DrumBeat: December 10, 2007
Posted by Leanan on December 10, 2007 - 10:01am
Topic: Miscellaneous
States worry about federal heat aid
Bush recently vetoed a sweeping Democratic health and education spending bill that included roughly $2.4 billion heating aid for the poor this winter. The amount was $480 million more than he requested — and would have boosted the energy assistance program by about $250 million from last year.Lawmakers from cold-weather states are still pressing for the extra money before Congress adjourns this year. They say funding has been outpaced by rising fuel prices.
"It's really kind of scary," said Mark Wolfe, executive director of the National Energy Assistance Directors' Association, which represents state-run low income energy assistance programs. "We're going to be looking at an awful lot of hardship."
McCain Calls For Freedom From Oil
Republican White House candidate John McCain said in a speech being delivered Monday that the United States needs to reduce its dependence on other parts of the world for oil and encouraged more nuclear and hydrogen power.
Production Sharing Agreements in Putin's Russia
The dynamics of the Russian energy industry have changed in the past fifteen years. Under Putin, the government has reasserted its control by restricting private and foreign investment in strategic sectors, particularly energy.
Charlotte’s rail system is carrying controversy
The Queen City opened its new light rail line two weeks ago, the first such metro system in North Carolina and one that cost more than $462 million to build.But the big question for Charlotte, and potentially for the Triad, is whether such a system is a valuable alternative to traffic congestion or a needless affectation that just gobbles money — money that otherwise might be spent improving overburdened highways used by more people.
Pity the poor Russian gas titan Gazprom: it is feeling undervalued.Despite having a market capitalization of over $330 billion, as well as access to the world's largest reserves of natural gas in Russia, Gazprom is reportedly hungry for more.
Total OPEC Oil Output Rose 40,000 Barrels Per Day in November
Overall oil production by the 12 members of the Organization of Petroleum Exporting Countries (OPEC) rose to 31.15 million barrels per day (b/d) in November, according to Platts' latest survey of OPEC and oil industry officials just released. This is up 40,000 b/d from October's production of 31.11 million b/d, as higher volumes from Saudi Arabia and Iraq helped offset a large field maintenance-related drop in UAE output.
Petroplus sees Coryton refinery back at full capacity by beginning next year
Petroplus Holdings AG said repairs on its Coryton refinery in Essex, UK, which caught fire in late October, are expected to be completed around 18 December.The refinery is expected to be running at full capacity by the beginning of next year, said the Swiss oil refiner.
El Paso to partner in major northeastern gas pipeline
Houston-based El Paso Corp. and Equitable Resources plan to built a 471-mile natural gas pipeline project to connect Rocky Mountain fields to markets in the northeastern U.S., officials said today.The pipeline, which will run from the end of the Rockies Express Pipeline project at Clarington, Ohio, to Pleasant Valley, N.Y., will deliver up to 1.1 billion cubic feet per day of gas. The project will connect with Iroquois Gas Transmission as well as Transcontinental Gas Pipeline, Texas Eastern Transmission, Algonquin Gas Transmission and Millennium Pipeline along the way.
Port Arthur refinery celebrates its expansion
A groundbreaking ceremony is being held Monday at the Motiva Port Arthur Refinery.Officials say the refinery’s recent expansion will make it the largest in the nation. That means increased supplies of gasoline, diesel and aviation fuels in the U.S.
The expansion double’s the refinery’s capacity to 600,000 barrels a day.
Why did solar energy lose its flare?
Cells in most solar panels are made of silicon, which is abundant in sand. But demand in the electronics industry for silicon wafers has caused a shortage of high-grade silicon, which spells potential trouble for the solar industry.
As we began 2007, crude oil was hovering around $60 a barrel. Today the price is closer to $90, and came within whiskers of $100 less than a month ago. So what’s driving crude oil to record prices? It’s easy to blame “big oil” or hedge funds and speculators for the rising price of energy, but to do so would ignore many of the fundamental changes in our world. To understand these changes we need to recognize the attributes of oil that make it different from other commodities.
Oil rises on lower dollar, Fed view
Oil futures rose Monday, extending their streak of volatility as a weaker dollar and anticipation that the Federal Reserve will cut interest rates drew buyers into the market.Prices also drew support from news that fog has closed two Texas waterways used by oil tankers.
