NEWS2U
Politics, Finance & Resources

Sunday, November 30, 2008

Acorn Watchers Wonder What Happened to Crop


By Brigid Schulte
Washington Post
November 30, 2008


The idea seemed too crazy to Rod Simmons, a measured, careful field botanist. Naturalists in Arlington County couldn't find any acorns. None. No hickory nuts, either. Then he went out to look for himself. He came up with nothing. Nothing crunched underfoot. Nothing hit him on the head.

Then calls started coming in about crazy squirrels. Starving, skinny squirrels eating garbage, inhaling bird feed, greedily demolishing pumpkins. Squirrels boldly scampering into the road.

And a lot more calls about squirrel roadkill.

But Simmons really got spooked when he was teaching a class on identifying oak and hickory trees late last month. For 2 1/2 miles, Simmons and other naturalists hiked through Northern Virginia oak and hickory forests. They sifted through leaves on the ground, dug in the dirt and peered into the tree canopies. Nothing.

"I'm used to seeing so many acorns around and out in the field, it's something I just didn't believe," he said. "But this is not just not a good year for oaks. It's a zero year. There's zero production. I've never seen anything like this before."

The absence of acorns could have something to do with the weather, Simmons thought. But he hoped it wasn't a climatic event. "Let's hope it's not something ghastly going on with the natural world."

To find out, Simmons and Arlington naturalists began calling around. A naturalist in Maryland found no acorns on an Audubon nature walk there. Ditto for Fairfax, Falls Church, Charles County, even as far away as Pennsylvania. There are no acorns falling from the majestic oaks in Arlington National Cemetery.

"Once I started paying attention, I couldn't find any acorns anywhere. Not from white oaks, red oaks or black oaks, and this was supposed to be their big year," said Greg Zell, a naturalist at Long Branch Nature Center in Arlington. "We're talking zero. Not a single acorn. It's really bizarre."

Zell began to do some research. He found Internet discussion groups, including one on Topix called "No acorns this year," reporting the same thing from as far away as the Midwest up through New England and Nova Scotia. "We live in Glenwood Landing, N.Y., and don't have any acorns this year. Really weird," wrote one. "None in Kansas either! Curiouser and curiouser."

Jennifer Klepper of Annapolis even blogged about it. "Last year our trees shot down so many acorns that you were taking your life into your own hands if you went outside without a crash helmet on," she wrote this month. "But this year? Forget it."

Louise Garris lives in an Arlington neighborhood called Oakcrest, which is home to towering oak trees. When she couldn't find any acorns, she began putting out peanuts for the squirrels. Last year, oaks in metropolitan Washington produced a bumper crop of acorns, and squirrels and other urban wildlife produced an abundance of young. This year, experts said, many animals will starve.

Garris started calling nurseries. "I was worried they'd think I was crazy. But they said I wasn't the only one calling who was concerned about it," she said. "This is the first time I can remember in my lifetime not seeing any acorns drop in the fall and I'm 53. You have to wonder, is it global warming? Is it environmental? It makes you wonder what's going on."

Simmons has a theory about the wet and dry cycles. But many skeptics say oaks in other regions are producing plenty of acorns, and the acorn bust here is nothing more than the extreme of a natural boom-and-bust cycle. But the bottom line is that no one really knows. "It's sort of a mystery," Zell said.

A word about the mighty oak. Long before people paved over the area, much of the Washington region was covered by oak and hickory forests. There are at least 20 different species of oak trees in the region, and they produce acorns on different cycles: white oaks every year and red oaks every two years. Each tree, too, has its own two- to four-year cycle, producing many acorns one year and few in other years. Stressed trees, including those trying to survive extended drought conditions in the Washington region, often wildly overproduce acorns to ensure the survival of the species.

Oaks are one of the few trees that can self-pollinate and "clone" themselves. But they prefer the genetic variety that comes from the flowers of male trees pollinating the flowers of female trees.

That's a dance that takes place every spring, usually in May, for anywhere from seven days to two weeks, depending on the weather.

And the weather is critical. A late frost can kill the flowers and any chance of pollination. But there was no late frost in this area last year, according to the National Weather Service. Gypsy moths and other insects can damage trees, but because the pollen is airborne, insects don't play much of a role in oak reproduction.

That leaves Simmons's theory. Last spring was so wet, he reasoned, perhaps the pollen was washed out of the air and down storm drains before it had time to do its work.

Ed Zimmer, regional forester for the Virginia Department of Forestry, doesn't buy that.

"It would have to be Noah's flood kind of rain for me to believe that. Forty days of constant rain," he said. "I don't think that could be a factor because there's so much pollen and all these trees release it at different times, depending on if they're in full sun or partial sun, or even from different places on the tree."

But last May, when the oak trees would have been busy flowering, coating cars and sidewalks with a thick dusting of golden pollen, the National Weather Service logged 10.6 inches of rain at Reagan National Airport -- three times the normal amount, making it the third wettest month on record since 1871.

Whatever the reason for no acorns, foresters and botanists are paying attention.

But they say they're not worried yet. "What's there to worry about?" said Alan Whittemire, a botanist at the U.S. Arboretum. "If you're a squirrel, it's a big worry. But it's no problem for the oak tree. They live a long time. They'll produce acorns again when they're ready to."

White oaks can live as long as 300 years. Faster-growing red oaks can reach 200. And it takes only one acorn to make a tree, he said, which in an urban area with little open space is often more than enough.

"This is probably just a low year, a biological event, and it'll go away," Zimmer said. "But if this were to continue another two, three, four years, you might have to ask yourself what's going on, whether it is an indication of something bigger."

Foresters survey acorns, nuts and berries for their annual "mast" report that helps wildlife managers figure out how much food there might be for deer, bear and other wildlife. Those reports can fluctuate, and the foresters have noticed how "spotty" it is this year in parts of Northern Virginia.

"This is interesting enough to ask some questions and pay attention to," said Adam Downing, forestry and natural resources agent with the Virginia Cooperative Extension. "Fortunately, natural systems are resilient. Oaks are tough."

Rachel Tolman, a naturalist at Long Branch, smeared a big glop of peanut butter on one of the nature center's trees. She grabbed handfuls of store-bought hazelnuts and placed them atop boxes to attract the tiny, nocturnal flying squirrels that tend to mass in the oaks every winter.

Within seconds, the squirrels dive-bombed in from nearby trees, legs outstretched like fist-size silvery-gray sky divers. "They're so much more willing to be seen this year," Tolman said. "It's because they're so hungry."

Tolman was the first naturalist to notice that there were no acorns or hickory nuts this year.

Each fall, starting in September, she takes daily walks through the forest to collect nuts and acorns to feed the flying squirrels and other animals at the center through the winter. This year, she found nothing. "I'm hoping this is just some weird anomaly," she said.

Hazelnuts gone and peanut butter licked clean, the still-hungry flying squirrels scampered high into the tree canopy and chirped angrily for more.

Scource:
http://www.washingtonpost.com/wp-dyn/content/article/2008/11/29/AR2008112902045.html
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Treasury Facing More HR Problems On Bailout?


