Day: November 22, 2013

Pass The Collection Plate

We consumers have been paying for everything for a long time….power plants make us pay for the construction of their new plant……we pay for a sea wall to help curb tidal flow and it never gets paid…we pay and pay….

I am always finding stuff that just keeps me pissed off at the whole economic system that allows such BS to occur….unrestrained…….

(Newser) – Ever since 1983, the Energy Department has been collecting fees paid for by Americans who use nuclear-generated electricity. The tenth-of-a-cent charge per each kilowatt-hour of electricity adds up to about $750 million a year, earmarked to pay for a program disposing of these power plants’ nuclear waste. Only, uh, that program doesn’t actually exist, so a federal appeals court ruled yesterday that the DOE must stop collecting the fees, the New York Times reports. The waste was to be disposed of at the Yucca Mountain repository, but the Obama administration halted work on the facility in 2010, Politico reports.

“Nuclear utilities and their consumers have paid more than $30 billion since the early 1980s for the construction of a nuclear-waste repository,” says the executive director of the National Association of Regulatory Utility Commissioners, which filed the lawsuit over the fees. “These consumers have upheld their end of the deal, but unfortunately all they have to show for their investment is a hole in the Nevada desert.” The judge agreed, saying it’s “quite unfair to force petitioners to pay fees for a hypothetical option.” About $7 billion collected had already been spent, largely on the Yucca project, and about $30 billion remains; the fees could be reinstated once the DOE figures out how to deal with the nuclear waste. The Times notes the DOE’s timeline now has it slated to open a repository by 2048.

1983?  Let me see…who was the president in that year?  Thinking…….thinking…….oh yeah that guy that began more taxes than just about any prez since……

Does anyone else have problems with a system that would allow this to happen….over and over………

Is Ethanol The Answer?

My Earth Day continues………..

Of course, almost yearly we here some goon spout the energy dependency thing…..and after that we here all the bobble heads chanting……”Drill Bay Drill”……and as always I ask….who will do the drilling?   If the answer is BP or Shell or Exxon then there is NO independence from oil….these goofs control the price….no matter where they drill….stop!  And smell the manure that is being spread!

Then there is all the buzz about natgas and ethanol……..and ethanol is where this post is going today……

(Newser) – President Obama, and President Bush before him, fought hard to make ethanol a central part of American energy. But an AP investigation finds that the program as it stands may be doing far more environmental harm than good. The effort to grow corn for fuel has meant the destruction of more conservation ground than “Yellowstone, Everglades, and Yosemite National Parks combined”—some 5 million acres. Billions of pounds of fertilizer have tainted drinking water, rivers, and wildlife habitats; wetlands and prairies have been ruined; and the farming process releases carbon dioxide once held in the soil.

“This is an ecological disaster,” says an environmental advocate. In fact, some environmental groups and big oil companies are fighting on the same side against the ethanol mandate. The Obama administration argues that even if such programs take a toll now, they’re an investment in future renewable energy that may be cleaner. But the AP investigation indicates that the White House is taking an unrealistically rosy view of the program—boosting corn yield assumptions, for instance, to make ethanol sound as green as possible. In further ethanol news:

  • The White House may actually be poised to reduce the amount of ethanol required in fuel blends, Politico notes. A draft of an EPA document set for release today suggests a drop to 2012 levels amid clashes between top special-interest groups.
  • The AP is getting some serious flak for its investigation from the ethanol industry, which calls it “rife with errors.” “There is probably more truth in this week’s National Enquirer than AP’s story,” says an advocate. But the AP points to government data and peer-reviewed journal articles to back its claims.
  • For a brief overview, the AP offers up a fact sheet.

We can pretend all we like but ethanol is not the answer….may be, at best, one of the pillars of Independence….but by NO means a solitary solution.

Dumping For The Sake Of Dumping

Today is Friday and I decided to make it a Earth Day….I try to keep to a theme as best I can daily…but since I will not lower myself to posting on the ACA I guess I will give you all the info that you cannot use……you’re welcome!

Whether you are a proponent of climate change or not…matters not…..there is a problem with the emissions of plants in this world…..these places are dumping lots of crap into the atmosphere…..

Newser) – Want to personally thank those largely responsible for putting greenhouse gases into the air? Fewer than 100 phone calls will do the trick. According to new research, 90 companies have produced 63% of the emissions of carbon dioxide and methane since the dawn of the industrial age. Chevron, BP, and Exxon together caused more than 9% of emissions alone, the Guardian reports. All but seven offenders on the list are oil, gas, and coal producers—roughly 30% are state-owned—while half the emissions were produced in the last 25 years, the analysis shows.

“There are thousands of oil, gas, and coal producers in the world,” says a climate researcher. “But the decision makers, the CEOs, or the ministers of coal and oil, if you narrow it down to just one person, they could all fit on a Greyhound bus or two.” Al Gore calls the research a “crucial step forward,” one that he sees as spreading the onus of taking action from governments to corporations. “Those who are historically responsible for polluting our atmosphere have a clear obligation to be part of the solution,” he says. The analysis will be published in Climatic Change.

There is a problem……and NO one wants to handle it or find a solution that will benefit the world……companies do not want to pay for the trash they produce…..let ask the disbelievers…..do you pay monthly for the pick up of the trash you produce?  If so, why can’t these polluters do the same without some PR nightmare of how it would screw the consumer….these companies have been doing just that for decades, if not longer……but as usual…Americans will wait until there is NO hope to try and repair the damage they have made….. so typical!