Kunstler: Spirit of the Season
President Bush, seeming very much the clown-in-chief, led the way last week by proposing a mortgage crisis bail-out that would appear to have no chance whatsoever of working as advertised. He called it, arrestingly, the New Hope Alliance. It blithely assumed that those "servicing" mortgages -- that is, collecting the monthly payments -- have the ability to suspend scheduled upward re-sets of adjustable mortgages for five years for certain select homeowner payees -- so that theoretically said homeowners could avoid foreclosure.What might have worked in 1934, when the originators of mortgages were local banks that also "serviced" them (i.e. collected the monthly payments) is unlikely to avail today since the mortgages have been sold off in bunches to pension funds, hedge funds, money markets, and foreign investment funds -- none of which have an interest or the ability to renegotiate loans with millions of schlemiels from Cleveland to Denver to Fresno -- while the companies "servicing" these contacts are mere errand boys, with no say over the terms of anything they collect on.
Saudi budget surplus falls to $48bn, growth slows
Saudi Arabia expects its budget surplus to shrink by a third to $48 billion and economic growth to slow in 2007 after the world's top oil exporter cut output to meet Opec targets, raised spending and paid off debt.
Nigeria to reopen oil hub airport on Dec. 18
The main airport serving the oil-producing Niger Delta in southern Nigeria will reopen for daytime domestic flights on Dec. 18, officials said on Monday, two years after a plane crashed trying to land there.
Oil and gas: Cairo toes pragmatic line with the IOCs
Cairo needs to be pragmatic. Egypt’s demand for energy is growing exponentially as rapid industrialisation and population growth suck in oil and gas. Demand is skewed by heavy subsidies on a range of products from petrol through to domestic gas.The pattern of energy shortfall in what are perceived as hydrocarbon-rich countries is not confined to Egypt. Other, richer, states in the Gulf are having to cope with gas shortages caused in large part by subsidies and profligate use of resources.
UK growth set to take a hit from oil and credit crunch
ERNST & Young ITEM Club has issued a warning that the UK and Scottish economies will suffer a difficult year in 2008 - but a housing-price crash and significant drop in consumer spending is unlikely north of the Border.
Iran Intelligence It's all about Oil Oil Oil
Every time one watches a T.V. show or reads a newspaper article that goes on and on about Iran and is the biggest danger in the world because they are armed to the teeth with nuclear weapons and they are terrorists and they are coming to get you, nowhere is the word “oil” ever mentioned. One gets this crippling urge to vomit all over the deceitful article.The Iraq War and the Iran War are about one thing and one thing only and that thing is oil. Oil, oil, oil we want to steal your oil please step aside as we grab your oil. Please sir may I have some oil?
UK's official CO2 figures an illusion - study
Britain is responsible for hundreds of millions more tonnes of greenhouse gas emissions than official figures admit, according to a new report that undermines UK claims to lead the world on action against global warming.The analysis says pollution from aviation, shipping, overseas trade and tourism, which are not measured in the official figures, means that UK carbon consumption has risen significantly over the past decade, and that the government's claims to have tackled global warming are an "illusion".
WSJ Launches Luddite Attack on Climate Scientists and Al Gore
The bar for Wall Street Journal editorials, in the journalistic equivalent of limbo dancing, keeps dropping. In a piece titled, "The Science of Gore's Nobel" (UPDATE: Open access link), Holman W. Jenkins Jr. of the WSJ ed board, manages to slander the media, Al Gore, the Nobel Committee, and all climate scientists -- without offering any facts to back up the attacks.
U.N. climate chief says science clear, move on
The science on climate change is indisputable so the world must now act to limit greenhouse gas emissions or face "abrupt and irreversible" change, the head of the Nobel prize-winning U.N. climate panel said on Sunday.But Rajendra Pachauri, head of the United Nation's Intergovernmental Panel on Climate Change (IPCC), said the industrialized world did not have a moral right to force poorer nations to slash emissions that may stunt their growth.
Scientists: Seaweed Could Stem Warming
Slimy, green and unsightly, seaweed and algae are among the humblest of plants.A group of scientists at a climate conference in Bali say they could also be a potent weapon against global warming, capable of sucking damaging carbon dioxide out of the atmosphere at rates comparable to the mightiest rain forests.
A Honda Civic for the age of global warming
Amid the upheaval at Tesla Motors last week, a milestone in the annals of the electric car went largely unnoticed. At Think Global’s factory in the Norwegian countryside, the first of the company’s battery-powered City urban runabouts rolled off the assembly line.A canary-yellow two-seater sporting baby-seal-eye headlights and a bumper-to-roof glass hatch, this first production Think City will go about 112 miles (180 kilometers) on a single charge. It’s zippy, fun to drive and could well be the Honda Civic for the age of global warming.