By Zachary Roth
TPM Muckraker
Nov. 28, 2008


Earlier today we noted that the Treasury Department had hired staff with the specific attributes needed to carry out its original plan for the bailout -- buying banks' bad assets -- only to then decide that it would change its approach by directly injecting capital. That news raised questions as to whether the department has the right people in place for what's an extremely complex and crucial task.

And a report in today's Wall Street Journal sheds a bit more light on the hiring issues that have plagued Treasury's response to the crisis. It reveals that the department is struggling to bring on enough people to handle the glut of applications for assistance that are flooding in from troubled financial institutions.

Neel Kashkari, the man running the TARP program, said at a recent at a luncheon before a housing organization that the department's Office of Financial Stability is operating at half-staff, with about 40 full-time employees. Kashkari said he hopes to double that number by the time the Obama administration takes over on January 20th.

(And by the way, granted Kashkari needs to keep the pubic informed on what he's doing, but doesn't he have more pressing matters to attend to right now than attending luncheons?)

The Journal adds, not exactly reassuringly:

In the past month, the Treasury has been scrambling to make major policy decisions while at the same time conducting the nuts-and-bolts tasks of finding a permanent staff. Decisions have largely been left up to interim staff members, many from other federal banking regulators, who are temporarily at Treasury but are expected to eventually return to their previous positions.

Part of the manpower problem here may be caused by the impending transition. According to Wayne Abernathy, an executive at the American Bankers Association, many Treasury staffers may be headed for the door in advance of the changeover, making it especially hard to keep the department fully-staffed.

Abernathy also suggests, intriguingly, that it may have been in part because of this very problem that Treasury switched from the asset-buying approach to the capital-injection approach. "I don't think that was a small part of why Treasury in the end abandoned the asset-purchase program," he told the paper. "It's very people-intensive."

But it doesn't appear that the switch has entirely solved the problem. And if, in addition to having too few people, Treasury also has the wrong people, as was suggested by that earlier report we noted, that would hardly help the situation.

This may have more to do with a desperate and extraordinary situation than with any deliberate malevolence or even incompetence, but given the stakes, the Treasury's personnel problems are worth keeping an eye on nonetheless.

Source:
http://tpmmuckraker.talkingpointsmemo.com/2008/11/treasury_facing_more_hr_proble.php
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Unnamed GOP Senator Blocking Appointment Of Key Bailout Overseer




Talking Points Memo
November 28, 2008

Here's an interesting nugget in Congress's response to the financial crisis that hasn't received as much attention as it deserves.

Earlier this month, the Bush administration nominated Neil Barofsky, a federal prosecutor, to be the Treasury Department's special inspector general on the bailout program. That's a crucial post, given the astronomical sums at issue, the broad authority that Treasury has been given to distribute them, the concerns that have been raised about possible conflicts of interest, and the general urgency of our efforts to prevent an economic collapse.

So you'd think Congress would be doing everything it could to get Barofsky confirmed right away. You'd be wrong.

Last week, Sen. Chris Dodd, the Connecticut Democrat who chairs the banking committee, issued a little-noticed statement saying that although the nomination "was cleared by members of the Senate Banking Committee, the leadership of the Senate Committee on Homeland Security and Governmental Affairs, and all Democratic Senators," it was "blocked on the floor by at least one Republican member."
Senate rules allow any senator to anonymously block a vote on confirmation to any federal post, for any reason.

The rationale for the move remains unclear. But a Washington Post story from a few days before Dodd's statement offers two suggestions. It notes that Barofsky supported Barack Obama, and describes an unresolved "battle between the Finance and Banking committees over which has jurisdiction over the confirmation process."

Blocking an urgent nomination because the nominee, like 52 percent of voters, supported Obama seems petty even by contemporary GOP standards. But a congressional turf war over jurisdiction seems only slightly less so. So either of these two explanations would be a pretty damning indictment of Congress's response to the crisis.

We'll keep you posted as we dig into this...
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Friday, November 28, 2008

A Land Rush in Wyoming Spurred by Wind Power


By Felicity Barringer
The New York Times
November 28, 2008


WHEATLAND, Wyo. — The man who came to Elsie Bacon’s ranch house door in July asked the 71-year-old widow to grant access to a right of way across the dry hills and short grasses of her land here. Ms. Bacon remembered his insistence on a quick, secret deal.

The man, a representative of the Little Rose Wind Farm of Boulder, Colo., sought an easement for a transmission line to carry his company’s wind-generated electricity to market. His offer: a fraction of the value of similar deals in the area. As Ms. Bacon, 71, recalled it: “He said, ‘You sure I can’t write you out a check?’ He was really pushy.”

A quiet land rush is under way among the buttes of southeastern Wyoming, and it is changing the local rancher culture. The whipping winds cursed by descendants of the original homesteaders now have real value for out-of-state developers who dream of wind farms or of selling the rights to bigger companies.

But as developers descend upon the area, drawing comparisons to the oil patch “land men” in the movie “There Will Be Blood,” the ranchers of Albany, Converse and Platte Counties are rewriting the old script.

Ms. Bacon did not agree to the deal from the Little Rose representative, Ed Ahlstrand Jr. Instead, she joined her neighbors in forming the Bordeaux Wind Energy Association — among the new cooperative associations whose members, in a departure from the local culture of privacy and self-reliance, are pooling their wind-rich land.

This allows them to bargain collectively for a better price and ensures that as few as possible succumb to high-pressure tactics or accept low offers. Ranchers share information about the potential value of their wind.

The development of eight Wyoming wind associations (with three more waiting in the wings) and similar groups in Colorado, Montana and New Mexico has not always been a simple matter. While ranchers have always been ready to help their neighbors, they have been less willing to discuss their financial affairs.

That has made it easier for wind developers to make individual deals and insist that the terms be kept secret. The developers’ cause has not been hurt by a 10-year drought’s impact on agricultural families’ finances.

Gregor Goertz heads the Slater Wind Energy Association, one of the oldest although less than two years old, formed by dozens of independent-minded men and women. “Maybe they wouldn’t talk to each other often about other issues,” he said, “but here they could see a common goal.”

Mr. Goertz added that, of the 45 or more landowners who came to his first meeting, just one declined to join. The group’s land holdings, which total about 30,000 acres, are centered on a row of buttes where the wind routinely blows at 25 miles per hour.

Mr. Goertz said that because of the changes a forest of turbines would make in the serrated, far-flung vistas here, “everybody in the community is going to be affected.” The association, he said, would “assure that everybody will have some income whether they have a turbine placed on their property or not.”

The developers hope to supply Wyoming wind power to markets like California, which intends to have one-third of its power from renewable sources by 2020.

“This is the best wind in North America, we think,” said Ronald Lehr, a representative of the American Wind Energy Association, the developers’ trade group.

Of course, the decline in oil prices and the constraints on the capital markets are most likely to slow the development of wind energy. But for ranchers, the calculations remain the same about whether to deal with developers individually or as a group.

Bob Grant, 82, a rancher who sleeps in the bed his Scottish grandfather brought across the ocean and the prairie a century ago, has never liked the wind here. Mr. Grant has seen it hurl gravel off ridges and into a friend’s face like shrapnel.

He said he warmed to the idea of wind associations after long, individual negotiations with enXco, a French-owned developer.

