But it is all about the money now isn’t? That would be a big YES. I imagine picking on some of the gentlest people in the world will land you in hell.

http://www.newrepublic.com/article/113354/energy-companies-take-advantage-amish-prohibition-lawsuits#

The Amish Are Getting Fracked Their religion prohibits lawsuits—and the energy companies know it

BY MOLLY REDDEN

It was late 2010 when a chipper agent for Kenoil, Inc., a drilling company in Eastern Ohio, drove to the nearby hamlet of Millersburg to visit Lloyd Miller. His car slithered down the hill overlooking the Millers’s home and white farm buildings, past a set of pine green drums, pipes, and gauges—a shallow oil well that Kenoil had drilled on the Millers’s property many years ago—and stopped in front of the aluminum barn where the family, who are Amish dairy farmers, lodges its horses and buggy. The agent had an unexpected business proposition for Lloyd and his wife, Edna: Kenoil wanted to lease the right to drill on the Millers’s land for shale gas. And for a lease of five years, he could offer them $10 an acre that same day.

The timing felt providential. The couple, who have several young children, were still paying off a 2006 loan they’d used to buy a small farm adjoining theirs. Gazing in the direction of his 158 acres, as he talked with me at his kitchen table in March, Miller said, “We thought, ‘Hey, that’s $1,500 we didn’t have.’” Still, he asked the agent about rumors of farmers who’d been given much larger signing bonuses in similar deals. He remembered the agent grinning dismissively as he said farms in the area were not leasing for more than what was offered. Miller, 46, considered the Kenoil well on the hill, and the years of good relations he had enjoyed with the company. “I just trusted him,” he said. The Millers signed the lease.

It was maybe two weeks, Miller figured, before they realized the enormity of what they’d done. First, their local paper, The Bargain Hunter, carried a front-page story advising farmers their land could be worth hundreds per acre to oil and gas companies. He compared notes with landowners nearby while on trips to the sale barns where farmers trade livestock, and when other farmers delivered hay for his cows. Miller is physically imposing—stout and broad-shouldered—but also painfully timid. When pressed on what his neighbors had earned, he gazed for a long time at Edna, who, with one of their daughters, was chalking the outline of a man’s pantleg onto a bolt of wool rolled out on the table. “My wife and I took turns kicking each other in the butt.” He paused for a long while. “Our ten dollars an acre compared to $1,000.”

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Go there and read. More next week.

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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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This is so big that I just had to find the original source. Once I got to the source the article did not carry the same headline as the inflammatory piece from Washington Blog but in the last paragraph he does imply phasing out the nukes. He also points out that no upgrades have been ordered in response to Fukushima nor included in the new licenses issue. This IS the insanity of Nuclear Generation of electricity.

http://peakoil.com/alternative-energy/former-u-s-nuclear-chief-american-nuclear-plants-should-be-phased-out-cant-guarantee-against-accident-causing-widespread-land-contamination

But this is what the guy really said.

http://ajw.asahi.com/article/0311disaster/fukushima/AJ201303140050

March 14, 2013

By SHIRO NAMEKATA/ Correspondent

As it is poised to impose strict regulatory measures on the operation of nuclear power plants, the Nuclear Regulation Authority is increasingly met by opposition that it is making the resumption of plants that are currently offline virtually impossible.

In a recent interview with The Asahi Shimbun in Washington, Gregory Jaczko, former chairman of the U.S. Nuclear Regulatory Commission (NRC), said it is crucial for a nuclear watchdog to stay independent from the nuclear industry.

Jaczko, who, unlike his four colleagues, opposed the first new construction and operation of a nuclear plant in the United States since the 1979 Three Mile Island accident, also discussed the future of nuclear energy. Excerpts from the interview follow:

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Go there and read. More next time.

