BECK: Matthew, you know, I really think that we are always -- you always hear we`re 15 years away from flying cars that could be powered on SPAM.

SIMMONS: Well, that might be the case. We`re right in the middle now of the beginning of a crisis.

BECK: Right. In the beginning of the crisis. If -- if we really wanted to solve this, don`t you think we could have solved this long ago?

SIMMONS: No, I don`t.

BECK: OK. All right. Well, enough said. There you go. Why do you say that?

SIMMONS: Well, this is a physics thing. And what we`re going to have to do is learn how to use less, as opposed to invent more.

BECK: Yes. Really not going to happen. Not going to happen.

SIMMONS: We`re going to have to.

BECK: No, I`m going to let my kids worry about it. Me, I`m buying a bigger car. Matthew, thanks a lot.

SIMMONS: You`re welcome.

BECK: All right. If you listen to me on the radio, you know I really am one of these guys who`s always prepared way in advance for any crackpot doomsday scenario. I had a safe room, you know, years before nothing happened on Y2K.

I really have a Tamiflu prescription, written in 2003. I`ve had my basement stocked with food and water for -- all right. All right, I get it. Food and water stacked in my basement before, you know, nothing happened on 6-6-06.

So it only stands to reason that I`m going to be the first guy to prepare for this, you know, inevitable oil crisis. But you know, if you`re going to do that, I have to pick another energy to use, and do research and stuff. And I mean it, I am the laziest guy you will ever meet.

Beck actually ticked me off a bit with the ending statements where he jokes and said "No, I'm going to let my kids worry about it."  I know that he was kidding but he's sending the wrong message to the public.

My $.02

-C.

Saudi Arabia May Oil Output At 9 Mln B/D - Petrologistics

It reduced the requirement for the group's oil to 28.8 million bpd in the third quarter and 29.5 million bpd in the fourth quarter.

The world's top exporter Saudi Arabia pumped 9.35 million barrels per day in May, up 100,000 bpd from April.

Really? 9.35 mbd?

Iraq resumes oil exports through Turkey

ANKARA, Turkey - Oil exports from Iraq's northern fields have resumed more than four months after insurgents sabotaged twin pipelines carrying Iraqi crude to Turkey, oil officials said Tuesday.

Iraq began pumping oil on Saturday and it is currently pumping around 21,000 barrels a day -- just a trickle of the pipeline's full capacity, said oil officials in Turkey who spoke on condition of anonymity because they were not authorized to address the media. Together the parallel pipelines can carry 1 million barrels a day.

Iraq briefly resumed pumping crude via the pipeline twice in January. But the pipeline was soon sabotaged, halting shipments.

Persistent sabotage of oil facilities by insurgents and operational problems have kept the northern export pipeline shut down for most of this year and 2005.

TRIPOLI (AFX) - Libya plans to boost its oil output to 2 mln barrels per day (bpd) in 2007, rising to 3 mln bpd in 2010, from its current production of about 1.6 mln, National Oil Company (NOC) chairman Dr Shukri Ghanem said.

This boost in production is expected to be fuelled in the short term by modern and more effective extraction infrastructure at existing fields and in the mid-long term with new exploration and production (E&P) contracts auctioned through Libya's awaited third licensing round.

A high ranking NOC official and aid to Dr Ghanem said: 'Currently our proven reserves stand at about 38-40 bln barrels, but we have the potential to at least double that figure.'

Really?  Double proven reserves to 74 to 80 Bln barrels?

You know, I have about $180 to $200 in my walled but I have the potential to double that...

Chevron CEO doesn't see oil crisis looming

On predictions the world will run out of oil this century, leading to a global crisis and depression:

"The worst-case doomsday scenario is highly unlikely. The world has a lot of hydrocarbon resources. Coal is a plentiful resource in the United States, where we have more reserves than any other nation.

"People who think that peak oil will occur are just looking at conventional oil. You have to think beyond that. Think of all the other hydrocarbon sources, the oil sands in Canada, the natural gas. Think of all the remote areas of the world that have not yet been explored: the whole of eastern Siberia, the Arctic, the deeper (ocean) waters.

