DrumBeat: June 3, 2007
Posted by Leanan on June 3, 2007 - 8:08am
Topic: Miscellaneous
In Oil Producers' Brave New World, a Key Word Is 'Partnerships'
The time is over when major oil companies can dictate the terms of development deals to host countries. About four-fifths of the world's reserves are already controlled by state-owned firms, and political strongmen like Chavez and Russia's Vladimir Putin seem intent on tightening their hold on their countries' oil wealth. Russia has the world's largest oil reserves, after Saudi Arabia."The ability of major oil companies to exert their muscle has diminished," said David Fleischer, a principal with Chickasaw Capital Management in Memphis, Tenn. "They still bring a lot of technology and expertise, but that's less important in today's world. Countries like Venezuela don't care as much as they should about maximizing their revenues. They care about control of their resources."
JFK arrests raise issue of pipeline vulnerability
A foiled plot to blow up a jet fuel pipeline under John F. Kennedy International Airport drew attention to what counterterrorism experts have warned could be a key target.
With Korea as Model, U.S. Ponders Long Role in Iraq
Critics on the left who have argued for years that the Iraq war was really about oil leap on such talk as evidence that the administration’s real agenda is to put its forces right on top of Iraq’s still-broken pipelines. Those who fear the next target is Iran — including the Iranians — will see the permanent bases as staging areas, in case the United States decides to take military action against Iran’s nuclear program and deal with the repercussions later.
Russia bullies BP - U.S. motorist, take note
This would be the latest in a string of incidents generally interpreted as Russia strong-arming its partners into deals more favorable to the government. These moves, analysts say, could hurt worldwide production and drive up energy costs for consumers everywhere.
Instead, the SPP has three fundamental objectives. The Bush administration wants to create more advantageous conditions for transnational corporations and remove remaining barriers to the flow of capital and crossborder production within the framework of NAFTA. It wants to secure access to natural resources in the other two countries, especially oil. And it wants to create a regional security plan based on "pushing its borders out" into a security perimeter that includes Mexico and Canada.
Longtime oilman reflects on evolution of industry, Basin
The one source I believe will eventually impact oil and gas consumption is nuclear power. Europe has greatly increased its use of nuclear energy and with more education about the increased safety of the new plants, the U.S. will probably follow Europe's example at some point in the future. For the public to be comfortable, it will take time, and the planning and construction of modern nuclear facilities will be a slow process and costly.
Mr. Gowger offers rich answers on rising gas prices
Motorists demand cheaper gas and complain while filling the fuel tanks on their home-size Hummers. Americans want inexpensive gas, but aren't willing to sacrifice to get it. Instead, they delude themselves into believing that this season's price hikes will subside later, as they have before. We call it the "roller coaster." We raise prices and keep them high. Just as the public is about to revolt, we lower them until calm is restored. Only this time, they may not get lowered.
As fuel prices flirt with the $4 threshold, Michiana's small delivery-oriented businesses are left combating the same fuel price problems facing their larger corporate competitors.Only, they have fewer resources.
Some in area opt to roll with single vehicle
In today's world of the three-car garage and the drive-through espresso shop, the notion of getting around Toledo as a one-vehicle family can seem quaint and impractical.
Giving Connecticut consumers the power to take advantage oflower, off-peak rates will lead to the more prudent use of electricity.
With the price of gasoline at marinas hovering around $3.50 a gallon, power boaters are still going out on the water, but not going as far as in past years."I think you're going to see guys using (their boats) as floating condos," said Wentworth Marina Manager Pat Kelley said. "These 30-, 36-foot boats with gas engines, it's too expensive to use them."
Drivers have been seeing red at the gas pumps. But now the high fuel prices are spilling over onto green lawns.
Farmers can cut fuel costs by not tilling
"At $3 a gallon, a farmer pays $29,500 in fuel costs for a 1,000-acre farm using conventional farming methods. Using no-till, that same 1,000-acre farm uses only $16,500 in fuel."
More drivers, including Utah's governor, are switching to natural gas
Primarily through the efforts of Questar Gas, Utah has one of the best CNG filling station infrastructures in the nation - 25 public refueling sites from St. George to Logan. Two more facilities, one in Bountiful and another in Brigham City, are due to go on line by the end of the year. There are another 75 privately operated refueling stations.
