The important point that jumps out in this video exchange is that the fundamentals are there to support a steady increase in the price of oil. The world has not yet hit a price high enough to have enough of an impact on pressuring consumption. CNBC flashes a chart showing per capita oil consumption and the US numbers are not even close to anywhere else.
The Republicans and Bill Clinton made it easy for Detroit to promote gas guzzlers and energy conservation efforts were pushed to the side and labeled as kooky. The other interesting comment is when Boone Pickens - a billionaire oil trader and not a failed businessman like Bush - says "there are plenty of refineries around the world." This is from a Bush supporter and a very conservative Republican, contradicting what the GOP rolls out almost every day when giving their newest excuse for high oil prices. Bush is correct that there are no easy fixes for the problem, though blaming everyone else for problems the GOP created is just the usual "I didn't do it" spin that we've seen since the beginning.
"The Chernobyl catastrophe became planetary and even now continues to take its toll on people's health and the environment," the health ministry said in a statement.
On April 26, 1986, reactor number 4 at Chernobyl nuclear power plant exploded, contaminating large parts of Europe but especially the then-Soviet republics of Ukraine, Belarus and Russia.
Over 25,000 "liquidators", mostly Ukrainians, Russians and Belarussians who worked on the ruined reactor and constructed a concrete sarcophagus enclosing it, lost their lives, according to official figures.
The official UN toll in September 2005 set the number of the accident's victims in Ukraine, Russia and Belarus at 4,000, but the figure had been contested by non-governmental organisations.
Officially, Ukraine alone numbers 2.3 million people qualified as "having suffered from the catastrophe."
It gets worse by the day and we're in yet another weird range. There were a few new incidents today but let's be clear, there will always be another incident. Whether another problem in Nigeria, a hurricane, a whatever, it's always going to be there. The US will keep buying more oil just as China will keep buying more and more oil.
All of this was predictable but the Republicans all made a big joke out of it, dismissing the seriousness of energy independence until we arrived at this period where too many other issues have spiraled out of control such as the fall of the US dollar. It's a good thing voters fell for the Republican propaganda of mocking Democrats on this issue. How's everyone feeling about that now?
Interesting strategy...food for people instead of the gas tank. What a bunch of strange people in Europe with really crazy ideas. Shouldn't food be kept for corporate profits and those who can afford it? Let the poor eat, well, something else. That's what Bush the GOP are suggesting and since when have they ever been wrong?
The problems in the airline industry just keep getting worse. Two weeks ago I spent almost 30 minutes circling before landing so news like this is a major concern. Where were all of the business leaders a few years ago when the GOP was busy making fun of energy conservationists and telling everyone to consume as much as they like? If we had a serious policy a few years ago - including during the Clinton years - we might not have such deep problems both for consumers and business.
As cash-strapped airlines pack more passengers on flights into ever-busier airports, pilots are filing internal complaints warning that airline cost-cutting on fuel supplies could be creating a major safety risk.
The complaints, compiled by msnbc.com and NBC News from a database of safety incident reports maintained on behalf of the Federal Aviation Administration, reveal wide-ranging concern among pilots that airlines are compelling them to fly with too little fuel.
This is a really interesting new program which differs from previous tidal energy prospects. For years governments (from both main parties) pushed this aside, opting for whatever the big energy companies were offering, such as nuclear or more disruptive tidal energies. The UK has especially strong tidal currents making it an ideal location for generating power underwater. Great read from The Independent here and a story and more photos of the project here. Could this be a fit for the US? Who knows, but this goes to show that we need to move beyond what the traditional big energy businesses want to promote. Just because they say something won't work (read: take money and focus from their business) doesn't mean it's true. We ought to be providing more funding for new ideas of alternative energies and not only from the largest businesses.
This has been so painfully predictable and will likely be used as an excuse by the pro-Big Oil extremists who have no interest in moving away from there friends at Exxon. Giving financial incentives to corporate farmers to sell their product for energy instead of actual food has put consumers and the poor in a bidding war against energy. Even "cheap" food has become expensive. Now we are even seeing foreign aid to the poorest of the world being scaled back due to costs. It's unimaginable to most Westerners just how poor and in need people can be, almost always due to dynamics beyond their control. We really need to step back and think through new policies both for food and energy but don't expect the GOP to do this.
USAID officials said that a 41 percent surge in prices for wheat, corn, rice and other cereals over the past six months has generated a $120 million budget shortfall that will force the agency to reduce emergency operations. That deficit is projected to rise to $200 million by year's end. Prices have skyrocketed as more grains go to biofuel production or are consumed by such fast-emerging markets as China and India.
