As Busy As Ever?

   The down economy does not seem to be keeping too many people at home.  Is your holiday season, (if this is a holiday season for you), busy too?  The last 3 days here have included 2 choir concerts, 5 basketball games, and numerous other activities.  This week will be just as busy, plus include traveling to fetch the two oldest children home from college.  Whew! Is there even time to think about posting?  I hope so as there is so much in the news to think about.

The dropping price of gas has seemed to level out a bit.  That is probably a good thing as if it goes too low, that will cause a new set of problems in itself.  I filled up yesterday at 1.79 per gallon and I am very happy with that.  As I mentioned in a recent post, I just hope the lower prices don’t push the drive to find alternatives to oil to the background. There is sure no shortage of drivers on the road around here, although apparently they are doing something other than shopping.  With the announcement that over a half million people lost their jobs last month, things seem to be going from bad to worse even with lower oil prices.

Recently I have heard about an “ethanol bust”.  I am not sure if this is at all related to lower oil prices or if it is related to some of the problems inherent in ethanol production itself.  If this leads to a reduction in the amount of corn acreage devoted to ethanol, it will be a good thing, I guess.  My low opinion of corn as a source for alternative fuels is detailed in the links below.  It is a conflicting issue for me, though.  Using corn for food sources instead of fuel makes sense.  But on the other hand, we in the U.S. do have all together too much corn in our diets as it is.  The developing world depends on inexpensive corn to reduce hunger however, and that is a much better use of available supply than ethanol.

Ethanol Kills Thousands of Crabs, Fish and Shrimp

Should We Use Food Crops For Food, Not Fuel?

Corn Ethanol – Dead On Arrival?