Look at all that black smoke!

On August 7, a small, "seemingly insignificant leak" was found at one of the country’s biggest oil refineries located near San Francisco. Though required by California law to “immediately” notify the public of any gas leak, fire or oil spill, Chevron did not consider the leak to be an immediate danger to residents nearby.

“At that point in time, there really wasn’t anything we could advise the
community to do,” said Mark Ayers, the refinery’s fire chief.

Yet some two hours later, that small leak became an intense fire that sent acrid black smoke into the sky and more than 1000 people went to hospitals with health complaints of eye irritation and breathing problems. All but a handful of patients were quickly treated and released, hospital officials said.

A county wide Level 3 Hazardous Material "Immediate-Extreme-Health-Hazard" alert was issued advising local residents to,

"shelter in place, go inside, close all windows and doors, turn off all
heaters, air conditioners and fans. If not using the fireplace, close fireplace dampers and vents, and cover cracks around doors and windows with tape or damped towels." [fireplaces? in California summer?]

That's a pretty rare alert. Consider this,

While Bay Area air quality officials excluded potentially toxic pollutants, their analysis did not say exactly what was in the smoke that boiled out of the refinery's No. 4 Crude Unit, only that the air around the refinery was unlikely to cause any long-term health effects.

Chevron admitted that the fire caused the refinery to emit large clouds of sulfuric acid, nitrogen dioxide, sulfur dioxide, nitrogen oxide and hydrogen oxide. "We apologize for the fire and smoke caused by yesterday's incident," the company said in a statement.

Saving Money on Gas

Finance.yahoo.com suggests many ways to counter the $4 per gallon price of gas...

1. Read your owner's manual
   It will tell you the best type of oil for your car, what level of gas to use, the best tire pressure, etc.
   Oil change companies suggest new oil every 3000 miles but your manual may tell you that every 7500 is sufficient.
2. Check your tire pressure every month
   You'll burn more fuel with under inflated tires
3. Lighten your car
   Take out anything you don't really need from your trunk &  back seat.  100 pounds can decrease fuel economy by 2%.
4. Aggressive driving burns fuels
   Avoid quick starts and stops. Fuel economy is worse at higher speeds.  "Every five miles over 60 mph is like paying another 20 cents per gallon for gas."
5. Use the Internet to find the lowest priced gas in your neighborhood
   But also keep in mind that at $4/gal it costs about 20 cents to drive 5 miles (at 25 mpg). To break even with a fill-up of 10 gallons of gas, that station 5 miles away needs to be 2 cents per gallon cheaper then the station a block away. If you drive 5 to save a penny per gallon, you've lost 10 cents.
6. Take advantage of loyalty and rewards programs at gas stations and credit cards

A wood burning car?

With rising gas prices ($6 in Florida tourist areas) the following story was too good to pass up. Pascal Prokop of Switzerland converted his Volvo to burn wood for fuel and got an operating permit from the Swiss technical inspection authority.

Bottom Line

There are alternatives to fuel (and not just electric which costs money to charge up). The owner of a local restaurant runs his car on used cooking oil. He says the car always smells like french fries.

Do Empty Stomachs cause Riots?

A full gut supports moral precepts
-Burmese Proverb

Spread the table and contention will cease
-English proverb

A society is only three meals away from anarchy.
-British Sci-Fi show, Red Dwarf

What causes riots? No, not the riots in London but riots in general, around the world? Researchers at the New England Complex Systems Institute in Cambridge, Mass. think they've found a clue.

This graph shows the average price of food and the riot events around the world. Above a certain food price threshold, social unrest sweeps the planet. It stands to reason that people become desperate when food is difficult to obtain. The French Revolution was preceded by a food crisis when the price of bread became too high for the common working man to afford (which led to the famous reply by the French queen, "Let them eat cake.")

The researches say that high food prices don't necessarily trigger riots themselves, they simply create a tipping point in which social unrest can flourish. "These observations are consistent with a hypothesis that high global food prices are a precipitating condition for social unrest," according to Marco Lagi.

Bottom Line

Why are food prices so high? One reason is traders speculating on the price of food, a problem that has worsened in recent years by the deregulation of the commodities markets and the removal of trading limits for buyers and sellers. (Recall what Enron did to the price of energy in California with abusive trading.)

A second reason is the conversion of corn into ethanol. The supply of corn for food has been greatly reduced. I recently read that half of the US corn supply is being turned into ethanol.

The US really needs to stop subsidising ethanol. We are using taxpayer money to make expensive fuel from corn and creating starvation as a byproduct.

Saving Gas when Driving

"Electric cars aren't pollution-free; they have to get their energy from somewhere."
-Alexandra Paul

Popular Mechanics has 6 ideas for saving gas this summer.

1. Avoid hard braking at stops. Coast when you can.
2. Get to cruising speed quickly. Cars are more efficient at higher gears so you waste gas if you slowly accelerate. On the other hand, this is not a drag race. 15 seconds to reach 50 mph is about right.
3. On hot days at high speeds use the Air Conditioner. At 55 mph the A/C and open windows get similar gas mileage. At higher speeds the A/C wins. Below 55 the windows have the advantage.
4. Speeds kills (MPG) - air resistance increases with speed. So going over the speed limit will save very little time and cost more money.
5. Climb hills slowly - you gain some mpg (but not much) if you turn off cruise control on hills and allow the car to slow down a bit instead of accelerating to keep the same speed. Just beware of angry drivers!
6. When coasting down hill, leave the car in gear. "Most fuel-injected engines today use computer-controlled Deceleration Fuel Cut Off: When you lift your foot from the gas while leaving the car in gear, injectors shut off automatically, so, the engine consumes no fuel at all while the vehicle is coasting downhill." A car in neutral gear will continue burning some fuel.  

Bottom Line

Read more: Driving Tips to Save Gas - Memorial Day Weekend - Popular Mechanics