I always assumed that they were manipulating the process by holding refinery constant and manipulating available supple. But it looks like they are actually cooking the books as well. Wonder why it took 11 years to catch them at it and only in Europe? Come on! Russia is nothing but one big criminal open sewer. But we shall see as the investigation unfolds.

http://www.usatoday.com/story/money/business/2013/05/16/oil-price-fixing-scandal/2166857/

Oil price-fixing scandal heats up in Europe

Pablo Gorondi, AP Business Writer

The European Union’s executive arm, the Commission, confirmed it has raided the offices of a number of oil industry companies for possible price-fixing.

Here are some questions and answers on the investigation.

— Which companies were raided and why?

The EU Commission did not say which companies it is investigating. However, some firms have confirmed they are part of the probe. They include Britain’s BP, Royal Dutch Shell, which is listed in London and Amsterdam, and Norway’s Statoil. Platts, a division of McGraw-Hill Financial that compiles and provides data and news for the energy market, also said its offices in London were raided.

The three oil companies are all major producers in the international energy industry and contribute data to Platts’ Market on Close (MOC) pricing process, which every day publishes the final trading price for numerous commodities.

The EU said it has concerns that some companies may have tried to manipulate the pricing process by colluding to report distorted prices and by preventing other companies from submitting their own prices

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Go there and read. More next week.

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Most Christians (and many other end of the Earth religions) assume that humans will be here when it happens. I got my doubts about that. The way we are treating the Earth we may be extinct in 50 years. Very few species make it for a couple million years let alone the billions we have to go but if we were smart we would be saving the nukes for the end.

http://www.energy-net.org/NONUKES.HTM

Why a Nuclear Free World is Important

We are now facing an energy crossroad as a culture. Everyone was effected by the price of gas that peaked during the summer of 2008. The world has fallen into a consumer trap where a growing number of people around the world are using finite oil resources to drive to work. The energy it takes to drive a car is like having 700 human slaves pushing that vehicle for a few cents per hour. The era of oil is rapidly coming to an end as the entire planet hunts down the last accessible oil reserves. At the same time, the burning of fossil fuels is polluting the air and water. There is a global shift to move away from oil driven cars. This means electric cars or better, redesigning our communities so we work close to home.

Thirty years ago, energy and environmental activists warned Americans about this coming crisis but were drowned out by the energy industry and the media’s failure to be honest with the public. In 1992, one half of the world’s Nobel Laureates signed onto a call that the world had 20 years to deal with our growing global energy and population crisis. That call was ignored by America’s leaders and the media. Some experts say we only have a few years to keep from being bankrupted by energy costs and global carrying capacity collapses.

The nuclear power industry has been claiming that it can rescue us from climate change and the coming energy crisis. Wrong! The arguments from this failed industry should not be trusted and in fact, represent a disastrous misuse of economic resources at such a critical moment. Their last experiment in Science Fiction has left the world neck deep in deadly wastes and economic boondoggles.

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Go there and read. More tomorrow.

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Already a group of scientists and volunteers moved a butterfly north because of the warming climate. Our zoos are being referred to as “lifeboats” for extinct “in the wild” animals. This is no longer funny. People should be going to jail for this but it turns out that jails are only for poor people and white collar criminals not the uber wealthy who control the literal power structure that is causing this.

http://www.livescience.com/17719-species-extinctions-climate-change.html

“We have really sophisticated meteorological models for predicting climate change,” Urban said in a statement. “But in real life, animals move around, they compete, they parasitize each other and they eat each other. The majority of our predictions don’t include these important interactions.”

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Go there and read. More tomorrow.

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This is the Republican Corporate dreamland. Proclaiming that you are the energy source of  the future doesn’t make it so. But mix in a fair number of under educated farm people who will believe anything and Westinghouse who has everything to gain and you have a Missouri wet dream. Unfortunately this is just that, only it is a bad dream. I mean really, if we make it small and spread it around it will work better? Get out.

http://www.moenergyfuture.org/blog/breaking-news-exciting-investment-opportunity-for-missouri-announced-today/

Breaking news: Exciting investment opportunity for Missouri announced today

Posted on April 19, 2012

On Thursday, April 19, Missouri’s energy future took a giant leap forward as investor-owned, cooperative and municipal utilities announced that they are partnering with Westinghouse Electric Company to apply to the Department of Energy’s Small Modular Reactors (SMR) investment fund for up to $452 million. The funding will support engineering, design certification and licensing for SMRs in Missouri.