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It is sad but true that at roughly 3:00 pm Japanese time the world changed. While not one event starting with a powerful earthquake at 9 on the Richter scale that did not itself cause much damage and followed by a tsunami that washed 20,000 people out to sea. This then was followed the next day with with a nuclear meltdown. 4 of them to be exact that cast radiation into the air, probably to most areas of Japan. I am not trying to downplay the nuclear disaster but a woman on the radio said that it was clear where the Japanese had built in flood zones that could not readily be discerned before the flood because all of the clutter. I hope they do not rebuild there.

http://www.ipsnews.net/2013/03/every-day-is-a-fukushima-memorial/

Every Day Is a Fukushima Memorial’

TOKYO, Mar 10 2013 (IPS) – Japan prepares to mark the second anniversary of the Mar. 11 triple disaster – an earthquake, tsunami and a critical nuclear reactor accident – with much soul searching across the country.

For Yukiko Takada from Otsuki-cho, a scenic fishing town in Iwate prefecture that was turned into rubble in a few hours on that fateful day, the upcoming memorial Monday will simply be another day.

“For me, as it is like for the survivors who experienced the horrible tragedy, everyday remains a memorial, not just March 11, as we struggle to accept what happened and to get our lives back after the devastation,” she tells IPS.

The young woman represents one of the more poignant stories in lessons learnt following the disaster. Takada launched her own community newspaper last June. It was a project, she says, that was imperative to the recovery of the local community.

Otsuchi Shimbun, published weekly, provides up to date information on issues such as relocation of families, temporary housing, employment opportunities and local government decisions. It plays a crucial role in the rebuilding of people’s confidence.

Supported mainly with revenue from local ads, the newspaper, a one-woman show, carries diverse voices, and includes a focus on women. Takada says women have displayed mind-boggling will power to restart their lives for the sake of their families.

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Go there and read. More next time.

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Yah it was pretty clear to me that they knew an earthquake would toast out the four reactors and the two spent fuel pools. How did I know this?  Not because of the electric generators in the basement. That was stupid, but you just create more damage. It was all the damage and the radioactivity that came immediately after the entire event. That was not caused by a tsunami. It had to be caused by the quake. There was a clear design flaw. The cooling units and the reactors were built on SEPARATE concrete pads which meant they could not SHAKE together and thus they shook in opposition to each other and snapped  the cooling pipes  at that point all of the shoddy construction techniques come back to bite their ass.

http://www.naturalnews.com/037583_TEPCO_Fukushima_catastrophe.html

TEPCO finally admits catastrophic Fukushima disaster was completely avoidable

Thursday, October 18, 2012 by: Ethan A. Huff, staff writer

(NaturalNews) After repeatedly denying that it could not have done anything more to preventatively curtail the damage sustained at its Fukushima Daiichi nuclear power facility following the devastating earthquake and tsunami that struck on March 11, 2011, the Tokyo Electric Power Company (TEPCO) has finally come forward with an honest admission that its now-stricken facility had preexisting structural and safety problems that the company basically ignored.

TIME.com reports that TEPCO recently issued a statement explaining that prior to the three Fukushima meltdowns resulting from the catastrophic damage, company officials were already well aware of the fact that the facility was in dire need of serious renovations and retrofit. But because of various political, economic, and legal concerns, TEPCO deliberately delayed addressing these important issues, which is now coming back to haunt the company.

“Looking back on the accident, the problem was that preparations were not made in advance,” said a TEPCO investigatory task force, led by the company’s president, Naomi Hirose, in a recent statement. “Could necessary measures have been taken with previous tsunami evaluations? It was possible to take action.”

Go there and weep..I mean read. More later.

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No comment necessary here.

http://www.accuweather.com/en/weather-news/summer-2012-in-running-for-hot/68155

The summer of 2012 is in the running for one of the top three hottest summers in the past 60 years in the United States and southern Canada.

Steven A. Root, Certified Consulting Meteorologist and President and CEO of WeatherBank, Inc. has been examining hourly and daily temperatures in 59 hub cities dating back to Jan. 1, 1950.

