DrumBeat: July 5, 2007
Posted by Leanan on July 5, 2007 - 8:53am
Topic: Miscellaneous
Tags: pakistan electricity [list all tags]
"Accumulating risks" to world energy supply: NPC
When Bodman called for the study in October 2005, he asked the council to study the concept of "peak oil," whether the globe was running out of hydrocarbons."Perspectives vary widely on the ability of supply to keep pace with growing world demand for oil and natural gas," Bodman wrote at the time.
In a draft letter to Bodman outlining its findings, the group says, "The world is not running out of energy resources, but there are accumulating risks to continuing expansion of oil and natural gas production from the conventional sources relied upon historically."
The group calls for "a new assessment of the global oil and natural gas endowment and resources to provide more current data for the continuing debate."
UNTIL Iraq's economy recovers fully is there any chance of tackling its other woes? The prospects seem dim. Getting the economy in shape means, mostly, getting the oil industry back on its feet. Iraq has the world’s third-largest reserves but they are of little use as long as the crude remains mostly beneath the ground. The oil infrastructure is in parlous condition after 17 years of war and sanctions. Output remains well below the (depressed) pre-war peak of 2.5m barrels a day.
Iran admits sanctions hurting oil industry
Iran admitted on Tuesday that international sanctions imposed over its controversial nuclear programme were harming its ability to invest in oil infrastructure."The problems that they have made for banks have troubled financing of some projects," Oil Minister Kazem Vaziri Hamaneh told the official IRNA news agency.
Brown says UK energy supply would be 'safeguarded' by new nuclear power
Speaking at his first Prime Minister's Questions, Brown said last year's events in Europe, where Russia cut off gas supplies to Ukraine, 'should make it clear to everyone that we cannot rely on an energy policy that makes us wholly dependent on one or two countries or one or two regions around the world'.
Statoil makes new gas discovery in Norwegian Sea
Oil officials said preliminary estimates of the find showed between one and three bln standard cubic metres (Sm3) of recoverable gas.
Britain has slashed its reliance on Mideast oil
Britain is now importing only the tiniest fraction of its oil from the Middle East, sourcing its crude instead from the Americas, Africa and Norway, according to intriguing new Government figures.
Ideas panel: Oil dependency comes with consequences
Oil is a valuable commodity now but 200 years ago, before the invention of refrigeration, so was salt, said R. James Woolsey, a former director of the CIA and current vice president of the consulting firm Booz Allen Hamilton."People fought wars over salt mines. It was very valuable back in its day," he said. "Then toward the end of the 19th century, electricity and refrigeration destroyed salt as a means of preserving meat. Most of the developed world is totally dependent on oil for transportation like people in the early 19th century depended on salt to preserve meat.
"We need to decide it is an important national objective to break our oil dependence," he said.
HUMANS will have to learn to use the planet to save themselves if they hope to combat climate change, says Festival of Ideas speaker James Lovelock.
King Coal on way back with £50m Russian boost
The prospects for coal have been helped by resurgent prices and a pressing need for energy diversity because of the decline in North Sea oil.
Kirchner denies energy cuts and blames “lobby of companies”
Argentine president Nestor Kirchner denied emphatically on Wednesday that his administration was assessing the “rationalization” of electricity supply to homes and insisted that those versions are only looking “to destabilize his government”.
EU states slow on energy-efficiency, environment
Only Finland, the UK and Denmark have met a 30 June deadline for submitting national action plans on energy-efficiency and the European Commission recently reported that environmental policies are the most poorly implemented across the EU.
Few Are Investing in Alternative Energy
Most U.S. investors see putting money into alternative energy companies as both potentially lucrative and a way to support the environment. But while many might see opportunity, few are taking it.
Wilmar reacts angrily to "defamatory" FoE palm oil report
Wilmar, one of the world's largest players in the palm oil market, has reacted angrily to what it sees as an "erroneous, misleading and defamatory" report about the conduct of its palm oil operation in Indonesia.
