We live within the evacuation radius of the San Onofre Nuclear Power Plant in San Clemente. We’re basically straight downwind from there. The plant has been shut down since summer due to leaks that they can’t identify and therefore not correct.

It is now shut down indefinitely per this article in CNN.

Gary Headrick, founder of the group San Clemente Green, said that public pressure was needed in order to guard against a nuclear crisis along the lines of what happened last year at Japan’s Fukushima Daiichi plant.

“If we were to let things go as they’ve gone in the past, it’s very likely that we’d experience a Fukushima right here in Southern California,” Headrick said at the rally. “And that’s why we’re here today.”

If we had to evacuate Southern California, it would displace 20 million people. Oh, sure, we would be told that Los Angeles and San Diego were safe. Would you believe it?

Looking at the picture above, I also wonder if the plant is tsunami-safe? It would not take a very big wave to flood the entire compound.

What a difference three years makes. The pundits all say that gas was less than two dollars when Obama took office. That seems impossible, when I drive by my gas station every day and I read $4.37 for the cheapest grade.

Less than two dollars?

Then I checked Consumer Reports:

My memory is selective.

This almost looks like an optical illusion. Were my gas prices in California really $2.10 when Obama took office, less than half of what they are now?

This is NOT GOOD. Obama and Chu better wake up!

Price of a gallon of gas per country as of March 2011:

Largest Oil Producing Nations as of 2009:

Would you not think that the United States, being the third largest oil producer in the world, would have prices at the pump that are a little closer to those of Saudi Arabia?

Here is a nice video that puts the Gulf Oil Spill of spring 2010 into perspective.

Lately, every time I get gas, it’s 10 cents more expensive than the time before. Last time it was $4.056.

Today, for the first time ever, I filled up my tank with regular gasoline and I paid more than 4 dollars per gallon. Filling my tank took over 70 dollars. I remember it was not too long ago that I was stunned when I broke the 60 dollar barrier.

When I first drove in America in 1977, a gallon of gas cost 62 cents. I drove a huge, V-8 powered 1973 Ford LTD that got 10 miles to the gallon. I liked that car. It cost me over 10 dollars to fill it up, and I remember how that hurt.

I predict that we’re not far away from needing 100 dollars to fill up a car.

Yes, the oil companies are making record profits, and did so during the hard years of 2007, 2008 and 2009. They are raking it in while they can, because they know the gravy train is coming to an end. The International Energy Agency announced in 2006 that the world had hit “Peak Oil” meaning that oil production worldwide had hit the maximum. Going forward from Peak Oil, it will be harder and more expensive to extract and deliver oil, and new supplies will lag behind new demand.

There is a lot of controversy about the Peak Oil theory. People argue that the Peak Oil crowd does not know what they are talking about. So, for a moment, let’s put aside all studies and all science, and especially all American politics.

It took about 500 million years to make all the oil in the world. Oil is basically the end-result of millions of years of sunshine (solar energy) being trapped in organic material, mostly plants. The earth is not making any more of the stuff at an appreciable rate. About a hundred years ago we started using it up by burning it and as ingredients for manufacturing, and we have made a measurable dent in our supply. If you trust the doom-sayers, we have about 20 years of oil left at the current consumption. Some say 20 to 50 years. Wild and crazy optimists say 100 years. But it’s limited, very limited, and we will run out.

The question is not if Peak Oil is real. The only question we may ask is if it really happened in 2006, or if it’s still off in the future, perhaps in 2016 or 2026.

However: We. Will. Run. Out. Of. Oil.

Only when a gallon of gas costs 10 or 20 dollars will we start realizing that we had better figure out what to do. Because we won’t be able to pump gas into our trucks, trains, planes and automobiles anymore. Or, heaven forbid, into our tanks.

We will then yearn for the good old days of gas at 4 dollars.

“Paper or Plastic?”

“Plastic is fine” has been my answer in the last twenty years. It seemed like a better solution than killing trees to make paper. Yet, I always liked paper bags better. They are sturdier. You can use them for other purposes later. They hold more.

I always wondered what the point was of putting a single carton of eggs into a plastic bag. Or one head of lettuce. Or one bottle of cleaner, lest the cleaner touch a grocery item.

I also always found it ludicrous to go to a card store and buy a birthday card,  a single card, and  then walk out with one of  these small, flimsy plastic bags with the single card in it. What’s the point? Am I embarrassed about carrying out a naked card in my hand? Either I put the flimsy bag into some other carrying container, like a larger shopping bag, or a briefcase or a pocket, or I lay it on the car seat next to me. For all those solutions, I don’t need the flimsy, pointless bag.

To celebrate birthdays of team members at the office, we sometimes bring in a sheet cake. After the party, the cake stays out on the table in the kitchen and when I need an afternoon pick-me-up with my coffee, a piece of cake does the trick.

There is a stack of paper plates in the cupboard next to the table. There is also a drawer full of plastic “silver” ware.

I scoop a little cube of cake on a paper plate, grab a plastic fork and a paper napkin and walk to my office. Depending on how much I need that sugar fix and how big the piece of cake is, I might eat the whole thing in three to six bites. It’s all over in less than a minute.

Then I toss plate, napkin and plastic fork into the trash can next to my desk.

The other day I looked at the fork more closely before I threw it out. It’s amazing how well it is constructed. I wondered how much it cost to make that one fork, to ship it to this country, to stock it at Costco, to deliver it to my office, just so I can use it for a few seconds and three to six bites of cake? Oil is used to make plastic forks.

I use a plastic fork for three bites of cake.

There is a perfectly good silver ware fork in my right desk drawer for just that occasional opportunity to eat, that I do not throw away, but somehow I didn’t think about that when I picked up the plastic fork.

Plastic forks should not even exist on this planet. But they do, because I continue to use them.