gas prices

Drop in U.S. driving last eight months exceeds the 1970s’ total decline

June 2008 saw another sharp drop in vehicle miles traveled (VMT) according to the Federal Highway Administration’s monthly report on “Traffic Volume Trends.” Americans drove 4.7 percent less, or 12.2 billion miles fewer, in June 2008 than June 2007 — beating the record-setting drop of March. Since last November, Americans have driven 53.2 billion miles […]

Coal electricity prices: the new gas prices

In the next few years, Americans who have grown accustomed to some of the cheapest power in the world will start to see their rates rise, sharply, mainly because coal is rapidly getting more expensive. Here’s a preview: COLUMBUS, Ohio — American Electric Power said Thursday it must raise electricity rates 45 percent for its […]

As energy costs rise, supply chains go local

Two articles you should read if you’re interested in eating local, growing local, building local, buying local, or any of the other ways that geography, economy, and environment intersect: The first is an article from a few weeks ago, detailing the destruction of the domestic catfish industry due to rising prices for oil, corn, soybeans, […]

Keith Olbermann on McCain’s campaign

Brutal: [vodpod id=ExternalVideo.1011969&w=425&h=350&fv=launch%3D26045608%26amp%3Bwidth%3D400%26amp%3Bheight%3D320] See also Rachel Maddow’s comments at about 3:25 in here: [vodpod id=ExternalVideo.1011970&w=425&h=350&fv=launch%3D26045709%26amp%3Bwidth%3D400%26amp%3Bheight%3D320]

House Republican deep thought of the day

I’ve been trying to pick my favorite quote from the festival of fatuous puffery that is John Boehner’s “House Republican Uprising Live Blog.” I think I may have found a winner in this doozy from Marilyn Musgrave (R-Colo.): I went to the nearest gas station and talked to people pumping gas to see what the […]

Kolbert on McCain

Elizabeth Kolbert writes a comment in The New Yorker on John McCain’s sad slide into demagoguery on oil, and cuts to the heart of the matter: “If the hard truth is that the federal government can’t do much to lower gas prices, the really hard truth is that it shouldn’t try to.”

House Republicans’ magical thinking on oil prices

Wow. House Republicans are now saying that their hissy fit cum frat party on the floor is lowering the price of oil. Not for the first time, I have to wonder: do they believe this? Do they really indulge in this kind of magical thinking? The oil price issue is an interesting political case. It’s […]

The beginnings of a continentalized global economy

Your faithful blogger was surprised to find himself representing part of the environmental blogosphere in a New York Times article on Sunday, "Shipping Costs Start to Crimp Globalization." It's very much worth reading, and prior to writing the article the reporter, Larry Rohter, talked with me about my first installment in this series, "Globalization death watch, Part I."

In his article, after noting the recent collapse of global trade talks, Rohter writes:

Some critics of globalization are encouraged by those developments, which they see as a welcome check on the process. On environmentalist blogs, some are even gleefully promoting a "globalization death watch."

Now, look at the dictionary.com definition of "gleeful":

full of exultant joy; merry; delighted.

Well, maybe the births of my sons called forth such feeling, but I'm not usually full of exultant joy, particularly when I think about global crises.

However, Larry Rohter may be forgiven his choice of words, considering the title of the blog post. I and, if I may be so bold as to speak for some other environmental bloggers, others think that the decline, even death of globalization would be a good thing. But just as the rise of globalization led to much suffering, so will its decline, and that's certainly not something to be "gleeful" about. To paraphrase Barack Obama's pithy phrase about getting out of Iraq, "we've got to be as careful getting out as we were careless getting in."

I'd like to go over some of the points Rohter highlights, and then explain later in the post why there is a better alternative to globalization.

The breakdown of Big Oil’s record-breaking profits

Record Big Oil profits from record oil prices and taxpayer subsidies -- where does all your money go?

With ExxonMobil's report of a $11.68 billion haul in the second quarter of 2008, the world's top five oil companies are now on track for more than $160 billion in profits this year ...

I know what you are thinking: Surely, Big Oil will take those staggeringly immense and almost immoral profits from the suspiciously fast rise in oil prices -- along with the $33 billion in taxpayer-funded subsidies you're going to give those politically powerful and remarkably greedy companies over the next five years (see here) -- and invest in both new drilling and new energy technology. No it won't, no it won't, and stop calling me Shirley.

In fact, the AP reports: