I accept the fact the green power is never going to be as cheap as coal generated power and that FIT programs are needed to get green power costs down. However, I'm lost when I see FIT programs that persist in providing high feed in tarifs when significant progress has already been made in reducing costs. Doing this does NOT increase support for green power -- it does quite the opposite when the majority of people realize they are paying more for power so that others can be generously compensated for producing green power.

Energy costs do matter. Paying 49.9 cents per kwh for small scale wind generation when we already have the technology to generate wind power for a fraction of that cost simply doesn't make sense. It's highly unlikely that small scale wind generation could ever become competitive with large wind generators regardless of how much subsidy money we throw at it.

It's the same story in Ontario -- the government seems completely oblivious to the significant reductions in the cost of installing solar pv and is still offering 20 year contracts at 80.2 cents per kwh. Meanwhile Germany has been steadily ramping down their tarifs. That was always the plan. Ontario copied Germany's plan of offering high feed in tarifs to encourage the installation of green power, but seems to have missed the second part that tarifs need to be ramped down as costs come down.

There are a few issues involved in this program that bother me.

The article says:

Small wind projects, for example can get as much as 49.9 cents per kilowatt hour for the electricity they generate, while small tidal power generating plants get a whopping 65.2 cents per kwh. (By contrast, the rate Nova Scotia Power charges to domestic customers is about 12.6 cents per kwh.)

So the producers are getting 50 to 65 cents for their electricity, and the province is requiring it to be resold to consumers at a price 37 to 53 cents lower. This is a huge loss, and the money has to come from somewhere - ultimately the consumers/taxpayers since this is a government program. Nova Scotia is not a rich province and the consumers/taxpayers don't have much money.

The subsidies will start out low, but the amounts will rise rapidly as cheap coal is phased out and small renewable sources are phased in. If it actually achieves its goal of 40% renewable energy, then the subsidy system will be hemorrhaging vast amounts of money. At some point the system will break down (if only because NS Power goes bankrupt) and the consumers/taxpayers will get hit in the pocket book for the cost of fixing the debacle.

The second point is that, if you have a supply problem, which NS does, you should raise prices to discourage demand and bring it back in line with supply. You should not subsidize consumption because consumers will consume more of a scarce resource. That's economics 101.

Over all, the relatively high prices paid for renewables will encourage development without adding sharply to consumer prices, he said, because ComFIT projects form a relatively small proportion of the province’s overall power generation. “In the big picture, it encourages renewable energy, but it doesn’t have a huge impact on the overall electricity costs.”

But, as I said, when renewables and coal are each 40% of the supply, the subsidies DO have a huge impact on the overall electricity costs, because the costs of coal are only slightly below sale price, and the costs of small-scale renewables are far, far above the sale price.

Eventually, renewable energy prices will fall and become more competitive, especially as the cost of coal and oil-fired power increases, he said.

That's an example of pure wishful thinking, rather than running the numbers against an economic model and coming up with some realistic projections. In the real world you have to go with the economic models, not the "if pigs could fly" ones.

So this is really just an attempt to wallpaper over the cracks in the NS electric power system, and having once owned a 100-year old house, I can say that the cracks always win over the wallpaper.

Focusing on small time increments isn't generally a good way to understand the macro sized picture. Otherwise it becomes way too easy to incite fear (such as the gasoline scare of 1916) or complete lack of concern (say, like 1984 through 1987) when in fact neither has the proper perspective. Cherry picking timeframes provides data support for nearly any conclusion.

Basically, the current real price environment is very similar to the scares of the 70's, particularly the late-70's. Making today out as something special ignores all the other timeframes when analysts thought that their time frame was special (without mentioning how often this has all happened before), and all the general public picked up about the issue was that the actions of the boy who cried wolf were alive and well among their politicians, pundits, and industry talking heads.

It is a very interesting article, and I love how he points out that the supply-demand curve has changed since 2001 without suggesting a mechanism for the change.

That is probably the best way to provide cover for people in positions of power that know what needs to be done and why, but can't say the words without exposing themselves to attacks from certain interests.

westtexas
I am a beliver in "price is truth" as that is one piece of hard data we can point to

if you take the $25 (2002) to $111(2011) price trend it is 18% / year.
take this out for 5 years = $271

when you graph this, you can speculate on the ensuing volatility - will it be one standard deviation, or two, around the trend line

the question is then , is China powerful enough to stop the USA? , and if so what world will we be living in after the fact .......

interesting times indeed !

