Experience with energy crisis in the American Southwest, Phoenix, energy prices,gasoline, natural gas, oil, peak oil

LEARN ABOUT PEAK OIL/PEAK ENERGY

Or, One Woman's Experience with the Energy Crisis

In the American Southwest, 2005-

Energybulletin dot net

Peak Oil dot Com

the Oil Drum dot Com

Gas Buddy dot Com

CNN Money Commodities

NYMEX Crude Oil Light
Yahoo Finance

Note as of March 2008: This site has turned into more than gas/oilprices. It's also stock market watch and a blog of a kind for myself related to the economy/financial/state of the US. I've tried other blog formats and sites and it doesn't make any sense to have another place in cyberspace to write thoughts down. So, I'll just do it here--it will be things mostly related to the economic state of things and how it effects my own life.
Site started Aug/Sept 2005; Prices updated daily or every few days; depends on how fast crude is going up

I got interested in the peak oil phenomena after researching an energy industry related question at my job at a special library. That was Feb 2005 and since then I've watched world events related to peak oil and energy issues unfold. At first it was just in the energy related and peak oil crowd news sources. But I've watched this issue become mainstream media in the past few months. It's been fascinating and frightening to see so many predictions seemingly related to peak oil and it's after effects take shape. I wonder how far those predictions will go to becoming reality. that will depend on our societies reaction to our energy problems. I live in Southern Arizona, a place that is supposed to not survive well if there really is some kind of collapse.

Barrel of Crude Oil is 42 gallons (U.S.), of that 20 gallons becomes gasoline--Info from DOE, USA

Metric equivalent of a barrel of crude is 159.7 liters. Metric equivalent of US Gallon is 3.785 liters.

Oil prices history, courtesy of CNN MOney

World Oil Production Figures 2004-2007, courtesy of Prof. Deffeyes

Apr-May 2005 gas prices in the USA start up from less than $2.00 and move up steadily; in August they move up a lot more even pre-hurricane Katrina.

U.S. Gas Price History, 2003-Jul 2005,courtesy of wikipedia.org

Updated Gas Price History at wikipedia.org

I use natural gas for heating of water and my house. I don't know if the source of my electricity is the Palo Verde nuclear power plant or natural gas or hydroelectric. I use the local Salt River Project for my electric power and Southwest Gas for heating and hot water. I don't use heating oil, mostly that's used in the Northeast and East US. MidWest US uses mostly natural gas for heat that comes from the Gulf of Mexico (GOM)

Natural Gas prices have risen since 1999-2000. From what I tell (from several different sources online and offline) the consumer measurement use of nat gas is purchased in so much per a thousand cubic feet. In the 1990s it was about $2.00 per thousand cubic feet. In 2000, it was $4.70 per 1000 cubic feet. It is now about $14.00 per 1000 cubic feet. It was about half that at the beginning of the summer.
Note in April 2006: 2005-2006 winter was milder than expected in some parts U.S. Natural gas prices dropped in early 2006; April 13 price, $7.14.
Note in September 2006: Too early to tell if Winter 2007 will be mild or cold this year. Oct 3 2006: Natural Gas price is $5-6.
Note Feb 22, 2007: Dec-Jan very mild in Midwest and North East; but real winter came in February.
Note Oct 10, 2007: Winter this year is predicted to be milder than usual by the National Weather Service. Also, that some parts of the midwest and east will be wetter than usual but the majority of the country will be drier and much drier than usual. Their map showed southern and cetral Arizona to be in the much drier area. Southeastern US has had a terrible dry season the past spring and summer. Water sources of lakes and rivers are drying up at a frightening rate.
Winter 2008: Heating oil prices to be 20-25% higher than last winter of 2007. Natural gas prices is expected to go up 10%. Electricity prices will probably increase as well. this info is from the Oct. 9, 2007 News Hour on PBS television--KAET TV from the Arizona State University in my area.