Kelley Blue Book names cars in every category that save fuel without sacrificing very much else.
Biofuel gangs kill for green profits
A surge in demand for biofuels derived from agricultural products has unleashed a chaotic land grab by a new breed of gangster entrepreneurs hoping to cash in on the world’s thirst for palm oil and related bioproducts.Vast areas of Colombia’s tropical forest are being cleared for palm tree plantations. Charities working with local peasants claim that paramilitary forces in league with biofuel conglomerates – some of them financed by US government subsidies – are forcing families off their land with death threats and bogus purchase offers.
Two critically important energy problems face us at this early point in the 21st century, and our best approach to dealing with each of them is likely to involve technology that resembles a lawn mower much more than it does an oil well. Our increasing dependence on foreign energy supplies and the climate-disrupting greenhouse effect are separate but closely linked issues, and our search for effective ways to deal with these challenges may ultimately focus on two seemingly unlikely suspects: plants and enzymes.
Texas leads carbon emissions: report
● Wyoming's coal-fired power plants produce more carbon dioxide in just eight hours than the power generators of more populous Vermont do in a year.
● Texas, the leader in emitting this greenhouse gas, cranks out more than the next two biggest producers combined, California and Pennsylvania, which together have twice Texas' population.
● In sparsely populated Alaska, the carbon dioxide produced per person by all the flying and driving is six times the per capita amount generated by travelers in New York state.
High gas prices hurt nonprofits
“Higher fuel costs ultimately force us to reduce the amount of services we can provide to our clients,” Williamson said. “It affects the ability to provide transportation to our Head Start children, delivery of food for Meals on Wheels and Congregate Dining Sites and the range of locations in which we can provide weatherization services.”
Stations watching for gas drive offs
"Gas is very expensive, and we aren't making anything from the gas," said Ghulam Sabir, manager at the AmPride station on Whitetail Drive in Cedar Falls. The store uses high-definition cameras to check license plates, and employees call police with the tag numbers of drivers who don't pay.The Petroleum Marketers of Iowa, a Des Moines-based trade group, has been giving convenience store owners stickers to place at their pumps warning that people caught stealing gas can lose their driver licenses under a new state law.
Entergy Louisiana launches Energy Awareness Program
Everything points to a typical Deep South hot summer this year. And in keeping with past efforts to partner with customers in meaningful ways, Entergy Louisiana is urging customers to take a few simple steps to conserve energy and manage their summertime bills.
Opec still has us over a barrel - Will prices ever come down again?
IT takes a plucky writer to admit he is wrong, particularly when there is a certain type of reader out there – usually anonymous, sometimes using joined-up writing – who is happy to tell me I am wrong every week.But I have been wrong, so far at least, on oil. High oil prices, one of the factors that have complicated the task of the Bank of England and its fellow central banks, are still with us, having climbed back above $70 a barrel in recent weeks. Last week they remained close to that level. Futures markets suggest $60-$70-a-barrel oil for the foreseeable future.
Global warming 'is three times faster than worst predictions'
Global warming is accelerating three times more quickly than feared, a series of startling, authoritative studies has revealed.They have found that emissions of carbon dioxide have been rising at thrice the rate in the 1990s. The Arctic ice cap is melting three times as fast - and the seas are rising twice as rapidly - as had been predicted.
China set to confront climate change, defend growth
China's first plan for climate change will seek to fortify the country against damage from global warming but also against international pressure to cut greenhouse gas pollution that Beijing calls the cost of growth.
Conscientious consumers are being urged to buy locally sourced food in the battle against climate change. But, as Richard Gray discovers, produce from the other side of the world can actually have a smaller carbon footprint.
Self-interest will do more to cut carbon emissions than all the low-energy light bulbs in the world
Only when rising prices and supply fears force the top 10 polluters to conserve fuel will progress really be made.
Cracks on climate as G8 leaders meet in Germany
Leaders from the world's major industrialized nations will try to paper over deep divisions on global warming and a range of foreign policy issues when they meet on the Baltic coast this week for a G8 summit.