In early 2007, the centerpiece of the price discussed was a per-acre payment of about $2.50, Mr. Grant and an enXco representative said. Discussions broke off, then resumed a year later; the suggested price per acre has nearly doubled.

The doubling of the offer made Mr. Grant and his sons wonder how they could assess, and trust, any offer, they said.

Greg Probst, a representative of enXco, said the first offer had not been an effort to drive a hard bargain. It was, Mr. Probst said, a realistic appraisal, given the difficulties of transporting wind power to market when there was little transmission capacity to spare.

From early 2007 to late 2008, he said, the potential marketability of wind power in southeastern Wyoming was enhanced as plans for construction of the Wyoming-Colorado Intertie, a privately financed transmission line, became firmer and Xcel Energy showed an interest in buying the renewable energy.

“There’s a better chance that there’s a market for the power, and a way to get the power to market, than there was 18 months or two years ago,” Mr. Probst said. “So we’re definitely willing to pay more at this point.”

But the experience made the Grant family look harder at the possibility of joining their lands with those of their neighbors in a new group, the Bordeaux Wind Energy Association, which sent its incorporation papers to the state just before Thanksgiving.

The godfather of such associations is a federal official, Grant Stumbough, whose work for the Resource Conservation and Development office of the Agriculture Department was focused on ways to keep ranchers on the land. Revenue from wind farms, he believed, could mean the difference between success and failure for some ranchers.

Mr. Stumbough felt the ranchers were at a disadvantage when dealing individually with wind developers. The developers, in most cases, know more than landowners about the value of the wind and the transmission lines that will carry it.

For instance, the deal that Mr. Ahlstrand offered Elsie Bacon was valued, yard for yard, at as little as a quarter of the amount that the largest local electrical cooperative had paid for a large transmission right of way. And it included a nondisclosure clause to prevent her from comparing notes with neighbors. (Mr. Ahlstrand did not respond to repeated telephone calls and e-mail messages seeking his version of these events.)

Mr. Stumbough said: “I thought we could use collective bargaining strategies to maybe have a little more leverage in negotiating with wind developers. If we could all get together and work together cooperatively and do some cost sharing and maybe share some of the profits, I think it’s going to be a benefit to everybody.”

The idea has quickly spread. Aside from the promise of economic dividends, which may make it easier to stay on the land, ranchers are finding other less tangible benefits to the groups.

Larry Cundall, a rancher in Glendo who heads the Glendo Wind Energy Association, said the organizational meeting in April attracted 126 people, some from 60 miles away. It had, Mr. Cundall said, “the feeling of an old country dance.”

“Afterward,” he went on, “everyone stood around and visited like we did before we had TV.”

The initial reaction, Mr. Cundall said, had been “90 percent positive,” although he admitted there was skepticism. “Everyone takes everything with a grain of salt around here,” he said.

The associations send out requests to wind developers who may be interested in constructing a wind farm; Mr. Goertz’s Slater Association, the first one formed, gave tours of their lands to at least a dozen different developers, Mr. Goertz said, and are in the final stages of making a deal.
Asked if the terms of the impending deal were better than those offered to some of the ranchers originally, Mr. Goertz said simply, “Yes.”

The financial arrangements of each association are unique, but in the case of the Slater Wind Energy Association, 55 percent of the total annual royalties is to be distributed among the landowners who have turbines on their properties. The rest is to be distributed among all association members, both those with turbines and those without.

Jim Anderson, the state senator whose district covers the windy acres of this region, welcomes the rise of these associations as vehicles to market their wind and as bargainers with the leverage to get ranchers a good deal. “I think the word is kind of out,” Mr. Anderson said, “that Wyoming is probably ahead of the curve in regard to those people who might be opportunist and want to come in and take advantage” of local ranchers.

“I think that we’ve positioned ourselves well to be prudent and intelligent negotiators.” '

Source:
http://www.nytimes.com/2008/11/28/us/28wind.html?_r=1&hp
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Thursday, November 27, 2008

Bait & Switch


Jim Kirwan
11-13-8


Do you remember back in those dark ages before the selection, when Paulson came before congress and the public and demanded that we give him (and the Federal Reserve Bank) $700 Billion?

It was a performance that was a metaphorical gun to the head of the people, wherein Mr. Paulson claimed that 'if this massive bequest (with only three pages of specifics) was not immediately given to him, with no questions asked, then the world as we knew it would change forever'?

After that people became alarmed and demanded that this hostile takeover "agreement' either be scrapped immediately or completely rewritten. Then it was voted down, where it died in the US House of Representatives.

The Dictator then huddled with the criminals in charge of the Senate and had them write some legislation (which is completely illegal) ­ as legislation must originate in the House of Representatives. But the Dictator had already told the country not to get upset by "how legislation was written" because 'the important thing was that we had to have legislation.' So the Senate did exactly what they were told to do, and they created hundreds of pages of stuff which they passed and sent back to the House for approval.

The members of the House of Representatives were then threatened with the implementation of Martial Law if this bogus new giveaway was not passed immediately: This time the constituents were ignored, and the now famous $700 Billion (which became $850 Billion) ­ became the law that Junior Bush did finally get to sign.

We were promised that every aspect of this giveaway would be clearly transparent and would be monitored, so that the public could see exactly what their money would be used for. It was supposed to be used to buy up toxic real-estate "securities" so that the banks could get back to normal, and real-money would be available again to those who needed to borrow it. That was then and every bit of that BAILOUT-RESCUE package has now been shown to be nothing more than a pack of lies.

On the street this is called 'Bait & Switch.'

In the interim we have learned that the FED paid out billions more per day in the seven days immediately after the legislation was signed: with no information available as to what that was for or who that money went to. A few days ago we also learned that a separate $2 Trillion has been paid to some, for purposes unknown and to persons unknown: and when questioned by the congress about this mystery ­ Congress was told that this information could not be revealed because "it might cause a financial panic."

The evening news yesterday said: Secretary Paulson has admitted that "none of the $700 billion will be used to buy up toxic mortgages now, because the facts have changed." Now the money that he practically stole from the public is going to be given to the banks, in 'the hope' that they will decide to again extend credit to potential borrowers (which is still NOT happening).

When Congress questioned the rules that would accompany these massive amounts of money that Paulson and Bernanke are flinging into the void, they were told 'there are actually no rules that require disclosures concerning the particulars of any of these transactions.' And apparently there are no rules for congressional oversight either. The consensus on CBS was that we would just have to "Trust them on this one."

WOW ­ after all that they have been doing to destroy this system for the last eight years: and in light those original demands they made of the public: It is criminal to scrap it all now and totally redirect the funds to the same institutions that caused this financial-avalanche in the first place-that has to be beyond incredible.

These people: Paulson at Treasury, Bernanke at the FED and whoever is running the Securities Exchange Commission are making this stuff up as they go along-there can be no other explanation for this idiotic behavior that answers to no one and is apparently unlimited in their ability to create "government ownership-stakes" in companies and institutions without regard for existing regulations, rules or laws.

Americans used to have a reputation for being hard-headed, bare- knuckled business men and women-what happened?