North Sea is running too dry to meet target
The energy industry warned yesterday that government targets of keeping Britain's oil and gas production at 3m barrels a day by 2010 look like being missed. North Sea competitiveness is falling and financial backers are losing confidence in the wake of tax increases introduced 18 months ago.
Energy guru: $4 per gallon gas still likely
An exclusive interview with one of America's leading energy gurus, Phil Flynn, in Chicago last week disclosed the hard facts U.S. oil producers and consumers will be facing this year.
Some Coffeyville workers back at flooded refinery
Office staff returned to work at the Coffeyville Resources refinery in Coffeyville, Kansas, which was shut by severe flooding earlier this week, the company said in a press release.Part of the 108,000 barrel-per-day refinery remained under water. Workers will wait until the floodwaters subside before making damage assessments and determining when the refinery can restart.
Nelson: Oil a factor in Iraq deployment
The Howard Government has today admitted that securing oil supplies is a factor in Australia's continued military involvement in Iraq.
Australia PM: Oil not reason for staying in Iraq
Prime Minister John Howard insisted oil had nothing to do with Australia’s involvement in the Iraq war, contradicting his defense minister who said Thursday that protecting Iraq’s oil supplies is one of his country’s motivations for keeping troops there.
More than half of Finns find fuel too dear
More than half of Finns are of the opinion that current fuel prices are too high, according to a survey carried out for Royal Dutch Shell and made public Thursday.Almost 90 per cent of the respondents said they expected prices to rise further in the future.
Mexican natgas pipes explode, no casualties
Three pipelines carrying natural gas for domestic use and owned by Mexican state-owned oil company Pemex exploded early Thursday, Pemex said....The reason for the explosions on the pipeline was unclear, but Pemex regularly suffers accidents and spills because of its aging pipelines.
How We Can Survive the Age of Energy Anxiety
There is a way to attract a sustainable majority of Americans who will enact, and then defend, comprehensive policies to solve the climate crisis.
Kathmandu’s Fuel Crisis (includes photos and video)
An unprecedented growth rate in the number of privately owned small and large motor vehicles as well as an unmonitored influx of mini vans and buses used for mass transit during the last five years in Nepal have helped steadily increased the country’s demand for petrol and diesel. However, Nepal Oil Corporation (NOC) has been consistently unable to clear their dues with the Indian Oil Corporation, largely because of their monthly losses which run up to millions of rupees.
Australia: Oil shortage pumps up price
FUEL prices appear set to jump by month's end after the International Energy Agency warned many refineries around the world seemed unable to process sufficient quantities of crude oil.
PAKISTAN’S chronic power shortage is now assuming critical proportions. And what is worse than the unending electricity breakdowns is the lack of any planning to correct the situation.Not all that long ago, there were many discussions about selling surplus electricity to India. Already, that moment seems an eternity away. With relentless population growth and economic expansion, there is a growing and entirely predictable shortfall between the supply and demand of energy.
Biofuels Could Reduce Poverty Gap
Biofuels will help reduce the global gap between rich and poor nations by making many developing countries energy exporters, Brazilian President Luiz Inacio Lula Da Silva said Thursday."Consider that everyone has the technology and the knowledge to dig a little hole of 30 centimeters to plant an oil plant that could produce energy, the energy they couldn't produce in the 20th century," he said.
Inflation fears smother China's ethanol drive
Beijing is putting the brakes to China's ethanol production drive after increases in corn prices worldwide rekindled worries over inflation and food security.A shortage of raw materials -- because of dwindling arable land, difficulties in importing and a rush enmasse by state firms into the once Beijing-sanctioned arena -- is pushing up grain prices and could throw a spanner in the works of one of the world's largest ethanol production campaigns.
Technology's the answer, but what's the question?
We've reached the point where technology is not only an answer, but the answer to repairing some of the effects of our huge footprint, and it's high time we used those new technologies to clean up our environment.
