Tags - City of Idaho Falls, economy, energy, Entrepreneurship
Is Idaho Falls the first of many cities in Idaho to recognize the impact of rising fuel prices? Idaho Falls officials say they are raising service fees to cover the cost of doing business, KPVI reports. In fact the city of Idaho Falls has padlocked the gas tanks on some of its vehicles to protect it.
About one half of one percent – 0.46% – of all Idahoans jumped into business for themselves in 2007. A new report ranking entrepreneurial activity across the nation puts Idaho at the top of the list, KTVB reported.
6 Comments
I see taking the steps of padlocking vehicles a sure bet. It might seem to some to be going a little bit overboard, but then again, theives have been stealing copper off of live wires.
Gas prices went up again yesterday, inching toward $4 a gallon. Yikes!
Comment By D Nixon Thursday, May 8, 2008 @ 10:08 AM
Am I the only one surprised by the fact that we have a war in an oil-rich country and oil companies are making BILLIONs of dollars in quarterly profit; and that our executive branch of the government is run by two "ex"-oil men? Coincidence?
Let me guess, the newly initiated investigation into price gouging by the oil companies should have enough roadblocks put in front of it to guarantee conclusion sometime well after the current administration has left office.
Comment By Kent Thursday, May 8, 2008 @ 12:15 PM
Kent is partially right...something stinks!! That said, I think gas prices have more to do with increased demand in developing countries, a collapsing dollar, and our idiots in Washington being unwilling to drill and refine oil!! Meanwhile, we have China and perhaps Nigeria drilling in the Gulf of Mexico!!?!?!?
Comment By Brent Thursday, May 8, 2008 @ 4:21 PM
Last week Congress passed a bill specifically geared to the creation of energy-oriented, technology-transfer centers. I realize this is a big shock to a lot of Idaho politicians, but your state is one of only 7 states...that has a national lab (gasp!).
In fact, several of those other states have actually re-oriented their policies to encourage such tech-transfer based commercialization....so much that they have actually grown, from the ground up, dozens (gasp!) of entrepreneur-created, private technology companies... employing thousands (gasp!) of highly-paid (3X gasp for Idaho!)workers.
Read about it: http://www.ssti.org/Digest/latesttext.htm#Congress
Comment By Bill Thursday, May 8, 2008 @ 9:09 PM
There are also at least federal labs that now have -- in-house! -- a big-time VC firm office (e.g., Kleiner Perkins is at ORNL, I think).
Interesting but why not Idaho?
Comment By Norris K Thursday, May 8, 2008 @ 10:44 PM
I agree with Kent above. I think it is interesting that we can't (for some reason) develop our own resourses continue to be held "captive" by imported foreign oil...why? Someone is making a'lot of money in the US. Don't be fooled, the current administration may be enjoying the gasoline issue, but previous administrations for the past 15-20 years have enjoyed it as well in areas such as campaign contributions, political favors etc. Let's face it, the USA has corruption issues that we need to address as a country now.
The US needs to decide if they are going to remain "slaves" of foreign oil forever or go after our own resources in a responsible manner. What's cheeper, to spend 100 million per week (or 100 million per day...I forget the figure) chasing bin-laden in the middle east or to use that money to develop environmentally friendly oil pipelines and alternate fuel sources such as electric cars and solar cars etc that the middle class can afford (<$15,000). I would guess the second option is MUCH cheaper than the first but it doesn't look as good on TV.
Some may argue that we need to stop terrorism on US soil and I agree. Duh, is it not obvious that if we close ALL borders for at least 10 years and let the dust settle. How can we remove this problem when people are coming over here by the thousands every day? I think the majority of Americans would agree on this issue. Some "illegal" immigrants will complain but if they are here illegally...too bad. These people DO NOT have consitutional rights according to our constitution, only human rights as the ACLU would lead you to believe. American people need to wake up and look around and speak up! This nonsense needs to stop.
We need to develop our resources and technologies here and now while initiating a plan to drastically reduce oil consumption over the next 20 years. If we build more electric cars and hydrogen cars to graduallly reduce demand (and stick to it) we may be able to offset the ever increasing population and demand. If the USA continues to "sleep" and ignore this, our country is in trouble. What about our kids?.
Concerned Citizen.
Comment By Dave Wednesday, May 21, 2008 @ 12:13 PM
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