Car makers target Saudi women despite driving ban
Saudi Arabia, which imposes a strict version of Islamic law, is the only country in the world where women are banned from driving. Religious authorities say allowing women to drive would lead to gender-mixing and take women away from their role as child-rearers.But industry figures at the Riyadh Motor Show 2008 this week said they are already reaping the benefits from women owning cars, even if they need chauffeurs to drive them. The economy is booming in Saudi Arabia, the world's top oil exporter with a population of 24 million.
New York Times Notices Oil Export Land Model Problem
When a tree falls in a forest where no human will hear it does it make any sounds? Yes, but some like to pretend no in order to make the point that without observers sounds might as well be absent. Well, previously I've highlighted work by Peak Oil theorists "Khebab" and "westexas" on how rapidly rising internal consumption is going to cut oil exports by big oil exporters. But the mainstream media hasn't paid much attention to this problem until now. So the writings of Peak Oil theorists have until now resembled trees falling in empty forests. Finally the trees are falling within earshot of people who matter. The New York Times has a story entitled "Oil-Rich Nations Use More Energy, Cutting Exports."
Iran signals sanctions alert with $2bn China oil deal
Iran signed a $2bn oil contract with Sinopec of China on Sunday, sending a signal to western companies that they might miss out on potentially lucrative contracts with one of the world's biggest energy exporters if they continued to heed US-inspired sanctions against Tehran."If other countries who like to invest in oil and gas hesitate, they will lose opportunities," said Gholam-Hossein Nozari, Iran's oil minister.
UK Plans to Save North Sea Fields
The UK Treasury has announced proposals to extend the life of maturing North Sea oil fields by overhauling the current tax system.The North Sea Fiscal Regime consultation document addresses inconsistencies in the current system, calling for further debate on issues relating to tax and the re-use of oil and gas assets for carbon or gas storage.
Belarus to produce 900,000 t oil/year in Venezuela
Belarus has begun extracting oil in Venezuela and hopes to produce 900,000 tonnes annually from next year to lessen dependence on Russian energy, the ex-Soviet state's foreign minister said on Monday.
Tensions back on the rise in Nigeria oil delta
A protest outside an oil company compound, a high-profile kidnapping and a troop incursion into a militant stronghold on Monday were all signs of the renewed tension in Nigeria's oil delta.
Gasoline Markets in Iran: An Economic Perspective On Issues And Solutions
Iran’s gasoline shortage and growing dependency on imports of this fuel have been widely discussed inside and outside Iran. The problem, which began as a result of the 1980-88 Iran-Iraq war, has continued to this day and its resolution has become much more complicated due to the failure of successive post-war administrations to address the issue boldly and decisively. Today, the gasoline shortage and the enormous amount of subsidy, estimated at about $40bn a year, that the government pays for this and other fuels is a huge economic burden; and because of Iran’s controversial stance on certain international political issues, it has also become an important national security concern. Recognizing the gravity of this situation, President Mahmoud Ahmadinejad recently launched a new initiative that not only raised the price of gasoline but also for the first time introduced an elaborate rationing system.
UN agencies call for Gaza fuel supplies to be restored
UN agencies appealed on Monday for full energy supplies to be restored to the Hamas-run Gaza Strip, saying they were deeply concerned over the state of the territory's health system."The World Health Organisation and UNRWA (the UN Relief and Works Agency for Palestine refugees) express their deep concern on the combined impact of the lack of electricity supply and fuel shortage on the delivery of health services," the two agencies said in a statement.
Sinopec-Kuwait joint venture nod
CHINA has approved Sinopec Corp’s US$5bil joint venture oil refinery and petrochemical project with Kuwait Petroleum Corp in the south China’s Guangdong Province.
Newcastle Coal Price Reaches Record on Supply Concern
Coal prices at Australia's Newcastle port, a benchmark for Japan, South Korea and Taiwan, gained 1.9 percent to a record on concern that demand is outpacing supply.
Namibia uranium output to jump as exploration surges
Namibia plans to open four new uranium mines by 2010 that will boost its output to 10 percent of world production, a response to a boom in uranium exploration last seen during the energy crisis of the 1970s.
