Scott Dodd's Blog: Moving Beyond Oil

Gas shortages in the Southeast could be a sign

2008-09-24T22:38:33Z

This past weekend, my wife and I visited Charlotte, N.C., where we used to live. Charlotte's the kind of spread-out, suburban city where you really can't get by without a vehicle, even when you're in town for just a couple of days. (There's a new light rail being built, but only one line is finished.) So we rented a car.

Heading back to the airport, I needed to fill 'er up. (We took the "return full" option.) I pulled into one station at a major intersection, only to find the pumps covered with plastic bags and an "Out of Order" sign. Same story at the next station. And the next. Finally, I saw one with working pumps and managed to top off the tank. Good thing that I only wanted regular, though ... both of the premium grades were empty.

Three days later, a lot of those pumps are still running dry, and it's not looking pretty. From a report today in The Charlotte Observer, where I used to work:

More than a week after Hurricane Ike's strike, drivers across the Southeast are still bouncing between dry pumps and shuttered stations in a frustrating hunt for a fill-up - and they're starting to get angry.

There are stations shut down in Nashville, Tenn., long lines in Atlanta and even fights breaking out in bucolic Blue Ridge mountain towns. In between the soccer moms and NASCAR dads, you'll even find guys who play in the NFL waiting for gas.

North Carolina Gov. Mike Easley said today he is working with the major oil companies to seek the release of additional gasoline for western North Carolina.

"This is a temporary shortage," Easley said in a statement. "We have been assured by the oil companies that some supplies are on their way today, and larger additional supplies are expected through the pipeline very soon."

For the next few days, Easley said, consumers should take steps to conserve gasoline, such as carpooling and eliminating unnecessary trips.

"It's really ridiculous. You would have thought by now - four days into it - they would have sorted it out somehow," Ahmard Hall, 28, a fullback with the Tennessee Titans, said Tuesday morning as he waited in a Nashville suburb for his turn at the pump. "You have to go driving around town, wasting gas, to try to find gas."

Hurricane Ike shut down or reduced work at more than a dozen refineries on the Gulf Coast of Texas, an area that accounts for about 20 percent of the nation's gas and diesel production. Among those affected was Exxon Mobil Corp.'s refinery in Baytown, east of Houston, and the nation's largest.

It won't get better until the Gulf Coast refineries disrupted by Ike - and before that, Hurricane Gustav - boot up and start filling the empty pipelines that lead to thirsty stations.

The Southeast has suffered gas shortages following hurricanes before. Driving home after covering Katrina, my photographer and I had to pull off at half a dozen highway exits in Alabama before we were able to fill up our SUV. We almost ran out. And of course, there were several-hour waits for fuel along the Gulf Coast that lasted for weeks after the storm.

Still, coming after a summer of skyrocketing gas prices, and with mounting concerns that easy oil's days may be numbered, a gas shortage like this can't help but look like a sign of things to come if we don't start seeking smart alternatives and moving America beyond oil ... fast.

Related: My colleague Ian Wilker over at NRDC's OnEarth magazine, who lives in western North Carolina, is still experiencing the shortage firsthand. Got your own stories or photos of gas lines or Ike's ongoing impact? Become a citizen journalist and report about them at Greenlight.

Live from New York: It's Google Transit!

2008-09-23T16:33:45Z

Two years after moving to the city, one of the things that helps me feel more like a real New Yorker is when out-of-towners stop me on the street or the subway and I'm able to give them detailed directions. Now Google wants to take that away from me!

Actually, I'm sure that humans will still be a necessary part of the equation (at least until we're all equipped with a GPS system at birth), but this morning, Google unveiled something else that might help those out-of-towners get around: Google Transit. (It had previously been available in many other cities).

Here's an excerpt from The New York Times' City Room blog:

A host of public officials and the founders of Google assembled at Grand Central Terminal this morning to announce the start of New York's version of Google Transit, an online feature that they said would transform the experience of navigating New York City's transit system, the nation's busiest.

"It is a very complicated transit system, and it just got less complicated today with the advent of Google Maps for Transit," Gov. David A. Paterson said, noting that the subway system opened with 9.1 miles of lines in 1904, and now serves a territory of 5,000 square miles.

The array of public officials present reflected Google's economic might, particularly at a time when Wall Street's meltdown has left the city and state economy reeling. Not only did the governor and leaders of the Metropolitan Transportation Authority attend the Grand Central news conference, but so did Deputy Mayor Edward Skyler, representing the Bloomberg administration, and officials of the Port Authority of New York and New Jersey and of New Jersey Transit.

"It just gives me great personal pleasure to be able to help even in a tiny way this fantastic public transportation system," Sergey Brin, one of Google's founders, said at the news conference. The company's other founder, Larry Page, said he even hoped the tool would "help congestion, help the economy overall."

