Energy Hike

Inflation hit harder in May as prices for a wide swath of consumer goods rose at their fastest pace in six months, underscoring warnings from central bankers and adding to a growing consensus that the Federal Reserve might raise interest rates by the end of the year.

• Hoarding Nations Drive Food Costs Ever Higher

BANGKOK — At least 29 countries have sharply curbed food exports in recent months, to ensure that their own people have enough to eat, at affordable prices.

• Plan Would Lift Saudi Oil Output

Saudi Arabia, the world’s biggest oil exporter, is planning to increase its output next month by about a half-million barrels a day, according to analysts and oil traders who have been briefed by Saudi officials.

• Worries Mount as Farmers Push for Big Harvest

GRIFFIN, Ind. — In a year when global harvests need to be excellent to ease the threat of pervasive food shortages, evidence is mounting that they will be average at best. Some farmers are starting to fear disaster.

• A Bull Market Sees the Worst in Speculators

In Washington, financial speculators have fat targets on their backs.

They are being blamed for high gas prices, soaring grocery bills and volatile commodity markets, and lawmakers are lashing out at market regulators for not cracking down on them more vigorously.

• High commodity prices could slice into growth, warns G8

Glenn Somerville and Eric Burroughs, Reuters Published: Saturday, June 14, 2008

OSAKA, Japan — The world’s richest nations warned on Saturday soaring commodity prices may slice into economic growth, but shrank from offering any plan to calm markets or quell protests over the cost of fuel and food.

• Saudi Arabia Calls for Summit on Energy Costs

Saudi Arabia, the world’s biggest oil exporter, said on Monday that it wanted to convene an energy summit of producers and consumers to focus on “how to objectively deal” with high prices.

• When boom goes bad

As the use of biofuel increases, the number of articles related to the energy or food debate has also increased. Here are a few interesting articles that I read in May:

Who is responsible for the global food crisis?

By SINCLAIR STEWART and PAUL WALDIE

May 31, 2008 at 12:05 AM EDT

Larned, Kan., Toronto — Tom Giessel rubs the heel of his palm against his forehead, exhales a moment, and then begins again, trying to make sense of how the global food market has suddenly descended into chaos.

A new kind of ‘energy crisis’

WASHINGTON AND TORONTO — There was barely a whimper when the price of oil raced passed key milestones this decade – $50 (U.S.) a barrel, $80, even $100.

But with oil gaining strength at more than $130 a barrel, “shock” and “panic” have suddenly entered the popular lexicon.

Food fight

CARL MORTISHED

While someone is making big bucks from the rising cost of food, governments are searching for villains, but the jury is still out. The UN is setting up a task force to tackle the global food crisis as rice-growing nations in Asia hoard grain. Fear of famine is pushing up prices for the very poor in the developing nations, but in the more comfortable world of the EU, politicians are investigating more subtle restraints of trade.

Manila scraps rice tender, prices seen falling

By Carmel Crimmins

Mon May 5, 2008 10:24pm IST

MANILA (Reuters) - The Philippines scrapped its largest rice tender of the year on Monday and said it preferred to hold back importing until prices fall, sending a signal to world grain markets that rice prices might have peaked.

U.S. in Difficult Position Over Japan’s Rice Plan

HONG KONG — Japan is preparing to send at least 220,000 tons of rice to the Philippines, and possibly Africa. The Japanese government says the plan is meant to ease the suffering of poor nations punished by rising rice prices.

Food Report Criticizes Biofuel Policies

Agriculture Secretary Edward T. Schafer is preparing to walk into a buzzsaw of criticism over American biofuels policy when he meets with world leaders to discuss the global food crisis next week.

DENILIQUIN, Australia — Lindsay Renwick, the mayor of this dusty southern Australian town, remembers the constant whir of the rice mill. “It was our little heartbeat out there, tickety-tick-tickety,” he said, imitating the giant fans that dried the rice, “and now it has stopped.”April Food

Oil Price Rise Fails to Open Tap

As oil prices soared to record levels in recent years, basic economics suggested that consumption would fall and supplies would rise as producers drilled for more oil.

Inflation’s rising, so pay down debt now

ROB CARRICK

The most important financial move you can make in the next six months is to get your debts under control. Pay off your credit cards, pay down your line of credit, and if you’re buying a home, don’t max out on your mortgage payments. Tough times are coming and the people who get through them in the best shape will be the ones who aren’t siphoning a lot of their household income to pay off debt.

This is kind of funny, but I stumbled across a way to save about $60 per year in electricity, and the loss was being caused by squirrels.

When we moved into our house, there was an old dryer that used to take a long time to dry. It finally died last fall, and then we had it replaced with a new one. The new one was not much better, but it was just a basic model and we did not think much about it. Today I decided to go out and check in the exhaust, and it seemed to be very low. I also noticed a hole in the exhaust hose.

I took down the exhaust hose, and a brown hard stone fell out. When I undid it some more, several more fell out, and then when I hit the hose, the floor was covered with them. It looks like the stones were actually pine cones, and I am guessing that one of the squirrels in the back yard has been using the hose to store his food.

I replaced the hose with a new one, and I am going to put a cage over the vent. Our clothes now dry in half the time, which is great.

The sticker on the dryer says that it consumes on average 900kWh per year. We are probably on the high side, so lets say 1000kWh. Since each load was taking twice as long, we were probably consuming 2000kWh per year. At $0.06 per kWh this works out to a saving of $60 per year.

The new hose and screen cost about $15, so I will have a payback of 3 months. Not a bad way to kick of my energy saving plan.

Over the past couple of years, I have noticed that my energy bills have been steadily increasing. I am sure that most of this is related to the increase in energy prices. I recently decided that I would go through all of my bills, and start looking for ways to conserve energy. I am pretty much starting from zero, or at the peak, depending on how you look at it, since I have not really spent any time on this until now.

The first step in this process is to commit to making the effort to do this, which I am doing with this posting. I am putting everything on the table, including my favorite SUV.  Now it is time to do some digging, and figure out what to do next.