Fuel/Energy cost comparison chart for last several years

Natural Gas Sources NYTIMES 11/15/2005

Phoenix Prices Archive

March- 2008

Mar 5 Barrel Crude: 104.52 highest yet to close. Gal Reg Gas
Mar 6 Barrel Crude: 105.47 DJA: 12, 0040.39 S&P: 1304.34 (lowest in 52 weeks)
Retired State Librarian's Lunch Day: Everyone is enjoying their time off, those who are still newsly retired! No one wants to talk about anything worse than a few more dollars possible to pay for health insurance. Talked a little about the budget cutting at the state agency where we used to work--and the city of Phoenix budget cuts at their library.
My friend, L. in Virginnia told me her sister and friend in colorado are in significant problems because of 2 houses they own, her knee injury and the fact that he lost all his life savings in " a big company that had scandal attached to it"--Enron! Of course, tha happened several years ago but that and other events are sapping the life force out of L.'s sister.
S.'s husband is retiring from Sprint but their company lost a significant amouont in the last quarter--it seems like every company at all lost some. Hopefully, this doesn't affect the cash he was going to take out for his retirement. Someone always asks about an increase in the pensions at the beginning of the next fiscal year, but I know we won't be getting any for a long time. 5 years was the last statement from the ASRS. I bet it'll be longer than that. Other than that we all had the usual pleasant time.
Gal Reg Gas: At 1 of my 3 stations it's 3.07, at another it's 3.17; the 3rd station has closed.
Mar 7 Barrel Crude:105.15; went over 106 as high. Dow closed under the 12,000 mark.
Arizona Republic reports that Phoenix city budget this year has to be cut by the biggest amount since—well, at least since the mid-1970s when I went to work for them on some federal job stimulus program of that time. The Arizona State budget is in no better shape. The cuts made at the State Library this year are more severe than they were in the 12 years I worked there and I worked during two downturns of our local econonmy.
Re un and employment figures: From theautomaticearth.com mar 8th: If history is a reliable guide, the recession of 2008 is now unavoidable. The dismal jobs report released Friday showed overall employment to be lower than it was three months ago. Every time such a slump has occurred since the early 1970s, a recession has followed — or already been under way.
And if the good times have really ended, they were never that good to begin with. Most American households are still not earning as much annually as they did in 1999, once inflation is taken into account. Since the Census Bureau began keeping records in the 1960s, a prolonged expansion has never ended without household income having set a new record.
For months, policy makers and Wall Street economists have been predicting, and hoping, that the aggressive series of interest rate cuts by the Federal Reserve would keep the economy growing, despite the housing bust. But the possibility seemed to diminish almost by the hour on Friday.
Even the one apparent piece of good news in the employment report was a mirage. The unemployment rate fell to 4.8 percent, from 4.9 percent in January, but only because more people stopped looking for work and thus were not counted as unemployed by the government. Over the last year, the number of officially unemployed has risen by 500,000, while the number of people outside the labor force — neither working nor looking for a job — has risen by 1.3 million.
Employment has risen by 100,000, but even that comes with a caveat: there are also 600,000 more people who are working part time because they could not find full-time work, according to the Labor Department. “The decline in the unemployment rate,” said Joshua Shapiro, an economist at MFR, a research firm in New York, “should not be viewed as good news.”
Gal Reg Gas: 3.17,etc.
Mar 10 Barrel Crude: 107.49 closed; went to 108 for high today.
Otherwise, a beautiful spring day in Phoenix! Desert overall is so green because of good winter rains this year. DDJ at 11,746.00
Gal Reg Gas: 3.17, etc
Mar 11 Barrel Crude: 108.75 Gal Reg Gas.
Mar 12 Barrel Crude: crossed 110.00; closed at 109.92 Gas: Same as above.
Mar 13 Barrel Crude: Price crossed 111.00 during trading: CLOSED at 110.33.
Gold gone over $1,000. Gas: 3.19, Loaves of Bread at SafewaT-he today were mostly just over $4.00.
From Yahoo finance: “U.S. has finally slid into recession, according to the majority of economists in the latest Wall Street Journal economic-forecasting survey,.”
Gas nationally and locally is now higher than it ever has been which was after Katrina in August-Sept 2005. We’re still on the undulating plateau of oil production various peak oil scholars have predicted—the plateaus has been here since May 2005--but somewhere in 2010 we start down the other side of Hubberts curve.
It looks like it could play out like this (the next few years, say 5, not more than 10 though):
FSN, the European LEAP reports and one other place I’ve read in the past few months suggest that things will improve from the 2-3 quarter. FSN particularly has said this, so far. Then in late summer, maybe mid- to end 3th qrt or beginning of 4th quarter, the whole economy, equities market, etc. really sinks more and more. Recession, which is really here in Mar 2008, continues and gets deeper—how much deeper? Don’t know but even many who have been optimistic think housing, equities, etc will take longer to recover than the end of this year. It was all extend into and throughout 2009, maybe into 2010.
2008 and 2009 still has many ARMS to reset, which will make all the housing worse, but these days many other parts of the financial /economic world are going wrong.
In the 2009-2012 presidents term, Medicare will start having a negative cash flow, Social Security is in better shape ujtil 2017 or something—just when I can collect, if I don’t collect when I’m 62.
So, by the beginning of 2010 we’ll be at a turnaround for economy or still going deeper into depression? Our resource restraints of oil should be really biting with long sharp teeth by the end of the next presidential term. It bites now but the teeth will be bigger and sharper. And what about the food market by then? Will the great upshot in food/commodity prices still be going up by then? Will they be part of the equities market crash in late 2008, if that happens?
I can’t imagine that if oil peaks and our supply starts shrinking, and other natural resources like the way crops and food are now would keep getting worse, we’re not going to have much recovery from the economic troubles we’ve got ahead in the next two years. And how fast is climate change going to run along in these next few years???
Another Topic: K.s hearing was yesterday. The judge wants to keep him until April 28th. I’ll try to be at that one. His lawyer is going to try to get counselors into to see him. He will try to talk me into some kind of bail—that is if permission for me to visit him is given before his next hearing. I told his lawyer I wasn’t so willing to do anything to back a bond for him because of all the money I’ve spent on him the last 4 years.
Gal Reg Gas: 3.19,3.29, 3.39
Mar 14 Barrel Crude: 110.21 DJ: 11.900 Gal Reg Gas: 3.27, 3.37, 3.47
Mar 17 Bear Steans sort of saved by Fed and J.P. Morgan.
Mar 18 Barrel Crude: 109.42 Gal Reg Gas
April 5 Aloha and ATA airlines suddenly went out of business this week. They both serve Hawaii so that’s fewer ways to get to Hawaii by air.
No news of K. yet status there is the same. Went to san diego for a few days 3;20-3/25 to try to see him and see what else was happening there. Beautfiful weather . R. & family made me feel like their own family. Market has rallied some in the past week. Gas: 3.29

