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Economist: Here’s hoping it’s Gore to the rescue
The Economist (UK) via Seattle P-I
…there is a huge opportunity for somebody to arrive late [in the race for U.S. President] and steal the show. …
Step forward Al Gore. Gore has enough of a national profile to command instant credibility. He has rich friends to finance him. He will also command plenty of attention in his own right over the next few months: His film “An Inconvenient Truth” won an Oscar for best documentary on Sunday, and he may be up for the Nobel Peace Prize in the autumn.
Gore is the ideal candidate for the Democratic stalwarts who turn out to vote in the primaries. He came out strongly against invading Iraq. He has spent the past six years warning the world about global warming. And he was robbed of victory in 2000 by the man whom the Democrats loathe above all others.
What better way of wiping out the Bush era than replacing him with the man who should have been president?
(28 Feb 2007)
What’s surprising about this enthusiasm for Al Gore is that it comes from the conservative business-oriented UK publication, “The Economist.” Since Gore is primarily known for his espousal of global warming, the commentary perhaps indicates a desire from the business community to start dealing seriously with climate change. -BA
Gov. Schweitzer speaks before Senate panel about energy
Faith Bremner, Great Falls Tribune
WASHINGTON – The United States has a wealth of alternative energy sources that can replace imported oil, if only people would develop and use them in a way that doesn’t contribute to global warming, Gov. Brian Schweitzer told a U.S. Senate panel Tuesday.
Schweitzer called on the federal government to take more of a lead in developing techniques that will allow coal-burning industries to capture and store their carbon dioxide emissions deep underground, a process called carbon sequestration.
Montana has enough coal supplies to replace all the nation’s imported oil for the next 400 years if greenhouse gasses produced during the coal-to-gas process could be sequestered in places like declining oil well fields, he said.
“Coal won’t be the fuel of the future unless we get carbon sequestration correct,” Schweitzer said during the hearing on America’s energy future before the Senate Finance Committee. “The time to move is now.”
(28 Feb 2007)
US’s Iraq oil grab is a done deal
Pepe Escobar, Asia Times
“By 2010 we will need [a further] 50 million barrels a day. The Middle East, with two-thirds of the oil and the lowest cost, is still where the prize lies.” – US Vice President Dick Cheney, then Halliburton chief executive officer, London, autumn 1999
US President George W Bush and Vice President Dick Cheney might as well declare the Iraq war over and out. As far as they – and the humongous energy interests they defend – are concerned, only now is the mission really accomplished. More than half a trillion dollars spent and perhaps half a million Iraqis killed have come down to this.
On Monday, Prime Minister Nuri al-Maliki’s cabinet in Baghdad approved the draft of the new Iraqi oil law. The government regards it as “a major national project”. The key point of the law is that Iraq’s immense oil wealth (115 billion barrels of proven reserves, third in the world after Saudi Arabia and Iran) will be under the iron rule of a fuzzy “Federal Oil and Gas Council” boasting “a panel of oil experts from inside and outside Iraq”. That is, nothing less than predominantly US Big Oil executives.
The law represents no less than institutionalized raping and pillaging of Iraq’s oil wealth. It represents the death knell of nationalized (from 1972 to 1975) Iraqi resources, now replaced by production sharing agreements (PSAs) …
(28 Feb 2007)
US Air Force Plans to Certify All B-52s for GTL-Blend Use by End of Year; On the Ground, More Electric Vehicles
Mike Millikin, Green Car Congress
If detailed analysis of flight test data and physical inspection prove out, the US Air Force plans to certify its entire B-52 bomber fleet for use of a GTL-JP8 blend by the end of the year. The Air Force recently concluded its flight and ground tests of the 50-50 GTL (Gas-to-Liquids) blend.
…The Air Force, which in FY 2006 was the largest green power purchaser of electricity-more than 990,000 MWHrs-in the Federal Government, and 3rd largest in the United States is increasing its efforts to improve its energy efficiency and reduce fuel use.
Thirty seven Air Force Bases in the United States procure green power, according to Aimone, and Dyess AFB in Texas, Fairchild AFB in Washington, and Minot AFB in North Dakota achieve nearly 100% of their electrical energy requirements from wind energy systems located near their installations.
(27 Feb 2007)
