Moorewatch Forums

Why Renewable Energy Is Such A Steal…

2008-05-12T22:16:58-05:00

Some clarity comes from the U.S. Energy Information Administration (EIA), an independent federal agency that tried to quantify government spending on energy production in 2007. The agency reports that the total taxpayer bill was $16.6 billion in direct subsidies, tax breaks, loan guarantees and the like. That’s double in real dollars from eight years earlier, as you’d expect given all the money Congress is throwing at “renewables.” Even more subsidies are set to pass this year.

An even better way to tell the story is by how much taxpayer money is dispensed per unit of energy, so the costs are standardized. For electricity generation, the EIA concludes that solar energy is subsidized to the tune of $24.34 per megawatt hour, wind $23.37 and “clean coal” $29.81. By contrast, normal coal receives 44 cents, natural gas a mere quarter, hydroelectric about 67 cents and nuclear power $1.59.

The wind and solar lobbies are currently moaning that they don’t get their fair share of the subsidy pie. They also argue that subsidies per unit of energy are always higher at an early stage of development, before innovation makes large-scale production possible. But wind and solar have been on the subsidy take for years, and they still account for less than 1% of total net electricity generation. Would it make any difference if the federal subsidy for wind were $50 per megawatt hour, or even $100? Almost certainly not without a technological breakthrough.

By contrast, nuclear power provides 20% of U.S. base electricity production, yet it is subsidized about 15 times less than wind. We prefer an energy policy that lets markets determine which energy source dominates. But if you believe in subsidies, then nuclear power gets a lot more power for the buck than other “alternatives.”

The same study also looked at federal subsidies for non-electrical energy production, such as for fuel. It found that ethanol and biofuels receive $5.72 per British thermal unit of energy produced. That compares to $2.82 for solar and $1.35 for refined coal, but only three cents per BTU for natural gas and other petroleum liquids.

All of this shows that there is a reason fossil fuels continue to dominate American energy production: They are extremely cost-effective. That’s a reality to keep in mind the next time you hear a politician talk about creating millions of “green jobs.” Those jobs won’t come cheap, and you’ll be paying for them.

Wind ($23.37) v. Gas (25 Cents)

Chavez Offers An Original Thought

2008-05-13T12:46:48-05:00

Ah, JK as always…

http://news.bbc.co.uk/2/hi/europe/7398597.stm

German Chancellor Angela Merkel has set off on a visit to Latin America, after Venezuelan President Hugo Chavez linked her party to Hitler.

Mr Chavez threatened to confront Ms Merkel on Friday at a summit in Peru of Latin American and European leaders.

His outburst came after Ms Merkel said he did not speak for Latin America and would not affect EU relations.

As well as Peru, the German leader will visit Brazil, Mexico and Columbia.

”She is from the German right,” said Mr Chavez. “The same that supported Hitler, that supported fascism. That’s the Chancellor of Germany today.”

The Venezuelan leader stopped short of telling Ms Merkel to go to hell, saying: “Ms Chancellor, you can go to… because you are a lady, I won’t say any more.”

Only a Thinker can do/say the same thing over and over again and expect different results…

Global Warming And Even More Anecdotal Evidence…

2008-05-10T11:53:46-05:00

The average temperature in April 2008 was 51.0 F. This was -1.0 F cooler than the 1901-2000 (20th century) average, the 29th coolest April in 114 years. The temperature trend for the period of record (1895 to present) is 0.1 degrees Fahrenheit per decade.

If we’d only sign up for the Kyoto, we’d be a much cooler place…

Better Turn the Thermostat Up

Operation Chaos - Your thoughts?

2008-05-09T10:51:58-05:00

So Rush Limbaugh has been getting a lot of column inches in the last couple of weeks for his “operation chaos” plan.
For anybody who isn’t aware of it, Rush has been encouraging Republicans in the recent primary states to vote in the Democratic party primary (re-registering as Democrats where necessary) and to vote for Hilary with the express goal of prolonging the Democratic nominating process and cause Clinton and Obama to keep knocking lumps out of each other and avoid either of them being able to focus on the general election.
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/The_Rush_Limbaugh_Show#Operation_Chaos

Rush wasn’t the first guy to think about it, as detailed in the above article. A lefty talk show host suggested the same thing in the Republican race. Rush makes a claim that the Dems were doing it in NH and FL but I think that’s unlikely given the turn out in those states and the fact that a Dem race was still on. (though FL was supposedly not going to count for the Dems, while it did for the Repubs)
While I don’t like Rush’s plan, I can see why it might work and if you want to win the election by any and all means fair or foul, why you’d do it. I guess it could be considered “smart”
It was a dumb idea when proposed by the lefty host since there was still a real race going on for the Democratic nomination, though there is a good chance that the host in question was in the bag for one of the candidates and thought by getting people to vote Republican, their choice might squeak the Dem win.

