Jim Kunstler is famous, or perhaps infamous is a better word, in the "peak oil" community for his prophecies of gloom and doom to be set upon the USA due to our profligacy and oil dependency.Kuntstler is a controversial figure, in part because he constantly predicts doom to beset us, and in part because of his rather loudmouth style that includes lots of swear words to make his point. While some

When I'm biking, I often have a chance to ponder things.  One thing I like to ponder is the amount of energy used to transport humans and things around.   My electric bike is a great way to explore that geeky subject.Today I did an experiment.  I was riding my Big Dummy with a typical load, for a gross vehicle weight of around 300 lbs.  I only used the electric assist to "take the edge off" the

Today I got to combine work and pleasure: I rode 38 miles round trip on my electrified Big Dummy (the Firefly) to Duke University. I gave a seminar on Bioinformatics, and then rode home. It was a cold day out (at least for these parts), with my ride home dipping well below freezing. I brought along a thermos with hot tea, and stopped several times to top off my tea cup (mounted in my handlebar

Recently there was a lively discussion over on the Rootsradicals mailing list about energy usage and electric bikes. There was debate about whether it takes more energy to run a bike by electric power or leg power. While the debate was all well and good, it sidesteps the bigger picture. Biking in any form, whether by leg power, electric power, or both, is a far more energy efficient endeavor

This post has been much delayed because of all the work at the shop and for my day job. But it is perhaps more important than ever, given that gas prices have been dropping.Gas prices dropping makes a lot of people think, phew, the crisis is over. Now things will go back to normal.Hardly.There are two issues here. As I mentioned before, we are not running out of oil. But what is happening, is