"So there's plenty of resources. The challenge is getting it converted economically into products that people can use."

Ay, there's the rub...

By Lena H. Sun
Washington Post Staff Writer
Tuesday, June 13, 2006; Page A01

Metro's plan to expand its rail car fleet and ease crowding on the trains has been slowed significantly by problems in repairing older cars and bringing new ones into service, transit officials say, increasing the likelihood that the system will be unable to cope with its growing ridership later this year.

The structural and mechanical problems affect more than one-third of the cars in the fleet or in production and have pushed back the planned expansion by at least four months. Instead of having 100 new cars ready for service by the end of the year, Metro estimates it will have half that.

Twelve new cars delivered to Metro are being tested but will be delayed being put into service because 10 have to be retrofitted with a new center pin. They will include more room to enter and exit.

Faltering Fleet
Metro has 952 rail cars, with 184 on order. Of this number, more than one-third have problems that require reconfiguration. Cars, by manufacturer, and their condition.

The logistics of scheduling the repairs threaten Metro's ability to provide relief for passengers crowding onto platforms and trains. If too many cars are out of service on any given day, passengers will wait longer on the platforms, perhaps letting several jammed trains go by before finding one they can squeeze aboard.

Metro operates its rush hour service on a relatively thin margin.

The system needs 758 of its 952 rail cars to run enough trains for the morning and evening rushes. On most weekdays, the system has six to 12 cars available as backups if problems force trains out of service, said Steven A. Feil, Metro's chief operating officer for rail.

"It's not anything to play with," he said. "If we don't meet these challenges, we're going to have some capacity issues to deal with."

Also, the availability of cars could limit the number of eight-car trains Metro had hoped to add by the end of the year. Most service consists of six-car or four-car trains, with some eight-car service on the Orange Line during morning rush.

Metro was counting on having 25 new cars to put into service by the end of June. But cracks in a critical part in the cars being built by Alstom Transportation Inc. have created a major setback.

After the cracks were found, production was halted for four to five weeks. All but two of the 184 cars -- some built, others in production -- must be retrofitted with a newly designed part.

"This will cost us three to five months," said Dan Hanlon, Metro's chief engineer.

Another class of rail car, built by Ansaldo Breda Construzioni Ferroviarie but being rehabilitated by Alstom, is showing strains in part of its primary suspension system.

And cars built by the Spanish company CAF Inc., purchased by Metro in 1998, also have flaws that must be addressed.

The timing of such problems could not be worse. Average weekday ridership on the nation's second-busiest subway system is up 4 percent over last year. Wednesday's ridership, with no special events, was 764,511, a 2 percent increase over the 750,280 on the same day last year. But last year, there was a Washington Nationals baseball game on that day. Ridership tends to drop off in the summer and pick up again in the fall.

"I don't see gas prices falling anytime soon, and we expect September also will have record ridership," said Metro interim general manager Dan Tangherlini. He said the rail car crunch is "a serious, serious issue, and we're taking it seriously. It's a core issue for the authority."

Twelve new cars delivered to Metro are being tested but will be delayed being put into service because 10 have to be retrofitted with a new center pin. They will include more room to enter and exit.

Faltering Fleet
Metro has 952 rail cars, with 184 on order. Of this number, more than one-third have problems that require reconfiguration. Cars, by manufacturer, and their condition.
Tangherlini said that he was unhappy about the delays but that the transit system should not be driven solely by deadlines. "We want these cars to be as safe and operationally successful as possible," he said.

Roelof van Ark, Alstom's president for NAFTA region operations, acknowledged "the obvious slip in the material" used for the part that must be replaced. Alstom now uses different suppliers, he said, and has taken other corrective measures. He said a Metro audit of Alstom's facility in Barcelona, where the cars are made, found the "overall quality of that rail car is very good."

Metro has been struggling with Alstom for years, and there is a long history regarding quality problems. From 2004 to 2005, the Breda cars that Alstom renovated suffered major mechanical problems 72 percent more often than those that did not undergo the expensive work, according to records. Alstom was awarded a $382 million contract to overhaul all 364 Breda cars.