This historic partnership could make Missouri a world leader in the energy sector economy.  Gov. Jay Nixon, Sen. Mike Kehoe, Rep. Jeanie Riddle, Chairman Pollock and the overwhelming majority of members of the General Assembly who support nuclear power and helped make this amazing opportunity a reality, should be applauded for their hard work and commitment to Missouri’s energy and economic future.

Over the last four years, MBEF’s supporters across the state educated the public to show that cleaner, alternative energy sources like nuclear are a path forward for Missouri. Today, we are another step closer to creating jobs, boosting our economy and securing our energy future.

This announcement could make Missouri home to an SMR component manufacturing center, engineering and design center, and training facility for engineers—establishing Missouri as a world leader and exporter in energy technology and manufacturing.  In addition to the construction of new SMRs, thousands of Missourians will be put to work because of this project.

An economic impact study about the SMR project is in process and will be made available later this spring.

For more information about SMRs, please visit the below websites.

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Go there and laugh. More tomorrow.

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I did not know which article to go with today. They were both about environmental destruction in Turkey printed within the last 2 days. One was about the 1,600 hydro projects in Turkey to generate just 8 percent of their electricity, but flooding hundreds of thousands of acres of habitat and farmland. Also probably denying drinking water and irrigation to those downstream. OR the article about the cyanide leak from a mining tailings pond. Oh what the heck, cyanide is so much more fun.

http://www.todayszaman.com/news-243375-environmental-disaster-looms-in-kutahya-after-tailings-failure.html

Environmental disaster looms in Kütahya after tailings failure

However, officials have said all the necessary measures have been taken to prevent leakage.

A crisis desk was established in the province following the collapse of the dam’s embankment on Saturday. The governor’s office has announced that nearby villages could be evacuated. The facility, owned by the Eti Silver Corporation, reportedly contains 15 million cubic meters of cyanide. It is located 34 kilometers from the provincial capital, near the village of Gümü?.

“We are calling for urgent measures,” said Mustafa Sat?lm??, the Kütahya representative of the Turkish Foundation for Reforestation, Protection of Natural Habitats and Combating Soil Erosion (TEMA). “If not, it is certain that we’ll be faced with an environmental disaster that will cause irreparable damage.” He said TEMA had grave concerns about the situation. “The amount of disinformation [on a possible cyanide leak in Kütahya] is enormous. We expect officials to make a satisfactory statement on this. We feel that not making statements on the issue won’t get us anywhere.”

Company workers continued work started on Saturday to prevent the cyanide from flowing into the first stage of the dam, from where it could leak outside, while work was also under way to strengthen the embankments.

Sat?lm?? said although TEMA had been unable to acquire official information from technical professionals, they had been able to ascertain that a “severe risk” had formed in the tailing dam’s stages. “The embankment between the second and third stages collapsed, and now the entire burden is on the third stage. Immediate action is needed.”

The Turkish Union of Engineers and Architects’ Chambers (TMMOB) released a statement on Sunday saying that a possible leak would lead to a disaster much worse than a spill of industrial waste in October at an aluminum plant in western Hungary.

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Go there and read. More tomorrow.

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This just the beginning. The drillers have no idea what they are doing down below. They have very little idea of all the formations they are drilling through. They absolutely have no control over the venting of the gas. And yes, they need to disclose, recover and retain all of the high pressure fluids that they use.

http://coloradoenergynews.com/2011/10/breaking-news-epa-to-regulate-fracking-wastewater-disposal/

Breaking News — EPA to Regulate Fracking Wastewater Disposal

October 20th, 2011

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More tomorrow.

