Al Gore: KWh Bandit

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Jan 312012
 

An enterprising Tennessee organization called the Tennessee Center for Policy Research did a little bit of digging into Al Gore’s personal energy consumption. According to the utility bills, Gore’s McMansion uses 20 times the energy of the average American house.

The average household in America consumes 10,656 kilowatt-hours (kWh) per year, according to the Department of Energy. In 2006, Gore devoured nearly 221,000 kWh—more than 20 times the national average.
Last August alone, Gore burned through 22,619 kWh—guzzling more than twice the electricity in one month than an average American family uses in an entire year. As a result of his energy consumption, Gore’s average monthly electric bill topped $ 1,359.
Since the release of An Inconvenient Truth, Gore’s energy consumption has increased from an average of 16,200 kWh per month in 2005, to 18,400 kWh per month in 2006.
Gore’s extravagant energy use does not stop at his electric bill. Natural gas bills for Gore’s mansion and guest house averaged $ 1,080 per month last year.

And, do you know where most of that energy is coming from? Coal. Heh.

No Such Thing As Free Money

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Jan 302012
 

The other day I saw a guy who had a sign mounted on the side of his car. “APP / JOIN OUR GAS CLUB / SAVE UP TO 25% ON GAS / Call (xxx) xxx-xxxx”. Curious, I did some quick web research.

APP is American Petroleum Promotions. APP is an MLM (Multi Level Marketing) company which claims to sell $ 200 gas cards for $ 150. To order the gas cards, you have to pay an annual $ 300 membership fee, which if included in the calculations means you only really get a 12.5% discount on your gas cards, not 25%. However, if you sign up as a member of the MLM chain, and get other distributors of gas cards to sign up underneath you, you earn free gas cards.

MLMs are the slightly more respectable (and legal) cousins of the famous Ponzi or Pyramid Scheme. The difference is that in an MLM, some real product flows down the pyramid.

APP is not to be confused with a gas pre-purchase service, which allows you to pre-pay for gas by the gallon, and then draw down on your reserves when prices are high. These are legitimate businesses which work on the same principle as gasoline futures contracts.

So how could this work? APP’s web site claims that it can do this through the power of mass purchases–but this is an obvious lie. APP is selling fuel purchase cards that operate on the Discover credit card network–they aren’t buying physical gas.

No business can sell $ 100 bills for $ 85 and stay afloat, despite the joke that they could make it up on volume.

My guess is that APP can stay afloat as long as new members sign up, paying the $ 300 up front fee, and as long as new legs of the MLM chain sign up, paying additional fees. As long as the pyramid keeps growing, there will be enough cash flow to pay for $ 200 gas cards.

When APP stops growing, they won’t be able to cover their expenses, and whoever ordered fresh gas cards will not have their orders filled.

This actually happened to this very company once already. In 2003, APP was based in St. Louis Missouri, and the business collapsed. Some details appear here. and BBB report is here. Later, a new owner bought APP and moved it to Texas.

Another reason to be wary: the APP membership application requires your Social Security #. I couldn’t find any explanation for this requirement.

Consumer Reports Pushing 62 MPG

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Jan 292012
 

One of the reasons I dropped my personal Consumer Reports subscription is that they have become consistently liberal in their outlook, taking the sides of intrusive regulation by the government.

Today CR issues a statement supporting a high (62 MPG) fuel economy.  One of their arguments is that vehicles can be reduced in mass without necessarily becoming less safe.  For small differences in mass, this is probably true. 
Importantly, reducing vehicle mass will be essential in improving fuel economy. Consumer Reports is confident that lighter vehicles will not necessarily compromise vehicle safety. For example, a contemporary family sedan such as the Hyundai Sonata weighs 3,210 pounds and still achieves a Top Safety Pick by the IIHS. It weighs 7.5% less than its previous generation and about 6% less than the average family sedan. By contrast, a Chrysler 200 weighs 3,590 pounds (also a Top-Safety Pick) but with no performance or interior room advantage. The new Honda Civic at 2,810 pounds also received a Top Safety Pick and weighs 400 pounds less (about 9%) than the Chevrolet Cruze, a direct competitor.

However, they make a big mistake here–they refer to IIHS test results between vehicles that are about 400# different.  It is critically important to remember that crash test results such as IIHS and NHTSA, when they are intended to mimic front crashes, simulate a car hitting another car of the same weight.  

What happens when a heavier car hits a lighter car is not pretty.  Here are some great videos by IIHS which make this very point.  Here is the report.

Everything else being equal, heavier cars tend to be safer than lighter cars, and forcing people into lighter cars will, on average, reduce their safety.
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