Back on February 25th I made this post: Get Ready for $70 Per Barrel Oil Again. Okay, so every so often I get something right. The real lesson in this is that worldwide supply versus demand is the key issue. We do not live in an energy vacuum. | 
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Saudi Aramco Raises Oil Prices for Europe to a Three-Year High
Saudi Aramco, the world's largest state oil company, increased prices of most crude oil grades for export to Europe to a three-year high as maintenance at North Sea fields increased demand for Middle Eastern and Russian supplies.
Localized way of life cuts demand for oil
Peak oil is here and the U.S. is unprepared.This is my opinion and the opinion of Eugene Linden in his article "From Peak Oil to Dark Age" in a recent edition of Business Week. Recently, the online "Drudge Report" posted an excerpt from a story critical of British Petroleum's optimistic Statistical Review of World Energy. In other words, the idea of a diminishing world supply of oil combined with increasing demand is suddenly mainstream.
Power and natural gas shortages have meant rolling blackouts and rationing to businesses, underlining the fragility of the surprising recovery since the country's economic crisis and devaluation in 2001. With residential power cuts looking increasingly likely, it has also put at risk the political popularity of the center-left Peronist government that engineered the recovery, led by President Nestor Kirchner, whose four-year term ends in October.
3-year-old girl kidnapped in Nigeria
Kidnappers snatched the 3-year-old daughter of a British worker as she was being taken to school Thursday in Nigeria's lawless southern oil region, police said.
UN official: Cuba solved energy crisis
Cuba has solved crippling energy shortages that plagued the island as recently as 2004 without sacrificing a long-term commitment to promoting environmentally friendly fuels, the head of the U.N. Environment Program said Wednesday.
China's Natural and CBM Gas Ambitions Include Beijing Olympiad
Beijing has a more serious problem. It is one of the more toxic and polluted cities in the world.This calls for a different recipe – using more natural gas in the ramp up time before the 2008 Olympics, which will be held about 13 months from now.
Residents urged to cut electricity use; Program will save money, help environment
Brantford Power and Brant County Power, along with Ontario Power Authority, used the new transformer station on Powerline Road on Wednesday to launch the Summer Savings Program, designed to encourage customers to conserve electricity, save money and help the environment.
Toyota, Ford post strong China vehicle sales
Toyota Motor Corp. sold 212,000 vehicles during the period, up 77 percent from a year earlier, powered by brisk demand for its Camry sedans, the best-selling car in the United States in eight of the past nine years....Ford Motor Co. said retail sales of its wholly owned brands in China rose 25 percent during the first half to 93,206 vehicles.
Nearly half of electricity from renewable resources by 2030: Berlin
Germany plans to boost the percentage of electricity generated by renewable resources to 45 percent by 2030 in a bid to curb global warming, environment minister Sigmar Gabriel said Thursday.
Global warming in Asia: Six degrees and China
The discussion centred on the most critical issues in the coming years in China: “climate change” said our friend, “there’s no getting away from it.” Then he and the partner consultants in the room were taken aback when the China head launched into a tirade about climate change. “All rubbish,” he said, “So what if the world heats up a few degrees? If it’s 80°C today and next year 82°C, or 83°C, who’ll notice? Next?”The room sat aghast, and nobody said anything as they needed their jobs and our friend was pitching a bit of business. So as a service to the outraged China chairman, we’ll spell out what a few degrees of global warning means for China.
Motorists sue oil titans, retailers over 'hot fuel' losses
Think gas is expensive? It's even more expensive on hot summer days. Gasoline expands as temperatures rise. That means motorists get less energy from a gallon of so-called "hot fuel" than from a cold one.When Brent Donaldson, a restaurant owner in Kansas City, Mo., discovered that fact earlier this year, he joined hundreds of consumers in more than a dozen states who are suing oil companies and gas retailers, alleging that they have been overcharged by billions of dollars.