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Normally I reserve this space for the freezer pack and fan “coolers” that make the paper every year. This year they actually put an air conditioner in them. Do not get excited however because they are still a ripoff. One, anyone could modify a regular small super efficient air conditioner to do this. Two, they require a exhaust port at every window you would use and it does not look like you can move the ports from window to window. Three, they are really really inefficient air conditioners but they hide that by reducing the price to operate to the smallest unit of measure possible. Finally they take out an ad that costs $1,500 dollars per day (like the coin sellers, the gold buyers, and the fake antiques roadshow people), where if they where legit they would just send out a press release. But with respect and the highest praise to this lady blogger, while using nicer language, she tears them a new you know what. Way to go lady!

http://daughternumberthree.blogspot.com/2011/06/articpro-air-conditioners-not-free-and.html

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Just a taste here. Go bookmark her page.

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Thursday, June 16, 2011

ArticPro Air Conditioners — Not Free, and Not the Best Choice

The UMS designers have outdone themselves in making the ad appear to be a free giveaway. The use of a black reversed box at top left with MINNESOTA DISTRIBUTION NOTICE and the year just above it, I would say, is designed to mimic the look of government notices, such as IRS publications. There’s the usual UMS limited availability offer (only 1,573 units!), now embellished with a county-by-county listing that makes the ad look even more official.

Nowhere in the top half of the ad is a price given or the fact that you have to buy the machines even mentioned — for instance, there’s no price called out in larger type with a dollar sign anywhere in the ad, including the call to action box at lower right.

It’s been several months since I saw an ad in the local papers from the Universal Media Syndicate, but their newest product appears to follow the pattern of their many earlier offers.

Today’s Star Tribune contained this full-page ad for an ArcticPro™ portable air conditioner:

The UMS designers have outdone themselves in making the ad appear to be a free giveaway. The use of a black reversed box at top left with MINNESOTA DISTRIBUTION NOTICE and the year just above it, I would say, is designed to mimic the look of government notices, such as IRS publications. There’s the usual UMS limited availability offer (only 1,573 units!), now embellished with a county-by-county listing that makes the ad look even more official.

Nowhere in the top half of the ad is a price given or the fact that you have to buy the machines even mentioned — for instance, there’s no price called out in larger type with a dollar sign anywhere in the ad, including the call to action box at lower right.

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Go there and read. More next week.

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That is right. After one of the worst nuclear accidents in history, in its own backyard the Fukushima Power Plant Meltdown barely slowed the Chinese quest for megawatts. While Spain and other countries review their plants and Germany has renounced its programs altogether, the Chinese plunge ahead.

http://www.guardian.co.uk/world/2011/jun/15/china-nuclear-plants-pass-inspections

• Jonathan Watts, Asia environment correspondent
• guardian.co.uk, Wednesday 15 June 2011 12.03 BST
• Article history

 

The Daya Bay nuclear power station in Guangdong province, south China. Inspectors have given the country’s existing reactors the all-clear. Photograph: Adrian Bradshaw/EPA

China has moved a step closer towards resuming its ambitious nuclear power plans after it was revealed that safety inspectors have given the country’s 13 reactors the all-clear.

The clean bill of health makes it more likely that Beijing will not follow the example of other countries – most recently German, Italy and Japan – who have promised to scale back or abandon nuclear power in the wake of the meltdown at the Fukushima Dai-ichi plant in March.

China has the world’s biggest nuclear expansion plans with a goal of more than 100 reactors by 2020, but it suspended permits for new plants after the tsunami disaster in Japan.

The government said it would not be resumed until existing plants were checked, construction plans reviewed and a new national safety framework put in place.

That process is now well under way, according to a statement by the deputy environment minister, Li Ganjie, posted on a government website. As well as the completed checks for plants in operation, reviews of facilities under construction would be finished by October, he said.

Few analysts expect China to trim or delay targets that were included in the latest five-year economic plan to meet the power demands of a growing economy, while reducing the country’s reliance on greenhouse gas-emitting fuel sources.

But critical voices have grown louder. Professor He Zuoxiu, who helped to develop China’s first atomic bomb, caused a storm last month when he claimed that plans to ramp up production of nuclear energy twentyfold by 2030 could be as disastrous as the Great Leap Forward.