Anyway, I just wondered what people’s thoughts were on a couple of issues.

1. Was it effective?
Rush thinks it was, he basically credits himself and his followers with swinging Ohio, Pennsylvania and Indiana for Clinton. However there’s a good case that Clinton would have won Ohio and Pennsylvania outright anyway, and for all Rush’s claims of success last Tuesday, we essentially saw the end of the Clinton campaign which is hardly what he was going for.
Obama’s camp are crediting Rush a bit as well, releasing stats that suggest Obama would have won Indiana were it not for Republicans voting for Hilary, though you can’t know if that was because of Rush or not.
His latest chat is to come out and say he now wants Obama to win and wants the super delegates to move to Obama and end the race as he thinks Obama is the easier candidate to beat and has been bloodied sufficiently. While this may be really what he thinks, I can’t help thinking that he saw his plan not working on Tuesday night and that he expects the supers to move to Obama, so by getting out in front of them and asking them to do what he expects them to do anyway, he can make the claim that he is the big puppet master in all of this and claim more relevance than he probably has.

I have no doubt that Obama has been negatively impacted by some of the stuff that has come out in the last couple of months, mainly from the Clinton camp or at least hammered home by them, but I expect she would have lasted this long without Rush’s effort and the exact same scenario would have played out. To put it another way, the Dem race going this long has played into the Republicans hands a bit* but whether Rush is to thank for that or not is debatable.
*You could argue that it has energized Dems more with large amounts of people registering in these late states that otherwise probably wouldn’t have and that could translate into higher turn out in November, we’ll have to wait and see.

2. Was it right?
Dio has made some good arguments on these boards in favour of voting in the other party’s primary. However, as far as I’ve seen, these center around the idea that a vote in your preferred primary would be less effective for one of the following reasons:
1. While you identify with the party, you don’t identify with the candidates, but you may prefer one candidate from the other party, over the rest of their field.
2. The candidate you like for your party has no chance of winning your state primary or at all, and you stand more chance of your vote having an impact if you cross to the other primary and vote for your favorite candidate there
3. Your party’s nominee is already selected and while you may want them to win in November, should they lose you prefer one candidate over the others in the primary of the other party

In each case, the reason for crossing the line is to vote for a candidate you prefer from the other party, and to participate in a meaningful and positive way in the election process.
I can certainly see the value in that and don’t have an issue with people doing this. This would probably apply to Dem voters in Florida who were told that their primary wouldn’t count. Had I been one of them I’d look at the Republican field, realize that I prefer McCain over all the rest of the candidates and if the Republicans win I’d rather he was prez than Romney/Huck etc. and I’d probably go and vote for him.

While practically this is no different from what Rush has proposed, ethically there is a big difference. Is it right to participate in the other primary with the express purpose of sabotaging the other party’s primary process / run at the general election?
For me the answer is a clear no. I’m quite sure there are Republicans in Indiana who prefer the idea of a Clinton presidency over an Obama presidency (and probably some vice versa) and I see nothing wrong with them voting for her for that, but those who voted for her to screw up the process are being assholes IMO.

I’d be interested to hear others thoughts.

Google Feels the Pinch

2008-05-12T14:52:28-05:00

http://money.cnn.com/2008/05/09/technology/where_does_google_go.fortune/index.htm?postversion=2008051205

Where does Google go next?
Yes, it’s making gobs of money. Yes, it’s full of smart people. Yes, it’s a wonderful place to work. So why are so many people leaving?

The China issue. Awright! Damn Google to hell.

China Earthquake

2008-05-12T12:48:10-05:00

http://www.cnn.com/

A massive 7.8-magnitude earthquake killed more than 8,500 people in China and left hundreds trapped under rubble, state run media report. Some 900 students are reported buried under a collapsed school. China’s Seismological Bureau said the quake affected more than half the country’s provinces and municipalities.

The effects of Myanmar’s flooding via cyclone via global warming are simply staggering. That the weight of the massive rainfall was enough to unsettle an entire continent’s very foundations should give all Thinkers sober pause. So while Google passes on its China profits to the US military so that they may buy more weaponry to use against everyday Iraqis, Euros are clamouring as one to save Asians any which way they can. Asians are people first, “Commies” a distant second. The Euros’ guidance will show us all how a kinder, gentler approach builds bridges, opens dialgoue, heals more quickly and creates lasting friendships. Now is not the time to swing from trees protesting the Chinese Olympics. Has Google given any money back? No.