Last night at 11pm, a device by Irish technology company Steorn that claims to create energy out of thin air, failed to make its first public appearance, as promised, live on the internet.As members of the public milled around outside the Kinetica museum, and many others logged on to the webcam last night, it was revealed that the hypothetical perpetual motion machine fell victim to the laws of physics and failed to continuously power the rotating outer wheel.
The intense spotlights surrounding the perspex case in which Orbo is enclosed have been cited as a possible reason for its malfunction, although engineers are still investigating.
“The display case itself is under a lot of lighting, it’s very hot. We think we’ve destroyed one of the bearings on the system, it’s not the technology itself,” said CEO of Steorn, Sean McCarthy, speaking to SiliconRepublic.
The world's top oil exporter Saudi Arabia is on track to complete in December the project that will give the largest boost to global output capacity this year, the state oil company Saudi Aramco said yesterday.The Khursaniyah project to bring online around 500,000 barrels per day of light crude is more than double the next largest Opec capacity boost due this year.
Oil sands no quick fix as Big Oil leaves Venezuela
For Exxon Mobil Corp. and ConocoPhillips it may appear simple: shift efforts, people and resources to Canada's oil sands now that the oil majors have retreated from Venezuela.In reality, it's no simple matter.
The oil sands have their own set of risks: surging costs due to a squeezed labor force, technical complexity and a shrinking pool of attractive available properties.
Governor's order allows truckers to cross the border for fuel
Commercial truck drivers hauling fuel are allowed to cross the border into neighboring states in search of gasoline, under an emergency order issued by Gov. John Hoeven.
Texas Begins Desalinating Sea Water
Desalting sea water is expensive, mostly because of the energy required. Current cost estimates run at about $650 per acre foot (326,000 gallons), as opposed to $200 for purifying the same amount of fresh water.However, it is a growing field around the world as governments and private investors ante up where water drinkable needs are crucial.
James Hansen, NASA GISS live at Zero Emissions Conference, Melbourne Australia (Powerpoint with audio)
James Hansen opened the Zero Emissions Conference to a full house at RMIT University yesterday in Melbourne, Australia.Hansen, speaking via conference link from Sweden, spoke about the latest scientific predictions on climate change.
From the Fuel truck link above:
A big problem is that a refinery in Coffeyville, Kan., that represents a large chunk of Great Plains production has had flooding problems and is not expected to contribute any gasoline or diesel fuel to regional terminals for the rest of the summer
Does anyone have a feel for whether this Coffeyville refinery shutdown will impact fuel availability on the east and west coasts? Will it's impact be limited to the midwest?
They were having serious problems even before the Coffeyville refinery shut down. The impact of Coffeyville is probably not yet being felt.
I posted several articles in yesterday's DrumBeat about what the impact of the flooding might be. It will impact the middle of the country the hardest.
It seems likely that the main impact will be in the Midwest, but in order to combat shortages there it's necessary to drain fuel from other parts of the country.
Yes, but that's easier said than done. Higher prices might lure some trucks to the middle of the country. But I suspect the real issue is the pipelines.
There have been shortages in the middle of the country for weeks, maybe months. Colorado, Iowa, North Dakota, South Dakota, etc. I remember over the Memorial Day weekend, I was struck by how high gas prices were in Ohio and Michigan, when they were usually cheaper than in the northeast. Heck, prices were cheaper in notoriously expensive San Francisco than in Michigan that week.
Interesting map.
http://www.gasbuddy.com/gb_gastemperaturemap.aspx
Especially when you compare it with this map.
Those maps really demonstrate what is going to happen as fuel gets even more scarce.
Being at the end of a pipeline is not a good thing.
Ireland and Great Britian take note as well. Ugliness.
Is there a larger version-hard to follow all the lines. Also, a legend-assume blue is crude, black is gas?