Nigerian militants vow to halt attacks
The main militant group responsible for attacks on foreign oil installations in Nigeria's lawless south announced a one-month cease-fire Saturday, giving the new president a chance to resolve the crisis that has helped cause global crude prices to spike.
Armed with their one cent worth knowledge that West Texas intermediate prices have not risen proportionally to gas prices, the politicians are looking for oil company scapegoats. In addition, a number of “experts’ have come out and blamed oil companies for not investing in new refineries.
5 bucks a gallon to clear the mind
In a USA Today/Gallup poll, people overwhelmingly said they would not move or change jobs in order to cut commuter miles, or use mass transit as their main transportation, even if gasoline prices climb to over $10 a gallon. In fact, they reportedly wouldn't take such actions no matter how high the price goes.What might be more surprising is that 41 percent of the respondents said they would not replace their cars for models that get better mileage no matter how high the price of gasoline climbs.
Propafghanda: The Battle for Canadian Hearts & Minds
If maintaining Canada’s Afghan occupation requires a “perception war” on Canadian soil, then are Canadians now the enemy?
Iraq’s Curse: A Thirst for Final, Crushing Victory
PERHAPS no fact is more revealing about Iraq’s history than this: The Iraqis have a word that means to utterly defeat and humiliate someone by dragging his corpse through the streets.The word is “sahel,” and it helps explain much of what I have seen in three and a half years of covering the war.
Weather spikes or Climate Changes speaks out.
The corn was up nicely. At the very stage where deer like to browse it,and thereby totally destroy it in the process yet they had paid no visits.
Here is how the weather can play havoc with corn either in the garden or in the field.
Its came a hard fast slashing rain yesterday afternoon. That quickly turned the soil to mush at the top 2 or so inches. Then came very high shifting winds. The winds just blew the corn to the ground.
Already a lot of almost mature wheat had been blown down in some areas in my region, creating what many would say were crop circles yet it was just the effects of wind in circular patterns or whatever the wind preferred to do as it hit the topography of the fields. When it does this the wheat stays down. It does not recover.
This was not widespread as I observed but yesterdays high winds were likely broader in coverage. The corn in the fields is at this stage of not having enough roots(nodal) to be able to withstand the winds.
I have not surveyed the fields to see what happened as yet. This was what happened to me and there was a barn that prevented some damage. In the fields with no wind breaks it could be bad.
So cut down the trees along your fields. Let the wind come thru like a wailing banshee and see what it does to your crops. Its called 'Conservation Trees' or was but now that program seemed to not exist anymore for googles show no revelant hits.
Out in the ag lands this is what IMO climate change is all about. Sure the weather is changeable as one posted on a drumbeat the other day. Sure you can't predict it......
..BUT if you get this spiking weather in rain,wind and moisture and you used to be able to win most of the time but now it is worse...then what do you call it? Ohhh just variability....years of experiences by farmers show that at least much can be depended on as far as the way weather normally occurs and how to plan around that.
With what I have seen its changed in its variability. If you live in a ivory tower and make prognostications based on some wireless weather instrument then you are not seeing the whole picture. If you live in an area like Georgia and your in a loooonnnggg drought and suddenly get 4 inches in an hour...it doesn't help much YET the averages all say something else.
Averages don't mean much in this venue.
I also recall harvest of last fall when the rain and wind knocked the field corn to the ground and most just simply could not combine it. It was one huge mess. Tractors stuck,very dirty corn, most corn unsalvagable.
Airdale-topic was not about gardening..its about weather
Interesting report from reality. Thanks, airdale.
Remember when I said the 'burbs of central Texas were buzzing with bees? I have been taking notice as I walk my dog every morning. There must be a dozen species of privet around here -- spikes of tiny white four-petaled flowers, an almost intoxicating fragrance as we walk to the park and back. In past years, I can remember making an effort to avoid brushing the branches of these plants as I walked past them. They would be emitting a noticeable buzzing sound from all the honeybees.
The bush that inspired me to make that remark a few weeks ago has finished blooming, and there were a handful of bees on a nearby crape myrtle. But of the currently in-bloom privet, most of it is eerily silent in the early morning hours. It's not a scientific survey, but I don't think there are as many bees around here as in past springs.
| The problem will solve itself.
| But not in a nice way.
