When will it happen? I think it's here NOW!

Regular gas: 3.97, 4.07, 4.17.

I have decided that all of the signs of the Big Day of Reckconing/downfall of fossifuel society/modern society/The Shit Hitting the Fan--is NOW! My readings in Doom have become main stream current events!

So, many things that I’ve been reading about for the past 3 ½ years were still “over the horizon.” Now, they are easily visible on the horizon and they’ve got us pretty well surrounded! Food prices, energy prices, gas prices, still bad drought in the US West, bees still in low supply this spring, no salmon fishing AT ALL on the west coast because of too small salmon populations—this is commercial fishing, too. Then there’s the daily business world in my state which probably applies to most other states these days: contracting economy, local governments budgets cut this year and facing more severe ones in the next year after that, property taxes revenue falling because of the shrinking housing market ….. which still shows no sign of bottoming out yet. Too much inventory and it’s growing because of foreclosures, new constructions finishing, etc.

In the NBC broadcast news this evening:

Airlines are cutting back severely on scheduled flights for the rest of the year; or after summer vacations. It’s just too expensive to keep flying the current schedules with the price of oil and their fuel needs. Major airports will have cutbacks in carriers and some smaller places will end up with very few carriers, even if they have been regional jets. Two years ago on The Oildrum.com I read some comment about an airline worker(?) at a conference remarking that in 10 years no planes will be flying at all, at least no commercial airlines.

GM is closing 4 plants that make SUV stuff; and they may discontinue the Hummer model! Hummers’ were quite the thing to have the past few years. Truck and SUV sales have not been good since the first of the year.

Quote from: Truck Sales Sink, Shaking Up Auto Market
Big Three Walloped By the Rush to Cars; Honda on the Rise
By JOSÉE VALCOURT and MATTHEW DOLANJune 4, 2008; Page B5 from WSJ

"Ford Motor Co.'s F-150 pickup truck has been the No. 1 seller almost every month over the past three decades. But in May, as consumers flocked to fuel-sipping models, two cars from Toyota and two from Honda Motor Co. outsold the F-150, pushing it down to the No. 5 spot in sales."

Electric cars are in the news again; or they seem to be more in the news to me.

There is some market in electricity prices—forward market?—that shows the fluctuations in electricity supply and prices. These fluctuations don’t appear on customer’s energy bills but it can predict the rise or fall of prices. There was a spike in this prices/supply in Mar/April and it showed a “75%” possible increase in electricity prices this summer. I don’t know if this applies to the whole US or what. It was in the WSJ on June 3 or 4th. I’ll try to find the link to it.

At least the **** Democratic primaries are over! Senator Obama looks like a definite for the Demo nominee; but I wouldn’t rule out senator Clinton trying something eve at the last minute to try again to get the position herself.

It seems quite a turnaround from the way things stood in public discourse and the national outlook and the economy just a year ago.

cheers,
shamba