I'm sure there are better maps out there. IIRC, some huge, detailed ones were posted here after Katrina. I'll ask around and see if anyone remembers where they are.
Black are trunk lines. Blue are regional.
The airlines can do the "tankering" trick, but truckers only carry about 100 gallons onboard so they can't "tanker" too much. Drivers of cars are out of luck. Unless your hybrid car can go clean across the continent, you can't do the "tanker" trick.
The "tankering" trick is often found in the case of ordinary drivers near large cities. A driver will often go to the damn cheapest gas station to get the gas even if it's out of the way. Unless that gas station is close enough, the fuel use will cause more expense that tankering is useless. This is why I do not bother. With a weekly fuel use of less than 7 gallons, the money to be saved is less than a buck. It's a case of "Why bother?".
In the Chicago area, any drive into Chicago means that you go by more costly gas stations than suburbs. So, you get your gas while in your desired flight plan to avoid wasting fuel and money. If you pay a nickel a gallon more than farther-from-city gas stations, you save a little money compared to going several miles out of the way. The exemption is a special mission to the suburbs. If you must go on a mission to the suburbs, you may as well get a less costly load of fuel. But it's not really worth it if you must divert by a few miles to get that load of fuel.
Petrol prices high enough yet? Just wait!
Hello Leanan,
Have there been any reports yet on how fuel shortages in the Heartland may impact farming and later harvesting? Thxs for any reply.
Bob Shaw in Phx,Az Are Humans Smarter than Yeast?
Diesel took a spike in New Orleans (about a dime) for a couple of weeks this spring due to MidWest planting season.
This is despite the fact that farmers can use higher sulfur diesel than road diesel (0.05% vs 0.0015% from memory). In a pinch, farmers can use road diesel of course.
If diesel supplies are disrupted due to a hurricane (which later floods part of the MidWest(, not good.
Best Hopes for Harvest,
Alan
Once upon a time, Harvest was SO important that we had a national holiday to give thanks for one in late November.
Australian Prime Minister acknowledges peak oil?
Presumably it wouldn't be a problem if everything was hunky-dory with the supply of crude?
http://www.pm.gov.au/media/Speech/2007/Speech24415.cfm
It occurred to me yesterday that I had never quantified what percentage of remaining recoverable reserves on my Export Land Model would be exported. Note that the percentage of production that goes to consumption at the start of a production decline has a big effect on when a net exporter becomes a net importer. For example, the top five net exporters, in 2006, consumed about 25% of their total liquids production. Offsetting this, many of the top exporters, based on HL, are at fairly advanced stages of depletion, especially the top three.
In any case, the answer to the question of how much oil would be exported from Export Land follows (I based URR on Texas URR versus peak production):
My Simplistic Export Land Model (ELM): http://static.flickr.com/97/240076673_494160e1a0_o.png
Assumptions:
URR 38 Gb, peaking at 55% of URR (approximately same range as Texas and Saudi Arabia);
Post-peak production decline rate of 5% per year (approximately same range as Texas, historically, and Saudi Arabia, currently);
Post-peak rate of consumption increase of 2.5% per year (less than half the current rate of increase in consumption for top exporters).
Results:
Net exports go to zero in nine years (note that the UK went from peak exports to zero exports in about six years).
From Year Zero on the ELM, only about 10% of remaining recoverable reserves would be exported.
Wow - thats stark. Anyway sensible governments will institute rationing in both consuming & producing nations which will mitigate the situation.
As Alan says:
Best hopes for sensible governments.
We'll never see actual rationing in the US. Fuel will be "rationed" by price so only the rich will be able to afford it anymore. It's the "American Way"...
There was fuel rationing in the US during ww2 in the US and all the other participating countries
True. However, there was also a gigantic black market in the stuff.
"gigantic black market"?
The War Production Board controlled oil production at the well-head as I understand, and allocated shipments from the refinery.
Just what fraction of production went on the black market? Was it diverted from the military?