The 'facts' concerning this BAILOUT-RESCUE package are so blatantly outrageous that they could not even be used as a script for a cheap paperback-because this entire thing is too unbelievable. Any editor that tried to review such a script would find the very idea that this public would just let this garbage happen and do nothing-would simply be too ridiculous to ever actually happen: and yet that is exactly what's happening now.

Where's the money?

The money was given to the major banks, supposedly to loosen credit restrictions: but the banks chose to use the money to buy up the competition (other banks), to increase their hold over everything else in the fiscal world; so "loans" will just have to wait.

Astounding! We are actually paying failed institutions to buy-out their competition with our money, so that they can become even bigger, and in the process eliminate what little competition might still exist, so that whatever happens we cannot ever regain control over our own money.

When this is over-because of something called "government ownership stakes" the government might very well end up owning everything from the banks and investment companies to the automotive and insurance industries, as well as virtually everything else that will have to turn-to-them for help-like the Airlines and probably many of the so-called sovereign states within what's left of the nation, that are themselves going bankrupt?

How many more times can they change their story; how many more times can they add to the amounts of money being so freely given to their largest contributors, and to top it off, even the supposed point and purposes behind these public giveaways keep changing with every passing hour: Along with the actual amounts of money that both Paulson & Bernanke are dispensing as if it were water from an open floodgate.

The 'people' that needed to give their permission were blindsided. The money has been paid and is not being tracked and all the while the actual situation (the excuse), deepens and changes with every passing day.

What we are witnessing is a day-light hijacking of the US Treasury and of the public themselves, in order to strengthen institutions that demanded the right to fail, until they failed themselves.

Now these New World Pirates are demanding that the people they screwed so thoroughly 'Bail-them-out,' so that they can come back to get even more of our money and create even more disasters with it.

Between Corporate-Welfare and socialistic-corporate-Capitalism as these concepts are practiced today: there will soon be nothing left of this country except Corporations and Only-Private-Interests where there used to be a free Republic in a country that was growing instead of dying!

Let these institutions fail before we give them trillions more to quietly steal for themselves in their unearned subsidies. The end result here will be the collapse of the banks, the markets, and AIG along with the car companies and probably the airlines ­ so why not just hang onto the money and "let the markets sort it out" as these Capitalist have so often told us that 'their private and unregulated world could so easily do.'

This government says it's worried about protecting people's homes: but what good is a home when there are no jobs. For that matter what good is a credit-rating or a loan when there is no source of income on which to base your continued existence?

Yesterday this quagmire just became a whole lot deeper and a lot more personal. "Democrats in the U.S. House (Obama's party) have been conducting hearings on proposals to confiscate workers personal retirement accounts" including 401(k)s and IRAs" and convert them to accounts managed by the Social Security Administration.

Triggered by the financial crisis the past two months, the hearings reportedly were meant to stem losses incurred by many workers and retirees whose 401(k) and IRA balances have been shrinking rapidly.

The testimony of Teresa Ghilarducci, professor of economic policy analysis at the New School for Social Research in New York, in hearings Oct. 7 drew the most attention and criticism.

Testifying for the House Committee on Education and Labor, Ghilarducci proposed that the government eliminate tax breaks for 401(k) and similar retirement accounts, such as IRAs, and confiscate workers retirement plan accounts and convert them to universal Guaranteed Retirement Accounts (GRAs) managed by the Social Security Administration." (1)

Obama cannot stop this orgy of lawlessness because it has become endemic to this system without order.

In fact the congress has become useless in the face of these government-by-Executive- decrees, supported by near total apathy from the public that is being stripped and hijacked in broad daylight.

While the thieves squabble among themselves, this nation sinks beneath the rising tides of red-ink and stolen promises that shall leave Americans destitute by the time of Obama's ordination.

These creatures will not stop until we demand an end to all of this. At the very least we have to stop them from just making it all up as they go along!

If we don't act now - then the global-markets will crash and that dreaded worldwide Depression shall become an indisputable fact.

kirwanstudios@sbcglobal.net

Source:
http://www.kirwanesque.com/politics/articles/2008/art121.htm
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Tuesday, November 25, 2008

Clear Fraud in Financial Crisis

Why Isn't Anyone in Jail?


by Aaron Task
Nov 21, 2008
Yahoo Finance
Newsmakers, Banking


In the aftermath of the corporate scandals earlier this decade, investor confidence was (partially) restored by a parade of "perp walks" of fallen chieftains like Ken Lay, Bernie Ebbers, and Dennis Kozlowski.

But nearly two years into the bursting of booms in housing and mortgage securities, scant few related arrests have been made — and most of those have been focused on individual mortgage brokers vs. major industry leaders.

"There is no poster child [for the housing scandal] because you need to investigate, and you need to bring cases and we haven't done either against the major players," says William Black, Associate Professor of Economics and Law at the University of Missouri — Kansas City and a former federal regulator.

Black, who was counsel to the Federal Home Loan Bank Board during the S&L Crisis and blew the whistle on the "Keating Five" in 1989, says investigations have shown fraud incidence of 50% at (once) major subprime lenders like IndyMac and Countrywide.

But even though the FBI warned of an "epidemic" of mortgage fraud in 2004, they subsequently made a "strategic alliance" with the Mortgage Bankers Association, which serves the major industry players.

In this case, the foxes truly were guarding the hen house.

Black notes it was only this year that the total number of FBI agents devoted to mortgage-fraud investigations rose to more than 200. By comparison, during the S&L and Enron investigations in the 1980s and '90s, respectively, multiple task forces totaling hundreds of agents were employed.

"The DOJ has refused to emulate its successes in the S&L debacle, and even dealing with Enron, by creating a large task force that would take on the major fraud participants," Black said. "In this context, that would mean creating a large task force to investigate major, nonprime lenders."

Source:
http://finance.yahoo.com/tech-ticker/article/133224/Former-Regulator%3A-Clear-Fraud-in-Financial-Crisis----Why-Isnt-Anyone-in-Jail
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Thursday, November 20, 2008

Nissan will pioneer electric vehicles in Oregon


by Richard Read
The Oregonian
Nov. 19, 2008


Nissan Motor Co.Nissan's test electric vehicle, unveiled in August, uses a newly developed 80-kilowatt motor and compact lithium-ion batteries.Nissan Motor Co. plans to make electric vehicles available to the state of Oregon, which will develop a network of charging stations, the president of the Japanese automaker announced today.

Portland General Electric is already installing charging stations under the agreement, in which Nissan will include Oregon among a handful of sites worldwide to pioneer zero-emission vehicles.

Carlos Ghosn, president and chief executive of Nissan and Renault SA, described the program this morning during an address at the Los Angeles Auto Show.

"This partnership represents a major step toward reliable zero-emission mobility in the state of Oregon," Ghosn said. "Together, we are creating conditions that will encourage consumers to consider an electric vehicle as an attractive choice that is also good for the environment."

Nissan had announced previously that it planned to produce a pure-electric vehicle in the United States and Japan in 2010, and then to mass-market electric vehicles to consumers globally in 2012.

Gov. Ted Kulongoski met with Nissan managers this week while visiting Japan during a trade trip to Asia.