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Colony_Collapse_Disorder
No bees in Oregon, either
We have honeybees in Cottage Grove, although my subjective sense is that there are fewer than in the past.
The fruit trees in this area are loaded this year. We have a red plum that was loaded to the point of breaking branches three years ago. Then, for two years running, it blossomed at inopportune times when the weather was cool and wet and the bees stayed in. This year we lucked out on the plums as well as the apples and cherries.
There are plenty of mason bees, the original native pollinators of this region. There is an interesting parallel here of imported honeybees fueling a huge boom in various types of agriculture. Now, as with imported crude oil, we have developed an agricultural 'infrastructure' dependent on the imported bees and it would (will) be disastrous to try and revert to the former state.
Best hopes for more eager pollinators.
Boy do I get what your saying airdale.
I'm in northern Alabama and put all my eggs in the permaculture basket. I have a little over half an acre in a subdivision, but I planted it with assorted fruit and nut trees.
Thanks to the false spring and late freeze this year I got zip. Just when the fruit and nut trees were mature enough to start producing significant crops, the spiky weather killed them, lost all the fruit and it actually killed my pecan trees.
Then it was followed by drought.
Then last week everything got covered in a cloud of smoke from the fires in Georgia. The trees were not happy about that (nor was my asthma)
It's just barely June, an already everything is dieing in the heat.
According to the history channel. When the weather got wild a couple of centuries ago, farmer switched to root crops like potatoes because the could survive the weather spikes. While the grains would be wiped out .
It certainly seemed easier to plant a garden back in Pennsylvania when I was a kid. Predictable rains and better soil.
"According to the history channel. When the weather got wild a couple of centuries ago, farmer switched to root crops like potatoes because the could survive the weather spikes. While the grains would be wiped out."
As I understand, during the Hundred Years War, they switched to root crops to prevent them from being looted or burned.
In one of the previous Drumbeats Leanan spoke about a trip to Youngstown, OH and encountering a Kunstlerian nightmare. Well, there's no substitute for eyes on the ground...but one thing I "like" to do is look at these places with satellite eyes...
Youngstown, OH: On a Kunstlerian scale of 1-10 this probably rates about 3. Not super terrible or anything.
Los Angeles, CA: This is the mack daddy by which Kunstleriness is rated, this pegs the meter out at 10.
Atlanta, GA: Don't let this one fool ya. The city center is small and appears to be otherwise sparsely populated, but emanating for miles upon miles from the center is sprawling suburbs of McMansion farm Cul-de-sacs. This too receives a 10 for Kunstleriness.
Tampa, and St. Petersburgh, FL: 9...maybe another 10. You can be the judge.
If those beauties don't make you cry and lose faith in humanities survival...I'm not sure what will.
If you want a nightmare feet-on-the-ground along with your eyes on the ground, take the train to Atlanta and try to walk around the town.
It might be the most depressing place I have ever visited. There is no place for pedestrians, no green space, nothing but roads and fast cars and tight-lipped people hurrying to get somewhere -- the few that are actually out of their cars seem afraid to be unprotected.
I'm sure there are nice places in Atlanta -- but you need a car to get to them.
Funny, I live in Atlanta without a car. I guess it is a question of being willing to make the effort or just waiting for everything to be served up on a silver platter.
Yes the suburban sprawl surrounding the city is terrible and it does put a toll on the city with major interstates cutting through the heart of town to make it easier for suburb-to-suburb commuters to get around. But the city and the metro, while intertwined, are not that same thing. There are lots of people who live in the city without a car and do just fine. Many of the city's oldest neighborhoods, so called street car suburbs, with shady streets, walkable neighborhood retail, parks, and other amenities that create a great quality of life are accessible by mass transit. The city has one of the strongest tree ordinances in the country and working hard to undo the Robert Moses type mistakes of the 1960s in the central business districts.
Getting off at the AmTrak station and walking around a few blocks tells you as much about the city as does seeing a city from the interstate. I realize that it is trendy to bash Atlanta but some of us are working for real change instead of taking easy potshots on the internet based on limited superficial observations. So how about not condemning everyone in a city based on group think. If people here weren't friendly enough for you, perhaps you should look at your own comments and ask why that might be.
