[Memetoml]

Wasn't there just a gas shortage in France and half a year ago in UK?

How constant and long lasting are your power outages there?

I mean no electricity for a week and all my food in the freezer is gone, no heating in winter due to pumps needing electricity and no water as well.

Sounds really bad over there then?

[mattlondon]

Gas as in gas (that you heat your house with), or gas as in petroleum (that you put in your car)?

For both in the UK I don't think there were "shortages" where it wasn't available. Both just shoot up in price (like they always do at the merest hint of supply shortages or whalesale cost increases ..)

[marsokod]

Gas as in petroleum. In the UK, this was caused initially by a constraint on having enough drivers for the trucks, which lead into a few local shortages. The fear came into that and people rushed to fill their tank. The system being not sized for this, this ended up creating actual shortage with a positive feedback loop.

Similar issue in France: strikes were happening leading to local constraints, which was then amplified by people rushing to fill their tanks. In both cases, the situation comes back to normal after a few weeks.

This is the toilet paper shortage, or the bank run, all over again.

[mecsred]

Why does the UK call gasoline petroleum? Every context I've ever heard it used in, including technical, petroleum is crude oil, which DEFINITELY doesn't go in your car.

[mattlondon]

Well equally why does the US call the liquid you put in your car gas? :)

No one calls it petroleum - petrol is what anyone on the street would call it. Diesel is different and just called diesel. I don't know why or how this started - guessing some old thing that wasn't-quite-right but which stuck around regardless

[mecsred]

Fair point, it is also confusing, but gas and gas are two different words. One is a phase of matter and the other is a shortened form of gasoline, much like petrol/petroleum. However, gasoline does actually go in the fuel tank of your car.

[dukeyukey]

We don't - we call it petrol, because it's similar to petroleum but isn't it.

Tbh 'gas' is the weird one, it's a liquid.

[eesmith]

https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Gasoline#Etymology

'The term is thought to have been influenced by the trademark "Cazeline" or "Gazeline"', then becoming 'gasolene' before ending up as 'gasoline', shortened as 'gas'.

[zabzonk]

gasoline

[gnicholas]

Yeah, there are week long outages by accident or design every year. It may not hit you every year, but no one is immune. This year there was a 4+ day outage that hit Atherton, and you can imagine they have more political pull than virtually anywhere.

Food in the fridge goes bad, there is no HVAC (mostly an issue for AC, since it happens when it’s not that cold), but we have water.

[Memetoml]

But wouldn't be an EV than great as backup energy source?

And if you don't need it because you have a generator, than you could even charge your car