• How much harm could a gas tax holiday really do?

  Filed under: Cars and Transportation, Polit-eco, Travel and Vacation

  Many politicians are touting for a gas tax holiday lately, where we as consumers would reap the luxurious benefits of saving money at the pump by the hands of our incredibly generous government. Just imagine what we could spend that money on. Why, we could afford to drive more if the gas was cheaper, am I right?
  
  For some reason, this gas tax holiday is a "solution" that many politicians are pushing for, including John McCain and Hilary Clinton. Wave a few dollars in the tax-paying-public's eyes, and they'll love you forever (or at least until you get enough votes to win the election). But as any economist or environmentalist could tell you, this will only make our gas crisis worse, which will in-turn harm our environment even more through pollution, drilling, etc. By decreasing the price paid for fuel (especially following an extended period of high prices), gas usage will go up dramatically, driving down supply. This only increases the vicious cycle that got us into this addiction to oil in the first place.

   

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• Korean village runs completely on solar power

  Filed under: Home, Alternative Energy

  On one hand, when I read a news story about an entire village in South Korea drawing 100% of its power from the sun, I get excited and optimistic, but on the other hand, it only makes me sad to think we don't have something like this going in the United States.
  
  Sure, there are plenty of solar-powered homes in the US, and there are plenty of entire cities that are extending into a more off-grid power structure, but the kicker of this story is the fact that the South Korean government covered 70% of the installation fees for this project! Government-funded alternative energy projects in action, what a novel idea! Not only that, they announced a plan to raise Jeju-du Island's wind power generation capacity to 500 megawatts by 2020. I'd hate to think about how many solar panels a Blackhawk helicopter could buy.

   

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• Flower sales wilt for Mother's Day, high gas and food prices to blame

  Filed under: Home

  Flower sales have been slumping through the year, and the slump was expected to continue through Mother's Day, as Americans cut back on such luxuries, as food and gas prices continue to rise. Flower sales were expected to fall 13 percent this year, according to the National Retail Federation.
  
  Higher gasoline prices are also hitting florists hard and some florists say even taking a drive to deliver flowers isn't worth it anymore, unless the arrangement is at worth at least $50
  
  Even though Mother's Day is over now, if you do decide to buy flowers in the future, consider giving organic flowers. As far as buying locally-grown versus imported flowers, that can be a tossup in terms of carbon footprint, so don't use that as your only measure.

   

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