Getting Energised Over Energy

A hurricane of angry words (a 'perfect storm'?) are being generated (e.g. http://www.guardian.co.uk/money/2008/jul/31/householdbills.familyfinance) about the ratcheting costs of energy (gas, electricity and fossil fuels). One must remember that all forms of energy (even if generated with 'green' technologies) are finite and it is hardly remarkable that costs are increasing when more of the growing world's population wants the benefits of energy-hungry technologies (cars, air-conditioning, central heating, refrigerators etc). I wouldn't normally attempt to defend them but some of the allegedly obscene profits of major energy companies are essentially paper profits (as the prices that competing markets are prepared to pay for oil, natural gas etc increase, their holdings whether in storage or even in transit increase the 'bottom line' without actually doing anything new). There is no doubt that growing irritation with energy costs is worrying many people but there seems little that can really be done about this (although it may further encourage people to try to be more energy efficient as this will save money). Rather worryingly (http://news.google.com/news?sourceid=navclient&ie=UTF-8&rls=GGLR,GGLR:2006-25,GGLR:en&q=BBC+fuel+costs&um=1&hl=en&sa=X&oi=news_group&resnum=1&ct=title), a BBC survey suggested that many people would be prepared to vote for whoever offered them the lowest fuel costs. I was deeply saddened to hear that drag racers were finding the costs of fuel for their sport excessive. I also think it's a strange time to be attempting to develop commercial space travel.