3 Ways to Lower Gas Prices

I am one of the lucky Americans driving an American made car that gets over 20 mpg. And its a sedan, not some clown car. Even so paying $4.25 a gallon takes its toll, especially in a car/van household. The government is deadlocked, unable to move in any direction except that which continues to provide them lucarative taxation on every gallon that is pumped. The lunacy of this was seen recently when heads of American based oil company's were brought before the senate to be held accountable for thier 10% profit on their commodity Never acknowleding that the government taxes on that commodity far exceed the money made in profit by the company themselves.

Here is my three ways to lower gas prices. America must begin mining its assets on land and sea. It must build more refineries. It must streamline the blends of gas being made.

It is a misnomer that we will drill in ANWAR. Its an expedient description however the debated area is actually called the 1002 Area. This land was created in conjunction with ANWAR in 1980 to be used specifically for research and testing for oil and wildlife needs. This site, twenty five year ago, was known to be rich in oil and gas reserves and benefit for our needs. There is much debate by environmentalists regarding its proximtiy to the migration path of the porcupine caribou almost two months per year, however the Governor, senators and most natives all comment that the area is a wasteland. A barren area of land. The oil drilled from this area would decrease our dependence barrel for barrel against middle east oil, equaling an estimated 8 billion barrels.

One of the reasons the global price of oil has risen is the modernization and consumerism of China. Every year China increases its oil consumption and energy needs. As such it is very focused on securing oil rights around the world and doing so with great ease with leftist countries in North and South America. In 2006 China and Cuba began a joint operation to drill oil right off the coast of Florida. It is believed that this reserve could hold as much oil as the 1002 Area of ANWAR. With the advent of slant drilling which allows a wide area of drilling from a very small platform, China could tap estbablished American oil fields off our own coast. "I drink your milkshake"

Other areas of concern are known oil reserves along South America that China is working towards. With their finger on Cuba, their foot on the Panama Canal and their mouth in the ear of every leftist organization to our southern border, oil could very well be the impetus of the Monroe Doctrine 2.0

If the USA fails to secure its own oil interests other countries will surely secure them for themselves. It is logical to assume they will do so without the environmental concern shown by this country.

We may finally be getting a new refinery after a thriry year wait. Don't hold your breath until its open. By having more refineries available it serves many interestes. It strengthens our counter-terrorism abilities. We have seen the affects of just one refinery off line for a few days or weeks due to repair, imagine if deliberate steps were taken by our enemys to true damage our capacity. It will lower the costs of transporting fuel to states.

On the same track of refineries, the last nuclear reactor came on line in over a decade ago. Nuclear energy is a completely different animal than weapons manufacturing. It is cheap and by far the cleanest power produced for mass consumption.

Right now there are around 50 different 'blends' of gas used around the country. Twice a year all the refineries have to stop or decrease production to switch over to summer blends or winter blends, which were created federally or locally as an off shoot of the Clean Air Act of 1990 to reduce smog. Not all cities or states have blend gas, but those that do feel the pinch in the pocket every spring and fall. By eliminating blend gas, oil compnies would decrease their costs and that should, hopefully trigger a lowering of gas prices.

Its valid to watch the environmental concerns of business and hold them accountable to their actions. but let them act. The notation that companies after thirty years have not improved the technology and processes needed to provide our country with the life blood of the economy is riduculus. The vast majority of Americans want to have trees and parks in their neighborhood and know that its countries beauty is protected but it also doesn't want to be forced to take public transportation with their kids or have to pay exorbitant energy costs in the winter.

The Dune Buggy Fund

I have always wanted a Dune Buggy like the one in the picutre below. A friend had one in high school and college and we had a blast driving it around. That was a long time ago but the feeling never left me. Now with Mighty Mo getting to the age where it might not be such a risk for him to ride with me and he might actually enjoy it, I decided to finally act on the thought instead of just dream about it.

Now what the heck does this have to do with conservation? Simple. I am going to buy it by recycling aluminum cans. Mightly Mo and I call this, "Our Dune Buggy Fund". It is going to take about one hundred and fifty thousand cans, close to three tons of aluminum. Minimum.