Apr 7 Barrel Crude: 109.09 Gal Reg Gas: 3.29
Apr 9 Barrel Crude: 110.87 Gal Reg Gas Same
Apr 11 Barrel Crude: 110.14 Gal Reg Gas: 3.37, 3,37, 3.57, diesel over 4.00
Apr 14 Barrel Crude: 111.76
NBC evening news had achilling story about how the salmon fishing industry of the North and West US has been shut down because of too few fish—chinook salmon out there to catch. The population according to this report has fallen an awful lot in the past 3 years. The Brian wiliams, anchorman spoke of the extinction of the species. And we don’t’ know what specifically Is causing it—warming oceans, more use of inland rivers for irrigation that the fish need to spawn. Our ecological and food news gets worse and worse with every passing week. From online Sacramento Register-Guard: http://www.registerguard.com/csp/cms/sites/dt.cms.support.viewStory.cls?cid=93127&sid=5&fid=1
"The collapse of the Sacramento chinook has been nothing less than epic. The numbers of spawning fish have dropped from more than 800,000 just six years ago to just over 68,000 last year, and fisheries experts predict that few more than 50,000 fish will be in the river this fall.
The National Marine Fisheries Service points to changing ocean conditions as the probable cause, in particular a recent lack of nutrient-rich deep ocean upwellings caused by water temperature changes.
But ocean conditions are only a partial explanation, and the Bush administration must be held to account for its policies that have contributed to excessive water diversions from the Sacramento River Delta, agricultural pollution and deteriorated habitat.
If that sounds familiar, it’s because similar policies and conditions contributed the Klamath River’s poor returns, which forced severe ocean-fishing restrictions in 2005 and 2006.
Last year, the Columbia River Basin, which once had the world’s most prolific salmon runs, saw less than 2 percent of its historic salmon return in the fall. As a result, federal regulators were forced to cut commercial fishing, already at historic lows, in half." And there have been several instances of food riots in the past few weeks in several countries. Food shortages, fish shortages, natural resource shortages, all happening at the same time .... not to mention the mad made financial world shortages ...
oh yes, Gen. Petraeus said this week about the year old military surge in Iraq: It has improved but it's still fragile, the improvement in less violence in Iraq but there is no light at the end of the tunnel and the champagne bottle is back at the back of the fridge ...
how long until we're driven out, i wonder ...
Gal Reg Gas: 3.37, etc.
Apr 16 Barrel Crude: 114.93 Gallon Regular Gas: Same: 3.37 9r 3.38
Apr 17 Barrel Crude: 114.86 Gallon Regular Gas: Saem
Apr 18 Barrel Crude: 116.86 Gallon Regular Gas: Same
Apr 21 Barrel Crude: 117.48 Gallon Regular Gas: Same
Apr 22 Barrel Crude: opened at 117.50; closed at 119.37 :( Gallon Regular Gas: 3.38, 3.50 3.60
Apr 25 Barrel Crude: Flirted with 119. 25; closed at 116.09 Gallon Regular Gas: Up to 3.43, 3.53, 3.63; I've never posted a price for diesel as I don't use it and tend to forget about it. It is definitely over $4.00 here.
May 6 Barrel Crude: Up to 122.35; closed at 119.97 Gallon Regular Gas: 3.47, 3.57,3.67
May 7 Barrel Crude: Up to 123.75 in day trading; closed at 121.84 Gallon Regular Gas: Same
May 8 Barrel Crude: 123.69 closed at this; during trading went past $124 Gallon Regular Gas: Same
May 9 Barrel Crude: $125.26 closed at this. Gallon Regular Gas: 3.51, 3.61, 3.71
Apr Barrel Crude: Gallon Regular Gas:
Apr Barrel Crude: Gallon Regular Gas:
Apr Barrel Crude: Gallon Regular Gas:
Apr Barrel Crude: Gallon Regular Gas:
Apr Barrel Crude: Gallon Regular Gas:
Apr Barrel Crude: Gallon Regular Gas:

Some Phoenix Arizona Energy Historical Notes 2003-

Phoenix, August 2003. Kinder Morgan gasoline pipe breaks south of Phoenix. Pipe runs from El Paso up through Tucson.Problem with gas availability in Phoenix area. 2-3 weeks. Governor Napolitano and media asked people not to fill up before they had less than 1/2 tank of gas. This is NOT always work as people seemed to be filling up at the slightest drop in their gas levels. Arizona gets it's gas through the Kinder Morgan line coming through Texas and pipelines (1 or 2?) coming from California.
Effect: Creepy since it was hard sometimes to find a station with enough gas and not too long of lines. Mostly you just had to be a little patient. That was my experience. But some people got angry, too. Some physical altercations ensued at some stations. People filled up gas cans when they filled up cars. There was supposed to be limits on how many gas cans someone could get at a time, too.

Phoenix, July-August 2004. Major electric transformer catches fire July 4 and has to be replaced. It was too heavy to fly it. Major deal in getting this thing from the Northwest of US and then it comes by ship to LA and then is trucked to Phoenix. This thing took almost a month to get to Arizona. Once or twice on the road from LA the trailer the transformer was on slid off the road or had problems since the transformer load was so heavy for it. Another transformer is undergoing some upgrades and so the whole Phoenix area is public urged to save electricity for air conditioning.
Effect: Rolling blackouts are not necessary however as public saves enough to get through the summer. Recommendations are thermostats get turned up 2-3 degrees until the new transformer is installed.

Phoenix, January 2005. City of Phoenix water supply, at least one plant, has some problem with "turbidity" in the water. One other plant is offline for maintenance and others left can't handle all the water for the Phoenix area. Water Dept of Phoenix tell people to boil water for cooking, drinking, etc. The City Water Dept didn't seem to be able to decide if there was bacteria or not. Takes a few days to get water back from the lab. This whole thing lasts about a week.
Effect: This was inconvenient to do this boiling-good thing it wasn't summer. Real problems for restaurants and eateries! The businesses and many individuals bought bottled water. So, then, bottled water just vanished from store shelves and stayed vanished until this was over.
When I think of decline in living standards/civilization under whatever circumstances, I think of these three above events happening simultaneously and lasting forever. Not fun.

