Tag Archives: energy conservation

environmental news, State news

Just not caring about Daylight/Standard time

I guess I should care about this. Except that I don’t. Really, I don’t.

Some members of the Texas Legislature want the state to stop switching back and forth each year between Daylight Saving Time and Standard Time. They say the “spring forward” and “fall back” routine causes too much sleep deprivation at the front end, when we push our clocks forward an hour. We’re going to do it again Saturday night; we’ll awaken Sunday morning with one less hour of shut-eye to get our day started.

And, of course, many of us will bitch about it!

I just don’t see the significance of it all. I continue to recognize the motive behind enacting Daylight Saving Time in the first place. It was intended to help conserve energy by allowing us to not turn on our lights and, thus, burn electrical energy when we don’t need to do it.

As for the sleep deprivation, I learned long ago that however tired we might be on the first day of switching to Daylight time, we get over it quickly. We adjust. We human beings are adaptable creatures.

If we’re going to end the back-and-forth, though, I propose we stay on permanent Daylight Saving Time. I like having the sun in the sky a little longer at the end of the day.

Now . . . I am going to get back to the things that really matter, at least they do to me.

business news, national news

What about consumers of oil?

The media and others keep reporting about the impact that the collapsing price of oil is having on the oil industry and those who work in it.

I feel for them, with their jobs on the line. It’s getting less cost-effective to explore for oil and produce it when the price falls from $100-plus per barrel to less than $50.

http://www.msn.com/en-us/money/markets/oil-rally-seen-reversing-as-rising-us-supply-deepens-glut/ar-BBhHhF7

But what about the consumer? What about the family that is now spending considerably less for gasoline then it was a year or two ago? How about those folks who suddenly find themselves with more disposable income, money to spend on other essentials — such as, oh, food and clothing?

The recent uptick in fuel prices is now expected to revert to recent trends as the nation’s oil glut continues to grow. It’s been an amazing spectacle to watch as street-corner gasoline dealers drop prices as many as three times daily.

I’ve talked here about the “new normal” in gas pricing being elevated to heights none of us imagined when we were much younger and were spending about four bits for a gallon of gas. I remember my parents pulling up to the gas pump and telling the attendant, “I’ll take a dollar’s worth of regular.” We won’t return to those days, but we’re a lot closer to them today than we were in 2013.

It’s that result that prevents me from crying too heavily over the fortunes of those who work on the oil field pipelines or at the refineries that turn crude oil into gasoline or diesel.

My wife and I will keep driving our hybrid motor vehicle — just like millions of other Americans — and will keep working to build up that supply of fossil fuel that contributes to the plummeting price of gasoline.