WeatherBank is an AccuWeather, Inc. long-range forecasting and data partner.

Root computes the cooling degree days (CDD) for each city, each day of the year. Cooling degree days are the number of degrees that a day’s average temperature is above 65 degrees. The period from May 15 to Sept. 15 is considered to be the air conditioning/cooling season for the U.S. and Canada.

Root is estimating this summer to finish up with 59,484 CDDs based on what has happened thus far and what is projected.

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Go there and read. More tomorrow.

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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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Yet when I go to the SJ-Rs Website I can not find the article to share with you. That is a really really bad mistake by a paper that is on its last legs. These guys claim that their digital Product is as good as their print Product, but guess what maybe not. Anyway here is the home page. You go there see if you can find it.

http://www.sj-r.com/

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In the mean time here is an article that I could find discussing or should I say disgusting the issue. This is a real brazen attempt by vested interests to keep a wind farm out of the State Capital. I do not know whether it is the Republican parties hatred of the topic of man caused global warming in general or because of oil and gas interests in the Capital but this is the stupidist thing the County Board has ever done. There are wind farms all over this state and Sangamon County is the only one that has to have “special” zoning codes for them. This after the City Council of Springfield, at no ones request, placed height restrictions on personal wind turbines so as to render them ineffective. This county is completely gross.

http://www.sj-r.com/local/x871170515/County-board-to-debate-new-wind-turbine-proposal

The Sangamon County Board has scheduled a special meeting Monday to look at changes to county wind turbine rules that would increase the minimum distance between a turbine and a house.

The board imposed a moratorium on wind turbines in January so it could revamp its zoning rules. The turbines use wind energy to generate electricity.

The county now requires a large wind turbine to be at least 1,000 feet or three times the diameter of the rotors, whichever is greater, from a house. The setback from the property line must be at least 1,200 feet.

While no wind farm proposals are before the county board, Springfield Project Development, a joint development between American Wind Energy Management and Oak Creek Energy Systems, is planning a wind farm in western Sangamon County.

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I would say, go there and read like I usually do but. More tomorrow.

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I like this place. Alot. Bunches of very radical things. Enjoy.

http://www.climateark.org/

Climate Change Blog

Biocentric Commentary Emphasizing Abrupt Climate Change, Ending Terrestrial Ecosystem Loss, and Other Sufficient Ecological Responses

RAINFOREST ALERT! Tell Liberia: Industrial Primary Rainforest Logging is Corrupt, Ecocidal, and Must End

CALL FOR PAPERS: Announcing Major Kerala, India Ecology Conference

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Go there and read so much stuff. More tomorrow.

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I was going to start a meditation on Environment and Energy Conservation websites today but then I got to this story in the Illinois Times. I am actually citing the one from the St. Louis Dispatch but you can find the Illinois times one here:

http://www.illinoistimes.com/Springfield/article-10536-state-gives-ameren-a-pollution-pass.html

So here is the piece from the SLD, mainly because I hardly ever link up with them.

http://www.stltoday.com/news/state-and-regional/illinois/ill-regulators-delay-ameren-pollution-controls/article_123019f5-fe57-5971-9600-4f4c4d7281cb.html

Ill. regulators delay Ameren pollution controls

State regulators have granted Ameren Corp. a five-year delay in the installation of pollution controls at a large coal-fired power plant in southeastern Illinois after the company threatened to close other plants and cut hundreds of jobs.

The Illinois Pollution Control Board granted the delay Thursday, giving the St. Louis-based company until 2020 to install equipment to control smog, which is linked to heart and lung problems. The company had initially agreed to do it by 2015.

Ameren had argued that because of the drop in electricity prices _ driven in part by competition from natural gas plants _ it could no longer afford to finish installing sulfur dioxide scrubbers at its Newton plant under the original timetable.

Environmental groups lambasted the regulators’ decision, saying it undercuts the state’s pollution standards. Ameren said the move was necessary to save jobs.

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Go there and read. More tomorrow.

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