The proposal is from a Republican, they couldn't pass a cold through the state legislature. Unless Democrats sign on, this is just noise, imo.

"You all act like spoiled children"
So you assume that everyone that complains is wasteful? Carpool? Sounds great...with whom? I work alone. You offering?

"Turn down your home thermostat. Put on a sweater. Use fluorescent bulbs."

Jimmy Carter couldn't have said it any better. If I wanted to live like a european, I would move to europe. Can you say malaise?

Who buys milk by the quart?
You could ask some of my former employers about what it was like to scedule when people car-pooled.
I'd be mor ethan happy to used less Arab oil, however we would have to start drilling more here.

Gee, I'm sorry, I have to have a "gas guzzler" I have 5 Children, and I live in Newtown. Everything seems to be at least 20 minutes away. Who should I carpool with? I use LED lightbulbs, wear sweaters and we have a SMALL hybrid (it can't carry all of my children). Should I get a trolley of bicycle tandems? Apparently, you picked the proper pseudonym for yourself...Smallminds.

People should stop being so reactive. If the price of gas is critical to your family's bottom line, you should buy a more fuel efficient vehicle. Buying big SUV's these days is as much about status and people subtlety feeling more powerful in a big vehicle as it is about transporting. If you choose to buy something like this, you choose higher gas costs, period. Same thing with lifestyle pick-up trucks that people drive to desk jobs. No need to apologize for your choices but the world's economy is not obligated to financially support you in your personal choice. You do have choices.

For a start.. get your facts straight..
a. The majority of the oil we import comes from CANADA. Very little if any comes from the Middle East due to transportation costs.
b. There is enough oil for over a hundred years, using CURRENT technology. The Alberta oil sands has enough oil to last over 100 years at the current rate of depletion. There are also billions of barrels of oil sands in Utah that hasn't been touched.
c. Kick the habit with what? Oil and gas is the cheapest most efficient method of energy. What are we going to use? Solar panels? Not unless you want to see massive amounts of capital shifted towards using this technology, which will decrease overall GDP, which equates to unemployment. So unless your going to raise your hand and be the first one without a job, I think you might want to re-think your position.

You couldn't "live like a European", Eric. They'd know you were American INSTANTLY.

Christine I am with you. I like how people with no kids talk about downsizing a car. 4-5 kids require sizeable SUV to fit everybody. 5 + 2 requires 7-8 passenger vehicle that can also combat snow storms. That means Tahoe, Suburbans GMC, Sequoia or Armada.
I have idea how about our kids dont pay SS for complainers. Surely with all those savings smallminds has large 401K and does not need SS.

Thank you Southbury Resident. I must mention that with VW's it is possible to turn them into "french fry mobiles", which in turn uses waste to fuel their vehicles. My best friend came out East from Aspen to buy one and drove it all the way back to CO. She hasn't had a problem with it. My husband owns a small business and we are unable to purchase something like that, but if we could, I would. If I could move back to a city, I would. We were able to walk or take buses, but at this point nothings selling. Smallminds would you like to buy my house?

Christine. I used to own VW Tdi (Diesel) it was nothing but problems. There is known issue with fuel pumps in those things and Turbos. Also soot cloggs them a lot. Once their are out of warranty repairs are super expensive and VW has horrible consumer service.. Last Diesel VW that was good was produced in 2000. Anything younger then that turns into money pit. Thats why they all end up in junkyards. Newer ones can not be converted to vegetable oil. Again different oil pumps and configuration. You are better off buying old Dodge pickup with Cummis or old Ford diesel and simply install secondary tank for veggie oil. I know plenty of people who did that.

Christine,
I get where you're coming from. But let's be serious here. You're speaking as if every family has 4+ children. 5 kids? You're in the minority. Furthermore, I see families with 2 children driving around in their Tahoe's and Escalades...for what? Because they can. There are plenty of families that could easily fit their children in a nice, modest 4 door sedan but opt not to because SUV's are the trend. To make matters worse, I cringe every time I drive down the Merritt Parkway and see how many of these people can't keep their vehicles between the two lines.

