Summer Hibernation

Now that we've returned to a comfortable $3.xx per gallon of petrol, we've decided not to jettison that Nissan Armada just yet. Indeed, we are seeing the re-emergence of owners' SUVs following a summer of sleepy hibernation.

Trips to the Bay Area are up. People are loading their families up in the minivans and SUVs for visits to their relatives...the relatives they can't afford to live next to. So the next best thing is to live about 120 miles away and drive every other weekend. Bay Areans rarely come to SACTOWN to visit...it's almost always the other way around. This is a very common thread from all my Asian co-workers from WAPA to the CAISO to SMUD, and all my Asian neighbors.


A big problem, I see, is that now that we've returned to energy complacency with lower energy prices, combined with the broader tight crediting that's occurring, any renewable energy efforts will be deferred. Indeed, SMUD has just announced that due to increased borrowing costs or in some cases, an inability to borrow, capital projects [will likely] be deferred. That is...transformer replacements, transmission line projects, new wind generation in Solano county.

This is a double whammy. Sure, we're not using as much oil, but the truth is, we are still burning an awful lot. Presume a resurgent economy in a few years, and when oil demand takes off again, we will have gotten a few years farther behind in developing any alternative energy infrastructure. We will be playing catch-up -- repairing asphalt roads that laid neglected, deferred gas-fired generator improvements...all the while domestic oil production will be down a further 4.5%.

Surely it can't be that bad, you say. Besides, Congress just passed the seven hundred thousand million dollar bailout to open up credit (our economy is wholly dependent on the ability to borrow) and they attached the renewable energy credit bill which will keep renewables alive for eight more years. Come Monday, things will be bright and beautiful again!