Check out this Tibco-powered energy consumption stats site

There are actually two gas stations down the street from my home here in New Jersey that are still selling regular grade gasoline for about $3.60 per gallon. (Cash only.) As you can imagine, the intersection where they are located has been the subject of some wicked traffic congestion for the past several days, as people drive from wide and far to fill up their tanks. The GasBuddy.com Web site will let you find the cheapest price in your neighborhood.

There's also another Web site you might want to visit, if you're interested in assessing just how bad the United States really is when it comes to energy consumption.

The World Energy Survey site is one of several Spotfire communities built by Tibco to illustrate the power of its analytics software. It uses data from British Petroleum to visually depict consumption and production trends for coal, gas, hydroelectric, nuclear and oil between the years 1965 and 2005. This site will get even more interesting when we start to layer in alternative energy consumption.

Did you know, for example, that the United States was actually ranked seventh when it came to consumption per capita during that time period? Singapore was No. 1. Even Belgium is ahead of us. Or that Sweden, which had no production capabilities during the timeframe, dramatically cut its consumption leading into 2005. The United States cut production and increased consumption, which brings us full circle to this entry's opening: Gas prices. Thank goodness I'm still not commuting to Long Island.