Steven,
We import oil from Canada, and it may be our biggest source of imported oil, but we don't import "most" of our oil from Canada. We import from many nations, being the largest of those doesn't make you the majority provider of oil to the U.S.

Odd as you want people to get their facts straight, but yours don't seem to meet your own requirement.

Our Department of Energy publishes numbers that may help you. ftp://ftp.eia.doe.gov/pub/oil_gas/petroleum/data_publications/company_level_imports/current/import.html assuming the DOE is correctly tabulating oil imports, those numbers would be a good basis on which to assume a fact about importation of oil imo.

Hello..peak oil is a myth...Under current technology we hundreds of years of oil. We will only have more as the tech improves. We didn't get out of the stone age because we ran out of rocks Jay.. And the idea of one day opening the newspaper with a headline "WORLD RUNS OUT OF OIL" is some Mad Max day dream. As oil becomes scarce, prices will increase and people will be forced into using alternatives. Funny how the market works that way.....

Dennis... oil from PRIVATE land in the US increased.. oil on FEDERAL land has DECREASED more than the increase in private.

http://www.nytimes.com/gwire/2011/01/13/13greenwire-two-thirds-of-federal-oil-and-gas-drilling-per-13123.html

http://www.instituteforenergyresearch.org/2011/11/15/falling-production-on-federal-lands/

We have to drill on private land just to make up for what has SHUT DOWN in the last 10 years. Geopolitics has messed with the price of oil more than anything else. Oil is a GLOBAL commodity and demand is inelastic. When there is a supply shock (or fear of supply) anywhere in the world (hello.. IRAN!), demand doesn't drop but supply DOES.. This creates price shocks. The increase in price gives an incentive to supply more in the market. Wells not profitable and economical to drill at $60 per barrel become economical at $80 or $100 and drilling is increased. The free market works…

"If there were a billion barrels a day more production and a billion barrels a day lower consumption, then there were potentially over 2 billion barrels a day that is not being imported into the US."

A billion barrels per day? World oil usage is only about 80 million barrels per day. Please get your facts right before accusing anyone of manipulating prices.

JM -- thanks for catching the math error. you are correct - my comment should have been million vs billion. The links I posted contain the exact numbers.

Not to rain on parade but
1. Downsize home - only if you have no kids
2. Keep it cooler - only if you have no kids because whatever you save on fuel you will spend on medical bills
3. Wood burning causes asthma so you saving fuel but others will suffer
4. VW Diesel is horrible car that breaksdown a lot, plus what is your plan when there is foot of the snow on the ground ? Walk?

Keeping your house at 60 instead of 75 is not going to cause illness largely due to the fact that cold DOES NOT cause illness.

Southbury Resident,
Can't have a smaller home with kids? What happened to the days of sharing rooms? Your remark about keeping it cooler is ridiculous, because you would likely be spending money on medical bills even if your house was warm and toasty. Wood Burning doesn't CAUSE asthma, it can trigger asthma attacks in people who already have it. My Ford Focus with regular tires has worked just fine, even in the 22 inches of snow we had last year. I think you're just being a little closed-minded. None of these things are things you CAN'T do, just things you aren't willing to do. Big difference.

89 out of 100 cars had only 1 driver? How many drivers did the other 11 have? :)

As to energy efficiency, have you considered geothermal or a heat pump system?

Personally, I wouldn't want to inhale soot from burning wood. The potential for long term unpleasant health consequences is great. Not only inside your home, but your soot travels out into the neighborhood. If you enjoy splitting 4 or so cords of wood per year, kudos! I'd prefer other activities. Fuel technology has evolved a bit since we last relied on burning wood as a primary heat source.

Great energy efficiency can be obtained in subterranean dwellings, cave men knew this long before us. Doctor are you ready to return to our pre-Holocene roots and really move to the ultra low green living our species once enjoyed in caves? Forget low oil consumption, you can use 0 oil, and 0 electricity.