Shambalayogi's Retreat
Copyright 1999-2008

Mar 5	Barrel Crude: 104.52 highest yet to close.	Gal Reg Gas
Mar 6	Barrel Crude: 105.47 DJA: 12, 0040.39 S&P: 1304.34 (lowest in 52 weeks) Retired State Librarian's Lunch Day: Everyone is enjoying their time off, those who are still newsly retired! No one wants to talk about anything worse than a few more dollars possible to pay for health insurance. Talked a little about the budget cutting at the state agency where we used to work--and the city of Phoenix budget cuts at their library. My friend, L. in Virginnia told me her sister and friend in colorado are in significant problems because of 2 houses they own, her knee injury and the fact that he lost all his life savings in " a big company that had scandal attached to it"--Enron! Of course, tha happened several years ago but that and other events are sapping the life force out of L.'s sister. S.'s husband is retiring from Sprint but their company lost a significant amouont in the last quarter--it seems like every company at all lost some. Hopefully, this doesn't affect the cash he was going to take out for his retirement. Someone always asks about an increase in the pensions at the beginning of the next fiscal year, but I know we won't be getting any for a long time. 5 years was the last statement from the ASRS. I bet it'll be longer than that. Other than that we all had the usual pleasant time.	Gal Reg Gas: At 1 of my 3 stations it's 3.07, at another it's 3.17; the 3rd station has closed.
Mar 7	Barrel Crude:105.15; went over 106 as high. Dow closed under the 12,000 mark. Arizona Republic reports that Phoenix city budget this year has to be cut by the biggest amount since—well, at least since the mid-1970s when I went to work for them on some federal job stimulus program of that time. The Arizona State budget is in no better shape. The cuts made at the State Library this year are more severe than they were in the 12 years I worked there and I worked during two downturns of our local econonmy. Re un and employment figures: From theautomaticearth.com mar 8th: If history is a reliable guide, the recession of 2008 is now unavoidable. The dismal jobs report released Friday showed overall employment to be lower than it was three months ago. Every time such a slump has occurred since the early 1970s, a recession has followed — or already been under way. And if the good times have really ended, they were never that good to begin with. Most American households are still not earning as much annually as they did in 1999, once inflation is taken into account. Since the Census Bureau began keeping records in the 1960s, a prolonged expansion has never ended without household income having set a new record. For months, policy makers and Wall Street economists have been predicting, and hoping, that the aggressive series of interest rate cuts by the Federal Reserve would keep the economy growing, despite the housing bust. But the possibility seemed to diminish almost by the hour on Friday. Even the one apparent piece of good news in the employment report was a mirage. The unemployment rate fell to 4.8 percent, from 4.9 percent in January, but only because more people stopped looking for work and thus were not counted as unemployed by the government. Over the last year, the number of officially unemployed has risen by 500,000, while the number of people outside the labor force — neither working nor looking for a job — has risen by 1.3 million. Employment has risen by 100,000, but even that comes with a caveat: there are also 600,000 more people who are working part time because they could not find full-time work, according to the Labor Department. “The decline in the unemployment rate,” said Joshua Shapiro, an economist at MFR, a research firm in New York, “should not be viewed as good news.”	Gal Reg Gas: 3.17,etc.
Mar 10	Barrel Crude: 107.49 closed; went to 108 for high today. Otherwise, a beautiful spring day in Phoenix! Desert overall is so green because of good winter rains this year. DDJ at 11,746.00	Gal Reg Gas: 3.17, etc
Mar 11	Barrel Crude: 108.75	Gal Reg Gas.
Mar 12	Barrel Crude: crossed 110.00; closed at 109.92	Gas: Same as above.
Mar 13	Barrel Crude: Price crossed 111.00 during trading: CLOSED at 110.33. Gold gone over $1,000. Gas: 3.19, Loaves of Bread at SafewaT-he today were mostly just over $4.00. From Yahoo finance: “U.S. has finally slid into recession, according to the majority of economists in the latest Wall Street Journal economic-forecasting survey,.” Gas nationally and locally is now higher than it ever has been which was after Katrina in August-Sept 2005. We’re still on the undulating plateau of oil production various peak oil scholars have predicted—the plateaus has been here since May 2005--but somewhere in 2010 we start down the other side of Hubberts curve. It looks like it could play out like this (the next few years, say 5, not more than 10 though): FSN, the European LEAP reports and one other place I’ve read in the past few months suggest that things will improve from the 2-3 quarter. FSN particularly has said this, so far. Then in late summer, maybe mid- to end 3th qrt or beginning of 4th quarter, the whole economy, equities market, etc. really sinks more and more. Recession, which is really here in Mar 2008, continues and gets deeper—how much deeper? Don’t know but even many who have been optimistic think housing, equities, etc will take longer to recover than the end of this year. It was all extend into and throughout 2009, maybe into 2010. 