Quality problems affect the entire U.S. industry, in part because so few companies make or rebuild rail cars. Unlike automobiles, rail cars are built to order, so there is little opportunity to work out kinks from one generation of cars to the next.

Metro awarded Alstom a $323.4 million contract for 184 new cars and has been eagerly awaiting delivery of the cars, which have several new designs aimed at reducing crowding. No floor-to-ceiling poles are clustered at the door. Instead of one single overhead grab bar suspended from the ceiling in the center of the cars, the new cars have a double row of overhead handrails -- one on each side -- running the length of the cars.

In February, a Metro quality control inspector at Alstom's Barcelona facility discovered a suspicious discoloration on the truck center pins, essential in enabling the trains to round curves. Further tests found cracks at a weld in the pin, officials said. Some of the steel that came from Ukraine turned out to be of inferior quality, and the welding was not done properly, Metro officials said.

Metro managers have inspected the facilities in Barcelona and Hornell, N.Y., where the cars are assembled. Today, Tangherlini and other Metro executives are meeting in New York with Alstom officials. Metro officials say that they won't accept the cars until all the defects are corrected and that Metro will not be responsible for any additional costs.

On 186 Breda cars that were refurbished by Alstom, workers must refit the primary suspension system because one part is wearing out prematurely. Metro also needs to address uneven side-bearing plates on about 60 CAF cars. The plates control car rocking and rolling.

On the Breda cars, Metro and Alstom agree that the problem stemmed from the assembly process. "This is not rocket science, nor is it detrimental," Alstom's van Ark said. "It's only going to require refitting."

If that's the case, Rich Buettner, Metro's director of quality assurance, questions why Alstom hasn't done the work properly. "They're having a heck of a time doing a good job," he said.

Metro and Alstom are working out how and where the Breda cars will be refitted to address the suspension issue. But figuring out how that will happen is a challenge, given the limited space in Metro's eight rail yards and limited time for repairs.

Rail chief Feil said he is working on a schedule for the cars to be refitted at one Metro rail yard between 8 p.m. and 4 a.m., without interfering with the regular work flow. At the rate of two cars a day, it will take more than a year to complete repairs on all affected cars.

Officials said the work on the CAF cars is less urgent, and the manufacturer will fix the problems.

'Three-nos' call to help save energy

No cars, no lifts and no air conditioning.

These are the three "nos" the State Council has told civil servants to go without today, as part of an ongoing week-long national energy-saving drive.

In India, they are protesting the recent fuel price increase:

Left holds countrywide protests against fuel price hike

New Delhi - Left parties along with affiliated trade unions Tuesday took out marches and held public meetings in protest against the fuel price hike, affecting normal life in some parts of the country.

The Left parties are also gearing up to mount another attack on the Manmohan Singh government's economic and foreign policies at Thursday's crucial coordination committee meeting with the ruling United Progressive Alliance (UPA).

There were demonstrations and public meetings in Communist-ruled West Bengal while normal life came to a halt in states like Kerala and Tripura, which are also ruled by the Left.

http://cnn.edmunds.com/advice/specialreports/articles/115584/article.html

SUV owners who are faced with rising gas prices have found a new way to get out from under their high car payments -- arson.

I know many will appreciate this story!

I know, I know, but there are too few opportunities in life to tell Astronomy jokes...

There are quite a few interesting charts and discussion regarding NG as it relates to PET and the NG market as a whole. I think most will find their forward looking market outlook to be of interest. And yes, I've owned some units since 2003.

Arriving at JFK from Dubai recently, I was stopped at customs by an officer from the Department of Homeland Security and directed to a drab backroom filled with Arabs, South Asians and Africans. I wasn't surprised, really, having just spent six months working and traveling in the Islamic world - Turkey, Lebanon, Egypt and Pakistan. If ever there were a DHS red-flag candidate, I was it, and I assumed this was just protocol.

If only.

<snip>

"You know, we could have you sent up to Boston for the unresolved T-shirt infractions," Malik said. "But what we're holding you for is an NYPD bench warrant from 2004. You were in a fight with a parking attendant, found not guilty and then missed a court date." All true. But how and why does Homeland Security share the NYPD's jurisdiction in cases unrelated to counter-terrorism? A fight over a parking space hardly counts as terrorism.