I live downtown, get around on mass transit, my bike, and my two feet. I could move to another city, get a car, feel smug and superior about the appearance of my surroundings while actually living a more environmentally destructive lifestyle but I'd rather walk the walk instead of talking the talk.
Sorry if I sound overly defensive about all of this, but it really annoys me to hear the same old recycled speaking points about where I live. I get tired of hearing it is impossible to live in Atlanta without a car, when I do it quite easily. I get tired of hearing there is no green space in Atlanta when there are two large green spaces right outside my window. I get tired of hearing there is nothing but concrete here when according to the national forest service, this is the most heavily forested major urban area in the US. I get tired of hearing how environmentally ignorant builders are when Atlanta has one of the highest concentrations of LEED certified high rises in the country. Yep, sounds like the absolute worst place in the country!
See this kind of superficial judgment makes me wonder about all of the other observations here and how many of them are similarly based on such shallow observations and guilt by association. Suburban Atlanta does have many terrible characteristics and the city isn't perfect but it certainly isn't the dehumanizing moonscape that many make it out to be.
Now if you'll excuse me, I'm biking over to the farmers market to buy some locally grown produce. Since I'm not arriving in my car, I guess all the veggies will be wilted and the fruit rotten. Afterall, you can't get anywhere nice in Atlanta without a ton of glass and steel wrapped around you, right?
Wow. I'm glad to hear it is really a pleasant place.
I was reporting a personal experience, not making a blanket judgement of anything. Actually, not having or expecting a silver platter, I hired a taxi and went out to a very pleasant part of town where the Martin Luther King memorial is, and walked around. It's just that between point A and point B wasn't really walkable or bikeable, so far as I could see. But then, I didn't know what to expect, being a tourist from a small town in Oregon. I hoped for peach trees downtown, I suppose -- sort of like English peasants believed the streets of London were paved with gold. Silly me.
I am quite hopeful that most people on this blog are less superficial in their immediate judgements. Sorry.
My rule of thumb (imperfect as all such rules are) is that any place laid out and developed before WW II is going to be a fairly decent place to live (at worst) unless it has declined into a slum.
Any place developed from 1950 to 1970 is "not the worst" for human scale and pleasantness.
Anyplace developed post-1990 *IS* the worst.
Best Hopes for Back to the Future,
Alan
The city has one of the strongest tree ordinances in the country and working hard to undo the Robert Moses type mistakes of the 1960s in the central business districts.\\
Funny... I lived in Atlanta several years back. And I don't remember things the same way. Every piece of land that could be built upon was in play. KFC's and condo's mixed it up. Sidewalks? Forgetaboutit. Waste of concrete. There is a lot of ornamental landscaping, bfd, the sound of leaf blowers and line trimmers never ends.
When you leave you'll realize how lousy it really is.
Yeah, downtown Atlanta isn't that bad.. but the other 95% of the city is horrible. It isn't just the car centric city planning but also the attitude.
When I lived in DC, pedestrians would typically step boldly in front of traffic as they crossed the street knowing the cars would stop.
In Atlanta, pedestrians are typically seen making a mad dash across the street to avoid being run over by swarms of SUVs who may stop for pedestrians in the cross walk or may just swerve around them.
It brings back memories of the old Atari game Frogger.
Atlanta is the least pedestrian friendly city I have ever lived in or visited.
Type in 1300 St. Andrew St., New Orleans, LA 70130 and ask for the hybrid view.
Note the low % of land area devoted to the automobile (streets and off street parking), and our maze of one-way streets. On zoom you can barely see the mix of 1,2 and 3 story buildings.
The larger homes typically either have one rich family or 4 to 10 apartments/condos. Many of the smaller ones are duplexes.
Best Hopes for walkable neighborhoods,
Alan
Whether or not you are a fan of 'James' - I am in a reserved way - you have to admit that he seems to have spawned a term that may have a long future. Darwinian, Newtonian and now Kunstlerian. Inevitability is on his side.