Forbin

I posted this conclusion to a previous drumbeat, which bears repeating:

The movement may be led by China - but it's irreversibly transnational. Once again, follow the money. BRICS members China and Brazil started bypassing the US dollar on trade in 2007. BRICS members Russia and China did the same in 2010. Japan and China - the top two Asian giants - did the same only last month.

Only last week, Saudi Arabia and China rolled out a project for a giant oil refinery in the Red Sea. And India more or less secretly is deciding to pay for Iranian oil in gold - even bypassing the current middleman, a Turkish bank.

Asia wants a new international system - and it's working for it. Inevitable long-term consequences; the US dollar - and, crucially, the petrodollar - slowly drifting into irrelevance. "Too Big to Fail" may turn out to be not a categorical imperative, but an epitaph.

Will the US Empire attack China, Russia, India, and Japan and other countries because they no longer use the dollar? Nor should we try to fool ourselves as to why they are abandoning the dollar. The author of the financialsense item makes this prediction:

2012 might end up being most famous as the year in which the world defected from the US dollar as the global currency of choice.

As the item I cited shows, the "defection" is already well underway.

What the article left out is that the gulf states currency's are pegged to the dollar. The peg is what forces the buying of US T-bills and other assets. This is no different than what the Chinese are doing. The chinese will drop the peg when it is in their interest to do so. The gulf states will drop their peg when internal threats outweigh external threats from the US and EU which, if we are lucky, will be a ways off.

Over time, as the gulf states share of production declines and more oil is produced by countries with floating currencies, the US will have the same problem as if the gulf states dropped the peg. We will lose the ability to pay for the oil that is available. In the intermediate time frame, this will likely be the larger issue for the US. We will lose our ability to pay for oil before there is no oil to be bought.

I say we get conventional rail in the US back to where it was in 1940 first.

So what? As long as every last two-bit NIMBY continues to wield plenary veto power, that rail can only ever go from nowhere to nowhere. So is Governor Moonbeam really going to grow a set, steamroll the NIMBYs, and actually get 'er done? Within the lifetime of anyone now living?

A waste of good cap and trade fees. We could use them for other things, such as public education. HSR needs to stand or die based upon its own merits.

Thanks, Eric. From your first link:

After a long court battle, the Court dismissed the whistle blowers protection for the reporters because the Court stated that there was no law to force that the NEWS state the truth! Fact! Going on to say the NEWS was no different than other TV shows/reality shows!!

At least what most of us here already knew has been sanctioned by the courts... Corporate controlled media is free to lie, even when the lies may prove damaging or dangerous to the population at large. I wonder how I would fair in the courts were I to sell Monsanto or Fox a dangerous product while insisting it was safe? How are Monsanto and Fox (or polluting energy companies) different from the tobacco companies?

Corporations aren't persons, they are super-persons with extra-ordinary abilities. This should be obvious under the law, and to SCOTUS. The decline continues... See you on the slopes.

Quite some time ago he mentioned taking care of an ill relative - wife?

Best,
K.

I tried to view Mac's profile and was denied permission. Curious...

He asked me to block him, and I obliged. So far as I know, he's fine. Just doesn't want to waste time here any more, but didn't have the willpower to walk away on his own.

Problem with bikes is that of chicken and egg. The dutch have already made that transition. Others are yet to.

On the subject of rising bike ridership I found this marvelous quote by BikeSnob

For this reason, even though bicycle commuting is on the rise all over the country, as cyclists we remain vulnerable. We're like mammals in the waning days of the dinosaurs: far more adaptable and with much better long-term prospects, yet in the meantime still in imminent danger of being squashed.

I stopped biking to work. The ground do not provide enough friction to guarantee my safety any more. I'll pick up biking again when the thaw sets in. And the lock on the bike melsts open. Till then, I walk.

No big deal anyway. I realy don't like biking in -10C. But yesterday when I went home from work at 16:15 I saw the sun, just above the horizon. Nice it is still up now. Days are getting longer.

The article is available in pre-print from the AGU.