2008 and 2009 still has many ARMS to reset, which will make all the housing worse, but these days many other parts of the financial /economic world are going wrong. In the 2009-2012 presidents term, Medicare will start having a negative cash flow, Social Security is in better shape ujtil 2017 or something—just when I can collect, if I don’t collect when I’m 62. So, by the beginning of 2010 we’ll be at a turnaround for economy or still going deeper into depression? Our resource restraints of oil should be really biting with long sharp teeth by the end of the next presidential term. It bites now but the teeth will be bigger and sharper. And what about the food market by then? Will the great upshot in food/commodity prices still be going up by then? Will they be part of the equities market crash in late 2008, if that happens? I can’t imagine that if oil peaks and our supply starts shrinking, and other natural resources like the way crops and food are now would keep getting worse, we’re not going to have much recovery from the economic troubles we’ve got ahead in the next two years. And how fast is climate change going to run along in these next few years??? Another Topic: K.s hearing was yesterday. The judge wants to keep him until April 28th. I’ll try to be at that one. His lawyer is going to try to get counselors into to see him. He will try to talk me into some kind of bail—that is if permission for me to visit him is given before his next hearing. I told his lawyer I wasn’t so willing to do anything to back a bond for him because of all the money I’ve spent on him the last 4 years.	Gal Reg Gas: 3.19,3.29, 3.39
Mar 14	Barrel Crude: 110.21 DJ: 11.900	Gal Reg Gas: 3.27, 3.37, 3.47
Mar 17	Bear Steans sort of saved by Fed and J.P. Morgan.
Mar 18	Barrel Crude: 109.42	Gal Reg Gas
April 5	Aloha and ATA airlines suddenly went out of business this week. They both serve Hawaii so that’s fewer ways to get to Hawaii by air. No news of K. yet status there is the same. Went to san diego for a few days 3;20-3/25 to try to see him and see what else was happening there. Beautfiful weather . R. & family made me feel like their own family. Market has rallied some in the past week. Gas: 3.29
Apr 7	Barrel Crude: 109.09	Gal Reg Gas: 3.29
Apr 9	Barrel Crude: 110.87	Gal Reg Gas Same
Apr 11	Barrel Crude: 110.14	Gal Reg Gas: 3.37, 3,37, 3.57, diesel over 4.00
Apr 14	Barrel Crude: 111.76 NBC evening news had achilling story about how the salmon fishing industry of the North and West US has been shut down because of too few fish—chinook salmon out there to catch. The population according to this report has fallen an awful lot in the past 3 years. The Brian wiliams, anchorman spoke of the extinction of the species. And we don’t’ know what specifically Is causing it—warming oceans, more use of inland rivers for irrigation that the fish need to spawn. Our ecological and food news gets worse and worse with every passing week. From online Sacramento Register-Guard: http://www.registerguard.com/csp/cms/sites/dt.cms.support.viewStory.cls?cid=93127&sid=5&fid=1 "The collapse of the Sacramento chinook has been nothing less than epic. The numbers of spawning fish have dropped from more than 800,000 just six years ago to just over 68,000 last year, and fisheries experts predict that few more than 50,000 fish will be in the river this fall. The National Marine Fisheries Service points to changing ocean conditions as the probable cause, in particular a recent lack of nutrient-rich deep ocean upwellings caused by water temperature changes. But ocean conditions are only a partial explanation, and the Bush administration must be held to account for its policies that have contributed to excessive water diversions from the Sacramento River Delta, agricultural pollution and deteriorated habitat. If that sounds familiar, it’s because similar policies and conditions contributed the Klamath River’s poor returns, which forced severe ocean-fishing restrictions in 2005 and 2006. Last year, the Columbia River Basin, which once had the world’s most prolific salmon runs, saw less than 2 percent of its historic salmon return in the fall. As a result, federal regulators were forced to cut commercial fishing, already at historic lows, in half." And there have been several instances of food riots in the past few weeks in several countries. Food shortages, fish shortages, natural resource shortages, all happening at the same time .... not to mention the mad made financial world shortages ... oh yes, Gen. Petraeus said this week about the year old military surge in Iraq: It has improved but it's still fragile, the improvement in less violence in Iraq but there is no light at the end of the tunnel and the champagne bottle is back at the back of the fridge ... how long until we're driven out, i wonder ...	Gal Reg Gas: 3.37, etc.
Apr 16	Barrel Crude: 114.93	Gallon Regular Gas: Same: 3.37 9r 3.38
Apr 17	Barrel Crude: 114.86	Gallon Regular Gas: Saem
Apr 18	Barrel Crude: 116.86	Gallon Regular Gas: Same
Apr 21	Barrel Crude: 117.48	Gallon Regular Gas: Same
Apr 22	Barrel Crude: opened at 117.50; closed at 119.37 :(	Gallon Regular Gas: 3.38, 3.50 3.60
Apr 25	Barrel Crude: Flirted with 119. 25; closed at 116.09	Gallon Regular Gas: Up to 3.43, 3.53, 3.63; I've never posted a price for diesel as I don't use it and tend to forget about it. It is definitely over $4.00 here.
May 6	Barrel Crude: Up to 122.35; closed at 119.97	Gallon Regular Gas: 3.47, 3.57,3.67
May 7	Barrel Crude: Up to 123.75 in day trading; closed at 121.84	Gallon Regular Gas: Same
May 8	Barrel Crude: 123.69 closed at this; during trading went past $124	Gallon Regular Gas: Same
May 9	Barrel Crude: $125.26 closed at this.	Gallon Regular Gas: 3.51, 3.61, 3.71
Apr	Barrel Crude:	Gallon Regular Gas:
Apr	Barrel Crude:	Gallon Regular Gas:
Apr	Barrel Crude:	Gallon Regular Gas:
Apr	Barrel Crude:	Gallon Regular Gas:
Apr	Barrel Crude:	Gallon Regular Gas:
Apr	Barrel Crude:	Gallon Regular Gas:

Some Phoenix Arizona Energy Historical Notes 2003-
Phoenix, August 2003. Kinder Morgan gasoline pipe breaks south of Phoenix. Pipe runs from El Paso up through Tucson.Problem with gas availability in Phoenix area. 2-3 weeks. Governor Napolitano and media asked people not to fill up before they had less than 1/2 tank of gas. This is NOT always work as people seemed to be filling up at the slightest drop in their gas levels. Arizona gets it's gas through the Kinder Morgan line coming through Texas and pipelines (1 or 2?) coming from California. Effect: Creepy since it was hard sometimes to find a station with enough gas and not too long of lines. Mostly you just had to be a little patient. That was my experience. But some people got angry, too. Some physical altercations ensued at some stations. People filled up gas cans when they filled up cars. There was supposed to be limits on how many gas cans someone could get at a time, too.
Phoenix, July-August 2004. Major electric transformer catches fire July 4 and has to be replaced. It was too heavy to fly it. Major deal in getting this thing from the Northwest of US and then it comes by ship to LA and then is trucked to Phoenix. This thing took almost a month to get to Arizona. Once or twice on the road from LA the trailer the transformer was on slid off the road or had problems since the transformer load was so heavy for it. Another transformer is undergoing some upgrades and so the whole Phoenix area is public urged to save electricity for air conditioning. Effect: Rolling blackouts are not necessary however as public saves enough to get through the summer. Recommendations are thermostats get turned up 2-3 degrees until the new transformer is installed.
Phoenix, January 2005. City of Phoenix water supply, at least one plant, has some problem with "turbidity" in the water. One other plant is offline for maintenance and others left can't handle all the water for the Phoenix area. Water Dept of Phoenix tell people to boil water for cooking, drinking, etc. The City Water Dept didn't seem to be able to decide if there was bacteria or not. Takes a few days to get water back from the lab. This whole thing lasts about a week. Effect: This was inconvenient to do this boiling-good thing it wasn't summer. Real problems for restaurants and eateries! The businesses and many individuals bought bottled water. So, then, bottled water just vanished from store shelves and stayed vanished until this was over. When I think of decline in living standards/civilization under whatever circumstances, I think of these three above events happening simultaneously and lasting forever. Not fun.