My paltry thought for the day is that the actual PO point in history which so many seem so intent on defining and sharpening may be less historically important than the psychological effect that will follow. We are probably right at that great turning point of peak expandability, at least using the paradigm of fossil resources. While the possibilities of such strategies as CTL may seem tempting, the fact that they are merely mitigating and postponing strategies rather than actual sustainable solutions will both divide and dishearten the masses. This turning point will not play out instantaneously, of course, but will be the long distance runner to the sprinter of propaganda.
The geological realities are pretty straightforward as is the realistic long term solution. The real challenge will be to maintain some sense of progress and hope against a background of loss of 'growth'. Growth is not only an industrial and economic crutch but a cultural one too. Did I just say 'cultural one two'? Must have been Freudian. Or Kunstlerian.
progress and hope are spiritual ideals, not material reality. There is no need for endless increase in stuff, powered by an endless supply of oil to have a fulfilling life -- in fact, those things just get in the way.
Actually, there are very material reasons why those are
not merely phsycological realities but also physically
inseperable from the continued survival of this economy.
the oil fuels an intensity and scale of that game orders
of magnitude greater than ever before possible, and with
that contrast in mind perhaps even recent history looks
stable or even static in comparison. However, all things
must grow or die. Living things can't grow beyond very
modest limits, and the abundant diversity of life is a way
the grow-or-die dynamic yields healthy outcomes. Tipping
the balance of power through technology begins to turn
a stable though dynamic biological community into a runaway
escalation, which will be more destructive the longer it
goes uncorrected. Clever being that we humans are, we
stepped into the trap. Once you start this avalanche going,
the rules of the game are the same, but you have to run
faster and faster. It's not just the same moves of the
game played over and over in a circle, but the same kind
of moves of the game played with an ever-higher ante and
ever-higher stakes spiralling up to where we are now.
Oil is one of the major factors fuelling this escalation,
quite literally. It isn't th eonly one. All such runaway
processes eventually run out of steam and crash. The one
we live in today is breaking down, and oil peaking is only one of the reasons.
But no, you have it backwards. It isn't spiritual ideas
which have dictated material reality. Quite the other
way around- the material reality of living in an escalation
played a significant role in the evolution of human cultures
over the past 5 to 10 thousand years. Those cultural
attributes which were more compatible with the material reality of escalation have become more pronounced.
Vision does not drive material culture, except insofar
as those aspects of material culture driven _do not affect
the bottom line_ of competition and survival. Those material
realities dictate the viable parameters of vision, and
incompatible vision is eliminated.
http://www.evworld.com/news.cfm?newsid=15309&url=http://tinyurl.com/2xkd...
And who will benefit from the use of those taxes? It is safe to say that the proceeds would not be used to improve the lot of the average person, or to make the environment more pleasant, or try to restore some destroyed patches. Likely, they would build more roads, hire more police and burn it up in conferences about how nice it would be to have alternative sources of energy.
You got that right. Since the Rio conference of 1992? there have been never ending meetings and conferences and accords but as yet I haven't seen one - one - actual deed that could be construed as a result. Zip. Okay, maybe some windmill subsidies, but that goes way back.
Europe has done something, but there's such a long way to go. All they've done is put out a peashooter contract or two to prepare for the air raid. So let's have another Memorandum of Understanding that we have a common problem and agree to meet again to discuss guidelines for protocols.
When all you have is a pen, all problems are on paper.
The Euros are not "doing enough" I agree, BUT they are doing something.
One cannot get a building permit in Germany w/o plans for R-49 walls (if I converted properly) et al. Hyper-Efficiency by US standards. Half the world's PV is going into Germany AFAIK.
And a repost of mine about France.
I have been staying up late researching the French tram building boom. They can, and often do, go from financial decision to ribbon-cutting in 3 to 4 years.
Below are the French towns of 100,000 or more without tram lines or plans for them.
Perpignan
Limoges (they have Electric trolley buses)
Poitiers
Amiens
Metz (nearby Nancy opened one in 2000)
Dijon
The following towns have unfunded plans
Tours
Brest
Le Havre
Reims
And the following cities and towns have Urban Rail (several under 100K population)
Grenoble
Lyon
Montpellier
Nantes
Orléans
Paris
Rouen
Strasbourg
Bordeaux
Marseille
Mulhouse
Nancy
Nice
Toulon
Toulouse
Valenciennes (under construction)
Lille
Rennes
Le Mans (just opened)
Clermont-Ferrand
Caen
St. Etienne
And La Rochelle has a factory test track with limited public use.
