[Hawkeye6]

Gas prices are going up. Still reasonable comapred to 10 or 20 years ago and general inflation. But what are you doing about it?

One of the reasons that gas prices can continue to creep higher and higher, or even jump is that, so far at least, the demand is very inelastic. That's an economics term and basically means that the demad for gasoline does not appear to be affected by its price. The price goes up, and yet people still consume jsut as much as they did at the lower price. In fact, the demand may actually be increasing as the price increases.

So, what are you going to do to become more energy efficient? Anything?

Here's what I've done. This was not a knee jerk reaction to the recient price trend but something that I've been giving some thought to for several months. I went out yesterday and traded my Suburban in on a Subaru Outback (a used one but newer tahn the Suburban with about half the miles on it) My average mieage should go from ~15 or 16 mpg to ~26-30 mpg. (I'll report back on the actual in the future.) Did not really cost me much to do so and I ahve a much newer vehicle to boot.

I realize that that's not an option for everyone, but it worked for me. I had the Suburban for about 5-6 years and my live-at-home family has gone from 6 to 4. We also traded my wife's Toyota 4-Runner in on a Toyota van this spring. (Another increase in mileage). with the van we certainly do not need the Suburban, although I will occasionally miss the capacity, I'm sure.

What else? Well, my wife and I both want to get more exercise, so shen she gets home from vacation, I'm going to suggest that we try riding our bikes to the grocery for at least one trip a week (on the weekend). Its only about 6 miles RT soe it should be doable, weather permitting. Also, that she send me the shopping list for the local Aldi (discount grocery) since its accross the street from where I work. I can go there after work once a week or so and save her/us a ~15 mile RT.

None of this is going to make a major diference, but incremental changes on a mico basis could have a macro effect if we all tried something.

Its all about being open to changes and trying to find a postiive response.