a thought:
So we are told Iraq's reserves are 112.5 bbl. Now this figure date's during Saddam's regime, and we all know is over estimated.
What happens to this figure once foreign companies re-evaluate the fields?
Comments anyone?
http://www.bloomberg.com/apps/news?pid=10000081&sid=aW6jhU57m8ds&refer=australia
I talked to my brother in USA in the fall and he had oil shock over USD 3.00/gallon. I don't drive but as I live in Germany it costs here maybe €1.00/Liter at USD1.20/EURO and about 4 liters/gallon. 4 x 1,20 = 4.80USD/ gallon. I also read on a site all the prices worldwide and they say USD5.50/ gallon in Germany. Other people say USD7/gallon in UK.
My question is basically this. Why do Americans get shcoked by gas/petrol prices of half those elsewhere? I suspect they get half the mileage with their SUVs and pickups and also have to drive twice or three times as far generally so that their consumption(gallons) is 6 times the Japanese/European consumption. Presuming that Americans use 6 times the transport gasoline daily any price increase really hits. I had the idea that you could set up a chart of where economic adjustments/demand destruction hits depending on the current barrel price at USD 25 increments. 50/75/100/25/150/175/200, etc. The first and worst hit person is the guy in the exurb using 40% of his disposable income for a mortgage and driving 100 miles per day to the office and back in a hummer. You could calculate at what USD/gal. price(derived from USD/barrel) he would have to start carpooling or switch to a higher mileage car. Basically this is a flexible idea. He could still live in the exurbs if he used a Prius or in the city with a hummer but not both if say the price of gas was $5/gallon. So either the exurbs take the hit or the SUVs or maybe a bit of both. Basically you could calcualte the likely housing demand fall in specific areas(distance from jobs/cities) and the demand fall for specific model cars according to make and mpg on a table according to the current price of gasoline/(barrel or gallon). This could be done for USA markets and for Europe/Japan. In this way we could guesstimate how peak oil really looks on the ground year for year(presuming a certain % rise per annum in USD barrel/oil of say 20-30% postpeak for example). So first the exurbs go bust at 100/barrel and GM /Ford go bankrupt. Toyota and the normal suburbs last till 200/barrel. Of course those are just guesses. Here where I live in Germany housing prices are flat. However in areas with no public transports(comparable to exurbs in USA) housing prices are expected to fall up to 40% by 2020. This is due to several factors. First energy prices going up, secondly the government eliminated the tax deduction for driving to work and thirdly unemployment is high 10-11% so that jobs are uncertain and a single job can't feed a family which is typical for an exurb lifestyle (according to local newspaper story in the section on housing). It is more flexible to live in town closer to many job possibilities and have more time available for family, work etc. and not just for commuting.
Anyway we talk very generally on such sites about demand(from mild problems with adjustment to olduvai scenario) but very specifically with heavy charting about supply. It would be interesting to see more math/economics applied to what I have discussed above to see how peak oil will really play out in the next 5-15 years(depending on oil prices in respective time periods). As I work in the auto parts supply business this is interesting to me. I know we are selling fewer cars and parts in Germany generally. My boss talked to the purchaser at the biggest parts chain here who said to him that in the last few years people had reduced driving mileage by some large percentage(30% perhaps) and therefore were replacing less parts due to high prices and general recession here. What will peak oil do to exacerbate this whole situation in 3-5 years?
Now personally I ride a bike 7 km to work and 7 km back and live in a big city with access by foot and bike to everything( schools, shops, cinemas, doctors) and good public transport right in front of my door. I walk my kids to school(10 minutes) before I bike to work. I did not grow up that way but in small town America where I also used a bike to go to school or walked and there was nowhere to go really.It does not get too cold here and it is insulated in my apartment building so I just don't turn on the heating even winters(no midwest -40F° here). I have a low ecological footprint(TV and PC, cooking and refrigerator). MAybe it won't hit me too hard till 200/barrel in my situation.
Fuel economy is a big part of it, of course. The worst offenders are the big SUVs - in US units they get perhaps 10-15 miles per gallon, which would correspond to somewhere between 15 and 23 liters per 100 km. Not everyone drives one of these things though...
Increased distances are also a part of it, but not for everyone.
Another factor is that our mass transit infrastructure is pretty poor over here, which forces people into driving their cars.
I was reading somewhere that the energy usage per capita in the United States was about double the usage in Europe.
Several reasons:
- the availability of said fuels within the country
- the size of country (increasing size -> greater travel / transport cost)
- historical usage
- political influence of relevant industries
Note that 1 US gallon is 0.75 UK gallon is approx 3.5 litres.UK prices peaked at about EU 1.75 per litre, US prices peaked at about $3.05 / US gallon = EU 1.0 per litre, approx.
In Europe we have taxed oil and its products appropriately, partly in the knowledge of the damage they may be doing to the environment. In the US this has not happened. The US has sought to exploit cheap energy to gain competitive advantage, now the chickens will come home to roost and the US economy will have to adjust much faster than EU countries.
Why are americans shocked? Because the price of oil / gasolene has been insignificant previously, now it is becoming significant. They must change their lives in the ways europeans and japanese already have and then keep changing further, as we must do, or become a poor country again due to their failure to adapt. In the next 20 years I think that the US needs to reduce its dependency on oil by 50% or more (unless geopolitical events force a greater reduction).
What you describe in your life is mostly alien to most US folks. That will, of necessity, change; energy profligacy = financial insolvency for many in the US soon.
I'm not from Ames, but I travel there occasionally. I am quite impressed by their trash recycling program. They have free pick up, the metal/plastic is recycled and everything else is burned for electricity. They tried burning the trash my town, but it was shut down because of mercury pollution.
Is any one having success with trash recycling?
But as noted in the other comment, it does have the same traffic vulnerabilities as bicycles, recumbents, scooters, motorcycles or any small vehicle.