Big Oil tries to play the green energy card but in reality, they invest very little in this non-core business. Meanwhile, smart business investors in the Middle East are re-investing their windfall profits and setting themselves up for the future. The Democrats (with the exception of Rep. Dingell) understand that change is needed but the GOP is all too willing to ignore any alternatives, because they think that any investment in alternative energies is giving in to the environmentalists. The only change they accepted was biofuels because that was a boondoggle for corporate farmers. Even the oil region millionaires get it, but the GOP can't grasp this simple point.
The next wave of oil wealth will go probably go into alternative energy, says D’Agostino. Middle East investors are comfortable with longer time frames and can weather the volatility of this sector. Specifically, solar & wind names are most likely to benefit.
Who needs an energy plan when Shell and Exxon already have one for us? We need more government by special interests, for special interests. Big Oil will continue to give lip service to alternative energies and place pretty flowers on their adverts but they will never, ever make a serious move beyond oil. Shell just posted the largest profit ever in the UK to the tune of $27.6 billion for 2007. How'd it work for you?
Instead of spending trillions to make a mess of the Middle East, isn't it time we spend some of that on building a long term energy plan? The GOP has no faith in the American ability to create something new and better but that should not stop others from moving down that path. Instead of giving tax breaks and free drilling rights to Big Oil, let's use that money to help launch the energy programs of the future. Some of the new ideas may not work and others will but anyone who doesn't believe in such possibilities really needs to step aside.
Biofuels can perhaps play a limited role, they are not the answer. Just imagine what new ideas and new starts we could have had if we dropped $1.5 trillion into new energy instead of invading Iraq. Of course, the special interests who put the GOP in power wouldn't like it, but the rest of us would have. When Bush tried jumping on the sugar cane biofuel bandwagon in Brazil, that should have provided enough warning that this was not the long term answer. We need to be looking at the complete picture and not just one benefit, such as reduced emissions. More on biofuels, after the jump.
Efforts to work out which crops are most environmentally friendly have, until now, focused only on the amount of greenhouse gases a fuel emits when it is burned. Scharlemann and Laurance highlighted a more comprehensive method, developed by Rainer Zah of the Empa Research Institute in Switzerland, that can take total environmental impacts - such as loss of forests and farmland and effects on biodiversity - into account.
In a study of 26 biofuels the Swiss method showed that 21 fuels reduced greenhouse-gas emissions by more than 30% compared with gasoline when burned. But almost half of the biofuels, a total of 12, had greater total environmental impacts than fossil fuels. These included economically-significant fuels such as US corn ethanol, Brazilian sugar cane ethanol and soy diesel, and Malaysian palm-oil diesel. Biofuels that fared best were those produced from waste products such as recycled cooking oil, as well as ethanol from grass or wood.
Scharlemann and Laurance also pointed to "perverse" government initiatives that had resulted in unintended environmental impacts. In the US, for example, farmers have been offered incentives to shift from growing soy to growing corn for biofuels. "This is helping to drive up global soy prices, which in turn amplifies economic incentives to destroy Amazonian forests and Brazilian tropical savannas for soy production."
It must be nice to have a 57% increase in one year. But don't worry, because Big Oil says their profit margins declined. Sure, anything they say. They can rest comfortably knowing that movement towards efficiency will still take decades thanks to the special interest lobbies in Washington.
Besides auto emissions, we to start looking into the efficiency of appliances. US washing machines, dryers and dishwashers are energy (and water) hogs compared to what is on offer in Europe. American dryers consistently destroy my clothes on every visit and seem to need their own power station to generate furnace-like temperatures. With energy costs increasing for Americans (they're already high here) this area also needs some attention. 2008 probably won't offer much change though I think many are seeking these changes with the new president. In simple dollars and cents, it's just too costly to avoid change.
Don't worry though, because we can't afford to invest serious money or effort into alternative energy sources. Fighting wars for oil on behalf of Big Oil is a much better priority for America. In fact, why not extend the tax breaks for Big Oil while we're at it. Oh right, Congress just did. (How supportive were our presidential candidates on this? It's still is part of their day job, isn't it?)
The upside here is the Visa, MasterCard and Big Energy all thank you for your business. Their holiday parties this year will no doubt be luxurious, not to mention year end bonuses.
Is it really so hard to promote new energy that is good for America and good for the world? The GOP is completely unable to do anything that doesn't prop up their special interests such as Big Oil, Wall Street and Big Pharma. It's always too easy to shift costs to the middle class and give away the farm to the wealthiest, who are already doing pretty well. The Democrats are right, that we need a stronger majority but they're also going to have to start fighting back much more.
But for now, why do the Republicans hate America and promote special interests?
It's not for oil. This interesting new plan could generate up to one sixth of the needed power for Europe. Should the program benefit a sliver at the top like in the oil industry, to hell with it. If the intention is to provide improvements to all levels of society, a rarity in the region today, then this could be a model for the future.