"Today's announcement shows that a state can create economic opportunity from its commitment to a greener future and the fight against global warming," Kulongoski said. "By nering with Nissan and Portland General Electric, we can work together to build a consistent and reliable refueling infrastructure so consumers can make the switch to electric vehicles."

Over the past several months, PGE has installed six charging stations -- able to charge several dozen vehicles -- across the Portland and Salem areas, with more planned.

"PGE is committed to playing a leadership role to bring this zero-emission transportation option to Oregon residents and businesses," said Peggy Fowler, PGE president and chief executive. "We look forward to sharing technical and educational information in the coming months as we grow our network of stations across the region."

The state of Oregon is also working with Toyota to convert 10 Prius vehicles to plug-in hybrids for the state's fleet. And Pacific Power is beginning to install electric-vehicle charging equipment for companies and the Port of Portland.

Source:
http://www.oregonlive.com/business/index.ssf/2008/11/nissan_will_pioneer_electric_v.html
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Thursday, November 13, 2008

Oregon Farmers Reap Stability from Wind



by Janet Cleveland
The Oregonian
Nov. 11, 2008


John Hilderbrand, 81, once saw wind as foe at his sprawling wheat farm east of Wasco in Sherman County. Now, he's one of several to directly benefit from the placement of wind turbines on his land. The massive structures provide steady income while generating and sending electricity to the region's power grid. Hilderbrand Lane slices through acres of wheat fields as it heads east out of Wasco, a tiny town burrowed into Oregon's poorest county.

Stubble from summer's harvest bristles in every direction. Nothing interrupts the tawny expanse until the road rises to expose hundreds of wind turbines. Tall and shimmery in the midday haze, they overpower the landscape, striking, unsettling.

"I like em," says John Hilderbrand, 81, a straight-talking but jocular wheat farmer who lives along his namesake road in the two-story house his grandfather built in 1900. "They're grinding out dollars."

Hilderbrand, the first in Sherman County to allow turbines on his land, reaps about $30,000 a year in lease payments. And the checks come without fail, he says, unlike the income from his wheat operation, which is squirrelly as the weather.

"Fact is, I don't see any disadvantages," says Hilderbrand, who likes talking about the wind almost as much as spinning yarns of rogue bears, stuffed rats and clueless urban slickers who insist on calling the county's rich glacial silt "dirt" not "soil."

In 2000, Sherman County had no turbines. Now it's home to one of the highest concentrations in the Columbia River Gorge, where a wind-energy boom is under way. The projects in the ground so far represent an investment of close to $1 billion, and they've begun to pump millions of dollars into this county of 1,700 residents, with jobs and tax and lease payments.

The fees alone -- paid in lieu of property taxes -- will double the county's tax base this year and may, in part, be used to write $500 to $800 checks to every resident.

Most directly, the turbines have affected the lives of farmers such as Hilderbrand, who had the good luck to own land in the wind's fierce path and the good sense to turn an industry juggernaut to personal advantage.

Wind energy brings its own set of concerns: higher electricity costs for consumers, environmental impacts, scenic intrusions and an inconsistency that can confound power planners.

Payoffs from wind But a look at Sherman County through Hilderbrand's eyes hints at the benefits. Farmers are weaving a new industry into the deep traditions of the fields, stabilizing their livelihoods and connecting their farms to their children and communities in ways they never imagined.

"I used to cuss the wind all the time," says Hilderbrand, who begins to grin in anticipation of his own punch line. "These days, that's sacrilege."

John and Wanda Hilderbrand's home, built from brick hauled by horse and ferry from Goldendale, Wash., stands behind a line of cedar and pine trees on the north side of Hilderbrand Lane. Decades ago, John planted the wind break to block the westerlies that blast across the fields. Recently, he suggested chopping them down to open up the views of Mount Adams and Mount Hood. "But the wife said, 'No; they're staying.'"

On this clear October day, Wanda is upstairs packing for a trip to Mexico. The harvest's in; the days are growing cold. "I can't wait" for the warmth of Puerto Vallarta, says Wanda, a slight woman who moves quickly around the house, which has seen several additions over the years and is full of comfortable furniture and generations of family pictures.

Outside, John leaves his Dodge pickup in the driveway and eases into a Mercedes, a dusty gray sedan with 180,000 miles on the odometer, for the short drive to his fields. He's partial to Mercedes, he says -- he has another, bought on eBay, in the garage -- not because they're prestigious, but because they're good solid machines.

"I drive 70 miles round-trip just to buy groceries," he says. The store in Wasco has improved in recent years, but The Dalles remains a regular destination for staples.

Nearby Wasco has little of note, he chuckles, except "the best and the worst restaurant in town": the Lean To Cafe and Goose Pit Saloon.

Mention of the Goose Pit gets him started on the stuffed rat, which holds a spot of distinction in the restaurant bar. But he drops the story's thread as he turns on a gravel road and drives amid the towering turbines. He points out the 11 200-foot towers on his property and 14 more on brother Gordon's land. Scores more stretch in rows and cluster on ridges.

The Hilderbrands' turbines are part of the Klondike wind power projects, owned and operated by Iberdrola Renewables, a Spanish company and one of the largest wind energy developers in the United States. Klondike has been going up in phases -- the first in 2001 -- and now involves 242 turbines and generating capacity of 400 megawatts. Accounting for the wind's variability, that's enough power to consistently light up more than 115,000 homes.

To the north, Portland General Electric has completed the first phase of its 217-turbine, 450-megawatt Biglow Canyon project.

All told, the companies lease land from 55 landowners, most of them wheat farmers in a county that has no industry and a larger percentage of its 831 square miles under cultivation than any other Oregon county.

Sherman County's per-capita income, at $19,550, is the lowest of any county in the state, according to 2006 data, and well below the $33,299 county average for the state.

More wind projects are in the works, including a 400-megwatt project (which could double to 800 megawatts ) by BP Alternative Energy, a subsidiary of BP, and two more projects by Iberdrola totaling 700 megawatts.

"The wife says we should have them on every acre," Hilderbrand says as he guides the Mercedes back onto Hilderbrand Lane and west into Wasco.

The Goose Pit, a nondescript building at the south end of town, is in a midafternoon lull. A few regulars drink beer at a roomy bar in the back. John points out the stuffed rat, fur askew and grayish, squatting in a box on the counter. "Shot on the premises," says John, a claim the owner immediately disputes, although she can't remember precisely how the rat got there.

Stuffed animals hang from ceiling and wall: a turkey in full flight; an elk head; half a black bear, its front legs outstretched; a full cougar lounging on a shelf.

A neighbor shot the bear when it broke into his house, John relates. "Had a .30-06. Laid him right out."

The Goose Pit serves as the town's public square. Tall tales, intrigues, schemes, they all find their way into the restaurant near the end of Wasco's short main street. Despite the wind energy boom, the street holds more boarded-up storefronts and peeling paint than viable businesses. But for the locals, the changes are profound.

Kathy Neihart and Mike Gutfleisch have owned the restaurant for 25 years. Only in the past several has the investment begun to pay off.

"It's been a slow uphill climb ever since we started," says Neihart, who moved to Wasco from Portland to escape the big city clamor. About 10 years ago, major renovations put them in debt, and Wasco's dropping population darkened the outlook. "We were getting behind, and there was no way we could have caught up. Those wind towers saved us."

