“As prices peaked, oil consumption fell by 6 percent in July to its lowest level in five years, while the number of miles driven dropped the most since 1979, according the latest statistics from the Federal Highway Administration. For industrialized countries, which account for about 60 percent of global oil demand, consumption could fall by 1.3 million barrels a day this year, the steepest decline since 1982, according to analysts at Bernstein Research. That would more than offset the growth in consumption from developing nations like China, the analysts said.

“A study of the 1980s reaffirms our pessimism about oil demand in 2008 and 2009,” the Bernstein analysts said in a recent research note. “Recent data suggests we may finally be reaching the point of negative demand.”

Falling oil prices are “equivalent to a new stimulus package for consumers”…

Does anyone really believe that oil will stay down long term? If higher prices mean a real change in how much oil we use, then long term they will help. Right now, economically, I’m glad they’re down a bit.

Scientists at MIT have unveiled what many consider to be the Holy Grail of alternative energy research. They have discovered a simple and inexpensive way to store the energy generated from solar systems. Storage is critical because it solves the night/clouds problem and the battery problem. Their method splits water into hydrogen and oxygen using the electricity generated by the solar source. The hydrogen can be stored and used in fuel cells for virtually any kind of power generation. Until now cracking hydrogen from water has cost more in power than the energy value of the hydrogen. Now, with this system, which the inventors claim is only a few years away from commercial viability, we could have an inexhaustible source of clean energy that can be used anywhere, at any time. It should be noted that the only byproduct of using hydrogen fuel cells is pure water.

While time will tell whether this is the huge breakthrough it appears to be, the reception among informed scientists and engineers is more positive than we usually see when someone makes these kinds of claims.

For me the really interesting local angle of this story is that this research was funded by a ten million dollar donation from a foundation created by Rochester entrepreneur Arunis Chaesonis, founder of Paetec, a very successful telecom based here. Wouldn’t it be great if a breakthrough energy story came out of innovative thinking in Rochester?

One other thing: GM has long had their fuel cell hydrogen car project based in Rochester at a skunkworks operation in Honeoye Falls. The only thing holding back their technology has been a lack of efficient hydrogen production and delivery infrastructure. So this is a double win for Rochester.

Here’s how they fall:

• Rising gas prices cause Americans to drive less, a lot less. In April it was 1.8% less, in May 4.3%. 40 billion less miles this year.
• Less driving means less gas purchased
• Less gas purchased means lower tax revenues from gas taxes
• Gas taxes are commonly used for improvements to transportation infrastructure including desperately needed public transport systems, bridges, roads, etc.

Just another example of how our economy was built to support oil companies on every level, to the point where we cannot extract ourselves without major sacrifice.

I can either commute via the expressway or by taking a four lane road (East Ave) that makes its way through mostly residential neighborhoods into the downtown area where I live. It wouldn’t be a bad bike route except the fact that it has four lanes means a cyclist forces traffic in their lane to move into the left lane to pass the bike.

There is no reason to have four lanes on this road. If we took one lane and split it to make a bike lane on each side and then created a center turning lane we’d lose no driving convenience whatsoever. This would essentially only involve restriping the road to the new configuration.

Our city is criss-crossed with these four lane, 35mph arteries. A county-wide plan to create bike lanes would help change a lot of perceptions about bike commutes. We could even use them as scooter lanes for low-powered scooters with a low speed limit (20mph?).

With our winters I know there are skeptics about bike commuting. However those winters are getting shorter and fall and spring are great cycling weather periods. Competition with cars is a major factor when considering a commute. Dedicated lanes would help. They would also keep people riding on the correct side of the road (with the traffic). Riding against traffic or on sidewalks is a major safety issue because drivers don’t expect anything there.