I already pick up litter when I am out, now I am making it work for me. Every day I come home with at least three cans. On a good day its fifty or more. I easily got past the ick factor of reaching my hand into garbage cans and yes I do leave cans that are filthy. Since I have started the Dune Buggy Fund, I have picked up at least three cans every time I go for a run and trying to find a way to carry them other than in my hands. I got an idea...

I realize that I'd like to get the buggy within the next year and the amount of cans I need it huge, so I may have to recruit my coin jug. As long as I am patient I can make a good buy. I don't think I will stop collecting cans after I get it so whatever I have to invest personally will be recouped eventually.

When you think about it, each can is worth between three and four cents. That seems so inconsequencal but when brought together, well its going to buy us a dune buggy. Think about all the diet soda, energy drink and beer cans that end up in the trash when they really can be a long term, low yeild savings account while being a good steward of the environment. Plus at over 35 miles a gallon, I would save around $100 a month driving it a few times a week.

I may at some point get organized and start reaching out instead of being self supported. Right now this is just the beginning.

Finding another Target

Now that the current administration has listed the Polar Bear as an endangered species, even though their numbers have been going up and not down, its time for the Marxist environmental movement to find a new victim. Introducing the Walrus.

Now that the cute and cuddly Polar Bear whose identity has been co-opted by Coke commercials at Christmas, (I hate to say it but Polar Bears and Penguins do not exist together) and fluffy toys have been given it the stasis of hate crime victim amongst the soccer mom crowd, its time to turn the tide on the Walrus.

The Walrus has always been shown with vigorous honesty unlike the false advertising of Polar Bear. The Walrus is ugly, fat, has big teeth looking tusks, their lazy (hey I have some friends that look like this). The Walrus has always been the goofy 3rd tier comic relief side kick of any documentary in cold water climes.

Plus the baby seal is sooooo 1970.

The whale is so 1980.

Soon enough you will see the typical fear mongers decry the plight of this affable bumpkin, the southern redneck of the polar caps. Putting a human face on the poor misunderstood Walrus. Guys will be told to relate to the bushy whiskers and large guts and how they attract their mate. The women drawn to their nurturing instincts. Some top of the fold article will admire it for being the only mammal with a two foot long bone inside its penis. The Walrus oosik is a very prized item amongst Alaskans and at auction for its uniqueness.

The Polar Bear is so 2000.

The decade of 2010 is all about the Walrus.

Not wasting time

Canyon lake has been opened with good weather for only a few weeks and already there is trash all around my swimming hole. It frustrates me, especially sense most of the trash is easily identifiable as coming from Mexican stores. I picked up several beer cans but as I did not have my trash picker-upper (I am sure thats the technical term) I am not touching the rest strewn about. The next time I head up there I will collect what I can with it.

I decided this year to collect and sell all the aluminum cans that I find. I have heard its going for a buck a pound at the recyclers. Of course I will go crazy if I don't figure out just how many crushed cans equal a pound but thats a simple thing to do one night.

I have always been of the opinion of "Do good deed and keep them to yourself." I think for special stuff that is still good advice but this year I am going to let people know how much trash I collect on a weekly basis out there and in other places in Tonto National Park and let the park service know about it. Not to rub their face in it, they work hard out there; but to let them know there is need for a trash container in that area and that there are people like me who are doing what they can to keep the area beautiful.

Being Green

The real crux of Compass Points Right is to focus on being Green and being a Conservative. It's been hard to go between the 'cut', 'paste', 'link' format and putting my own thought and observations I have had for years, finally to keyboard.

The nice part of this process now is that instead of having to collate all these thoughts of mine, other much more prominent thinkers are doing it and for the big theory or green conservation I can leave to better men and women.

Newt Gingrich is a lightening rod for controversy, but none deny he is a visionary thinker of the conservative party. He listed these values in 2007 as a way to introduce or reinvent how conservative should view and discuss the advancement of being 'green'.