Between 2000 and 2006, Sherman County's population fell by 12 percent. "They were leaving, and no one was coming back to run the farm," Neihart says.

Business has doubled in recent years, she says, and each Saturday night she and Gutfleisch cook as many as three prime rib roasts for a steady stream of customers.

Much of the work associated with the wind farms is in construction -- temporary employment -- economists note. But a lineup of projects in Sherman and surrounding counties, new mobile home parks to house workers and a 14-lot subdivision on the outskirts of town signal some stability for a population that has fallen to 320 from the 2000 level of 380.

Reason to come home John and Wanda Hilderbrand tried to retire in the 1980s after their two sons and a daughter left town for lives of their own. The couple moved to Black Butte Ranch near Sisters, then to Bend. But they soon returned.

"We met a lot of nice people," Wanda says. "But I said to John, 'It's just not my life.'" She missed her connections to the land, to the plantings and the harvests and to the deer that showed up in her yard almost every morning to eat her roses and peer in the living room window. She even missed the wind.

Now, with the money the turbines provide, the Hilderbrands say they're more relaxed about their finances and more optimistic about their legacy to their children. They can more easily absorb the rising costs of farming and can travel more.

They've been on a cruise through the Panama Canal, vacationed in Costa Rica and purchased a better timeshare in Mexico. And, says John, "I buy a lot of things on eBay -- the wife says too much," including that Mercedes and a backhoe.

Hilderbrand won't say how much he receives from Iberdrola. Generally, landowners are paid $3,000 to $5,000 annually per turbine, the amount rising with turbine capacity. That means a farmer with 10 turbines earns $30,000 to $50,000 a year.

The turbines' concrete pads eat up some land, but farmers work around them. Hilderbrand estimates that his 11 turbines take three acres of his 1,200 acres out of production.

Farming of soft white wheat, most of which is shipped to Japan, remains the mainstay, he says, but "I make a really nice amount" from the turbines.

Most important, the Hilderbrands say, the wind turbines have given their children a reason to come home.

Ormand and Jeff left Wasco after college. Ormand, with a graduate degree in international business, traveled the world selling irrigation equipment. Jeff settled into a commercial banking job in Beaverton.

"You either stayed to farm or you left," says Ormand, who lives in Walla Walla. "There was a lot more money to be made in what I was doing than in going back and farming." The Hilderbrands' daughter, Jill Burilson, lives in Brush Prairie, Wash.

This year, the wind lured the brothers into a small-scale project of their own. They've hooked up with a San Francisco investment company that will bankroll a six-turbine, 10-megawatt project and take advantage of the ample state and federal tax credits tied to wind energy development.

They hope to complete the project on a section of the family property by mid-2009.

"I wanted a chance to come back home," says Ormand, who plans to buy a place near town. "I saw what my dad was doing, but I never thought I'd have the opportunity myself."

Source:
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Sunday, November 09, 2008

MUZZLED 150 MPG SUV OUT OF LA AUTO SHOW


November 7, 2008


Company says carmakers continue to seek tens of billions of taxpayer dollars, ostensibly to develop fuel-efficient vehicle technologies, but their conduct is evidence they are reluctant to embrace solutions they didn’t invent.

AFS Trinity Power Corporation today announced it pulled its 150 MPG plug-in hybrid SUV prototypes out of the LA Auto Show but will independently exhibit and demonstrate the super fuel-efficient vehicles on their own elsewhere in downtown LA during the show.

The company's decision followed actions by the LA Auto Show to muzzle AFS Trinity from highlighting the 150 miles per gallon fuel economy of its XH150 prototype vehicles. "The suppression by the automakers of information about technologies such as this raises serious questions about the judgment, vision, intentions and capabilities of the leadership of these companies,” said Edward W. Furia, Chairman and CEO of AFS Trinity. “Such conduct by the automakers, who are currently seeking tens of billions of taxpayer dollars, ostensibly to develop fuel efficient vehicle technologies, is evidence they are reluctant to embrace solutions they didn’t invent.”

First shown at the North American International Auto Show (NAIAS) in Detroit in January, 2008, two XH150 prototypes have toured the country for the last ten months and received positive reactions from the American public, national media (see coverage at
http://www.afstrinity.com/press-coverage.htm), public officials, Governors, Senators and Members of Congress as well as automotive fleet managers and engineers in Austin, Salt Lake City, Philadelphia, Washington D.C., Seattle, Livermore and Sacramento. (Images available for download at http://www.afstrinity.com/press-images.htm).

Furia explained that, when AFS Trinity sought exhibition space on the main floor of the LA Auto Show, the only space that show management offered was the Kentia Hall basement (Note: the LA Auto Show is “owned” by the Greater Los Angeles New Car Dealers Association, which, in turn, is closely associated with the major auto makers in Detroit). To address AFS Trinity's concern that the Kentia Hall basement space was much less likely to attract visitors to the XH150 exhibit, show management offered the company a package of floor space in Kentia, advertising space in the auto show program and billboard space on the main floor of the convention center, suggesting that AFS Trinity could use the ad and billboard to attract visitors to the basement exhibit.

“There was just one hitch,” Furia said. “Before we could proceed, the content of our ad and billboard had to be submitted to auto show management for approval. When we told them that the ad and billboard content would essentially be the same as what the company has used in its web site for the past ten months and which we used at the Detroit Auto Show in January, they responded that our mileage claim of 150 miles per gallon would not be permitted.”

Furia quoted an email from LA Auto Show management that said, “We cannot approve this content . . . the mileage claim is of primary concern to us. Manufacturers are forced to quote EPA verified mpg numbers in their advertising, and . . . [your] 150-MPG figure is an estimation. A banner like this one in the lobby is likely to generate unfavorable reactions from manufacturers, which is something we will take action to avoid.” (Email from LA Auto Show Assistant General Manager, Scott Webb).

In response, AFS Trinity observed that EPA does not certify mileage estimates of show cars and prototypes, but nevertheless offered to modify its billboard and ad content with new text, stating, “150-MPG is an estimate, not EPA-certified . . .your mileage may vary.”

The email AFS Trinity received in response from LA Auto Show management, according to Furia, reads: ‘We will not accept any billboard or program advertising that mentions AFS Trinity's 150-MPG claim, including references as part of the graphics on the vehicle. This is no longer a topic for further discussion."

Explaining AFS Trinity’s decision to pull out of the LA Auto show completely, Furia said, “We had no choice but to pull out of the show when they refused to let us state our 150-MPG mileage estimate, as it is the most important and popular feature of our technology. Indeed, I believe our fuel economy would be the main reason that people would go to the trouble to find us at the auto show,” he said. “Being in the basement was bad enough. Forcing us to be silent about our key benefit was simply unacceptable.”

Ignoring the solution

Furia said, “No one questions the sales potential of a 150-MPG SUV that can carry a whole family and provide better acceleration than similar gasoline models. Every single person who has driven these cars loves them and wants one. We have built two XH150 prototypes and demonstrated them across the country. Yet, none of the major automakers has accepted our invitation to see and drive them, let alone license the technology and mass produce them. They usually claim that they are going to come up with something of their own in the future. In other words, they reject breakthroughs they didn't invent.”