Are you counting people selling each other their ration coupons as "black market"?
Could you kindly supply something in the way of references? These bald assertions sound to me more like tripe designed to discredit necessary responses to peak oil rather than creditable contributions.
By 1945 more than half of gasoline was being sold on the black market. My reference is John Kenneth Gailbraith, who was in charge of price controls during the Second World War.
It was easy. You drive out to Farmer Old McDonald, who has no limit on the gasoline he can get under government allocation rules. You give him the money, and he pumps you enough to fill up the tank.
Note that one thing a government does not want to do is to restrict gasoline or diesel to farmers, because food is even more essential than fuel.
There were a number of other ways to cheat on gasoline rationing--which was pretty much a failure by 1945. Anyway, the U.S. had plenty of gasoline; what we did not have was rubber. Can you imagine washing out and reuising latex condoms? That is how short of rubber we were during WWII.
Hello Don Sailorman,
Good points on automotive mechanical Liebig Minimums. No need to ration gas if it is impossible to get lubricant oils, antifreeze, or tires. Controlling market access to tires will gradually remove millions of vehicles from the road as the owners put them up on blocks in their front yard.
The Govt could decree that semi-rig tires, farm tractor tires, and giant tires for earthmoving equipment could be priority one to keep the economy moving. Bicycle and wheelbarrow tires will hopefully be priced cheaply for the masses as we move 60-75% of the labor force to relocalized permaculture.
EDIT: My favorite postPeak photo:
http://www.uni-kiel.de/sino/ar/sk/12a_1970s.jpg
The technology exists so that any postPeak automotive tires made for copcars, military police, and ambulances could be embedded with RFIDs and/or color-tech. Then it would be easy to spot anyone who bought these heavily restricted auto tires on the black market. The angry mob would then close in...
Bob Shaw in Phx,Az Are Humans Smarter than Yeast?
During World War II we could buy neither tubes nor tires for bikes. However, we could buy rubber patches--and we did.
Few of you now can remember the joy of buying new bikes and new bike tires and new car tires. The joy of the end of rationing was about as good as sex. It took years after the war for rubber products to become freely available, though war surplus products (such as life rafts) were very cheap.
I remember war surplus DDT at 10 cents per "bug bomb." My sister and I used to spray one another with this--cheap fun and it kept the mosquitos away.
I can remember having to have coupons for kerosine as late as 1947. Kerosine was cheap, but you still had to have coupons for it. (I might be off by a year, but I do remember walking to the service station with a dime for a half gallon of kerosine and being refused because I did not have the required coupons. It might have been 1946, when I was only six years old but still expected to do errands for the family. I wonder if anything is expected of six year olds today.)
Hello Don Sailorman,
Thxs for responding. You were probably on a TOD sabbatical at the time, but I had written an earlier posting outlining the details of using the GM ONSTAR network to wirelessly disable as many vehicles as desired when the postPeak time comes.
For example: Lots of 4-door V8 pickups in my Asphalt Wonderland are blinged out, then only used to haul groceries and golf clubs, or a gas-guzzling ski-boat to the area lakes. By massive computer data-mining examination of Motor Vehicle Registration and business licenses--> it would be easy to separate the VIN #s of pointless pickup owners from those that really need them for construction or critical utility spiderweb maintenance.
Send out the vehicle-cpu disabling code and voila': lots of rich kids, lawyers, etc have instant pieces of expensive junk. These vehicles can then be bought very cheaply by those who need them, or stored until needed later. The new owners [Blackwater?] can then have the reset code sent out by ONSTAR to reactivate the pickup. .50 cal machinegun mounts can then be easily installed in the truckbed.
Bob Shaw in Phx,Az Are Humans Smarter than Yeast?