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More tomorrow.
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When it was SB14 I said here that it was a huge rip off and that it stood 150 years of utility regulation on its head. The change in number has not changed the essence. Lisa Madigan will probably sue. As will the ICC. I may never vote for Governor Quinn again. Both my State Rep and my State Senator voted FOR it I am sure. But I didn’t vote for them anyway. This makes dumb and dumber look like Steven Hawking and Einstein. I am not the only one who thinks so.

http://www.occasionalplanet.org/2011/06/01/illinois-smart-grid-legislation-faces-opposition/

Illinois smart-grid legislation faces opposition

By

The Illinois legislature is considering a bill that allows electric companies to raise rates for consumers in exchange for infrastructure improvements. Ameren and ComEd are pushing for passage of SB 1652, which would allow yearly rate increases to consumers. Electric companies claim that the improvements listed in the bill would save customers money down the line, in exchange for rate increases now.

The improvements specified in SB 1652 include implementation of a “smart grid” to the Illinois system. The smart grid would allow better monitoring of electricity produced and demand by consumers. This allows the electric grid to support the addition of renewable energy sources, such as wind and solar, from companies separate from the electric company. The bill states that such additions of renewable energy to the grid would count towards electric company requirements by the state for renewable energy. The smart grid would give second- party producers, consumers and the electric company real- time updates on usage, production and current price of electricity.

The Citizens Utility Board (CUB) initially opposed the measure as being over-generous to the companies, vague on improvements to be performed and expensive for consumers. Improvements to the bill currently include a five- year sunset clause, limiting rate increases to 2.5% annually, and removal of gas utilities from the bill. CUB has recognized the potential of smart grid implementation to save money for consumers, provided implementation is done right. Even with these improvements, CUB states that further changes are required to specify exactly what improvements will be done by the companies. Correct implementation can save consumers money.

Illinois Attorney General Lisa Madigan and Governor Pat Quinn are on record as opposing the legislation, due to the increased costs for consumers. Madigan points out that ComEd recently received approval for a rate hike worth $156 million. Lobbyists for ComEd started pushing for the new legislation the day after the rate hike had been approved. In a written statement, Madigan said “their legion of lobbyists continues to push legislation that will require consumers to fund billions more in guaranteed profits. This new proposal is just more of the same: a plan that hits consumers where it hurts the most — their wallets.”

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Back to beautiful tomorrow.

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I have wanted to say some things about the situation at Fukushima Nuclear Power Plant for awhile. The content you see in the Media are just so bogus. First they want to prattle on about a melt down and the chances of an explosion “like Chernobyl”.

I scream at the television, “The reactors scrammed or were off line”. Ten Mile Island and Chernobyl were both online when their catastrophes occurred. Shutting down 10 mile was their big challenge. Chernobyl was an atomic explosion that sent material 4 or 5 miles in the air. Their big challenge was preventing a China Syndrome. Fukushima was always going to be a local nonthreatening event. Dramatic – Tragic – Fool hearty but nonetheless local.

The media want to prittle prattle along about reactor types and containment vessels. They never talk about powerhouse design. Reactors do one thing they generate steam. That is it. And that is why I am opposed to nuclear power in general. There are so many simpler and safer ways to generate steam that nuclear power is a joke. Once promoted by national governments because they wanted to piggy back their nuclear weapons programs on to “local power programs”. So we will use US powerplants an example of power house design and then compare disasters.