“In the meantime,” Furia said, “American auto plants are closing, men and women who are among the best trained, most productive auto workers in the world are losing their jobs in record numbers, and America is in danger of losing the last vestiges of its heartland heavy industrial base altogether. We want people to know that a super fuel-efficient automotive solution to our dependence on oil already exists, which the driving public enthusiastically supports and that major automakers can license and mass-produce within an estimated three years.”

Furia said, “Our desire to deliver this message in spite of the effort to muzzle us is why we decided to bring our exhibit trailer and prototypes to downtown L.A., the American city that, probably more than any other, understands the environmental, energy and economic implications of this technology. The anticompetitive behavior by the automakers is troubling because Americans still appear willing to buy new cars if they are offered the right ones. Now is the time to embrace new fuel efficient vehicle technologies, not stifle them.”

EPA and prototypes

According to Furia, “The reason the LA Auto Show gave for prohibiting our 150 mile per gallon estimate—which we have widely used in other auto shows and which has been broadly reported by the media worldwide—is that EPA has not certified this mileage, but this is a weak and transparent excuse, as EPA does not certify mileage for show cars or prototypes. Certification does not happen until a car is much closer to being commercially produced.”

AFS Trinity’s 150-MPG mileage estimate is based on a typical week of driving: 40 miles, 6 days per week and 80 miles on one weekend day each week. The first 40 miles of every day are electric, with gasoline being used only for distances beyond 40 miles. For this driving profile, the XH-150 uses up to 2 gallons of gas to travel 320 miles, which works out to 160 mpg, which the company rounds down to 150 miles per gallon.

Battery issue

Furia explained that the difference between the AFS Trinity approach to energy storage in a plugin hybrid and that of other developers is the use of ultracapacitors and proprietary control electronics to solve the power and life cycle limitations of batteries. AFS Trinity has been developing sophisticated energy storage and delivery technologies for 18 years working with a variety of private and government entities, including DARPA, NASA, the U.S. Army, U.S. Navy, U.S. Department of Transportation, California State agencies, Oak Ridge National Labs, Lawrence Livermore National Labs, Lockheed, Honeywell, Mercedes, Ricardo and others.

We applaud attempts by carmakers and others to develop a new battery that might be able to overcome the inherent reliability and durability problems related to the duty cycle demanded of a plugin hybrid, but waiting for it – especially as it may never emerge or may emerge at an impossibly high cost – is risky business, particularly when the auto industry needs an energy storage and power management solution for plug ins now,” Furia said. “We have a solution today that we have demonstrated and that only requires mass production engineering in order to be put into commercial production in a wide range of cars, trucks and SUVs.”

Implications for Auto Industry Stimulus (aka “Bail-out”) Package

Furia noted that the Associated Press (AP) reported yesterday that Detroit automakers are once again on Capital Hall in Washington, D.C. seeking a bail-out and forecasting their own demise if they don’t get it. “This is certain to be a major issue that the new U.S. Congress and President-Elect Obama will consider. An emergency bail-out could even become an issue in the remaining days of 2008 for the current U.S. Congress,” he said.

"The action that the LA Auto Show took to muzzle AFS Trinity has implications for such a bailout," Furia said. "The idea that the Detroit automakers, through their LA Auto Show agents, would seek to suppress interest in a super-efficient vehicle technology developed by a small company such as AFS Trinity truly challenges the imagination, particularly given the global energy security landscape through which America must navigate in the next several decades,” Furia said.

Whether the behavior of the Greater Los Angeles New Car Dealers, and, by implication and association, the carmakers they serve, is based on NIH ("not-invented-here") considerations, or something else, it raises questions about whether the current leadership of the American auto industry possesses the perspective, character, capability and vision to escape the death march in which they currently appear to be locked, no matter how large a bailout the next Congress and President-Elect Obama are willing to support.

As dangerous as Detroit's problems may be, they also represent an enormous opportunity to reject antiquated attitudes and behaviors and create millions of new jobs and feed unprecedented economic growth, precisely because these problems are so large and so critical to address. Simply put,” Furia concluded, “a stimulus package that allows current auto industry leadership to remain in control of the destiny of this critically important industry as it confronts this unprecedented crisis—and opportunity— is something that the new Congress and President-Elect Obama should really think twice about."

About AFS Trinity

AFS Trinity develops Fast Energy Storage™ for vehicular, spacecraft and stationary power systems utilizing batteries, ultracapacitors, and flywheels. The Company has conducted programs with private and government organizations including DARPA, NASA, the U.S. Navy, U.S. Army, U.S. DOT, California Energy Commission, Oak Ridge National Laboratories, Lawrence Livermore National Labs, Lockheed, Honeywell, Mercedes and Ricardo. AFS Trinity's patent-pending Extreme Hybrid™ drive train utilizes ultra-capacitors, batteries and proprietary power and control electronics for plug-in hybrid electric vehicles (PHEVs). Ricardo, the world's leading independent automotive engineering firm, with over 1900 engineers in facilities around the world, has assisted AFS Trinity in building the first XH-150 prototypes and is a preferred supplier to AFS Trinity for drive train integration support.

For more information visit www.afstrinity.com and www.ricardo.com

Source:
http://www.afstrinity.com/press-release-11-7-08.html
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Friday, November 07, 2008

We Need Real Change!

Ask Obama's Transition Team to Appoint a Treasury Secretary That Did Not Have a Hand in Deregulating Wall Street



When you sign this petition, your comments will go to John Podesta and Michael Strautmanis of the Obama transition team.

Right now, the rumors are that Larry Summers is one of the leading nominees to become the Treasury Secretary for the Obama administration. During normal times, the Treasury Secretary is an enormously important position, responsible for representing the position of an administration on both the global and domestic economy and making key policy decisions.

At this particular moment, the Treasury Secretary is even more significant, responsible for a $700 billion bailout fund and for restoring balance to the American economy during turbulent times.

President-election Obama spoke eloquently and often about the perils of deregulation and trade agreements that do not include worker and environmental protection. These were in fact key distinguishing points between Senator Obama and Senator McCain, and with the financial crisis in mid-September, perhaps quite significant in the election as well. Obama has spoken clearly and effectively on these points, that it is critical that the next Treasury Secretary not continue the legacy of both the Clinton and Bush administration, a legacy of deregulation of financial markets and corporate trade agreements.

The deregulation of our financial institutions has led to the current crisis, and threatens the stability of the global economy.

We are asking that Obama match his words with personnel decisions. In 1999, Summers was a proponent within the Clinton administration of the Gramm bill to deregulate the banking industry, and as such, bears responsibility for the current environment. It is not enough to fix the policy apparatus behind the crisis.

President-elect Obama must not reward those who got the entire thesis about what makes the economy work wrong. There were advocates in 1999 who foresaw the crisis these policy choices would enable, both Senators like Byron Dorgan and advocacy groups.

Moreover, Larry Summers has a record of gaffes and insensitive remarks that will damage his ability to effective lead the Treasury Department A small selection of his statements are included below.