"Abrupt onset of the Little Ice Age triggered by volcanism and sustained by sea-ice/ocean feedbacks",

Gifford H. Miller, Á. Geirsdóttir, Y. Zhong, D. J. Larsen, B. L. Otto-Bliesner, M. M. Holland, D. A. Bailey, K. A. Refsnider, S. J. Lehman, J. R. Southon, C. Anderson, H. Bjornsson, T. Thordarson

Abstract

Northern Hemisphere summer temperatures over the past 8000 years have been paced by the slow decrease in summer insolation resulting from the precession of the equinoxes. However, the causes of superposed century-scale cold summer anomalies, of which the Little Ice Age (LIA) is the most extreme, remain debated, largely because the natural forcings are either weak or, in the case of volcanism, short lived. Here we present precisely dated records of ice-cap growth from Arctic Canada and Iceland showing that LIA summer cold and ice growth began abruptly between 1275 and 1300 AD, followed by a substantial intensification 1430-1455 AD. Intervals of sudden ice growth coincide with two of the most volcanically perturbed half centuries of the past millennium. A transient climate model simulation shows that explosive volcanism produces abrupt summer cooling at these times, and that cold summers can be maintained by sea-ice/ocean feedbacks long after volcanic aerosols are removed. Our results suggest that the onset of the LIA can be linked to an unusual 50-year-long episode with four large sulfur-rich explosive eruptions, each with global sulfate loading >60 Tg. The persistence of cold summers is best explained by consequent sea-ice/ocean feedbacks during a hemispheric summer insolation minimum; large changes in solar irradiance are not required.
---

The large spike in atmospheric sulfate attributed to an eruption at around 1259CE has been known for quite a while. Also, the 1452CE eruption of Kuwae clearly resulted in short term cooling (which has been previously reported), which may have contributed to longer term cooling as well. The authors of this report provide data which supports the claim that the Little Ice Age was triggered by volcanic activity amplified by positive feedback as the result of the slow response of NH glaciers. The authors also use a simulation to investigate this hypothesis. The impact of minimums in solar activity appear to have added to the volcanic effects, but solar variation alone doesn't fully explain the LIA.

Finally, the authors comment that their data suggests that the warm period known as the Medieval Warm Period appears to have been cooler than present conditions. They state:

The 24 Canadian sites that became ice-covered ~800-900 AD (Table 4) and did not melt again until the past decade demonstrate that multi-decadal average summer temperatures in Arctic Canada now exceed those of Medieval times.

E. Swanson

So perhaps strategically-placed nukes could collapse a piece of the Yellowstone caldera roof, causing the superheated volatiles beneath to flash into gas and expand the eruption. The resulting temporary cooling might add enough snow to high latitudes to affect the earth's albedo and slow down runaway positive feedbacks, plus you'd have to think it would slow down the world economy and thus fossil fuel consumption rate.

I don't generally back geo-engineering solutions, but I don't see a real downside to this one.

Of course, I live in Hawaii...

"“All the wealth goes to the leaders.”"

"Union organizers... routinely beaten and intimidated... prevented by government security forces from organizing at Western-financed operations such as Tengiz, run by Chevron.

The unrest has posed a challenge... to Western oil companies like Chevron and ExxonMobil that invest heavily in the region.

The police were sent in to break up the strike on Dec. 16, Kazakhstan’s Independence Day, firing into the crowd on the anniversary of the day Soviet troops fired on pro-independence protesters here in 1986."

Police being police:
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=x9DBOcgQAOY

"On a recent visit, workers were already chipping off and replacing bullet-pocked tiles from a fountain on the central square."

Hiding the evidence. (Note to government: must pass laws making illegal photographing police.)

“All the wealth goes to the leaders.”

That's the beauty thing about oil. All you have to do is cut a deal with the few people with guns, the leaders, the aristocracy. Then you can pump the wealth right out from under the little people, the nothings, the nobodys, the peasants, the natives, the population. You can recoup your expenses by selling even better weapons to the few. The money for oil is blood money.

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=7VWIdX4Rm1I

My gut instinct says you're correct.

There were some gringos on our local bus the other day. One of them commented about how full the bus was and why does the driver still let them get on. I turned and commented that it was only half full. Well, maybe I exaggerated a little but it was still nowhere near 'full' as people were still able to get on.

NAOM

hih - Maybe not at an advantage but not as disadvantaged as the rest of us. From what I've read Japan could serve as a model for some countries with negative pop growth. OTOH Japan is still venerable to PO. Their recent disaster didn't help. OTOH China still has a significant pop growth. But I think what's more important than those numbers is the increase demand for a more affluent lifestyle by the existing population. Lots of factors often offsetting each other. And then there's the question of how one defines "happiness". For some it's a simpler life; for others more complex and filled with expensive toys.