Lasers point way to clean energy
Magnetic fusion has long been heralded as the future of renewable energy, but could it be lasers that hold the key?
Speculators could fuel another uranium price surge
Speculators in the uranium market could fuel a surge in spot prices next year, but over the longer term a correction is anticipated as miners ramp up production of this key ingredient for the nuclear power industry.Many hedge funds and banks are following London-listed nuclear fuel trader Nufcor International and Canada's Uranium Participation Corp and buying uranium to hold, taking precious supplies out of the market.
S.Korea not to tighten single-hull oil tanker rules
South Korea does not intend to tighten rules on single-hulled oil tankers, the type of crude carrier involved in an oil spill disaster off the country's west coast last week, Seoul's maritime ministry said on Monday.But it is aiming to match an international regulation that calls for the phase-out of single-hulled tankers as soon as 2010.
UK: Fuel protesters set for weekend of action
The group behind the fuel refinery blockades that gripped the country in 2000 has announced it will stage fresh protests this Saturday.In a statement released on its website this morning, Transaction 2007 said the rise of the price of petrol to £1 a litre had caused it to take action.
"This date was decided by members as the best possible to ensure those who would normally be working during the week to attend.
This action will be initiated at a refinery or storage depot somewhere near you," the statement said. "Anyone wishing to support action is requested to make your way there at the allotted time."
Refinery firm plans public meetings
ELK POINT, S.D.- Experts from a Texas company that may build an oil refinery in Union County will be on hand to answer questions this week during a series of 3 public meetings in the area.
Petro-Canada and NOC to sign US$7B development deal in Libya
Petro-Canada plans to sign a US$7-billion long-term deal with the Libyan National Oil Corp. on energy production sharing.Calgary-based Petro-Canada says it would pay 50 per cent of development capital costs and receive a 12 per cent share of production.
China Wholesale Inflation Up 4.6 Percent
A huge jump in oil prices helped push up Chinese wholesale prices by 4.6 percent, the biggest monthly increase in more than two years, the government said Monday.The November figure was also up from an increase of 3.2 percent rise in October, the National Bureau of Statistics said.
China's Sinopec, Iran ink Yadavaran deal
China's biggest refiner, Sinopec, and Iran have signed a $2 billion agreement on developing the Yadavaran oil field, reports said Monday, firming Beijing's business links with Tehran despite U.S. calls for sanctions over Iran's nuclear program.
Nicaragua may nationalize oil imports
President Daniel Ortega has instructed his Cabinet to come up with a plan to nationalize the importation of oil, a duty now largely held by the U.S.-owned Esso Standard Oil.In a televised speech late Wednesday, Ortega said the decision stemmed from a dispute with Esso, owned by Texas-based ExxonMobil.
State pensions, Brazil's oil and Iran entangled
Florida invested $112-million in Petrobras, which poses a conflict.
Analysis: Putin makes wise decision
Vladimir Putin has made a wise choice by endorsing Dmitri Medvedev as his successor to become President of Russia in elections be held in early March next year.Young and loyal, Mr Medvedev, 42, is a safe and solid politician who has shown himself capable of running Russia’s most precious asset, Gazprom, the state owned energy giant.
Firefighters have been battling a fire at an oil refinery that supplies much of the fuel to produce power for Baghdad.Iraqi oil officials said on Monday that the plant had been hit by a Katyusha-type rocket.
However, the US military later issued a statement saying that the blaze "was the result of an industrial accident".
India to offer 57 oil and gas blocks for auction
India will launch the latest round of its auctions for nearly 60 oil and gas exploration acreages as it seeks to decrease dependence on foreign fuel sources, a government minister said Monday.
Fuel-efficiency gauges start appearing in non-hybrids
Fancy fuel-economy gauges are so popular in gas-electric hybrid vehicles that Toyota is studying whether they might provide a cheap way for drivers of its conventional cars to save gas as well.
While the business world is scratching its head over what exactly global warming and peak oil mean to its operations, owners of Good Company of Eugene know that, for them, it means green — as in lots of greenbacks.Principals Joshua Skov and Joshua Proudfoot started Good Company seven years ago, and were poised to capitalize on the growing, and serious, interest in environmental issues in corporate and government offices.
South Korean spill hits seafood industry
Chung Hwan-hyang surveyed the damage from South Korea's worst oil spill, saddened by the knowledge that the oyster farm she and her husband ran for 30 years was lost."My oysters are all dead," the 70-year-old woman said Sunday as she and thousands of others cleaned foul-smelling oil from Shinduri Beach. "I cried and cried last night. I don't know what to do."
