Fuel Price/Tax Protests,

What do you get when you place 1000 bikers on a motorway? How about a few hundred truck and taxi drivers? If you have been watching the news lately you probably already know HOW you get 1000 bikers and hundreds of truck and taxi drivers to create a traffic jam, although you almost have to be a Prime Minister or at least an Energy Minister to do it.

If you haven't been watching the international news recently you may have missed the coverage of the bikers in Britain, or the conduiseurs de camion en france, staging mass protests on the roadways. Frankly you can begin to see why when they are paying, in some cases, as much as 117% in taxes on the gasoline they buy. Hey, those aren't my calculations and I can't vouch for them, but those are the numbers that show up on Wikipedia regarding the United Kingdom and the picture isn't much better in a lot of places in Europe. It doesn't help when you add statistics to the mix.

In case you haven't heard my opinion of statistics in general, I have to say that my thoughts align pretty closely with those of Samuel Clements (better known as Mark Twain) when he said (probably wrote, actually), "There are three kinds of lies. There are lies, damn lies and statistics." Now here's another quote I found on the net, "Beginning in France a fortnight ago, fishermen, road hauliers, farmers and taxi drivers organized a series of blockades to protest the heavy tax duty on fuel—varying between 50 percent and 75 percent across Europe." You might think that this was just this week's news. Certainly the facts haven't changed much, but the date of this report was 18 September 2000. The logic is twisted by every faction that gets their hands on the statistics, however, so that when the Royal Automobile Club (of Britain) makes the case that motorists are subsidizing the rest of the tax payers because not all the money collected from motor fuels taxes are being spent on roads, it's just another case of "statistics" in the sense that Mark Twain meant it to mean.

I'll try not to twist your brain too much with the math, but I've been plugging some of the numbers into a spreadsheet recently, so here's how you get to pay 117% tax on gasoline. In the high tax areas, Great Britain and Holland being among the worst, recent gas taxes were running between 0.68 and 0.69 EURO "cents" per gallon, on prices that ranged around 1.28 Euro per LITER. So if we convert that at 3.7854 liters per (US) gallon, that's about 4.84 EURO per US gallon. If you aren't scared yet, you should be, because the recent exchange rate from (the weakening) US dollar to Euros was 1.573, so the cost per US gallon was US$ 7.62. Okay so how does 50% or even 75% tax become 117%? Well, the actual "tax" portion of the 1.28 would be 0.5035. Then we have VAT. (Yes, the Canadians know this is a brand of whiskey, but even they now know the VAT is "Value Added Tax".) VAT in Great Britain is reportedly another 17.5% (and it is charged on both the "goods" and the "duty" [the tax portion already charged]). So this makes the combined tax 0.6953 (according to the Wikipedia article, I didn't recheck their math), except that the "remainder" of 1.28 - 0.6953 = 0.5847 and that amount divided by the reported tax actually comes to 118.915%. Yikes! Oh, and besides that, I was wrong.

(My wife loves it when she hears me say that phrase, and she holds it against both George W. Bush and Hillary Clinton that they don't seem to be able to admit, "I was wrong.")

In this instance, however, what I was wrong about is less important that an "analysis on necessity of war." I was confused by the number of conversions I was doing and left one out. So are you ready for the real shock? I hope you didn't faint at that translation of US$ 7.62 per US gallon. Those starting numbers were really all in British Pounds Sterling. The British Pound is currently worth 1.259 Euros, so the actual final cost per US gallon of gas comes out to be US$ 9.59. Since we were converting and not posting a price on an actual pump, we don't have to add that annoying $ 0.009 per gallon, though strictly speaking it was more precisely US$ 9.5958.

The "good news" in all of this ... you didn't think I'd leave you with nothing but bad news, did you? The good news is that bioethanol, and biodiesel are being taxed at much lower rates. When you remember that a VW turbocharged diesel in a Rabbit or roughly equivalent model gets about 46 - 48 mpg, (except, of course Europeans don't measure in miles any more, not even the British) you can see why biodiesel is in such demand in Europe. The tax rate is just 0.3035 per liter (compared to 0.5035 for "petrol"), 40% lower. (Okay, 39.74% lower for those with their calculators out.) When you apply that kind of discount to the retail price for a gallon of automobile fuel (US$ 9.5958 x 0.3974 = $ 3.8134 --> net price, "only" US$ 5.78/USgal) that's likely to make it a very attractive alternative. And that's without factoring in that gasoline mileage is not as good as diesel fuel mileage in the first place.

Keith Olbermann mentioned recently that when George W. Bush took office the price of gas in the USA was US$ 1.47. Today I drove by a gas station that tends to be a lower price than some others. Their prices were US$ 4.06 for Unleaded Regular and US$ 4.69 for #2 Diesel.

I interpret this as a hopeful sign of the times, I hope.