Depends on a country's attributes, once known as comparative advantage, and the specifics of how our extremely complex global society decomplexifies as it collapses, plus the added unknown of Climate Change's influences. In your case, will the complexities that make current employment possible exist as time goes forward and with the expectation that decomplexification will be the primary, initial outcome of Overshoot and the collapse it brings? Generally, smaller populations require fewer inputs and assets to subsist, but much depends on how much carrying capacity a particular population borrows already--very few countries can currently subsist on their individual carrying capacities thanks primarily to energy slaves and the amount of complexity they've allowed to occur. So, an increasing or decreasing populus shouldn't be the focus of your question. How well can a country/bioregion exist within its carrying capacity IMO is what ought to be asked.

The volumetric decline in Available Net Exports (ANE, or Global Net Exports less Chindia's net imports) was about one mbpd per year from 2005 to 2010. I estimate that the volumetric decline in ANE will accelerate to between 1.4 and 2.0 mbpd per year between 2010 and 2020.

It's interesting that major oil companies are selling and closing refineries in oil importing OECD countries. As they say, actions speak louder than words.

ExxonMobil Advertisement in New York Times, June 2, 2006:

"Contrary to the theory, oil production shows no signs of a peak . . .Oil is a finite resource, but because it is so incredibly large, a peak will not occur this year, next year, or for decades to come"

Little doubt as to that conclusion IMHO. Does remind me of the experimental results of a group of researchers from last year who were doing computer modeling of "complex systems", Climate included just because it is such a complex system with so many of the variables unknown.

What the researchers found with such systems and their associated "steady state" and "tipping points" was that invariably, they observed a series of "oscillations" prior to reaching a "tipping point" and shifting rapidly thereafter to whatever new point of stability the system will reach. Seems like such "oscillations" are here now.

So it goes. The paper itself is concealed behind a very high paywall, fuhgeddabodit. The press release is mainly breathless gobbledygook about abstruse matters exclusively of concern to biology or climate wonks. The only substantive statement of even potential practical interest to a regular voter might be towards the end of this:

Research showed that the Arctic was warming at three times the global average and the loss of sea ice - which had melted faster in summer than predicted - was linked tentatively to recent extreme cold winters in Europe.

But even this is very small beer, since the literature, and the mainstream news, are both full of tentative links to this, that and the other thing. It can be safely consigned to the "nyah, nyah, type A's beware, coffee causes cancer; no it doesn't, nyah, nyah, it reduces incidence slightly, and anyway type B's aren't productive enough" shelf, which is already overcrowded with statistically insignificant blather ultimately rooted in typical university-campus high-and-mighty social-engineering memes.

Which of course reminds me that how to afford the next beer, small or not - or more to the point the next lunch - will be far more concerning to a good many southern Europeans right now than anything whatsoever in the press release. The abstruse notion that, "the Arctic was warming at three times the global average," will likely carry about the same importance as the discovery of Supernova 2012A. Even the "abrupt knock-on effects" will fail the "so what" test miserably, inasmuch as the press release declines altogether to specify what they might be, and hollow unspecified threats (many in the vast hoard on the "nyah nyah" shelf) are already a penny a billion in the news media.

I'm left to wonder just exactly what the UWA professoriate was trying to accomplish by issuing that substance-free press release, beyond, perhaps, telling an empty ghost story in order to help scare some political personages into providing next year's grant.

The future of human kind faces dire consequences due to arguably the first signs of dangerous climate change in the Arctic, say leading international scientists from The University of Western Australia.

Yes, and Australian scientist are such prominent experts on Arctic conditions. If I were them I would worry more about Australia, which is likely to suffer far more from a warmer climate than the Arctic.

Meanwhile, in Northern Canada, there are other environmental issues which nobody really expected.

Eider duck population declining in Arctic as polar bears devour eggs

An Arctic duck is at risk because polar bears have developed a newfound appetite for their eggs, scientists say.

The eider populations in Nunavut and Nunavik, Que., are declining partly because the bears have been eating more of their eggs, which are laid on the southern coasts of Baffin Island and Southampton Island.

“The bears were essentially eating every single egg on the islands,” said Samuel Iverson, a field researcher with Environment Canada. “We are seeing just major nest depredation.”