"We're calling NYPD to come to pick you up," Malik told me, without asking a single question about Pakistan, terrorism, Islam or madrasas.

So I sat and waited. Four DHS officers working two cases - a Senegalese guy who was caught with $100,000 in a suitcase and mine - couldn't even get the NYPD on the phone. A debate then broke out among Malik, his co-worker and their boss about how to call the NYPD. Six hours later, the DHS still hadn't gotten word from the NYPD. A shift change was coming up, and officers aren't allowed to leave until finishing all their cases.

This reminds me of Kunstler's prediction that post-peak US government won't even be able to answer the phones.

Instead of protecting the homeland from such a dangerous T-shirt-selling, off-road-rager like me, Malik set me free, so he could get home in time to watch Mike and the Mad Dog ("Eh, is Pedro pitchin' tonight?" I overheard an officer ask). As he closed out my paperwork, Malik asked, "So, ah, Mr. LeMoine, why did you miss that court date anyway?"

"I was in Iraq."

"Doing what? Like a contractor, soldier?"

"No. I had volunteered to run a humanitarian program for the Coalition Provisional Authority but left when they started killing Westerners."

"Damn terrorists. Take care of that warrant. And welcome home."

Welcome home indeed.

Homeland Security, the $40-billion-a-year agency set up to combat terrorism after 9/11, has been given universal jurisdiction and can hold anyone on Earth for crimes unrelated to national security - even me for a court date I missed while I was in Iraq helping America deter terror - without asking what I had been doing in Pakistan among Islamic extremists the agency is designated to stop. Instead, some of its actions are erasing the lines of jurisdiction between local police and the federal state, scarily bringing the words "police" and "state" closer together. As long as we allow Homeland Security to act like a Keystone Stasi, terrorism will continue to win in destroying our freedom.

http://www.latimes.com/news/opinion/commentary/la-oe-lemoine13jun13,0,1507648.story?coll=la-news-com ment-opinions

http://headlines.accuweather.com/news-story.asp?partner=accuweather&myadc=0&article=6

The possibility that Public Works Projects similar to the ones of New Deal might prevent or soften a hard fall into depression or may help a nation in depression start to crawl back out of one seem unlikely given the responses. One of the conclusions reached regarding `New Deal' was that it by in large did not stimulate the US economy. As it turned out WW2 stimulated the economy.

I was not surprised when members showed faith in the government's ability to deal with something like depression. There are vast differences between the "Great Depression" and any depression coming. Ironically the common thread is based in resources. There were camps during the Great Depression. To get an idea of what they were like just watch an old movie called "Grapes of Wrath." This would not be the first time camps were used in the US though.

One of the first people to use camps were southern plantation slave owners. This expanded to include millions of slaves in the US. Eventually private slave holdings were banned. In skipping over a period of time we find another instance of US internment camps used to house oriental citizens during WW2.  Japanese/Americans were rounded up and put into camps since the US was at war with Japan.

During every war the US has been involved with it has improved its ability to deal with ever larger numbers of refugees, casualties and prisoners. While Japanese/Americans were not harmed by their jailers they were none the less imprisoned with no charges. If we consider slavery prior to the Civil War this was more of an anything goes affair since there were different slave owners involved.

Since I mentioned Grapes of Wrath it is important to understand the restrictions thrust upon Americans during the Great Depression. If you had a car, travel from state to state required different stickers for your car. A recent event during Katrina showed many blacks unable to walk from one end of a bridge to the other; on the other end were armed whites who fired shots in warning that none shall pass! Events like that go to the core of the Great Depression.

The other day I posted a picture and some information about Ike in WW2. The US was responsible for millions of prisoners during that war. Regardless of what you think happened to the "missing 1.7 million" German POWs it should be clear that the US like others knows how to set up camps. If we follow this up till present we wind up with practice terror drills using camps across the US.

I see history repeating itself, does anyone else?

"We are almost certainly at or near what is called peak oil production..."

Too bad it was an aside at the end of the interview, but still...yet another high level acknowledgement of the problem.

Cheap Drinking Water from the Ocean