Yes, 10 powerplants in the US use the Mark 1 reactors like what were in 4 of the reactors at Fukushima. But in the US there is “triple containment” and “plain water” steam turbine loops. That means that when 10 Mile Island malfunctioned they simply vented a bunch of radioactive steam which immediately killed about 100 people and eventually killed about 300 babies and then turned the reactor off (scrammed). The temperatures soared to 5000 degress, the fuel melted, the cooling system worked and there it sits today with a puddle of melted fuel in the bottom of the reactor vessel. That should have been the end of Nuclear Power as we know it. At Fukushima they have “double containment” powerhouses that uses radioactive water to drive their turbines. All nuclear reactors have to be shielded or sheathed  for people to be able to get close to them to operate them. So even Chernobyl had a “single” containment vessel. In Fukushima they had that and a containment pad. Actually the pad was kind of ingenious. It consists of varying layers of concrete, steel, boron and lead. This was supposed to make a China Syndrome impossible because it would self seal the waste if it tried to melt through. BUT they used that argument to actually cheapen and make more dangerous their powerhouse designs. They provided no exterior containment system and they drove their turbines with radioactive steam. Additionally they built the cooling systems on one pad and their power generation systems on a separate pad guaranteeing that the cooling systems would break in an earthquake. So yes, there were explosions at Fukushima but not at the dynamite tonnage level that happened at Chernobyl. Fukushima was like a fire cracker.

While Fukushima is a local event that was a disaster waiting to happen, Chernobyl was a momentous international disaster waiting for someone to pull the trigger. It was a graphite reactor with a single containment wall, sitting by a lake right at the water table with an inadequate cooling system. Pull the trigger they did. The point being the Media does not understand Nuclear Power any better than the public does and yet this “magic genie” produces 20% of this countries electricity. Things have gotta change.

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Chernobyl_disaster

Chernobyl disaster

Chernobyl disaster

The nuclear reactor after the disaster. Reactor 4 (center). Turbine building (lower left). Reactor 3 (center right).
Date	26 April 1986
Time	01:23:45 (Moscow Time UTC+3)
Location	Pripyat, Ukrainian SSR, Soviet Union, now Ukraine

 

Location of Chernobyl nuclear power plant

 

The abandoned city of Pripyat with Chernobyl plant in the distance

 

Radio-operated bulldozers being tested before use

 

Abandoned housing blocks in Pripyat

The Chernobyl disaster was a nuclear accident that occurred on 26 April 1986 at the Chernobyl Nuclear Power Plant in the Ukrainian SSR (now Ukraine). An explosion and fire released large quantities of radioactive contamination into the atmosphere, which spread over much of Western Russia and Europe. It is considered the worst nuclear power plant accident in history, and is one of only two classified as a level 7 event on the International Nuclear Event Scale (the other being the Fukushima I nuclear incident, which is considered far less serious and has caused no direct deaths).^[1] The battle to contain the contamination and avert a greater catastrophe ultimately involved over 500,000 workers and cost an estimated 18 billion rubles, crippling the Soviet economy.^[2]

The disaster began during a systems test on 26 April 1986 at reactor number four of the Chernobyl plant, which is near the town of Pripyat. There was a sudden power output surge, and when an emergency shutdown was attempted, a more extreme spike in power output occurred, which led to a reactor vessel rupture and a series of explosions. These events exposed the graphite moderator of the reactor to air, causing it to ignite.^[3] The resulting fire sent a plume of highly radioactive smoke fallout into the atmosphere and over an extensive geographical area, including Pripyat. The plume drifted over large parts of the western Soviet Union and Europe. From 1986 to 2000, 350,400 people were evacuated and resettled from the most severely contaminated areas of Belarus, Russia, and Ukraine.^[4][5] According to official post-Soviet data,^[6][7] about 60% of the fallout landed in Belarus.

The accident raised concerns about the safety of the Soviet nuclear power industry, as well as nuclear power in general, slowing its expansion for a number of years and forcing the Soviet government to become less secretive about its procedures.^{[8][notes 1]}

Russia, Ukraine, and Belarus have been burdened with the continuing and substantial decontamination and health care costs of the Chernobyl accident. Thirty one deaths are directly attributed to the accident, all among the reactor staff and emergency workers.^[9] A UNSCEAR report places the total confirmed deaths from radiation at 64 as of 2008. Estimates of the number of deaths potentially resulting from the accident vary enormously: the World Health Organization (WHO) suggest it could reach 4,000;^[10] a Greenpeace report puts this figure at 200,000 or more;^[11] a Russian publication, Chernobyl, concludes that 985,000 excess deaths occurred between 1986 and 2004 as a result of radioactive contamination.^[12]

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More tomorrow.

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