[PenultimateManStanding]

I think this is pertinent to this forum: I work at a small restaraunt. The utility bill for gas and electricity had been steady in the 1,200 to $1,300/monthly range. In the past few months that has gone up to $1,700+/month. North American NG supplies are wanted by lots of people for lots of different uses. This is bound to lead to inflation and many bankruptcies and failed businesses. The efforts to get LNG supplies has been hampered and what we do have coming on stream looks to be a dollar short and a day late. Beginning to look like the crisis-mode will start this winter with NG prices precipitating muchas problemas.

[Gary]

Good question.

My wife does book keeping for a number of small businesses, including a restaraunt. I have my own small business as a "sustainable household helper" or "sustainable handyman." I will be interested to see how various businesses are impacted by NG prices.

I ride cargo trikes to get around, and so use petroleum and natural gas less than most small businesses, and mostly in terms of making use of products manufactured and brought to me thanks to petroleum and natural gas.

My guess is that there will be some serious problems and also small businesses looking to use alternative energy sources where-ever and however possible.

[PenultimateManStanding]

Well I've certainly read somewhere that most Amercians are employed in small businesses. The larger Fortune 500 types are working hard on getting alternative energy solutions according to an interview I heard with Jeremy Rifkin a fews months back. But most small businesses just get it from the grid and they are going to get hammered in the coming months I fear. Just spreading economic stress with the money problems escalating. Has your wife said anything about seeing this already?

[flametree]

Maybe a little off topic bit still I think still relevant:


In the Phillipines the cost of kerosene and other fuels is forcing people
to use wood for cooking. They are apparantly now cooking with wood outside the houses. I heard about this from a regular visitor who was there just last week. This is a new thing.

[Andrew_S]

$this->bbcode_second_pass_quote('PenultimateManStanding', ' ')The utility bill for gas and electricity had been steady in the 1,200 to $1,300/monthly range. In the past few months that has gone up to $1,700+/month.

[Gary]

PenultimateManStanding wrote, in part:
>>> But most small businesses just get it from the grid and they are going to get hammered in the coming months I fear. Just spreading economic stress with the money problems escalating. Has your wife said anything about seeing this already?<<<

Actually, one of her clients has two retail stores. The boss has asked the stores to cut energy use. The store managers and staff wear sweaters and keep the thermostat lower.

(Thankyou very much for the tip, President Carter, a few years late.)

The stores are also trying to find ways to cut electricity costs.

I think that small businesses are going to have to band together somehow to be fairly represented in energy issues. A decentralised grid with diverse energy sources is important. Maybe small businesses need to advocate for plans to put solar hot water heat and solar panels on their roofs, low-interest loans to insulate, and so forth.

This is not going to be easy for small business. On the other hand, big businesses who are used to cheap global shipping and cheap power for huge, plush office spaces may find themselves changing as well.

Look for re-localisation and diversification of more manufacture and agriculture, and a need for different products to serve the needs of a more re-localised economy.

[joewp]

There was an article in the local paper about this exact thing:

FEELING THE HEAT(link)

$this->bbcode_second_pass_quote('', 'T')alk about sticker shock.

Point Pleasant Beach residents Larry and Marnie Wohlleber, owners of Beach Laundry on Ocean Avenue, opened their October bill this month from New Jersey Natural Gas Co. and saw an eye-popping amount due: $1,417.23, compared with their $566.61 bill a month earlier.

"We knew it was going to go up, but I was like, 100 percent?" Marnie Wohlleber said.

So the couple said they were forced to increase washer prices 50 cents, pushing the cost to use a washer to $2.50 a load.

[julianj]

Andrew, I found this in answer to your question about UK deaths.

$this->bbcode_second_pass_quote('', 'C')harities fear a sharp rise in the number of older people dying from the cold. An estimated 32,000 die every winter through lack of adequate heating - a figure which rises by 8,000 for every degree the temperature falls below the average.