My point is, each of us can feel virtuous about almost anything. How extreme can we reasonably expect everyone to go when cutting eco corners?

Good morning G
About the few cars with 2 people in them (11 %)...most were trucks or vans of men going to work. Also, a few women driving a child to school. I drove north from Brookfield to New Milford around 7:30 a.m. when they are all streaming to work. Having lived through the 1970s when there was carpooling, I was pretty amazed by how many cars had only one driver. I wonder at what price of gas, will people start to share rides ? Try counting the drivers/passengers some morning.
As to breathing the wood smoke, you are very correct that there would be a lot of respiratory illness, exacerbated asthma, even increased deaths, from the smoke of a fireplace or woodburning stove. It is a trade off for warmth. However, the Yukon wood/oil furnace is in the basement. You have to install an 8 inch air duct from outside and drop it about a foot from the floor near the furnace. The air is taken in and sent up the chimney. No one that I know is as sensitive to wood smoke as my wife and she cant tell when it is burning.
They report that by around the 1830s, that there was a real firewood crisis in New England. The forests had been stripped. Writers like James Kunstler (Kunstler.com) have predicted that in the future, as heating oil becomes expensive and possibly difficult to obtain, that the forests will again be stripped for firewood. If the woodlots are sustainably managed, it is said that you can obtain a cord of wood per acre each year. We shall see.

Dr. Appleby,
I don't think you understood g's play on your words. Of course the car only had 1 driver...there's only 1 driver's seat :)

Hi Dr. Appleby,
A survey while driving is at best anecdotal, and precludes viewing children in car seats that may be too small to be seen in another vehicle.

This link may be helpful to you in future discussions regarding energy use in the U.S. - http://cta.ornl.gov/data/download30.shtml it's been useful to me.

In it, you will discover that buses are energy inefficient. Occupancy of buses is on average about 9 people, and cars have 1.57 people (on average) according to our Department of Energy. When comparing the energy costs per mile for all buses in the U.S. cars are more energy efficient.

If all commuters on a bus were instead taking a car, we would be greener. This is counter intuitive for many, but it's true. The DOE estimates the BTU per passenger mile on a bus is 4,242 for a passenger vehicle (of all types) it's 3,538.

Now, will you be annoyed by all those taking buses and destroying our environment while depleting our oil? Or will you continue to be upset with the SUV moms who are on average helping to save our environment?

We must approach things rationally. I personally was puzzled by your ability to assess passenger status of 100 vehicles while doing a commute. Do you consider oil costs due to property placement when considering your greenness? For example how far you drive for necessary services, shopping, work or school??

JM, I just did a little fact checking and there are,tolls in Virginia. Maybe not where you traveled. Now, some of these are bridges but since must states dump all of the toll money into one pot, road or bridge doesn't seem to make a difference. I am not disputing your other facts, just the Virginia tolls.

Bravo! Well said! Our wonderful oil companies also make more profit by selling to China and europe so that exacerbates shortage of supply here. Goldman and their ilk nearly destroyed the country, had the government bail them out and are proceeding with business as usual as they own the politicians.

Thanks Stephen: From each according to their ability, to each according to their need. Where have we heard that before?

I believe most Americans would sacrifice for the greater good when it's demonstrated that the sacrifice is truly warranted and part of a "fair game". That said, perform any small amount of research on: the history of the commodity markets and the current nature of those markets, the current workings of the U.S. Federal Government and the total ineffectiveness of Congress, the greed, manipulation and linkage between the large financial enterprises and the government and one might understand the lack of understanding by the electorate. Look at the S&L crisis of the late-80's, the currency crises of the late-90's, Enron, MCI and Tyco in the early-2000's and the creme-de-la-creme, the mortgage fiasco and financial meltdown of late 2008 and the pundits wonder why the electorate is up in arms? Link the mindset behind the aforemetioned events and some research on the ratio of oil contracts traded relative to the amount of oil contracts where someone actually takes delivery and you'll gain insight to exactly what's going on.