I received a note that pointed me to mention of biodiesel in an article published by one of the nation's traditional print newspaper, but appearing in their online version. In this case Arkansas Democrat Gazette, headlined as story bylined to writer, Jack W. Hill in this way: "Indigo Girls' biodiesel bus to pull in to LR" (for grammar fans you might want to note, too, that at least their style guide correctly prevented the use of "into" when the writer really did mean "in to" town. The LR town in this case being an abbreviated version of Little Rock. My mind is struggling with my fingers to try to prevent them from grumbling about abbreviating the name of the town ONLINE, where space, unlike in the layout of a printed newspaper page, is hardly in short supply. So I won't grumble, too much, I'll just casually mention this annoying habit. Doubtless local residents recognized it, but I had to dig through my spotty memory of geography to place any LR in Arkansas when "LR" is an abbreviation for "Living Room" in my world. I don't know about you but I have enough trouble conveying what I really mean with the full breadth and depth of the English language [and pieces of a few others] without devolving to IM texting acronyms.)

OTOH, that's just IMnsHO. (take that!)

Oh, yes, my original point, need not be entirely lost if you will recall the headline mentioned the Indigo Girls' biodiesel bus. The article talks about their long 23 year history of professional association, no fights, no breakups, friends since public school and all those nice homey details that make them sound like the kind of musicians that only exist in Disney movies. (They actually were Disney recording artists for a year under the Hollywood Records label.) The strange thing is that although it characterizes them as fairly politically active, the whole article doesn't have another single word about fuels, diesel, biofuels, global warming, the environment or any other associated "issue" the girls might be concerned enough to support. The writer (or more likely his editor) was just using "biodiesel bus" in the headline to attract attention to the article, and thereby to the girls concert in Little Rock. Unfortunately for most folks reading this, the show is Tuesday night, June 10th, 2008 so you likely won't have time to get to Little Rock. Of course if you are already in Little Rock, tickets are available through www.ticketmaster.com or local Ticketmaster outlets if the date hasn't already passed by the time you read this.

Buried in all that meandering detail was the fact that it seems to me that "biodiesel" is such a hot topic that it is being used to draw attention to rock stars (okay, well, not exactly "rock" but music stars of more than 2 decades celebrity). I might have expected bioethanol or just plain old "E85" to have risen to this stature by now when we started seeing those heavy schedule of near saturation ads for the "Go Yellow, Go Green" campaign. There are, in fact, at least several hundred gas stations across the nation that offer the E85 blend, but far short of what Vinod Khosla was hoping when he started investing in processes and technologies to make bioethanol from cellulosic feedstock. And that is, admittedly a lot further along than Governor Arnold Schwarzenegger´s four or five filling stations on his "Hydrogen Highway" that is supposed to stretch from one end of California to the other. The "demand" for those products is just not there ... yet.

An amazing, even "incredible" distraction from the mainstream of transportation development also got some additional publicity this week. If you haven't heard of it before, you are not going to believe me until you go and see for yourself. The fuel is .... I told you, you won't believe it, ... AIR. Yes, plain old, pure and (well not really "fresh") but without chunks of pollution of any kind in it ... breathable air. And, no. It is not a hoax, or a joke.
I'd seen reports of these vehicles a couple of years back. I was not optimistic then that they would ever find acceptance in the marketplace, in part just because the whole idea seems so foreign to our current concept of transportation "fuel". The good news for the "air fuel" development people is that at least some of the folks working on hydrogen fuel systems are trying to keep it simple and just compress the hydrogen to store it in cylinder, just like compressed air or compressed helium that is used to fill party balloons. The pressure bottle is old technology, strengthening it to handle VERY high pressures has been accomplished, and although opponents might have little trouble instituting a campaign of fear of explosions (as has been waged against hydrogen fuels to date), at least initially. But any opponents of "air fuel" don't have the dramatic and misleading film footage of the blimp Hindenburg going up in flames in a matter of a couple of minutes as it tries to land in New Jersey. The hydrogen never did "explode" (it would have had to have been pressurized to explode, and of course the point of a "lighter than air" ship was to have the thing filled with as few molecules of hydrogen as possible to keep it floating-on-air), any hydrogen involved would have been burned in the first 3 seconds most scientists will tell you. Well, I've kept you in suspense long enough. Here's the link to the TATA Motors company, that same company who recently released the first of their low priced (under US$2500 total price) minimalist cars in India. The New York Times item on this subject says that you can plug in the car's motor (in "compress" mode) and it will compress enough air to refill the tank(s) in about 4 hours. Top speeds of 68 miles per hour are reported, but with lower speeds and more prudent use of the air, 120 miles can be driven on one recharge of the air tank(s).
















This six-seater taxi should be available in India this year -2008!