Values of Green Conservatism

1. Green conservatism favors clean air and clean water.
2. Green conservatism favors maximum biodiversity as a positive good.
3. Green conservatism favors minimizing carbon loading in the atmosphere as a positive public value.
4. Green conservatism is pro-science, pro-technology, and pro-innovation.
5. Green conservatism believes that green prosperity and green development are integral to the successful future of the human race.
6. Green conservatism believes that economic growth and environmental health are compatible in both the developed and developing world.
7. Green conservatism believes that we can realize more positive environmental outcomes faster by shifting tax code incentives and shifting market behavior than is possible from litigation and regulation.

Much of this is a top down mentality. This is a policy shift meant for the right wing party as a whole which is really where Newt is best suited. Conservatives, Republicans are the party of Theodore Roosevelt. The party that created the EPA and the clean water act and the clean air act. It seems that in the last thirty years the right has done everything possible to separate itself from environmental concerns and the left has done nothing but use scare tactics and fear to co-op new recruits. But somewhere in between the businessman and the Sierra Club is the rest of us wanting to do the best we can for the future.

Pick your battles.

I got at letter from someone who works at the Arizona Department of Environmental Quality. I actually know two people who work at that department and think they are really good men. I the email from someone else in that department sort of set me off.

Can you recommend to me a contact to install recycle bins for plastic water bottles? I was appalled at the number of recyclable plastic water bottles that are being thrown out as trash. Pure Fitness centers should have the image of being environmentally responsible.

Primary Club: xxxxxxxx

Greetings Marita,

You can use me as a contact. I know that you are a member from our North Tempe location so I know that unlike many of the similar emails I receive regarding being a more ‘green’ company you have actually been inside our locations. I will preface the remainder of this email by saying that first, I am open to dialogue. I respect the department you work for because you have some good people there; second, in 2007 this company was inundated with ‘seminar’ e-mails from people accusing us, a fitness center, of polluting the planet with the empty water bottles generated at our locations. Many of these people I found were told to do these bulk emails by seminar instructors after watching Inconvenient Truth; apparently health clubs rank up there with chemical manufacturers for destruction of the environment.

Also I think ‘appalled’ is a very harsh term for you to use in your e-mail considering the overall lack of environmental footprint a fitness center generates compared to thousands of other businesses in the valley. You are not making a gesture of cooperation by insulting my company.

Now let’s get on the same page Marita. I am open to discussion on this matter but want you to understand my position and what is involved in it being a success. First Pure Fitness has spent years developing a strategy of cleaning our equipment and our facilities with products that are hypo-allergenic and environmentally friendly. Our a/c filters scrub pollutants and are changed quarterly. Our air fresheners are of a quality to not harm members with scent sensitivity. Our products used to clean our equipment are environmentally safe. Our janitorial service is on board with our desire to maintain a healthy environment with the equipment they use. All our clubs installed anti-bacterial foam dispensers that decrease water usage and hopefully keep our members from transmitting illness. Our newer clubs have water filtration systems built in so that members can bring their own water bottles and fill them up with water they will drink, unlike the tap water produced in this valley that while suitable for use, has a filthy taste compared to other major metropolitan cities. Coming from Seattle I had never used bottled water until I moved to Phoenix; I had always used the tap. If your department is able to solve that one issue, bottle water usage will decrease in this city significantly.

I have spoken with Phil Denee, also a member at North Tempe and works in your department. At one point the North Tempe location did have blue recycling bins inside the club for recycling however there was no support from the city and honestly not a lot of buy in from the staff. Two large blue recycling bins would become full in two days and then sit over filled waiting for the garbage truck to come by several days later. The city, as far as I understand, would not or could not set up a ‘recycle only’ container large enough to accommodate our area of complex shared by at least two other businesses. Or the garbage truck would not take the recycling in the blue containers. It was, as I understood it, one hand not communicating with the other.

There is blame on this club for the program not working as well. The manager and Mr. Denee were involved but the rest of the staff was not. The staff did not care about the program and felt there was added responsibility in maintaining the overflowing containers in the gym. Ultimately the bins were removed from the front area of the club when they became a detriment to the aesthetics of the club and not a bonus for our members. No one wants to look at overflowing garbage bins regardless of size or designation. The members would fill the blue containers but the club had no place to empty them. Currently the two blue containers are behind our club by the main garbage bin and the three primary businesses that use that area are putting their recyclables in it. If the city is picking this up for recycling or if the garbage truck is clearing these and taking them to the dump with the other refuse, I don’t know.

