From Worldometer (new COVID-19 deaths yesterday):
DAY USA WORLD Brazil India South Africa
Something extraordinary is happening in South Korea. They set a record number of new cases two days ago with 621,328, but the people, plus government, almost couldn't care less. Rather than lock down, people continue to go out. A good part of this is because these days only few are dying. Older people are more vulnerable, but 90% of them have been boosted, and only in rare circumstances do deaths occur.
Mortality rate:
- South Korea 0.136%
- World 1.3%
- USA 1.2%
- Germany 0.7%
- Vietnam 0.6%
- Japan 0.45%
- Australia 0.15%
- Hong Kong 0.5%
- Singapore 0.12%
- The Omicron variant is not as lethal.
- Hospitals have learned how to take care of patients and several remedies are now available.
- By now most populations have been vaccinated, and it is clear that those who are boosted will either avoid any symptoms or only get cold-like problems. Not even as bad as the seasonal flu.
Thus, South Korean people are just shrugging off this latest wave because few people are actually dying these days. Plus, that 600,000+ new cases number of two days ago dropped to 407,017 yesterday.
In short, there is a pent-up sense of wanting to get back to normal. Europe remains in the throes of yet another wave, a combination of two Omicron subvariants, but fewer are dying, so they too are rapidly eliminating mandates even if new cases/day remain high. The U.S. could yet get another mild wave because of the Omicron Stealth Subvariant, but the mortality rate will continue to drop, so life will likely continue to return to a new normal. The only group of concern is the unvaccinated elderly, although any unvaccinated person is still taking a chance of being a long hauler or worse.
- #2 Hawaii
- Thursday, a record high $5.122/gallon.
- Friday, $5.118/gallon.
- #1 California
- Friday, $5.80/gallon
- National average = $4.274.
- Emissions and environmental regulations.
- Higher gas taxes. Adds $0.75/gallon.
- A mysterious 2015 surcharge ($4 billion/year) that has not been revoked. Amounts to $0.10 to $0.30 per gallon, depending type of gas.
- Has added global warming cap-and-trade program, in addition to a low carbon fuel standard, and this environmental adjustment adds up to $0.17/gallon.
- Amazingly enough, California is a "fuel island," meaning that it does not receive fuel through an interstate pipeline (like Hawaii). They do, however, produce 30% of state needs.
- An attempt was made in the California Assembly to suspend some of these taxes, but the measure failed.
World price of gasoline in dollars/gallon:
- Venezuela $0.11
- Iran $0.19
- Kuwait $1.32
- Russia $1.40
- Nigeria $1.51
- Saudi Arabia $2.35
- UAE $3.22
- Indonesia $3.40
- Mexico $4.08
- USA $4.46
- Brazil $4.88
- Australia $5.11
- China $5.19
- Thailand $5.45
- Japan $5.60
- Canada $5.60
- South Korea $5.60
- Spain $7.19
- France $7.95
- New Zealand $8.02
- Singapore $8.29
- Netherlands $8.67
- Norway $10.18
- Hong Kong $10.71
Forbes showed the following map indicating gasoline prices on 7March2022:
Heck, here are relative prices of electricity in $/kilowatt-hour...but for December 2020:
- Germany $0.37
- Japan $0.26
- UK $0.26
- Australia $0.23
- Singapore $0.17
- USA $0.15 (Hawaii is historical around $0.30 or higher)
- China $0.09
- Mexico $0.08
- India $0.08
- Saudi Arabia $0.05
- Iran $0.01
It can be higher, for 2018:
- Solomon Islands $0.99
- U.S. Virgin Islands $51.9
- Jamaica $0.45
- Germany $0.35
- Solomon Islands is at $0.69/kWh.
- USA ranks #82 in the world at $0.11/kWh.
- Russia ranks #22 at $0.05/kWh.
- China ranks #56 at $0.084/kWh.
- Australia ranks #143 at $0.17/kWh.
- Germany ranks #211 at $0.32/kWh
Countries With Most Expensive Electricity Prices
| Ranking | Country | Avg Electric Price (in U.S. cents per kWh) |
|---|---|---|
| 1 | Germany | 39 |
| 2 | Bermuda | 37 |
| 3 | Denmark | 34 |
| 4 | Portugal | 32 |
| 5 | Belgium | 32 |
| 6 | Cayman Islands | 31 |
| 7 | Bahamas | 31 |
| 8 | Cape Verde | 30 |
| 9 | Ireland | 29 |
| 10 | Japan | 29 |
| 11 | Cyprus | 28 |
| 12 | Barbados | 28 |
| 13 | United Kingdom | 27 |
| 14 | Italy | 27 |
| 15 | Liechtenstein | 27 |
| 16 | Australia | 26 |
| 17 | Luxemburg | 26 |
| 18 | Rwanda | 26 |
| 19 | Austria | 25 |
| 20 | Jamaica | 25 |
Countries With the Least Expensive Electricity Prices
| Ranking | Country | Avg Electric Price (in U.S. cents per kWh) |
|---|---|---|
| 1 | Sudan | 0 |
| 2 | Venezuela | 0 |
| 3 | Iran | 0 |
| 4 | Ethiopia | 1 |
| 5 | Kyrgyzstan | 1 |
| 6 | Cuba | 1 |
| 7 | Libya | 1 |
| 8 | Zimbabwe | 1 |
| 9 | Bhutan | 2 |
| 10 | Angola | 2 |
| 11 | Suriname | 2 |
| 12 | Uzbekistan | 3 |
| 13 | Zambia | 3 |
| 14 | Iraq | 3 |
| 15 | Kuwait | 3 |
| 16 | Qatar | 3 |
| 17 | Oman | 3 |
| 18 | Algeria | 4 |
| 19 | Egypt | 4 |
| 20 | Kazakhstan | 4 |
No comments:
Post a Comment