The Internet’s Next Killer App

Fred Wilson, blogging about the economic disruption caused by high oil prices, says: "And the web clearly has a role to play in all of this too. More on that later."

I look forward, as always, to seeing what Fred has to say but a smart reader Rajes More...

Heads in the Sand

"Please, don't buy my product" is how fellow Vermonter Art Woolf, in a post on the Vermont Tiger site,  characterized More...

New Car

Wanted to buy an American-made plugin hybrid electric vehicle (PHEV). But there are no PHEVs available commercially, American-made or not, and the seven year old SUV was due for replacement even if it weren't guzzling premium at an alarming rate. Gas economy counts and, here in Nerdville, technol More...

Passing the BTU

Without a lot of fast planning or a drop in oil prices before winter many parts of America may face an electricity crisis when the heating season begins. At the worst, there could be serious repeated failures of transmission facilities. At best, there is likely to be pressure for steeply higher e More...

If I Can’t Have a Magic Bullet, I Won’t Shoot

"Windmills can't provide enough power to give us energy independence (or save the environment), so let's not build any."

"Solar won't save the environment (or give us energy independence), so let's not pursue it."

"Conservation won't make us energy indep More...

Electric Heat Savings Estimator

As promised, there is now a tool on this blog for estimating how much you'll save or lose annually in heating fuel costs if you switch completely from oil, propane, or natural gas to either electric radiant heat or electric geothermal hea More...

Energy Saving Devices

Two solar devices on the back of my boat.

The solar mat trickle charges the batteries when the boat's at anchor. I rarely use the engine for anything but getting on or off the mooring or dock (unless the cr More...

Fuel Selector Helper

The price of home heating oil is so high that even electric radiant heat has become a lower cost alternative across much of the country. The prices of propane and natural gas have also risen. You may have a decision to make: do you replace some or all of the fossil fuel you're burning for heat wi More...

Energy Tipping Point – Part 1

Here in Vermont we're at a tipping point: conventional electric heat now costs about the same to use as oil heat at current rates (details here). Although oil prices may recede from the current bubble and electricity rates are l More...

Oil Bubble?

Yes… but.

It's an important question since the answer affects a huge swath of business, personal, and government decisions – not to mention political campaigns. Is the historically high price of oil in dollars a temporary aberration, the creation of evil market manipulators, a frothy bubb More...