static66 wrote:Jbeck, sorry to hammer a point but I have some extra time this morning... this formula you have come up with for the "average" family living off of $300 a month for food/household necessities. Umm.. where does this "family" shop?
So that comes out to $270/mo. and they are wasting $720 on fast food. People that buy ingredients at the grocery store spend a lot less than people who buy already made meals in a box. And with 25% of the US population classified as obese, I think the average household could spend less than it does.http://www.cccsatl.org/save-money-grocery.aspLast year U.S. households spent $3,240 on average for groceries, according to the American Express Everyday Spending index. The study also found consumers' consumption of fast food increased by 43% over the past year, bringing the average amount spent up to $720 per household. http://www.cccsatl.org/save-money-grocery.asp
static66 wrote: I want to move to where this family lives
static66 wrote:Yikes. Do you think the Patriots will beat the steelers?
RonMN wrote:Emmerson...I think you're spamming for the hormel company with that spam emoticon
The IEA’s report for G8 energy ministers, to be presented this Sunday in Rome, has generated a few stories. Some picked up on the oil supply squeeze that awaits the world due to massive cuts in production investment. I wrote yesterday that the IEA forecasts that, for the first time since World War II, world electricity consumption will decline in 2009.
IEA chief economist Fatih Birol said he personally thought the electricity forecast was the most striking finding of the report.
However he was also keen to highlight concern about green spending in the G20 stimulus packages:
The agency will also tell ministers that its calculation of the stimulus spending required from G20 nations on renewable energy was inadequate and should rise by a factor of six if greenhouse gas emissions targets set by the United Nations were to be met.
Some more comments from Birol that didn’t make it into the story:
“We have looked at all G20 stimulus packages - and all the money they are putting into renewable energy. The money they have put aside for renewables is definitely important, but it is still much lower than what it should be, if we want it to be come to a sustainable level of energy treds - to bring CO2 emissions down. In order to come to that trend, [spending on] renewable energy needs to increase by a factor of six.”
...
Birol also warned about renewable energy, saying investments would fall 38 per cent in 2009 - again, the first fall recorded.
This was particularly serious, he said, because renewable energy industries are in their infancy and more vulnerable to a fall in investment:
“… oil is much more consolidated, whereas renewable energy is still in childhood - if they get a big hit, it will be very difficult for them to get on their feet. From that point of view it is very difficult that renewable indutries are hard hit, as we need them for fighting climate change and for energy security.”
SOUTH AFRICAN burglars pay close attention to electricity. A moratorium in the early 1990s stopped new power stations from being built, and by 2007 demand was overwhelming the country’s electricity grid. So Eskom, the national power company, began cutting supplies to specific suburbs for hours at a time. One side-effect of the rolling blackouts that afflicted Cape Town and Johannesburg was that they disabled the electric fences, spotlights and alarms that adorn richer people’s houses, making them easy pickings for thieves. At first the blackouts were announced in advance; later, aware of the risks, Eskom imposed them without notice. Fortunately for South Africans, the economic slump has trimmed demand (and a huge, rushed building programme boosted supply), but it will be 2013 before order is properly restored.
Britain is running short of power too—so quickly that some economists claim, only just tongue-in-cheek, that the economic slowdown is useful. “A recession is the best demand-reduction policy ever invented,” says Dieter Helm, an energy economist at Oxford University. Many power stations are due to close over the coming decade (see chart 1), and supplies are getting tight. The government reckons that, of a total of around 75GW in generating capacity, 20GW will disappear by 2015.
Indeed, Britain’s energy grids are already showing signs of stress. A cold snap in the winter of 2005-06 led to a spike in demand for natural gas, which is used both as a heating fuel and to generate electricity. Prices shot up but, despite several pipelines linking Britain to Europe, no extra gas was forthcoming from the continent. Big factories were instructed to stop work, and National Grid, the firm that runs the electricity network, came close to cutting supplies to homes as well.
Last year two power stations—one nuclear, one coal-fired—failed within minutes of each other, causing blackouts across the country. Officially, this was a one-off stroke of bad luck, but privately some think that a system with more spare capacity could have kept the lights on. Less obvious but just as worrying, says John Constable of the Renewable Energy Foundation, a think-tank, is that electricity prices are becoming more unstable. “Volatility is a sign of a system under stress,” he notes.
Acid rain and old age explain the shortage of capacity. Britain’s coal and nuclear plants together account for just under 45% of all power generation (see chart 2). But most of the nuclear plants, and around half of the coal plants, are due to close in the near future.
The nuclear stations are simply too ancient to carry on: most are over a quarter of a century old. Around half have already shut down and are being decommissioned. Those that remain are increasingly doddery. British Energy, which runs most of the remaining reactors, had to shut two of its eight power stations last year after engineers discovered cracks in components. By 2023 only one nuclear plant will be left, a modern reactor at Sizewell in Suffolk. Some of the power plants may be patched up a bit and granted life extensions (one on Anglesey was recently given a nine-month reprieve), but not for long.
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