The bottom line Marita is that this company has been accused harshly for not doing enough for the environment when we generate no power and manufacture no product. No one with ability or authority has come to us with a sustainable plan for our business. God bless Mr. Denee for the individualized effort he puts into this facility by collecting recyclables on his own. I submit to you that regardless of what size footprint my eleven clubs generates in a year regarding plastic water bottles, aluminum cans and assorted paper, one week of baseball games at Chase Stadium is worse for our environment if you allow a direct comparison of usage. One Cardinals football game with 70,000 people tailgating and eating and drinking over one day will create more empty bottles, cans and paper that gets thrown away inappropriately. So please let’s move forward under the premise of objectivity.

I want you to further understand my personal position on all this. I am not a tree hugging, save the whales, Inconvenient Truth is law person (and neither are most of my partners and key executives), however I am an avid anti liter campaigner, wildlife and woodland conservationist. I believe in green campaigns that are not based on fringe political agendas. Last year I was recognized by Tonto National Park as someone who personally picked up and disposed of over 500 pounds of liter around Canyon Lake. I carry large trash bags and equipment in my car to do so. I was part of the AMP energy drink experiment at the Super Bowl last week. I spent 12 hours of my time riding a bike with a thousand other people over four days generating power on special bike trainers that converted our energy to electricity and supplied direct power the entire stadium for their 30 minute sponsorship of the pre game show. It is a first of its kind experience and may end up in the Guinness Book of World Records for the most amount of human power generated in four days. I am a sponsor of Liberty Wildlife animal rehabilitation. I have first hand experience with the Exxon Valdez spill. I have spent weeks if not months of my overall life working to rehabilitate trails and create hiking paths for people to use in our back country. I also write online articles on being green from a conservative point of view.

So you see, while I am frustrated with the general tone of the ‘green’/ environmentally responsible movement, I practice what I preach and am open to suggestions that are not burdens on our company for your specific charge. I don’t believe that a company has to proclaim it is environmentally friendly or put a sticker on its door or a logo in its advertising to be a company that is invested in doing what it can for an environmentally secure future and I hope I have proven this with the information included in this letter. In the end remember this; our company’s main goal and sole purpose is to bring fitness to the masses, not have a neutral carbon footprint. If we can get our members into shape and increase the quality and quantity of their lives at a most affordable price, I will suffer the indignities of being deemed a business that is environmentally unfriendly because we don’t have an infrastructure for recycling.

Please come back to me with your feedback. What is your plan or idea for Pure Fitness to not only work towards putting recyclable material in proper containers but how that can be stored for reliable pick up from the city that does not ruin the look of the club interior? What are the costs associated with that? Once that hurdle can be addressed then I will work on a plan to create sustainability inside the club.

Regards,

Super Bowl: The Green Feed

I had my first energy drink evah, last night. Not bad. I've smelled it on enough breath to know what it would probably taste like. The last hour turned more into a spin class than anything else. Some great 70's and 80's music came up and people who weren't spinning were dancing. A bunch of ladies did a great Grease karaoke and a couple of people danced to Right Said Freds, I'm To Sexy song. Brave.

Here is the LINK to see what this is all about. Just click on the main box or the AMP energy event notice at the bottom.

I found that you can buy the trainers that generate the power. LINK Not a bad concept once I read up on it.

My thinking is that I could use this system, attached to a battery with an a/c connection to charge my cell phone, iPod, digicam battery's, sonic care toothbrush and electric shaver. I spend at least a couple hundred dollars on throw away batteries every year and could switch over to rechargeable NiMH batteries and recoup that money I think fairly quickly. The bonus being that they would be recharged by the energy I produced myself. They'd be totally off the grid.

Like all things 'Green' right now there is a cost offset. Meaning its more expensive than it probably needs to be but understand the originators are trying to make their money back on the investment and as the market becomes more competitive the prices will drop.