Over the past three decades, climate change has caused sea ice to disappear, making it more difficult for polar bears to hunt for seals, their primary prey. To compensate, the bears have been raiding eider nests for food.

Killer whales finding prey further north as Arctic ice melts, Inuit tell scientists

Warming Arctic waters and depleting sea ice are making it easier for killer whales to swim ever northward in search of sources of prey, including other species of whales, a new study has found.

After spending three years interviewing more than 100 Inuit hunters from 11 different Nunavut communities, researchers from Fisheries and Oceans Canada and the University of Manitoba believe killer whales, also known as orcas, are increasingly targeting prey in northern areas where they didn’t previously .

“Killer whales have been seen more and further into the Canadian Arctic, and when they go there, they eat,” said Steven Ferguson, a marine biologist with Fisheries and Oceans Canada and co-author of the study, published Monday in the online journal Aquatic Biosystems.

“Now it looks like some species might be depleted due to predation by killer whales. That’s something we didn’t expect.”

Inuit hunters interviewed for the study reported seeing more killer whales targeting narwhals, belugas and bowhead whales, which often grow much larger than orcas. Sightings were reported as far north as Foxe Basin, north of Hudson Bay, and Lancaster Sound, between Devon and Baffin Islands.

"Okay, so I made that up. Sue me. But first admit that, a line or two in, you knew it was fiction."

Tom Englehardt (same post, 3rd para.)

Tomdispatch is a great site. I don't know why I stopped going there regularly. Its time I put it back on the list of sites I go to at least weekly.

Three BNSF engines were parked on a siding along the main line. 15 thousand gallons of diesel fuel went missing from the tanks in those 3 engines.

High prices mean somebody would rather steal the fuel than pay for it.

You save 60 grand. One way to cut corners.

Miss Piggy: "That's as laughable as us accusing Fox news of being,,,uh,,, news!"

The response from the Media Research Center: "It's amazing how far the liberals will go to manipulate your kids!"

Where's Sponge Bob when you need him?

Fox News asks the silliest questions. "Is liberal Hollywood using class warfare to brainwash our kids?"

Considering the wasteland of American pop culture, it's hard to take seriously anyone who takes exception to the Muppets.

Hollywood's job is to make money - by way of entertainment, by telling stories, you know, the world of make believe.

Fox News' job is to make money - by way of entertainment, by telling stories, you know, the world of make believe.

Miss Piggy delivered the killer line . . .

Following Kermit's comments, Miss Piggy chimed in. "It's almost as laughable as accusing Fox News of, you know, being news."

Kermit then said, "Boy, that's going to be all over the Internet." Good call, Kermit.

Piggy gets revenge on the Fox!

Good article.

Couple of comments-the trend of a declining national cattle herd has been ongoing for many years. USDA announced in fall, 2010 that calves held for replacement had reached it's lowest point since 1954. With fewer replacements, it was obvious that the national herd would shrink. And so it does. The original causes of recession reduced demand for beef and spiking feed costs are now joined with drought.

With Cattleman's Association figuring today's profit at a little over $100/cow, I'm skeptical these trends will reverse for quite some time. It takes nearly 2 yrs to raise that animal for market.

I'm waiting for the volatility of today's weather to impact corn. Will the future fall of US corn production allow a moratorium on the US ethanol mandate?

One of the unintended side effects of this will be partial energy independence, small communities will no longer have to depend on the central grid for everything.
This may inspire claims for political independence as well.

The crash of solar PV panel prices has got to be one of the biggest energy stories around. But the mainstream media seems quite disinterested. They are far more interested in rehashing the collapse of Solyndra which came about because of the PV panel price collapse. And they often paint the story as "The solar industry is failing . . . just look at Solyndra."

Well natural gas prices have collapsed too and I'm sure some mom & pop wells are unprofitable. Do we look at the low price of natural gas and say "The natural gas industry is failing!" Quite the opposite actually . . . it is a "natural gas boom"!

Why such a double-standard?

But Spec.., "only Nixon could go to China", eh?

At least Lutz is going to get something of a hearing from the crowds, and I do think he get some nice Eyejabs in at Rush, Dobbs and O,Really?..

In attempting to explain why Chevy has sold fewer than 8,000 Volts, Dobbs (on O'Reilly) states, flatly, “It doesn’t work.” He elaborates, “It doesn’t go fast and go far on electricity. What happens is it catches fire,” adding that Chevy has recalled some 8,000 Volts.