New York already has several helpful online mapping services. I use Hopstop for transit and Ride the City for bike routes. But if you're not from around these parts, Google's name recognition and global reach will probably make it your preferred choice. And transit officials have thrown their support behind it, even linking to Google Transit from the MTA website.

I played around with it some this morning, inputting some of my favorite destinations, and it seems to offer pretty good advice on routes. (It's fun to compare the driving, transit and walking options, all of which Google now offers in New York City.) What's important, I think, is that one of the world's most influential companies is recognizing that there are a lot of options out there besides driving, and putting them on equal footing -- at least when it comes to mapping.

Now when are we going to get Google Bike?

How did you celebrate World Carfree Day?

2008-09-22T20:31:45Z

The president of South Korea biked to work today. Nearly 30,000 cyclists took to the streets of Taiwan's capital. European cities asked their residents to keep cars parked for the good of the planet.

A European Commission spokeswoman says that some 200 million people from more than 1,650 cities in 37 countries participated in some way in World Carfree Day. (Find out more about what's happening and read reactions here, here and here.)

Don't feel bad if you missed out here in the States, though. Although carfree days have been growing in popularity around the world, the idea hasn't exactly taken off in this country (despite some promising individual and local efforts ). I suppose that's no surprise in a nation that has grown so dependent on the automobile, and where many cities still lack decent public transportation alternatives.

I'm lucky enough nowadays to live in New York City, where driving a car isn't just optional -- it's against the norm. I can bike to work most days, and when I don't feel like pedaling, there's always the bus or a subway line nearby to get me where I'm going. Even when traveling to nearby cities, I can often take the train. (I prefer Amtrak's Acela Express over a plane ride to D.C. any day.)

I haven't given up driving completely, of course. My wife and I still keep our great-on-gas mileage Honda Civic for those destinations where public transportation just won't take you. But cutting back has been a great thing for me ... and for my bank account, especially this past summer.

I don't think even the most ardent advocates of World Carfree Day are expecting everyone to give up their cars completely, especially not in this country. But if we could all find ways to drive a little less, it could really add up -- for our wallets and the planet.

A recent NRDC analysis showed that commuting one less day per week, either by sharing a ride, telecommuting or using transit, could save Americans $236 per year on average. And If each commuter car carried just one more passenger once a week, it would cut the nation's gasoline consumption by more than 50 million gallons weekly.

As this commentary puts it, if nothing else, this summer's soaring gas prices should make everyone re-evaluate the wisdom of "commuting solo in a one-ton machine occupying the space of a small elephant."

But I'd also like to see people driving less because I think it makes for happier people and better communities. A recent report from Transportation Alternatives, the New York-based livable streets advocacy group, found evidence that cities making an effort to dethrone the car can reap a wealth of benefits, from increased property values to higher retail spending.

So you may have missed World Carfree Day, but it's never too late to make an effort to drive less. If we do, then maybe by the time the big day rolls around next year, we'll all feel a little more like celebrating.

Look Ma, no cars!

2008-08-11T16:33:50Z

Just check out all that open pavement, with not a car in sight. And right in the middle of Manhattan, no less. Ain’t it beautiful?

New York’s experiment with car-free streets -- closing down a well-traveled route through the heart of the city on a Saturday morning for pedestrians, bikers and others to enjoy -- was a smashing success, by most accounts. Nothing is without critics, of course (especially in New York), but the weather was perfect, the streets were packed, and for once, it seemed that those on foot and those on two wheels had little problem co-existing. (Amazing how the conflict disappears when traffic of the four-wheeled variety is out of the picture, isn’t it?)

Read the coverage of Summer Streets in the New York Times, Associated Press, Village Voice and Gothamist, among others (or see Streetsblog’s extensive roundup).

For my part, the day started with a “feeder ride” led by Transportation Alternatives from the Soldiers and Sailors Memorial on Riverside Drive. We followed the 90th Street bike lane, cruised across Central Park, then entered 72nd Street and the beginning of the seven-mile car-free route to the Brooklyn Bridge. Along the way, I pedaled down Park Avenue, got to bike across the Grand Central Viaduct (which usually only takes car traffic through the historic terminal), and enjoy the streets of midtown, the Village and Chinatown before crossing over to Brooklyn. By the time we had lunch on the waterfront and biked back across the Manhattan Bridge, Summer Streets was closing down, so we headed over to the west side of the island and followed the bike path up to Riverside Park, coming full circle.

Here are my photos chronicling the day:

Sunday morning, I was nursing my tired legs with coffee and a crepe at my favorite neighborhood café when I came across this story in the Times’ Sunday Styles. It explores the growing conflict between cyclists and other road warriors, which I wrote about a couple of weeks ago.

Although it’s not fun to read about a biker getting pummeled for daring to curse at a car that nearly ran him over, as the Times story leads off with, it was also hard for me to feel too down about the state of cycling after Summer Streets. Yeah, the problem is real, and we all need to work harder to respect everyone’s safety and rights to the road. But right now, I’m feeling good about our prospects.

