As people start driving electric scooters Demaryius Thomas Color Rush Jersey , they find more and more reasons to like them. They're practical, easy to park and get great gas mileage. With gasoline price raising day by day, the popularity of playful, fuel-efficient electric scooters has soared. According to industry experts, last years sales have doubled compared to a year ago, and only in 2005 more than 300 Von Miller Color Rush Jersey ,000 electric scooters were sold.
The hard-core scooter enthusiast enjoys the feel of scooting which many people compare to skating on land. For those who live downtown, scooters make the everyday commute fun and easy, and most models are compact enough to be taken onto public transport and then stored under a desk for the rest of the working day ? and you can recharge the battery. Electric and motor scooters allow you to save money on gas ? even Vespa, the grand dame of scooters, easily sips one gallon of gas during 50 miles of city ride.
Some people turn to scooters after losing their driving privileges; some find the scooter more romantic than bike and enjoy so-called scooter dates. Many people in the Far East switched to electric scooters for the fear of SARS, and this summer many scooter enthusiasts proudly looked up at their fellow city dwellers Royce Freeman Color Rush Jersey , as they were suffocating in jammed streetcars and buses.
No matter why people choose motor and electric scooters today, the thriving sales have resulted in many new models with exiting features and design.
One of the most popular scooter models is the eGO-2 Cycle, which combines the best features of a bike and an electric scooter. eGO can be used as a bicycle but has all the equipment of a scooter, including headlights, turn signals, brakes and throttle. With aluminum silver-plated chassis Dre'Mont Jones Color Rush Jersey , this work of art can easily make up to 25mph climbing hill ? and weighing less than 120 lbs! The eGO retails for around $1400 depending on a retailer.
Another two-wheeled whiz kid on the block is a Xootr, a cross between a skateboard and an electric scooter. Although Xootr can take you around at the speed of 10 km it has neither suspension nor real brakes but with its extremely light-weight, these disadvantages are easy to live with. And when the batteries run low, you can still propel it with kicking.
Speaking of scooters, it's impossible to miss out the famous Vespa. These two-wheeled wonders of Italian design have enchanted Europeans since the end of 1940s, when designers Corradino D'Ascanio and Enrico Piaggio created an affordable two-wheeled vehicle for the masses. And Hollywood loves Vespa too Drew Lock Color Rush Jersey , putting Audrey Hepburn in Roman Holiday and Nicole Kidman in The Interpreter on equally stylish Vespas.
Indeed, women comprise more than 60 per cent of all scooter owners. And with affordable prices ? most scooters range from $800 to a $1000, while bigger and faster scooters can cost as much as $10,000 ? scooters have quickly carved out their niche on today's city road.
Where is the second biggest deposit of oil reserves in the world?
In the oil sands region of Alberta, Canada. Oil sands are a thick, viscid mixture of bitumen Dalton Risner Color Rush Jersey , sand, clay, and water. Alberta's oil sands is comprised of 3 regions with the Athabasca area being the largest and the closest to the surface. Underneath these gooey tar sands lie trillions of barrels of oil.
So then you may ask why have we been so dependent on Mideast oil. Why haven't we just stayed nearby and relied on Canada? In fact, Canada is the largest supplier of crude and refined oil to the United States, having supplied 2.1 million barrels per day in 2004. But the percentage supplied to the US and other parts of the world is about to grow much larger.
The big difference between oil sands and oil from the desert sands of the middle east is difficulty of extraction. The oil sands process essentially entails extracting bitumen from the sand, and upgrading it to light crude oils. Easier said than done because this is thick stuff and has been expensive to mine and extract. However new technologies are changing the equation and making it much more cost-efficient to mine and extract from the oil sands.
Mining operations are used to produce reserves close to the surface. For oil that is deeper under ground Noah Fant Color Rush Jersey , Steam-Assisted Gravity Drainage (SAGD) and Cyclic Steam Stimulation (CSS) are used. Other examples of new technology and extraction methods include burning bitumen instead of gas to produce steam, a solvent-assisted production technique called VAPEX and a system that injects air into the oil well and ignites it to stimulate oil flow.
In addition to improvements in technology, higher oil prices are fueling expansion in the oil sands, and a lot of people want in. The Chinese, for instance. In April, China National Offshore Oil Corp. Phillip Lindsay Color Rush Jersey , predominantly owned by the Chinese government, bought nearly 17% of MEG Energy Corp. for $122 million. The company is developing a northern Alberta project estimated to pump 25,000 barrels of crude from the oil sands by 2008. And Canadian oil pipeline giant Enbridge has announced a preliminary deal with PetroChina to anchor a $2-billion oil pipeline to the West Coast.
So how can you benefit from the increased exploration, production and sales of crude oil from the oil Sands of Alberta? Choose among the stocks of companies that are investing in the area and applying new technology to extract oil more cost-efffectively.
Companies than can capitalize on the increasing role of Canada's oil sands in the world's energy needs include Suncor (NYSE: SU), Encana (NYSE:ECA), Canadian Natural Resources NYSE:CNQ) Deer Creek Energy ( ) Joe Flacco Color Rush Jersey , Total S.A. (NYSE:TOT), Petro Canada NYSE: PCZ), and, with its acquisition of Terasen whose pipelines are well-positioned to transport growing production from the Alberta oil sands, Kinder Morgen (NYSE: KMI).