Also, a mere week after the Myanmar incident the UN - United Nations - has estimated the death toll from Cyclone Nargis ranges from 63,000 to 100,000, well above the Myanmar government’s estimate of about 28,000 (but still well under the current total of 100,000 Iraqis annually killed in the US’ oil war).

...well, Euros can count better than anyone… the US has 52 states, not 50.....

So roughly 100,000 + 8,500 = 185,000 victims have been killed by global warming in the last month alone.

There will be no repeat of the racially charged Katrina disaster if the EU can help it.

Pique Oil Thread

2008-05-04T16:01:04-05:00

Germany enjoys rich, deep, and ancient history and culture most Americans couldn’t even begin to fathom. Save for a few more colorful places where free thinkers, anarchos and Greens (are allowed to) hang out in, their country is kept virtually sterile. For those who enjoy that, everything is also made and kept straight, plumb and level. There is simply no other alternative. Such is the pride of the Germany people of their heritage.

When the US got more involved in the oil business with Nigeria, endowing it with uncountable dollars, Nigeria in 1976 decided to upgrade its infrastructure and expand its new capital city, Abuja, by the end of the ‘80s using only the most skilled craftspeople. And they could only from Germany. At the time I was working for Gemany’s largest paint company, HS, which had won the bid by German builder (Bilfinger +) Berger to finish many, many of the buidlings they’d been constructing throughout Nigeria.

Despite my being an American, whose reputation as imperialist robber barons were, during the Reagan years, already steadily deteriorating, I met the qualifications required to spend the better part of a year doing top-notch paint work throughout the African nation. t was simple enough: Keep it straight, plumb, level 24/7, which we did. Teach the natives how, as well. The next issue after building somethig properly is keeping it maintained. This too we passed on the locals, along with tools and materials. Then on we went to meet the next deadline. If one of a sultan’s many harem wives decided she didn’t like the costly imported tapestries in her new dining hall after all, we never complained, no, we tore it down and started anew, keeping it straight, plumb and level.

Speaking of women, I don’t know if it was my racist white American genes depriving me of a good time, but the local call girls didn’t feel any different than the German ones I’d met. No sparks flew. They certainly didn’t smell any better. My coworkers agreed.

Before I knew it, my time was up, and I was on the way back home.

Soon enough I was on another assignment to Nigeria. I was struck by how dirty and neglected what we’d done looked after only two years; whats the German saying - like it was “pulled out of a cow’s ass”. Windows broken, locks picked, railings bent, red dirt everywhere, lights out , furniture gone. Any German would notice how things were crooked, out of plumb, sloped; I attributed it to race, calling it their culture, the “African way” as Nigerian rapper Dr. Alban sang in his mega-Euro hit, “Hello Afrika”.

The US had to have had a hand in this sad decay.

http://www.americanfreepress.net/html/oil_nations_no_admirers_135.html

Nigeria is the fourth largest exporter of light crude and petroleum to the U.S., and each time rebels attack oil platforms, seize foreign workers or blow up pipelines, the international markets panic and prices increase.

Oil fouls everything in southern Nigeria. It spills from the pipelines, poisoning soil and water. It stains the hands of politicians and generals, who siphon off its profits. It taints the ambitions of the young, who will try anything to scoop up a share of the liquid riches—fire a gun, sabotage a pipeline, kidnap a foreigner. . . . Dense, garbage-heaped slums stretch for miles. Choking black smoke from an open-air slaughterhouse rolls over housetops. Streets are cratered with potholes and ruts. Vicious gangs roam school grounds. Peddlers and beggars rush up to vehicles stalled in gas lines. This is Port Harcourt, Nigeria’s oil hub, capital of Rivers state, smack-dab in the middle of oil reserves bigger than the United States’ and Mexico’s combined.

When the West looks at countries like Nigeria, there must be military planners envisaging a scenario when it may be necessary for the U.S. and its allies to send in troops to protect the oil supply as oil becomes more scarce

Which wouldn’t happen if we embraced alternative fuels, dammit! If oil sank to $30/barrel and oil producing nations would again be peaceful and content.

http://www.africasia.com/services/news/newsitem.php?area=africa&item;=080504155026.1py42m9y.php

Niger Delta’s most prominent armed group MEND claimed responsibility Sunday for an attack on Anglo-Dutch oil group Shell’s facilities in southern Nigeria.

MEND however said on Saturday it was considering a ceasefire following an appeal from US Democratic party presidential hopeful Senator Barack Obama.

“Obama is someone we respect and hold in high esteem,” it added.