PART 2 - Remember at the height of the recent financial crises when the Administration had a regualtory group look at the role of speculation in the commodity markets and the recommendation was to put controls into the system to better link commodity trading to the original purpose of the markets, hedging for producers? NOTHING was adapted or instutituted. Wonder why? Look at who's in the top-5 contrubutors to key members of the House and Senate and to key, potential nominees of each party running for President. You guessed it, Goldman Sachs, the largest holders of oil contracts in the world. I could go on but you get the drift...Please note, I'm truly a "middle-of-the-road" individual who has voted for a Republican for President, 8 times since 1980. Hence, these aren't the rantings of a "Communist", Socialist, Liberal or Occupy Wall Street type. I'm merely one of the masses who is fed up.

I don’t pretend to be an expert on speculation, but the FTC concluded last fall that supply-and-demand drive gas prices, not speculative oil traders. The CFTC issued a report in July 2008 with the same conclusion. The CFTC also noted that speculators were short amid some big run-ups in oil prices over the years, which would have driven prices down based on the theory of speculation critics. One odd item: where futures trading is illegal—like for onions—price volatility tends to be greater than in commodities like oil. Are they lying? It seems to me that speculation gets attention when prices make politicians squirm.

Can you imagine getting approval for windmills from the town of Monroe? The nimby crowd would go wild! Won't happen though, there is not enough sustained wind in our area to make it feasible.

Wow...a former Big Oil exec who undoubtedly still holds stock options in Shell self-servingly predicts $5 oil. For anyone who has seen the movie Casablanca, it should remind us of the scene with the corrupt, Vichy police chief, Louis, in shutting down Rick's at the behest of the local Nazi utters the immortal phrase, "I'm shocke, shocked to find that gambling is going on here". Rick's croupier hands Louis his winnings from the casino to which Louis replies, "Oh thank you very much! Everyone out of here at once."

In a few years the middle class will be a small minority of Americans. The vast majority will be on the public dole. Complex economic and social structures breakdown in unpredictable ways. Exactly what will happen over time is anyone's guess.

We are unable to control our borders, to produce much product, to mine, farm, educate, innovate, or much of anything else in much of our country. As we morph into an unproductive land of mostly poorly educated peasants, it'll be interesting to see what happens.

Smaller home most certainly cost less to heat. Less surface area on the outside and fewer cubic feet of air on the inside. It is just the laws of physics, that's all. Nothing more or less. You want to send your dollars to overseas oil Sheiks? Yes, you still have that right. Want to make you home more energy efficient? Double pane windows, plug the leaks, storm doors. Lower thermostat when you're not home, lower the thermostat while you sleep and use a small space heater in the bedroom(s). If you try to do it, you can do it.

I remember that article. Taibbi learned what a derivative was and sprinkled the article with colorful terms like "Vampire Squid". It was entertaining, but Taibbi and Rolling Stone are generally not good sources for insight into the world of finance.

Taibbi is one of the best political writers in the US right now. For instance, this is spot on:

"The reason 2012 feels so empty now is that voters on both sides of the aisle are not just tired of this state of affairs, they are disgusted by it. They want a chance to choose their own leaders and they want full control over policy, not just a partial say. There are a few challenges to this state of affairs within the electoral process – as much as I disagree with Paul about many things, I do think his campaign is a real outlet for these complaints – but everyone knows that in the end, once the primaries are finished, we’re going to be left with one 1%-approved stooge taking on another.

Most likely, it’ll be Mitt Romney versus Barack Obama, meaning the voters’ choices in the midst of a massive global economic crisis brought on in large part by corruption in the financial services industry will be a private equity parasite who has been a lifelong champion of the Gordon Gekko Greed-is-Good ethos (Romney), versus a paper progressive who in 2008 took, by himself, more money from Wall Street than any two previous presidential candidates, and in the four years since has showered Wall Street with bailouts while failing to push even one successful corruption prosecution (Obama)."