Energy News, August, 2007
by Lloyd GordonAugust 27th, 2007 at 11:26:07
Wind Power
Oregon’s energy news is limited but interesting. We are experiencing exponential growth in wind power generation – a doubling of capacity will occur when current projects are completed, and a great deal more is being proposed. In that regard we have an interesting legal battle brewing just west of The Dalles. A wind farm is proposed; a property owner complains that it interferes with his visual pleasure. The case would seem to rest on how far the courts deem property rights extend – to the limits of vision?
A second problem plaguing wind developers is the simple shortage of blades and generators. The explosive growth in wind power – Texas is proposing a gigantic 3,000 mw wind farm in their panhandle, and the manufacturers of the devices are up to their ears in orders. To acquire the equipment you must spend at least two years on a waiting list.
Wave Power
Wave power in this country seems to have passed some sort of threshold. One company has announced plans to construct a relatively large commercial facility off the coast near Bandon, another in partnership with OSU plans to construct a test platform 21 miles west of Florence. Instead of buoys bobbing up and down, this will look a lot like an one of the ocean going oil rigs. This is a test rig only; no power will be shipped to land..
Energy – Who Gets It, Who Doesn’t Get It
On the cusp of Peak Oil, third world countries are experiencing great difficulties, with a large number of poorer countries being unable to obtain energy supplies at a price they can afford to pay, and so must simply do without (the majority of sub-Saharan countries on the African continent, some of the smaller Himalayan countries. In Myanmar (Burma when it was a British Protectorate), the government slapped a substantially greater price tag on petroleum products, riots have developed, the army is introducing the savage repressions that the country is known for.
Hurricane Dean and Peak Oil
And here at home, Tom Whipple’s fingernails are chewed to the quick over the level of oil stocks in this country. He suggested that hurricane Dean could cause major problems when it crossed the Bay of Campeche, home of many of Mexico’s oil rigs, after the storm crossed the Yucatan. Meaning possibly serious shortfalls in petroleum imports in the U.S. could result. Dean was a category five when it hit the Yucatan, weakened as it crossed, became a category two when it crossed the Campeche. Pemex had shut down the rigs in the Bay, evacuated all its employees, and damage reports have not yet surfaced. Campeche Bay produces something on the order of four percent of the world’s current oil production, much of it coming to the U.S., and that’s what Tom’s concern was about.
News From Newsweek
But the big story involves the climate. The August 13th edition of Newsweek carried a ten page cover article on the “deniers,” the groups with deep pockets who volubly maintain in the media and particularly talk radio that “the science is not proven,” suggesting that you not worry about it until they say the science is good. Newsweek tracked the money trail back to Exxon. We have previously reported the offer by the Competitive Enterprise Institute (sometimes referred to as a front organization for Exxon – Newsweek reported $10,000 payments to scientists who will join them in claiming that the science is inconclusive, and I believe the British report said $20,000.) All it takes to obtain scientific credentials is to apply bum to institutional chair for the required number of years and complete the assignments. If that sounds snide, it was explained in those terms to me by a number of people with advanced degrees. I feel a degree of reverence toward anyone with a doctorate, but in itself it makes them neither wise nor good persons. There are people with scientific credentials who, for pay, will indeed pronounce what the people who pay them want to hear. When an environmentalist, I noted that corporations routinely offered employment to active environmentalists. Those who accepted entered the corporate maw and were never heard from again.
It’s A Wet One
Even as the Newsweek story was on the news stands, the daily newspapers carried their own tales. “Death tolls hit 2,000 as storms continue to pound South Asia.” “Storms Keep Midwest Awash.” “Wind hinders battle against Wildfire.” “Post-Katrina Homeless Struggle to Survive.” “Arctic Sets New Record for Low Levels of Sea Ice”.(one report said 200,000 square miles less ice than a year ago) “Storm Continues to Soak Texas.” “Heat Wave Generates Increasing Death Toll in Southeast, Midwest.” “Mexicans, Tourists Flee Coast as Monster Hurricane Nears.” Two weeks later the newspapers still carry daily stories about the storms pounding the midwest.
I didn’t keep the headline noting the landfall of a giant typhoon on the north coast of China, in which 900,000 were evacuated but a number were killed anyway. North Korea was on the edge of the storm and is seeking foreign aid for food, as much of its farmland was flooded. Or the hurricane that threatened Hawaii, of all places. Don’t believe I’ve ever heard of a hurricane there. We’ve been hearing of tornadoes in the Chicago area, major flooding in Minnesota and Wisconsin, and Ohio is really taking a beating. Earlier, it was Texas, Oklahoma and Kansas getting it. Makes me wonder about this year’s grain crop. An awful lot of the stuff is supposed to come out of the midwest , but with this weather I wonder. I used to live back there, am well aware of the harvest season, which begins down in Texas and steadily moves north as the grain ripens successively farther north. I think grain dealers may be thinking the same thing I am. This just in (8/25) from the BBC:.
“Bad weather in key grain growing areas such as Canada and parts of Europe has limited supplies as demand has risen, sparking fears of a supply shortfall.
Surging prices are also expected to have widespread fallout for consumers.
While it will mean higher bread prices, it could also trigger an increase in meat and dairy prices as farmers battle to pass on rising feed costs.
Global wheat stockpiles will slip to their lowest levels in 26 years as a result, official US figures predicted earlier this month”
And a day later
“Europe counts cost of flood chaos
Staff, BBC
Cities and towns across central Europe remain on alert as they deal with the impact of devastating floods which have killed at least 42 people.
Evacuations from Alpine towns in Switzerland have been continuing, with hundreds taken to safety in Brienz. The Swiss capital Bern has also been hard hit by the flood water - with fears of further problems later. ..
Romania is one of the countries worst affected. Seven elderly people were killed there on Wednesday, bringing the death toll to 31. Around 2,000 people have been taken to safety from their homes, but flood waters are expected to start receding.
(26 Aug 2007)
Flood insurers get tough with UK Government
Staff, Yorkshires Dales News
LEADERS of the British insurance industry, dismayed at the lack of preparation against this summer’s disastrous floods, are warning the Government to spend more on flood defences - or they will consider withdrawing insurance cover for home owners and businesses in threatened areas.
Unlike most European country’s, says the Association of British Insurers (ABI), most flood damage is paid for mainly by private companies. In continental Europe, governments pick up the largest slice of the bill.
But in a sinister warning, the ABI says it might reconsider this arrangement unless the Environment Agency spends much more on flood defences and might, in future, refuse to cover developments built on flood plains.
These stark threats are also thought to reflect the fury of the insurance industry at the Government’s penny pinching towards compensation for this year’s floods, which are estimated to cost at least £3 billion and perhaps much more when the final bills come in. So far, the Government has offered a measly £15 million. “
This news will make grim reading for hundreds of Yorkshire home-owners who have been devastated by flood water in the past three months, ranging from Filey to Sheffield. Many Yorkshire Dales rivers regularly flood and to have insurance cover refused would be a nightmare for home owners at risk.”
Faulty Science Continued
We were talking about science being faulty. There’s no real argument there. It is. Nicholas Kristof noted that in a recent commentary. “Earth getter hotter faster, studies find.” proclaimed the head on that story. What’s happening is a good bit worse than climate scientists had supposed would happen. Perhaps the deniers can feel better now that their claim of faulty science is vindicated.. Bad science, bad. Exxon is right. Don’t listen when storm warnings are posted. Sometimes the storm doesn’t happen. Go ahead, take your boat out there.