Europe is considering plans to spend more than £5bn on a string of giant solar power stations along the Mediterranean desert shores of northern Africa and the Middle East.
More than a hundred of the generators, each fitted with thousands of huge mirrors, would generate electricity to be transmitted by undersea cable to Europe and then distributed across the continent to European Union member nations, including Britain.
Billions of watts of power could be generated this way, enough to provide Europe with a sixth of its electricity needs and to allow it to make significant cuts in its carbon emissions. At the same time, the stations would be used as desalination plants to provide desert countries with desperately needed supplies of fresh water.
Last week Prince Hassan bin Talal of Jordan presented details of the scheme - named Desertec - to the European Parliament. 'Countries with deserts, countries with high energy demand, and countries with technology competence must co-operate,' he told MEPs.
The project has been developed by the Trans-Mediterranean Renewable Energy Corporation and is supported by engineers and politicians in Europe as well as Morocco, Algeria, Libya, Jordan and other nations in the Middle East and Africa.
The GOP continues to coddle and protect their friends in Big Oil who are always open to a free ride on the backs of the American middle class consumer. Senate Democrats continue pressing forward with dragging the GOP, Big Auto and the oil industry into the modern world, succeeding to increase the average fleet mileage for the first time in 20 years and starting the process of changing our energy policies. The GOP did succeed in defeating a tax increase for Big Oil, once again choosing to prop up the best interest of the oil industry over average Americans who are already suffering with earnings problems and increases in daily expenses for food and gas.
Bush meanwhile is asking that Congress is "realistic" about an energy policy. For non-CEO Americans, getting serious about energy is in fact realistic and a plan for the future. Ignoring the problem and throwing corporate welfare to Big Oil and the automobile industry is not helping the vast majority of Americans who want change, who want to move beyond the best interests of Big Oil and who would like choices with cars. Just because Detroit, Big Oil and the GOP want something doesn't mean 300 million people have to follow.
Republican Senators have been in a filibuster frenzy. Last week they filibustered the immigration bill. Earlier this week, they filibustered the no confidence vote on Gonzales. Then yesterday, the GOP Senators filibustered energy reform in order to protect the power companies:
Senate Democrats, facing their first significant battle over a wide-ranging bill intended to reduce oil consumption, found themselves blocked by Republicans on Thursday and postponed all significant votes until next week.
Republicans vowed to filibuster over a Democratic proposal that would force electric utility companies to generate a big share of their power from renewable fuels, and Democrats failed to muster the 60 votes needed to close off debate.
Hey, it's not like we need to do something about energy. The GOPers would rather play politics then work on an issue of national importance. The GOP energy strategy is "hey, we can always go to war for oil." And, don't forget, the Republicans have never put the national good ahead of the profits of their benefactors.
The Big Farm payday from the government continues to have a negative impact, now with the price of dairy rising. Alternative energy research and development makes all the sense in the world but corporate welfare like this, without planning and without researching the full impact, is just another example of the Bush administration hard at work. The GOP has a belief that if you throw millions and billions of dollars at a problem, it will somehow all work out. The fly in the ointment has consistently been that they never think about the full consequences of their policies beyond wads of cash to friends.
U.S. retail milk prices have increased about 3 percent, or roughly a dime a gallon, this year, according to the U.S. Department of Agriculture.
But University of Illinois dairy specialist Michael Hutjens forecasts further increases of up to 40 cents a gallon for milk over the next few months, and up to 60 cents for a pound of cheese.
Again, it's the middle class footing the bill for another failed GOP program.
Hutjens and others said higher gasoline prices have increased the costs of moving milk from farm to market, and corn — the primary feed for dairy cattle — is being gobbled up by producers of the fuel-additive ethanol. The USDA projects that 3.2 billion bushels of this year’s corn crop will be used to make ethanol, a 52 percent increase over 2006.
Ethanol has increased the average American's grocery bill $47 since July, and Iowa State University study concluded.
Who would have guessed that a Big Oil team in the White House would occur at the same time as record profits and record prices at the pump?
Gasoline prices have soared to levels never seen before as even the inflation-adjusted price for a gallon of unleaded topped the 1981 record spike in price that had stood for 26 years.
Coming as no surprise to anyone, Republican enablers and Big Auto is crying about the push to become both competitive and environmentally friendly. Apparently Big Auto and the GOP managed to overlook the tens of thousands of lost jobs due to massive corporate failure, incompetence and smear campaigns, so that card has already been played. What other industry can fail to improve efficiency despite technology advancements that are obviously working elsewhere in the world?
The US offers two cars (Prius and Civic hybrid) with average mileage of 40mpg whereas Europe offers 113. The European market has been able to offer fuel efficiency, so why not in America? Why does Big Auto hate America?