I guess miles of open pavement will do that to a guy.

Summer Streets continues for the next two Saturdays in New York City. Learn more here.

What do jellyfish, drilling and whale blubber have in common?

2008-08-04T17:57:19Z

Answer: They’re black and white and read all over.

Sunday’s New York Times was something of a bonanza (albeit a sobering one) for anyone interested in environmental news. In a front-page story, Elisabeth Rosenthal reports from Barcelona on the swarms of jellyfish that are stinging beachgoers in increasing numbers all over the world. “While jellyfish invasions are a nuisance to tourists and a hardship to fishermen,” she writes, “for scientists they are a source of more profound alarm, a signal of the declining health of the world’s oceans.”

As readers of the Los Angeles Times’ excellent Altered Oceans series (which won last year’s Pulitzer for explanatory journalism) are aware, environmental damage to the earth’s oceans is feeding an explosion of primitive organisms in the sea, as well as killing larger marine species and sickening us humans. Jellyfish are stepping (oozing?) into the void left by their overfished predators such as tuna, sharks and swordfish. Rising sea temperatures caused by global warming and oxygen-depleting pollution are also helping the jellies, which the East Coast Times calls “the cockroaches of the open waters” because they thrive in damaged environments where most other species suffer.

The jellyfish boom is just more evidence that our planet’s environmental crisis has unexpected -- and often unpleasant -- consequences. Sometimes it’s not easy to relate to concerns about elevated CO2 levels in the atmosphere, or even the plight of the polar bear as sea ice melts, because those things seems so distant from our everyday lives. But the impact of global warming can also be felt very close to home, like when we go to the beach and find it full of stinging jellyfish, which happened to vacationers in Long Beach, N.Y. (and even participants in the recent New York City triathalon).

On our website right now, NRDC outlines some of the other consequences of global warming and delves more deeply into what it could mean for our health. And you can learn a lot more about the many threats facing the earth's oceans and what can be done to protect them at youroceans.org.

More drilling doesn’t equal more oil

A report by Felicity Barringer in the Times’ National section offers “sobering production figures for those hoping that fuel prices can be lowered” by increased drilling for oil on public lands. Barringer writes:

The Bush administration, in its effort to expand energy production, has issued more than three times the number of well-drilling permits on Western lands as in the Clinton administration’s last six years. But oil production in that region during the Bush years is 12 percent below average levels from the Clinton era, according to federal data.

The piece goes on to detail the “palpable” environmental effects of the increase in federal drilling permits on public land in Colorado, New Mexico, Utah and Wyoming.

The expansion of the energy industry has subdivided parts of western Wyoming and western Colorado into a rabbit warren of wellheads and roads. The Pinedale, Wyo., area had its first ozone alerts last winter, thanks to a combination of factors: natural gas flaring from scores of wells, increased vehicle traffic associated with drilling activities and seasonal temperature inversions. One study showed that the mule deer herd that migrates near Pinedale declined by nearly half from 2000 to 2005.

For NRDC’s take on the environmental consequences of drilling on public lands and more productive and immediate solutions to our energy crisis, check out the materials featured in the Oil & Energy section of nrdc.org.

Whale oil: The petroleum of the 19th century

Finally, "Our Towns" columnist Peter Applebome takes readers on a jaunt to Sag Harbor, N.Y., where the Sag Harbor Whaling and Historical Museum is featuring an exhibition on the indispensable fuel of the 1700s and early 1880s: lamp oil made from boiled whale blubber. Applebome asks: “Is the oil business the new whaling business? And, if so, is that a good sign or a troubling one?

Bear with us. Whaling, after all, was one of the world’s first great multinational businesses, a global enterprise of audacious reach and import. From the 1700s through the mid-1800s, oil extracted from the blubber of whales and boiled in giant pots gave light to America and much of the Western world. The United States whaling fleet peaked in 1846 with 735 ships out of 900 in the world. Whaling was the fifth-largest industry in the United States; in 1853 alone, 8,000 whales were slaughtered for whale oil shipped to light lamps around the world, plus sundry other parts used in hoop skirts, perfume, lubricants and candles.

Applebome makes the point that at the height of whale oil’s dominance -- and even in its declining years -- few people could imagine a world without it, and Big Whaling mocked its potential competitors. Sounds an awful lot like the way many of us think about fossil fuels today. And yet as soon as something better came along -- kerosene -- whale oil bit the dust within a couple of decades (although it left behind massive environmental consequences).

The point being that the energy source we’re so dependent on today need not be the energy source of tomorrow, and that change can happen more rapidly than many of us think.

NRDC has been urging Americans to move beyond oil and build a new economy powered by clean energy that offers new jobs and new opportunities. When looked at in light of the whale oil story, it makes you realize that change is not only possible -- it’s inevitable. The trick is to push for the kind of change that makes our economy, our country and our world a brighter place.