Note that the Metropolitan area population can be twice or three times the city population and many tram lines go into nearby villages.
A slightly dated quote (2005) mentioned 120 km of tram lines (almost all extensions or additional lines) under construction in France at that time. A review of plans indicates that the pace is at least that high today, if not higher.
The number of French that can get around without oil is quite high, even if they drive today. A strategic asset par excellence. Rail has an elasticity of supply that high fuel mileage cars lack.
Other than border crossings, only 100 km of TGV plans are left unfinished. A nationwide network of high speed rail.
Plus large scale bicycle rental programs in Paris & Lyon.
Best Hopes for French Non-Oil Transportation,
Alan
alistairC on June 3, 2007 - 6:57am
I work in Lyon, and in a typical month I use the train, metro, public bicycles, sometimes tram and bus. Unfortunately I live outside the metropolitan area and commute mostly by car.
Despite the very positive points outlined by Alan, this is the weak point in the French transport schema : urban flight, especially in the past couple of decades, has created vast zones of individual suburban houses around the cities (up to 50 km). Inner cities have been upgraded since then, but urban real estate has become prohibitively expensive as a consequence, ruling out an inversion of the tendency for most people.
The big squeeze will happen as transport costs escalate. I feel it myself.
AlanfromBigEasy on June 3, 2007 - 7:27amS
One of the differences between new trams in France & UK is their location.
The French (with a few exceptions) take a busy bus route that goes through the city center. They take a traffic lane (HORRORS !!) and dedicate it to the new tram (with traffic signal priority) and rework the area around the tram for pedestrians. Stops every 500 m or so. They also often beautify the area. Results are an immediate 25% increase in ridership over the bus line and lower unit costs to operate than the prior bus.
The Brits take old rail lines out to the suburbs and convert them to trams. No partnership with the buses, no urban changes, stops every 1 to 1.5 km. Uneven ridership results. Lower per km costs to build than the French, but higher operating costs (apparently due to lower density service).
No significant changes in Urban form.
Adding "British" style service would better serve the outlying suburbs, but I doubt that the French will do that.
Of course, not everyone is served by the new trams, but it does provide an alternative for towns and cities to coalesce around.
And once one tram line is installed, it is easier to add a second, and a third. This is precisely what is happening.
Post-Peak Oil, the French will have to build more tram lines faster. But speeding up to, say, 250 new km/year is entirely doable given their "running start". And, IMHO, adding 250 km of new tram lines every year plus other reasonable actions will keep France ahead of the depletion curve.
Best Hopes for Running Starts in Mitigating Peak Oil,
Alan
This high an R value only makes sense in certain situations and certain building configurations. It makes no sense, for example, if the house has a huge amount of window area, as the major loss of heat will be through the windows and increasing wall R will likely be well past the point of diminishing returns. It also only makes sense in a climate where there is a large temperature delta between inside and outside.
In Wilamette Valley OR where I live (on southernmost tip) the temperature delta is not very large. Typical winter day ranges between around 30F and 50F. Oregon has (or had) what they called 'Super Good Sense' standards to which our house is built. This includes ~R25 walls (6" with Hi-R fiberglas) as well as good sealing and at least 2 pane glass.
The person who built our house was a Southern California person and put lots of huge windows in. Fortunately they are mostly South facing, but still represent a huge heat-loss problem. We have spent a couple of $K so far on single cell shades along with drapes, which I figure raises the windows from ~R1.5 to about R4.5. In our case, adding insulation to the walls (R25) or ceiling (R40) would make no sense at all and have virtually no effect on heat loss. Getting those last two big picture windows outfitted with shades and building storm doors for the five sets of French doors (yes five!) and 2 other glass doors (12 individual doors altogether!) will be my main focus. For anyone curious, the price/quality of the house was unbeatable at the time.
Best hopes for regionally sensible building standards.