..What on Earth is wrong with the conservative media movement that it feels it’s OK to spread false information, OK to damage the reputation of perhaps the finest piece of mechanical technology our country has produced since the space shuttle, OK to hurt an iconic American company that is roaring back to global pre-eminence, OK to hurt American employment in Hamtramck, Mich., as long as it damages the Obama administration’s reputation?

He just made a more audible case for electrics than either of us could. (and he closes it off with yet another jab at Climate Science! He's just made US-made EV's an Apple-pie Cause Celebre')

Anyone have any personal experiences with buying and operating a Volt?

Please don't make the entire quote clickable. It's difficult to read orange on white text.

The government of Cambodia has announced that it is planning to import and refine oil from Iran in clear defiance of recent US sanctions on Iranian oil imports.

I figure America's pro-business politicians must appreciate other country's interest and procurement of Iranian oil, in spite of the sanctions. Afterall, they are for reinstating the deregulation that led to the mortgage meltdown, right? And they are ok with Freddie-Mac putting up roadblocks to troubled mortgage holders from refinancing so their bets on those same mortgage holders will pay off when they lose their homes through default.

Any kind of profit making however morally hideous it may be to the observer, is considered part of the free enterprise system. Well, if their so in love with that mentality, it should be ok with them for other country's to import Iranian oil.

At least that's the logic. But of course we know how that works.

Maybe the strategy of Europe and the U.S. is to eliminate their dependance on Iranian crude oil and retool their refineries to process different crude oil grades from other sources in advance of a disruption of Iranian oil production or a blocking of the Strait of Hormuz. Countries that continue to purchase Iranian crude oil will adopt the risk. Help Iran at your peril.

Well, I guess that makes you, like me, part of the "Global Conspiracy" trying to keep the e-Cat off the market.

Attempting to be surprised by this.

Nope, not happening.

Folks like Rossi upset me a lot, not because they might take some fools money, but because of the ideas that they place in people's heads that ignorance of the laws of physics will let you break them with impunity.

This isn't Star Trek.

But wait until the next round of "Gyre"-fuelled free energy fakers. I'm sure it won't take nearly as long as it should before they are posting on here...

Link: http://arstechnica.com/science/news/2012/01/how-the-craziest-fing-theory...

Some sixty miles north of Byron, IL, there was a small, 2.4 magnitude earthquake, at McHenry.

Neither got a lot of play in the local news. Just a gentle reminder that we have nuclear plants near fault lines in Illinois.

Chicago Breaking News has this :-

Switchyard equipment may be culprit in Byron nuclear plant power failure

Meanwhile ...

Cold weather kills dozens in eastern Europe

also Romania Boosts Natural Gas Imports on Record-High Consumption

and Freezing weather kills more than 60 in eastern Europe

Yeah . . . when that place implodes, it is going to go out with a bang. A toxic brew of fundamentalist religion, money, corruption, unemployment, a large population of frustrated young males, etc.

They seem quite stable for now . . . they still have billions of barrels of oil and the price of oil is high. But some day that country is going to have a heck of a reckoning. If I lived there, I'd have a bug-out plan.

Almost every nation wants a growing population. The growth here in Australia is 1.5% pa I think, in Canada its similar, in America a little lower - and the mass media celebrates these insanely high growth rates as a great achievement. A handful of nations achieve population stability and this is a cause for despair.

But the Kingdom is an extreme example. Already in massive population overshoot, and still due to double over the next 30 years. They had ambitious plans to feed their population with industrial scale wheat production but had to wind these back when the aquifers ran low. I'm sure there's plenty of officials there in a panic over this, but the majority, particularly the religious authorities, are probably unaware of the true magnitude of the looming disaster.

I'm confused. Didn't the original diversion take it away from Lake Michigan in the first place?

NAOM

Thanks, ghung!

Caltrans is proposing to abandon a popular, cliff-hanging highway in the San Gabriel Mountains because it is too expensive to maintain.
http://articles.latimes.com/2012/jan/29/local/la-me-caltrans-highway39-2...

Another 'landmark' report to tell us what we already know. Perhaps these recommendations will be as actionable as the ones that came out of the much touted "Earth Summit" 20 years ago, which lead to the Kyoto Protocol, another dog that won't hunt. Best hopes that awareness will lead to meaningful action someday...