Don,
My father, who died last December, said there was rationing on the Texas Gulf Coast in order to keep the national policy consistent. The shortage during the war was because of not enough tankers to take oil to the east coast and Europe. The "Big Inch" (oil) and "little Inch" (gasoline)pipelines were laid and relieved the US problem. He also told me my grandfather used to buy coupons, while gas field pumpers would sell condensate for burning in old fords also. We discussed this during the 2nd oil embargo.
I miss my father a lot. He was an oil and gas title attorney, and an archeologist, and a great guy to talk to.
Bob Ebersole
Hi Bob,
I'm sorry about your father. He must have been a good person to talk with, as you are, also.
When a man cares
He is unafraid
- Lao Tsu
I thought that synthetic rubber (made mostly from sulfur) was the answer to the rubber shortage problem? Plenty of sulfur around.
Synthetic rubber during World War Two was a bad joke in the U.S. First, you couldn't get anything made out of it. Second, if by chance you got an inner tube or something it was no darn good and would have a hole in it by sundown.
I think the Germans had much better synthetic rubber than did the Americans; for some reason our chemists just fell flat on their faces when the call came for synthetic rubber.
The man who hoarded tires was a national figure of fun--because there was nothing--absolutely nothing--worth more than tires during the War. You had to be very deep into the black market to get even a retread. I think for about four years there were no tires whatsoever produced for civilian consumption, just as no cars for civilians were produced 1942-45. Even in 1946 you could not get flashlight batteries or a whole bunch of ordinary things. 1948 was the first year you could get cars and tires and flashlight batteries (zinc shortage?), but even then rubber was not abundant. "Neoprene" was the latest miracle, but it was no good for inner tubes. We had quite a problem finding rubber for sling shots, but of course we could scrounge in the dump. (This was before "sanitary landfill," when we used to go to the dump and shoot rats with our BB guns.)
You can take your gold and shove it where the moon don't shine---give me rubber. (Can you imagine a shortage of latex condoms? Yep, it happened. Bear that in mind when stocking up your survival kit.)
'I think the Germans had much better synthetic rubber than did the Americans;'
That's true. Hitler knew that he would not have access to natural rubber. Already in 1937, mass production of sythetic rubber started. In 1940, 70% of the rubber used in Germany was synthetic, in 1944 100%.
There was a similar preparation for CTL, Hitler knew very well that there was no crude in Germany.
The patent for synthetic rubber was held by Standard Oil of New Jersey, but they had an agreement with I.G. Farben not to sell to the US.
Bob go ahead & order those wheelbarrow tires to be made of steel. A friend gave me one( he was embarrased & asked I not be offended by his offer since it was such a white elephant & he could get rid of it himself) & a number of times it has been the tool of choice due to flat tires; not to mention it requires a high output CFM compressor to get the tires to reseat.
My neighbor of 80 still uses a steel tired one- reworked the wood frame a couple of yrs. ago.
I guess the wagon wheel(only metal rim) was the best use of materials available then.
Oh what a web we weave.
Yep, part of the US ration scheme in the war was that you had to attest to not owning more than 5 tires, and turn over any beyond that to the gov't (this at least was what the law said)
Was it diverted from the military?
My parents used to swing by my great-uncle's farm, where they could draw some gas for free from his non-rationed tank.
| The problem will solve itself.
| But not in a nice way.
Yes, but it was a different country then. That US only exists in our memories and imaginations now.
Sadly, that vision of the US has also departed the imagination of most peoples of the free world. Recovering that "reputational capital" is nigh well impossible.
Never say "never". Even the rich may be forced to accept rationing when they come to realize that their company sales are a function of the consumers ability to buy all that stuff depends on their being able to get to work and to get to the mall or Mao-Mart. Those of us in the "Services Industries" depend on a functioning transportation system too, like it or not. Once Peak Oil is confirmed, there won't be any other way (such as increasing gas taxes) in the short run, as prices will be rapidly pushed way up. If the rich folks can't accept the fact that we are all on this planet together once TSHTF, then the road warriors will eat their lunch.
E. Swanson