Gore gets Nobel, warns of ominous threat
Al Gore received his Nobel Peace Prize on Monday and urged the United States and China to make the boldest moves on climate change or "stand accountable before history for their failure to act."
U.N. climate talks under pressure to drop 2020 goals
The United States has urged a tough 2020 target for rich nations to axe greenhouse gas emissions to be dropped from a draft text at climate change talks in Bali, delegates said on Monday.
Climate change could lead to conflict, instability: UN report
Global warming could lead to internal conflict, regional unrest and war, with North Africa, the Sahel and South Asia among the hotspots, a report issued at a global climate change forum said Monday.
Just wanted to point out that Pietro Cambi has a page for the Fiat 500 on the autinev.org website: http://www.austinev.org/evalbum/1347
I like this item from the specs:
Some people fold better than others.
On that note, and in reply to "A Honda Civic for the age of global warming"... I don't believe that 2-seaters will catch on in the US anytime soon, even if gas prices doubled or tripled.
For now efforts to improve mileage of existing formats are probably the most realistic change we can hope for. It will take a lot more pain to get Americans into tiny 2-seaters.
Oh Wideblack, you're so pessimistic!
Since most Americans drive alone, a 2-seater is just fine, one seat for each ass cheek
LMAO!! (Now I can get a tiny car...too bad they are made for short people.)
Do not count out tiny cars out-of-hand. Try each one. Tiny cars are being made in Europe where, due to better nutrition over the last 30-40 years, people tend to be bigger than people in the US (not wider, taller).
I know of a few rather large people (remember I am an American, when I say this) who are very happy in a Prius. The VW Golfs also work well for large people, a fellow I think of privately as "man mountain" zips around happily in his.
If the car is meant to be sold in the European market, give it a try before you give up on it. The only area where you'll run into problems is something made for the Asian market only, because while their heights have been increasing probably the fastest, most of the people are still pretty darned short.
Most Americans NEED one seat for each ass cheek.
That made me laugh out loud... However it is sad to see when I go near walmart.
Huge fat rings around one's middle keep one from folding well.
maybe it would be more efficient if they just layed down and rolled down the road.
Here in france a variety of micro-cars can be seen on the roads. Here's one, the Ligier:
http://www.automobiles-ligier.com/site/uk/gamme_classic/gamme_classic.ht...
Seemingly this one has a diesel engine, but I can't find out what its fuel consumption is. They also do a micro-truck, but I can't access that part of the website for some reason. I just happened to be looking at the website because I saw one of their cars this morning. They're tiny, slow and noisy, their only saving grace maybe their fuel consumption.
Ha! Those are cute! "Quadracycle"? Cool. Really folks, read the ad .... it's neat. It's a 500cc diesel twin, top speed is given as only 45kph though? A 500cc motorcycle can do 100MPH although it's not legal to go much over 70 in even the most lax areas .... hehe. This thing looks handy - bet it's a great little errand-runner.
Tiny slow and noisy is a good description of my 250cc motorcycle, and its gas mileage is its main charm too!
I wrote the following article about one year ago. The cumulative shortfall in crude oil production (relative to 5/05, instead of 12/05) has now grown to over 700 mb. If we look at average annual data (EIA, C+C), the numbers are as follows:
2005: 73.8 mbpd
2006: 73.5
2007: 73.1 (year to date through August)
Rounding off to the nearest 0.1 mbpd, the initial Texas data were as follows (the overall Lower 48 showed a similar pattern):
1972: 3.5 mbpd
1973: 3.4
1974: 3.4
In any case, we shall see what happens in the fourth quarter, but the production data so far are supporting the Hubbert/Deffeyes model and not the Yergin/Jackson model.
http://www.energybulletin.net/22733.html
A Tale of Four Predictions – Hubbert, Deffeyes, Yergin & Jackson
Jeffrey J. Brown, ASPO-USA's Peak Oil Review
first published November 20, 2006.