Find report here. (Large PDF warning) The 50 recommendations begin on page 31. Section on energy begins on page 44; no mention of liquid/transportation fuels, peak oil, etc..but you'll love the technucopian solutions suggested (more cell phones?!)

Opening letter (in part):

Letter dated 30 January 2012 from the Co-Chairs of the High-level
Panel on Global Sustainability addressed to the Secretary-General

We have the privilege to submit to you the report of the High-level Panel on
Global Sustainability, entitled “Resilient People, Resilient Planet: A Future Worth Choosing”.

We undertook this report during a period of global volatility and uncertainty.
Economies are teetering. Inequality is growing. And global temperatures continue to rise. We are testing the capacity of the planet to sustain us. Efforts to reach the Millennium Development Goals and other social and economic targets are hampered by both the inability to agree on decisive and coordinated action in national and multilateral fora, and by unmet commitments for financial support.

The signposts are clear: We need to change dramatically, beginning with how
we think about our relationship to each other, to future generations, and to the
eco-systems that support us. Our mission as a Panel was to reflect on and formulate a new vision for sustainable growth and prosperity, along with mechanisms for achieving it.

With seven billion of us now inhabiting our planet, it is time to reflect on our
current path. Today we stand at a crossroads. Continuing on the same path will put people and our planet at greatly heightened risk. The other path, we believe,
provides extraordinary opportunity, but we must be committed and courageous in following it. Changing course will not be easy. But over time, we believe that
following a more sustainable path will enhance human well-being, further global
justice, strengthen gender equity, and preserve the Earth’s life-support systems for future generations.

Nearly twenty years after the Rio Earth Summit, the challenge — and opportunities — of sustainable development are more relevant than ever. Today we see with increasing clarity that economic growth, environmental protection, and social equity are one and the same agenda: the sustainable development agenda. We cannot make lasting progress in one without progress on all...

Methinks this report is 'worthy' of its own post :-0

This will get both the Right (It's all a hoax and an excuse for Socialism!) and the Left (Everything will be OK if we just recycle plastic and drive a Prius!) upset because NOBODY wants to make the drastic changes that are going to be forced upon us. Well, too bad, it's going to happen anyway and it isn't going to be pretty.

That is very hopeful... to see the subject brought up in a world forum.

Good to see Sir Fred as just plain Fred again. Doesn't surprise me his knighthood was revoked. Too bad they couldn't take a bit of his healthy severance bonus.

IIRC, in late 2008 just weeks after the wheels came off the bus, the Queen and Prince Philip visited the City (London's financial district). She asked, in a very quiet way, if you people are so smart, how did you miss this coming down on top of you? It sent many of them scrambling for some kind of answer. Her Majesty was not amused. After eighty and more years, she probably has seen it all. The crash - willful self-destruction at the expense of others on a colossal scale - is likely a memory that ranks right up there with the Suez Crisis and her annus horribilis. I suspect the Queen was quite happy to oblige when asked to humble her disgraced knight.

I had missed Bill Moyers' interview with John Reed and Byron Dorgan. Thanks Paul for the link. Sober reflection on what happened in 2008. Even more sobering to think how little has changed.

The BBC documentary is blocked in the U.S.A.
Another source:
http://www.novamov.com/video/ce78nkjnhka9t
_______________________________

From the Moyers page:
The long demise of Glass-Steagall:
http://www.pbs.org/wgbh/pages/frontline/shows/wallstreet/weill/demise.html

"There’s no clearer example of the collusion between government and corporate finance than the Citicorp-Travelers merger, which — thanks to the removal of Glass-Steagall — enabled the formation of the financial behemoth known as Citigroup."

"Citigroup’s shakiest days are over, Saudi Arabian Prince Alwaleed bin Talal al Saud, the biggest individual shareholder of the bank’s stock..." http://www.cnbc.com/id/42034426/Citigroup_s_Worst_Days_Behind_It_Saudi_P...

"Given the 2008 meltdown, he’s surprised Wall Street still has so much power over Washington lawmakers.
“I’m quite surprised the political establishment would listen to groups that have been so discredited,”"

Bernanke and Geithner are still there, too.

Isn't that something.

TVA ash sludge spill: Yet another disaster that just keeps on giving. This was very bad, and still is. The power of TVA is awesome around here. Rate payers pay all the costs -- fines, judgements, and cleanup. It is truly incredible.

Advising people to boil water in response to cadmium contamination?

Get a rope.

I guess the Ghandi method was not working and the armed conflict has begun?