Hey, Nigierians will be our friends if we vote Obama.

http://www.philly.com/philly/news/nation_world/20080504_In_the_World.html

Belarus chases U.S. diplomats

MINSK, Belarus - Eleven U.S. diplomats left Belarus yesterday after being declared persona non grata amid escalating diplomatic tensions between Washington and the ex-Soviet nation, an embassy official said. Belarus on Wednesday had ordered 10 of the embassy’s 11 diplomats to leave the country.
Washington is one of the fiercest critics of Belarus’ authoritarian president, Alexander G. Lukashenko, and is pressuring Belarus to release political prisoners or face punitive sanctions.

Relations have worsened in recent months, mainly because of U.S. sanctions imposed on a state-controlled oil-processing and chemicals company, as well as travel restrictions on top government officials. The U.S. ambassador left in March after Belarus pulled its ambassador from Washington.

The US essentially created Belarus.

Myanmar Cyclone

2008-05-05T22:15:20-05:00

http://www.cnn.com/2008/WORLD/asiapcf/05/05/myanmar.cyclone/index.html

The death toll of more than 15,000, official sources told the Chinese state-run news agency Xinhua, makes the weekend cyclone the deadliest natural disaster to hit Myanmar in recent history, according to figures compiled by a U.N.-funded disaster database.

The toll eclipses that from a 1926 wind storm the killed about 2,700 people in the country, according to the database.

... global (cough) warming...?

Myanmar is one of 166 countries which have ratified the Kyoto Protocol, under which industrialised countries, with the notable exceptions of the United States and Australia have pledged to reduce greenhouse gas emissions.

And sure, enough, it didn’t take 24 hours to sound the h-word:

HITLER is alive in Burma” reads the words scrawled on a cardboard sign, held aloft by a sweet-faced Ellen Page, the “Juno” star, in a 90-second human-rights public awareness message that began showing on video-sharing Web sites last week.

Not to be outdone

http://www.stuff.co.nz/stuff/4513082a1860.html

Tuesday, 06 May 2008

Former New Zealand Idol judge Iain Stables has fallen foul of the Broadcasting Standards Authority for telling his radio show listeners to harass “the cat Hitler”.

Stables, at the time working as a ZM radio presenter, railed against Mr Spring the morning after he spoke of his dislike for cats on TV3’s Campbell Live last August.

On the show Mr Spring demonstrated how he trapped and drowned cats.

Stables played excerpts, then told listeners where Mr Spring’s personal details were in the phone book.
“Ray Spring the cat Hitler, is a cruel, cowardly, disgusting, sickening, s**t bag with bad shoes and I’d really love to see him in a cage and immersed too.”

Mr Spring told the BSA people had made threatening phone calls to him after the broadcast and a brick was mistakenly thrown through his neighbour’s window.

BSA ,USA, same shit.

Chavez Tastes Defeat Over Reforms

2007-12-03T12:57:51-05:00

http://time.com/time/world/article/0,8599,1690082,00.html?imw=Y

Venezuelan President Hugo Chavez’s left-wing, oil-fueled revolution usually carries itself like a swaggering, cocksure juggernaut. So it was a sign that things perhaps weren’t looking good for the fiery, anti-U.S. leader Sunday night when he didn’t appear on the balcony of Miraflores, the Caracas presidential palace, pumping his fists and crowing confidently about victory. Venezuela’s polls had closed in a national referendum on a raft of constitutional reforms that would have profoundly tightened his hold on political power in Venezuela — including an amendment to eliminate presidential term limits (which currently last six years).

The article goes on to praise Chavez for accepting the results with maturity and style, but will he actually abide by them? After all, he can issue proclamations to do whatever he wants. Even the article mentions that the Legislature and Courts exist only to rubber-stamp Chavez’ edicts. What’s to stop him from just remaining in power?

Evidence doesn’t match your claims? Hide it!

2008-03-13T05:10:38-05:00

http://www.guardian.co.uk/world/2008/mar/13/iraq.usa

A US military study officially acknowledged for the first time yesterday that Saddam Hussein had no direct ties to al-Qaida, undercutting the Bush administration’s central case for war with Iraq.

Wary of embarrassing press coverage noting that the new study debunks those claims, the US defence department attempted to bury the release of the report yesterday.

The Pentagon cancelled a planned briefing on the study and scrapped plans to post its findings on the internet, ABC news reported. Unclassified copies of the study would be sent to interested individuals in the mail, military officials told the network.

Another Pentagon official told ABC that initial press reports on the study made it “too politically sensitive”.

Could someone explain to me how, in a country with the 1st Amendment, it’s acceptable to obscure information because it’s ‘politically’ sensitive? I can understand wanting to restrict access to military operation information etc....but this? Is the US government now trying to hide stories from its people like a common-or-garden dictatorship?