Results tagged “gas”

Flush with socialist bailout money, General Motors is now trying to destroy the oil industry with a car that will get 230 miles per gallon in city driving! GM calls it the Chevy Volt and classifies it as an "extended-range vehicle" powered by an electric motor and a battery pack with a 40-mile range. (After that, a small internal combustion engine takes over to generate electricity for a total range of 300 miles.) Toyota’s Prius, the most fuel-efficient hybrid sold in the U.S., gets 48 miles per gallon and looks like a Hummer 3 by comparison. GM CEO Fritz Henderson promises that at the U.S. average cost of electricity (approximately 11 cents per kWh), a typical Volt driver would pay about $2.75 for electricity to travel 100 miles, or less than 3 cents per mile. Of course, big oil still has some time to assassinate Henderson and burn down GM's R&D labs—the first-generation Volt is expected to cost about $40,000, which most consumers might not swallow even if gasoline returns to $4 per gallon. And the E.P.A. still has run its own tests to confirm GM's assertions, but the company says Volt is on schedule to reach showrooms late next year. But whatever happened to the P.U.M.A.!?

Last night, a house in Amityville on Long Island was leveled by an apparent gas explosion. Newsday reports, "The explosion at 34 Meadow Ln., off South Bayview Avenue, blew the first floor of the house to bits, showering the street and nearby houses with glass, wood and metal shards... The second floor then collapsed onto the foundation." Neighbors described it as a fireball. A family of four managed to get out of the house before the explosion--a relative said Rich Brown went to the crawl space, "smelled strong fumes and then grabbed the children and they all got outside just before the house blew up." Brown is grateful that the incident happened during the day, rather than when they were sleeping.

No surprise here, but skyrocketing fuel costs have not spared farmers who sell produce at Greenmarkets, the AP finds. Upstate strawberry grower Franca Tantillo estimates that roughly half the money she earns at a Manhattan Greenmarket is spent on transportation costs. And it’s not just getting back and forth from the city that’s more expensive; fuel costs have driven up the price of fertilizers and animal feed, and plastic supplies for greenhouses cost more. As the costs are passed on to their urban customers, farmers like Elly Hushour, who sells goat cheese that she drives in from her farm in Pennsylvania, predict that "local soon will not be that important.” And maybe Union Square soon will not be that mobbed?

Gas prices have doubled since Mohammed Kalair started driving a cab in New York three years ago, and now it’s looking like he may return to his native Pakistan to enjoy a better standard of living. Though the Taxi and Limousine Commission says drivers still can average a living wage of $12 an hour, other experts say they now net closer to the state minimum-wage of $7.15 per hour. Some are calling for a fuel surcharge of $1 per trip, which has been implemented in other cities. As for Kalair, he tells the Post he’s had to make real tough decisions: "I choose eating, not smoking."

Mayor Bloomberg’s ambitious congestion pricing plan may be toast (or Governor Paterson may bring it back from the dead) but it seems that skyrocketing gas prices are succeeded where Hizzoner failed. The Times is reporting that traffic on the city’s bridges and tunnels dropped 4.7 percent in June, compared to the same time last year. Meanwhile, subway, bus, bicycle and commuter rail ridership has surged. A transportaion consultant predicts that “if we start eclipsing $5 a gallon, which we might over the summer, I think we might get very close,” to reducing traffic in Manhattan by 6.3 percent, which was the goal for Bloomberg’s congestion pricing plan. Go peak oil!

The beloved 24-hour French diner Florent will be closing on Saturday with a big send-off, and lines have often been out the door as the end approaches. Today is no exception, as Eater reports, with the restaurant still packed despite the fact that the gas has been shut off. Reached today (his birthday) by phone at his lake house in New Jersey, owner Florent Morellet tells us that the gas was shut off over a week ago so his plumber could do some work, but attempts to get Con Ed to turn it back on have been fruitless. And he's unsure whether there will be gas before Saturday's closing, telling us that "Con Ed is a little bit like old Russia."

Yesterday, the Dow Jones Industrial Average took a 400-point-drop bath, prompted by rising oil prices and higher unemployment numbers, and stirred up more recession fears.

Soaring gas prices have managed to edge gas prices to nearly $4/gallon in the area. At an Exxon station in Queens, WCBS 2 found $3.99/gallon gas, while a White Plains Getty offered it at $3.69/gallon. One White Plains resident said it cost him $55 to fill up his sedan, "I used to pay by cash, now I have to use my credit cards because I don't carry that much cash on me."

The gas main explosion that rocked a home on 48th Ave. and 41st. St. Wedneday––killing one woman and injuring six others––occurred despite what ConEd and FDNY say was them following proper procedures preceding the incident. Kunta Oza, who died at the age of 69, was burned over 90% of her body. In addition to the six others injured in the explosion, 200 people were evacuated from the block until it was deemed safe to return....