So much has happened in the world of US National politics in the past week that I hardly know where to begin. My wife, Maggie, turned against Senator Hillary Clinton some time ago. If she wasn't already convinced to change horses Senator Clinton jumping on the Gas Tax Holiday for the Summer ploy, in accord with Senator McCain, was certainly the "pandering" straw that would have broken the back of her backing the female candidate. As you can see from the foregoing discussion of "real" gas taxes, the few cents per gallon is absolutely trivial, and since it had nothing to do with post-election platforms or policies, was pure ploy all the way. Thus Maggie was less than impressed with the speech given on last Tuesday night that sounded more like a victory announcement than a concession speech. Indeed clearly it was not intended to be a concession speech, and was, potentially at least, setting the stage for a convention battle to overturn the whole primaries nomination process by claiming that Senator Clinton received the most votes, and being the party that still bitterly regrets the upset of the 2000 election in which they feel the Republicans 'stole' the Presidency, there might have been a possibility Senator Clinton might even prevail in such a strategy. Pressure from Charlie Rangel (and, reportedly 17 other members of congress) convinced Senator Clinton that this weekend was the time to toss the torch to Senator Barack Obama. The Saturday speech was just the right tone, most observers remarked, and as several of them pointed out, to bring those fervent followers along to join the Obama camp with her, she almost had to take it slow to give them time to "grieve" and recover from the disappointment of the final blows struck in the delegate count that tipped in Senator Obama's favor on Tuesday.

Let's now not dwell too long on that side, but turn to the perfect pitch, oratorio of a speech given by Senator Obama on Tuesday night. It was yet another in the masterful string of public speeches the Senator has made throughout his campaign. If it was Senator John Kennedy's use of television that won him the election in 1960, it was Senator Obama's mastery of the teleprompter (and semi-silvered transparent podium screens) that may deserve substantial credit for his win, at least of the nomination. Senator Obama's halting style of impromptu speaking is perfectly parodied by the actor who has been portraying him in sketches on The Tonight Show with Jay Leno, and I don't think he should rush to accept Senator McCain's "challenge" to 10 townhall style discussions with voters, but when it comes to delivering a prepared speech, Senator Obama could make a living teaching classes at Toastmasters clubs around the world. It also seems prudent of him to not seem to be immediately caving in to pressure to accept the "dream ticket" by making Senator Clinton his Vice Presidential choice. Like the "coming over to Obama's camp", that took some healing time from the disappointment and campaign wounds, it would seem a sound approach to at least give the appearance of carefully considering his options before embracing her.

The reports of personal animosity may be real, but I also think that they are professionals with a lot of mutual respect.

I do believe that although both candidates have been fiercely competitive, it is likely former President Bill Clinton who will need to lick his wounded pride and allow it to heal. He made several imprudent (that is "imprudent", not "impudent") remarks in reaction to barbs aimed at his wife, all of which did her more damage than help. As such he is potentially the proverbial "loose cannon" in the White House if Hilary is chosen to the VP slot. However, I also feel that Senator Obama is going to need the absolute and full support of both Clintons to be sure to create the coattail effect that is possible this election year, that could sweep a strong (veto proof) Senate and perhaps even House of Representatives, along with the top office in the land. I am still holding hopes (though not my breath, for I fear it make take several more weeks at least) that the "dream ticket" may still come about. Stay tuned, the daytime drama continues ... well, daily.

In the entertainment world, movies worth seeing abound this summer (even though it isn't summer yet). It is almost frustrating that the movies we see now already contain trailers for movies that aren't due to be released until this fall. The Women starring Annette Benning, Eva Mendes, Meg Ryan and directed and written by television writer/producer "powerhouse" Diane English (formerly from Candace Bergen's series Murphy Brown, among others) it promised to be fabulously funny.

The problem with birthday parties is that they end. The same is true of favorite television series. This week we held a birthday party for 8 people, combining birthday celebrations for 6 of the people attending whose birth dates all fell within a span of about 6 weeks (though at least 2 had the exact same birthday). The sad part was that it was also a memorial party for my wife's Aunt Gert, who died this week at the ripe old age of 102 and 11 months. The defunct television series (though it was on HBO, whose slogan is "it's not television, it's HBO") was Sex and the City. Just 2 minutes short of 2 and a half hours, it didn't seem overlong to a longtime fan. I simply adore all the leading actresses, Kim Catrall and Cynthia Nixon being my personal favorites, but in this "episode" (for it could easily be another "movie franchise" in the style of Star Trek, built on a long, loyal fan base) features David Eigenberg as "Steve", and he was a standout this time out. Also notable contributions in smaller roles were Mario Cantone as decorator/party planner, "Anthony Marentino", and Jason Lewis a relative latecomer to the series, but by the time the movie opens, character Samantha's longtime TV star client and live-in boyfriend, "Smith" Jerrod. Mario has also recently been a regular on the Men In Trees. This is "Sex" worth waiting for, and I certainly hope it isn't too many years before an opportunity to enjoy it comes around again.

love

Stafford "Doc" Williamson