Step down Assad.

It's past time for python boots to come back in style. Python cell phone cases, python briefcases, python belts.... and if your python boots are too tight..

Pythons by land, lionfish by sea, rising waters coming, what else is in store?

... The Norwegian-designed, Chinese-made rig is owned by an Italian company and flagged in the Bahamas, ...

Well that will be one heck of a lawsuit if there is a catastrophic failure.

The numbers appear to be changing which will be interesting to watch unfold. Wall Street never believes it's "different this time." What may be happening is:

Consumers are driving more of their spending toward electronics and smart phone, tablet purchases. Also, the cost of energy is taking money from the movie theaters and shopping malls and being redirected to oil companies and oil service players. This is causing a huge reduction in miles driven and, as the API just reported, inventories of oil are up 2.1 million barrels this week which leads one to believe that we are using less oil but spending more for it. I've said a number of times, certain industries will fall off a cliff while others experience periods of unprecedented growth. Whole industries come and go all the time. It's terrible the price this exacts on families and bread winners, but its all part of the process. Perhaps the market is working as it should. The real question is "can we reduce consumption at a faster rate than the fall of production?" As for the economy, money still changes hands, people working in essential services will continue to find ways to get themselves to work. However, those people working in the "fancy ashtray factory" will have to rethink their career path. The days of spending money on fancy ashtrays and candy dishes are over.

The reality is the housing market is so far from normal that it will take years to get back to its normal state.

This real estate writer might want to re-assess their working definition of normalcy, I would think.

After some pretty heavy rains, most of North Texas is actually in relatively good shape.

Drought forces Texas town to drink beer

closer to the mark

Drought May Cause Shutdown Of Texas Rice Production

What nutter thought that Texas was a good place to grow rice? Even in Australia - rice-growers have gone broke through lack of water - thank goodness.

These are staggering figures. What do they do all day? I might be wearing rose-coloured glasses in my middle age, but I feel we Boomers would have led a revolution back in the day ... if this had been our reality. Or maybe we would have just passed the bong around - who knows?

US retail gasoline sales improved

Charles, along with many here, I'm sure, I highly value your market updates. Your insights and info are always illuminating. I have just one nit to pick, and it's not just you, it's rampant in market reporting (I pick it with you, 'cuz you're 'our' insider). The use of the word 'improved' includes an underlying assumption or values statement. 'Increased' or 'decreased' would be values neutral, and at least as accurate. In fact, sometimes, when reading (others', not your) market reports, I can actually get confused as to which direction something is moving in, as not all of us see infinite growth in consumption of everything on this finites sphere we call home in the same light. When something 'strengthens', for example, is the price going up due to a reduction in supply, or is supply going up?

Again, not dissing you - quite the opposite, in fact. Just taking the opportunity to make a point. Thanks for listening.

I dropped this into the comments.. never sure if it will be cleared or not..

"Nawar, I don't know why you're encouraging him.

"Tight oil will make the oil market less tight.." Classic! - Imagine the sound of a soda straw, working well down into the ice-cubes, looking for that last, sweet hit of pop.

Dare to dream! "

spec - Sometimes I can be a tad sympathetic which such silly statements if I allow that the speaker just isn't to educated on the subject. The worse aspect of such a proclamation is that the public will think some new tech is here to save them. I've made the point numerous times: frac'ng isn't new tech...been doing big ones for over 30 years. Some improvements along the way...especially using horizontal well bores (a 25+ old tech itself). We may be seeing at least some significant (and possibly shorter) improvements in oil production rates. But what's critical IMHO for the public to understand is the base cause: higher oil prices along with the necessity of the pubcos to drill something/anything to replace their depleting reserve bases. If they did they would understand that any major effort to produce more oil can only be sustained by continued high oil prices.

Shale gas estimates: I don't have any problem with anyone saying there are XXX tcf of NG that could, or even will, be produced from those formations. The critical question, as always, is at what rate and at what price support. One critical aspect of these reserve reductions is WHY? Did they calculate that resource volume has declined...not as much NG in place as originally estimated? Or did they recalculate the amount of ECONOMICALLY RECOVERABLE reserves by using a lower price expectation? In the last week I've eliminated over $150 million worth of potential NG reserves from our drilling schedule. They existed at a price of $4.50/mcf. But at my current price point of $2.60/mcf they have ceased to exist. Prices come back up and those reserves will reappear. But until then they don't count.