Russia vs Ukraine on Gas

Much has been made about how energy markets have distorted world politics. But what happens when energy markets come up against a resurgent Russian Republic eager to return to Empire? We may soon learn as Ukraine and Russia are at loggerheads over gas shipments over a Russian pipeline that passes thru Ukraine to get gas to Europe for sale.

Ukraine -- long at odds with the Kremlin over its ambition to join NATO -- accused Moscow of deliberately cutting flows to Europe and said the bloc needed to send a signal to the Kremlin that it cannot bully its pro-Western neighbors.
"If Europe ... does not help us get out of this situation, then it can expect a more aggressive position from Russia on gas and other issues," Oleksander Shlapak, a senior Ukrainian presidential aide, told Reuters.
Russian gas export monopoly Gazprom blamed Ukraine for siphoning off or blocking deliveries of gas equivalent to one sixth of the total Russian supply to Europe, and said it was increasing exports to make up some of the shortfall.

Motorcycles on the Rise

1st MG ride - lunch stop
Originally uploaded by adrienna.


At my work, motorcycles have never been popular. It is probably that I work at a bank which tends toward the staid and conservative, but aside from one hacker who likes showing off his "Fonzie" side, no one ever thought about coming to work on a two-wheeler. But the last 2 months have changed everything. With gas over $4/gallon, we now have 5 regular motorcyclists, 5 cars sporting bike racks at all times, and several people biking to work (with over an hour ride to and from home).

What changes are Mod-bloggers seeing in people's driving/commuting behaviors at your job? Is it just me, or are motorcycles, scooters, and bicycles on the rise... at least until the first snow?

Bush: More Oil, Me: More Solar!

It appears that President Bush is now asking Americans to push Congress to allow more Oil exploration on domestic lands...

http://news.yahoo.com/s/ap/20080702/ap_on_go_pr_wh/bush

...which I am not against. We need to try all avenues to oil independence. But may I politely remind the President that there is something he could do TODAY to help with searched for alternative energy? Maybe force the BLM to repeal its ban on applying for solar power land use for the next two years?

http://uk.reuters.com/article/rbssIndustryMaterialsUtilitiesNews/idUKN3044908320080701?pageNumber=2&virtualBrandChannel=10171

I'll say it one more time. If this ban is not lifted by the Executive or Legislative branch by Independence Day, none of them deserve to stay in office. It only proves an inability to (1) obey the will of the People, and (2) recognize the kinds of things that matter.

It may come to this

Colbert on High Gas Prices

Solar Freeze is the worst idea this year

I usually try to keep weekends light, but I am still furious about the announcement yesterday to suspend all solar power building for two years on Federal Lands. Some have said to me "Well, that does not affect private land, so it is no big deal." Here is an article showing exactly how much land is tied up in the Bureau of Land Management which would be PRIME for Solar Power building.

Let me say it again. If the Bush administration or Congress does not reverse this decision by July 4, they ALL deserve to be thrown out of office. I include in that evaluation Barack Obama and John McCain. Supporting or ignoring this move displays complete incompetence at best, or simple corruption at worst.

Feds freeze solar power building

So, you're facing an mounting energy crisis with oil at $4+/gallon and looking to reach $5/gallon by summer's end. Everyone and their brother are crying out for alternative energy sources, and the solar power community is rolling out breakthrough after breakthrough to make solar energy production cheaper and easier. So what do you do? Well, if you are the Federal Government, you announce a 2-year freeze on building new solar power plants.

http://www.nytimes.com/2008/06/27/us/27solar.html?_r=1&adxnnl=1&oref=slogin&adxnnlx=1214584113-v3z1P+TfnrPGbc97b/n4hw

That's right. At the HEIGHT of an energy crisis, we are cutting off the cleanest form of energy available "for environmental concerns." If Congress or the Bush Administration does not reverse this order by July 4, they all DESERVE to be thrown out of office in November. This is not just the usual government foolishness, this is downright criminal.

People vote with their feet

Another view of the Energy Crisis

300K barrels of our Oil Reserve go missing

In an era of volatile oil prices and energy supplies, the Strategic Petroleum Reserve is a critical tool in ensuring an enemy can not hamstring the USA by impeding oil shipping. As the oil supply is increasingly under threat by unstable governments (Iraq, Iran, etc.), under control of hostile governments (Venezuela, etc.), and under the pressure of rising demand (India, China, etc.), you would think that the Reserve would be under a microscope by policymakers. Apparently, this is not so. A recent audit found over 300,000 barrels of oil were unaccounted for in the government's books.

This is unacceptable and yet more evidence that a coherent Energy Policy is critical for whoever wants to be our next president/

The Return of Cold Fusion?

When I was in high school, Ponns and Fleishman announced their infamous Cold Fusion results which appeared to show that fusion was possble using relatively cheap and simple technology, at room temperatures, on a tabletop. The world went wild. "The biggest scientific news in a generation!" "Cheap energy for all!" "The end of the Oil monopolies!" As a high school student fascinated with physics, it could not come at a better time. I read everything I could find on the subject, and even was thinking about how I could try and reproduce the experiment. And then came the bad news. The results could NOT be replicated... and there were even signals that the original results may have been tweaked to look more promising than they were. Cold fusion was debunked, and few reputable scientists could get funding to investigate further.

Since then, the "hot fusion" scientists working with high-energy plasmas have still not managed to even reach a break-even point in almost 20 years, and largely the world is looking to sunlight, wind power, ethanol, etc. to meet the growing energy appetite of a technology saturated world. It seems like Cold Fusion might still be worth looking into. It turns out the Navy never gave up hope. And they claim to have results! I hope they are right.