I agree with the regionally sensible standards. The weather variations within Germany are such that a unitary standard can make sense (I assume it is one nationwide code from what I have read).
Besides wall standards, there are also window standards (including "how much" as well as R-values) that are as strict as the wall standards. Tightness and air exchanges are also covered.
Willamette Valley OR is not that different from Southern Germany in climate that their standards could not also be used as a guide for new construction there. They will require "modification" for application to New Orleans :-) (I am looking into that).
In other words, if I was building new in Willamette Valley I would use the German standards as a guide.
The "take home" message is that German MINIMUM standards are NOT "common sense" or "reasonable" but extreme, edge of the envelope standards WHEN JUDGED BY TODAY'S ENERGY COSTS.
But, over a century plus, I think that the new German houses will make sense.
Many Germans opt for even higher standards, and there is a voluntary standard as well (forgot the name but it is something like PassiveHaus).
Best Hopes for Minimum Energy Maximum Conservation Building,
Alan
Well, I am unable to find a listing of heating degree days for Munich Germany, but I am reasonably certain, just based on avg. monthly temperatures that the Willamette Valley is quite a bit warmer than Southern Germany and more warmer still than Germany as a whole. Willamette Valley has the maritime effect keeping the temperatures from swinging to the extremes that I would expect you would see in Germany with it being inland at 4 degrees or so farther north latitude on average.
Anyway, I do agree that it makes sense to build houses as small as one can be comfortable in, with high quality materials and sensible heat engineering designed to use as little energy as possible. Put that extra $40K into building or buying a sensible house rather than buying that Hummer.
Although I wrote Southern Germany, in my minds eye I was thinking Rhineland. Further north, but closer to the sea and a bit lower altitude than Bavaria.
White wine grapes (a very few reds) grow there. That is where the comparability came in.
And "wasting money" on too much insulation, windows that are "too good", etc. seems to me to be a preferred waste of resources.
Best Hopes for "Too Much" Energy Efficiency,
Alan
This is Pinot Noir country here. However, GW is making it more like Cabernet country every year. But we have ideal red wine climate.
You have to go to Northern Washington state (coastal area) to get into white wine country.
Best hopes for fine vintages...
The Rheinland is a lot warmer than the Munich area: closer to the Gulf Stream influence, and further from the Alps. The latter is why Munich is cooler on average than Berlin as well. The Willamette is much warmer than Bavaria (in which there is nearly no wine except for the Franconia area near the Danube).
Also, according to our experience the Willamette is much warmer than it once was... summer temperatures 35 and over are common now and were rare when I was a student (70s).
A bit late in posting I know.
Alan, one other thing that the French are doing is re-building and upgrading the medium/long distance buses and the medium distance trains (50 km or so).
I know that where I live (to the north of Nantes) they're planing on re-opening the rail link, so that I would be able to commute 5km, take a train to the city, and then go to work by tram. Also we already have flat-rate buses operating at 2$ a trip all over the departement.
David
Regarding the inelasticity of the demand for gasoline in the US, I followed up the linked story from the Jackson Hole newspaper which had included this statement:
However, checking http://blogs.usatoday.com/gallup/ and http://www.galluppoll.com/ I couldn't find that exact statement. Here are the lastet surveys that Gallup has done that I could find:
http://www.galluppoll.com/content/?ci=27712
http://www.galluppoll.com/content/default.aspx?ci=2167
do indeed speak to the inelasticity of the gasoline demand.
What I wonder though is what the difference will be between what people say they will do, and the subsequent actions should the situation arise.
For example (from the second link of mine), on the question of whether one would move from their existing home, indeed 86% rejected the idea no matter what the price of gasoline. However that is the wrong question to ask. The real question (which Gallup dared not ask?) would be: If you could no longer be assured of enough gasoline to support your required driving given your current residence, which choice would you make...
The article does note that the poll replies may be more bravado than reality.
But more and more, I think it was shortages, not high prices, that drove the cutbacks in the 1970s.
I concur that it was the unavailability of gasoline that really woke people up, not the (modest by world standards) price of gasoline. But Gallup didn't, and I doubt will, ask the question of what people would do when they can't find gasoline to buy.