On His Work Moving NAFTA and Other Free Trade Agreements During the Clinton Era

I think the decision to support NAFTA was a crucial one because it was really a watershed as to whether America was going to stand for larger markets, was going to stand for forward defense of our interests by trying to have a more integrated global economy [in] which countries were growing.

I don't know that the Seattle protest against globalization, how linked [those demonstrations] are with some of the financial questions. I find them very sad because it seems to me that there's an enormous amount of very valuable moral energy that is being very, very badly misplaced.
There are children who are working in textile businesses in Asia who would be prostitutes on the streets if they did not have those jobs.


Lawrence Summers Flashback: Africa Is 'Under-Polluted'

On December 12, 1991, while serving as chief economist for the World Bank, Summers authored a private memo arguing that the bank should actively encourage the dumping of toxic waste in developing countries, particularly "under populated countries in Africa," which Summers described as "UNDER-polluted."

Summers' remarks on women draw fire

This was the point that most angered some of the listeners, several of whom said Summers said that women do not have the same ''innate ability" or ''natural ability" as men in some fields.

As President-elect Obama continues selecting his team to run the country, we are hopeful that he will bring the change that millions of Americans are seeking. Selecting a Treasury Secretary who did not help bring about the financial crisis, but who could start with a clean sweep and the moral authority to fix our problems, would be a wonderful start.

We can't fix this mess by handing over control to the people who made it.

Please sign the petition:
http://action.openleft.com/page/petition/nosummers
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Wednesday, November 05, 2008

Petrobras to take over Pasadena refinery in Texas


Oct 31, 2008
Reuters


Brazil’s state-owned oil giant Petrobras is set to take over Astra Oil Trading’s 50 percent stake in the Pasadena refinery which they jointly own in Texas, Petrobras said on Friday, after a dispute over its expansion.

The two firms disagreed over the pace of investments to expand the plant and brought their dispute to arbitrators at the International Center for Dispute Resolution, which deemed Petrobras could exercise an option to buy Astra’s half.

The decision also gives Petrobras the option of taking over Pasadena Refining System Inc., a firm set up to distribute crude oil and the refinery’s products.

Petrobras said a price had not yet been agreed for Astra’s share of the refinery and linked companies but it said it was already working with Astra, a unit of Belgian holding company NPM/CNP, to immediately take over operational and financial management of the assets.

Source:
http://www.reuters.com/article/rbssEnergyNews/idUSN3136953720081031
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Monday, November 03, 2008

Hawaii as clean energy hub for the U.S.?


MSNBC
Oct. 29, 2008


Hawaiian Electric Co., Hawaii’s largest utility, and the governor signed an agreement earlier this month to move the state away from dependence on fossil fuels for electricity and ground transportation.

The goal is to create 70 percent of Hawaii’s energy use from clean energy sources by 2030.
Currently, the state gets about 10 percent of its energy from renewable sources.

The accord seeks to make renewable energy easier to use by integrating it into the power grid.

Under the agreement, Hawaiian Electric commits to not build any new coal plants, integrate up to 1,100 megawatts of renewable energy into the power grid, and convert existing fossil fuel generators to biofuels using locally grown crops.

A U.S. senator said it is essential that Hawaii emphasize its energy independence efforts because of the state’s isolation and the steady long-term rise of oil prices.

“It’s not going to be easy, but we must do it, because of all the 50 states in the union, our state is the most vulnerable,” the senator said.

“We have no fossil fuels, so we have to manufacture our own energy.”

Source:
http://www.msnbc.msn.com/id/27340344/
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Lawmakers concerned about Nuke Plant Radiation


Burlington Free Press
Oct. 31, 2008


Vermont lawmakers are still worried about the state Department of Health’s decision to change the way radiation from Vermont Yankee is measured.

A special legislative panel heard testimony October 30 as it weighs whether to force the Health Department to revisit the way it now calculates the releases.

A radiological health chief for the Health Department, says the Vernomt nuclear plant releases 30 percent more radiation now than it did before boosting its power production by 20 percent in 2006. The releases are still within state limits, however.

A state representative says the panel may require the Health Department to go through the regulatory process some lawmakers say was ignored last year.

Source:
http://www.burlingtonfreepress.com/article/20081031/NEWS02/81031011
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Sunday, November 02, 2008

Researchers Identify Fungus

Implicated in Unprecedented

Bat Mortality

Since the winter of 2006-2007, bat declines exceeding 75% have been observed at surveyed hibernacula.



By Kathleen Wren
AAAS
American Association for the Advancement of Science
Sept. 30, 2008


White-nose syndrome (WNS) is a condition associated with an unprecedented bat mortality event in the northeastern United States.

Since the winter of 2006-2007, bat declines exceeding 75% have been observed at surveyed hibernacula.

Affected bats often present with visually striking white fungal growth on their muzzles, ears, and/or wing membranes.

Direct microscopy and culture analyses demonstrated that the skin of WNS-affected bats is colonized by a psychrophilic fungus that is phylogenetically related to Geomyces spp., but with a conidial morphology distinct from characterized members of this genus. This report characterizes the cutaneous fungal infection associated with WNS.

In some regions in the northeastern United States bats will be in short supply.

In the last two years, bat populations have been disappearing in some areas across Connecticut, Massachusetts, New York and Vermont, dropping by more than 75% in some caves and mines.

The cause of the die-offs is a mystery, but many of the dead bats are found with a white fungus on their muzzles, ears and wings, prompting researchers to name the phenomenon "white-nose syndrome."

David Blehert, a diagnostic microbiologist at the United States Geological Survey's National Wildlife Health Center in Madison, Wisconsin, and his colleagues examined this fungus and determined that it is a cold-loving species that likely belongs to the genus Geomyces, which includes other species that colonize the skin of animals in cold climates.

These findings, described in a Brevium appearing online today at Science Express, are consistent with the possibility that the fungus is at least partially responsible for the bats' deaths, though more research will be necessary before scientists truly know what's causing white-nose syndrome.

The die-offs are curious because bats are fairly tough immunologically, carrying diseases like rabies, and the implications are particularly troubling since bats play important roles in insect control, plant pollination and seed dissemination.

"A single bat can eat up to 100% or more of its body weight in bugs each night, which can translate to over 3,000 mosquitoes per night," Blehert said. "Decreased bat numbers could lead to dramatic increases in insect populations leading to crop damage, tree defoliation, and perhaps increased incidence of vector borne diseases, such as West Nile Virus."

In their study, Blehert and colleagues took samples of fungus from over 100 bats, of several species, afflicted with white-nose syndrome. By culturing the fungus in the lab, the researchers discovered it prefers to grow at cold temperatures; warmer temperatures inhibit the infection. A genetic analysis suggested that the fungus belongs to the Geomyces genus, although the fungus' physical appearance is different from that of other Geomyces fungi.

The study authors see a possible parallel between this fungus and the lethal fungal skin infection that has caused a dramatic decline in global amphibian populations. They hope that a better understanding of what causes bat white-nose syndrome and how the disease develops will allow researchers and wildlife managers develop an effective strategy to protect the bats of the northeastern United States.

AAAS Source:
http://www.aaas.org/news/releases/2008/1030bats.shtml
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