WT, if the following quote is true a $70 floor for non-OPEC oil has been put in place...Why would OPEC do anything to remove the floor?
http://www.atimes.com/atimes/Global_Economy/IL11Dj05.html
'Commodities Watch
December 4 – Financial Times (Javier Blas):"Exploration companies need oil prices of $70 a barrel to match the returns they made at $30 a barrel just two years ago because of the sharp increase in costs and higher government licence fees, according to analysis by a leading consultancy. The research, from Wood Mackenzie...helps explain why non-Opec oil production is failing to accelerate its annual growth significantly in spite of record prices... The inability of countries outside Opec, the oil producers’ cartel, to boost supplies substantially in the past few years has left the global economy more dependent on Opec, which controls 40% of world oil supplies."...snip...
This data goes hand in hand with a question I have had for some time; what is the total storage capacity worldwide for crude oil? If we have a cumulative production shortfall of over 700mb of crude to date, would we then expect to see shortages when the cumulative production shortfall exceeds
the total worldwide storage capacity? Maybe this is too simplistic, sorry if this has been discussed before and I missed it.
No shortages per se, because of higher oil prices. Or, see how much oil you can buy if you offer to buy Brent at $38 per barrel, the average price in the 20 months or so preceding May, 2005. $38 was also, as of 11/1/04, Daniel Yergin's predicted long term index price for oil--as rising production drove prices down (therefore, $38 = One Yergin).
WT, a $70 floor is a cats whisker from 2 Yergins. My WAG is oil will reach 3 Yergins before it goes below the $70 floor...I think it would take a very dramatic event to cause OPEC to drop prices that much especially when we are probably going to see 2-3 more Fed Funds cuts before the middle of summer 08. Without extreme demand destruction I see no reason for oil to go below $70...If the world economy tanks...Maybe.
thanks for the ever-helpful comparisons.
Re: UK: Fuel protesters set for weekend of action
UK readers - get ready for some anarchy!!!
It wasn't pretty in 2000, and it will ugly this time.
Although they don't say how long they will blockade for...
Markers taken on how long to the first station is closed, when the first fist is thrown, and how fast the military/police are called in to remove the blockade.
:P
If only the general public understood how tight the current situation is. *sigh*
As the tight situation continues, there is initially likely to be a confusing mixture of protests/blockades, police crackdowns, and occasional panic runs on food stores like the one in 2000. I imagine that after more than one of these have happened in one year, people might begin to see the pattern again, like they did in the 1970's.
I cycle to work every day in London. Maybe this week is a good one to take off the sign I just pasted to the back of my bicycle basket:
which I got from sirbikesalot's comment on Ciclovia yesterday :-}
I do not wish suffering on the people of the U.K., but a peak oil awareness raising shock of some sort might catalyze change at a deeper level. Those reading here can look at Zimbabwe and visualize our future, but I think seeing a western country in the grip of such troubles might just awaken a few more here.
Hi SCT,
re: "...seeing a western country in the grip of such troubles might just awaken a few more here."
(IMVHO) This assumes:
1) People will have access to information in order to understand the underlying causes of "troubles". (Something that relates the "shock" to "peak oil awareness".)
2) People will have educational and emotional prerequisites for understanding such information.
2) Having such information will be helpful for meaningful and productive efforts to alleviate "troubles" -i.e., "what to do?"
It is the problem we face, no? I personally waded through a good bit of situational depression before coming to grips with the whole business and starting to move again. I do wonder how those who have not faced personal loss, or financial hardship, and lack a rural upbringing will fare in the post peak world.
Damn it, Aniya, I'm an engineer, not a head shrinker :-)
I dont know who is behind these fuel protests, but it certainly isn't the public. Last time it was "the farmers" - but they pay low fuel tax anyway [coloured fuel]. I suspect its psy ops from outside the UK
It had little to do with "the farmers." After all they pay no VAT on fuel. That's a 17.5% discount up front. It was primarily driven by the road haulage industry. Stobart et al. Whatever pond you've been slumming in it's time to return. As those British cockroaches once said "get back to where you once belonged."
As for psy ops from evil foreign intermediaries, you gotta stop listening to Alex Jones and his Prison Planet. The protests were a legitimate complaint from the road haulage industry that governmental taxes on fuel was putting British haulage at a competitive disadvantage with its European counterparts.
Broad popular support dried up rapidly once petrol station forecourts began closing, but there was a legitimate claim by the haulage industry that UK fuel taxes were inhibiting them from competing against their cheaper continental competition.
Hi Leanan, the Chinese decision to sign for Yadavaran seems to be another huge challenge to Bush on Iran policy. It's hard to see how the sanctions will stand.
oilandglory.com
I am delighted by the Iran/Sinopec deal. This further impedes the Bush administration and that is a good thing for the people of the United States.
Just a little bit more of that and our spineless Democratic majority might stop jacking around and start obeying the law of the land. We've long since passed the time for impeachment proceedings ...
Absolutely 100%, without any doubt, right on the money!!! The rats have stolen the US blind and its time for them to take their loot, their legacy, their karma, Hesus, and light out for Port-o-guay.
For those not up on the humor, it has been reported that Mullah George has purchased a last stand grade hideout in Paraguay - 98,000 acres of ranch land with a good aquifer.
All kidding aside, what do the faithful do when God's President decamps for South America just like Nazi war criminals did? I mean, he did say "Jesus" in a nationally televised debate on foreign policy and he wasn't cursing, but sooner or later that tape of the Iraqi mother being encouraged to answer questions by listening to her child being sexually assaulted will get out, and then what? Oh, and if that one turns out to be apocryphal there are many, many, many other horror stories which can be laid at the feet of the Bush administration.
There are some interesting correlations between peak oil and peak Republican party power. We're now in an undulating plateau that began 11/2006 and is certain to fall off no later than 1/2009. The big difference? No one is frantically digging for another inept source of poor domestic and embarrassing foreign policy.
The story about Bush acquiring a huge tract of land in Paraquay has been floating around the internet for quite a while now. Has this actually been verified, or is it one of those things that's become modern folklore?
I know the US has a military presence in Paraquay, ostensibly due to supposed terrorist infiltration in the tri-border region. One could also speculate that such a base could be used for a future coupe against Hugo Chavez, but that would be a not too convenient distance away. Who knows.
Anyway, if Bush does move down to Paraquay, he can alway invite his neighbors, the Mengeles, over for a nice Texas-style barbeque.
Bush family has indeed bought a large tract of land in Paraguay...
--George Sr taking 173,000 acres and George W. taking 98,842 acres
--- The land in question itself may encompass part of the Guaraní Aquifer,
which is one of the world's largest aquifer systems and may be the largest
single body of groundwater in the world.
--- This region is part of the famous "Drug corridor" which funnels south
american cocaine to the rest of the world. The Bush connection to drug
cartels has been noted before, as well as the florida flight school drug
connection involving Mohamed Atta of 9/11 infamy. There is much speculation
that FBI Whistleblower Sibel Edmonds who is being kept from speaking out has
information tying together the global drug trade, the nuclear black market
and the attacks of September 11th.
--- The extradition treaty between the U.S. and Paraguay does NOT cover
crimes of a 'political' nature.
more:
http://www.tpmcafe.com/blog/truthista/2007/jan/10/about_that_bush_family...
http://tsoldrin.blogspot.com/2006/10/bush-set-to-flee-prosecution-readie...

As Attorney General, Mr. Mukasey can try to plug these holes. He may shield President Bush and others from criminal liability; he may resist appointing an independent prosecutor to investigate White House actions. But he cannot, as the 2002 Gonzales memo recognized, tie the hands of future prosecutors. In lethal cases our anti-torture laws have no statute of limitations. Sooner or later, those who violated US law will be held accountable to them, if not by Mukasey, then by some future AG.

Beyond Mukasey's Confirmation,
White House Liability Issues Loom Large
Elizabeth Holtzman
Posted November 13, 2007 | 12:26 PM (EST)
http://www.huffingtonpost.com/elizabeth-holtzman/beyond-mukaseys-confirm...
stiv: sure, water is very handy. Protection from extadition is dandy also. But consider the following:
Aren't all the nuclear weapons in the Northern hemisphere?
How much interchange is there between the atmosphere in the Northern and Southern hemispheres?
How hot will fallout be by the time it reaches Paraguay?
This is the Bush family's way of letting you know "hey, we're doomers too!"
PLAN, PLANt, PLANet
Errol in Miami
"How much interchange is there between the atmosphere in the Northern and Southern hemispheres?"
Back in the 1980's I was very interested in the effects of fallout and came across a declassified study (based on aerial fallout sampling along the "spine" of South America).
Turns out that there is very little admixture between the two Hemispheres, from North to South.
Also as a practical matter, there are rather few military targets in the Southern Hemisphere.
Try this for a stunning visual: get a globe and change the orientation so the south pole is at the top. One quickly sees that most of the Southern Hemisphere is water...with just parts of Africa, South America, and Australia/New Zealand having land masses there.
Flavius Aetius