My Latest Rant

Excuse my frustrating diatribe, but this issue goes to the heart of my deep concern for the future of this country.  This writing is in response to an ongoing dialogue I have with a friend up north:

I don’t know why I’m wasting my time writing all this because I know you won’t read it or even begin to comprehend what I am saying.  I realize that it is totally useless to try and have an intelligent and logical argument or debate about our opposing views. 

You obviously did not read the article I sent you that started this latest round

http://www.sfgate.com/cgi-bin/article.cgi?f=/c/a/2012/04/23/MN261O78QA.DTL

because your response has absolutely nothing to do with what it says; and what you did come back with is really the crux of the big problem…with you, and with the whole “Fox Effect” that is prevalent today in any kind of political discussion in this country.

Did you even read the article you threw back at me?  Or did you just look at the headline and make your assumptions…or did Hannity tell you what to think about this issue?

So here is the “real story” from that left wing media CNN

http://money.cnn.com/2012/04/10/news/economy/refineries-gas-prices/index.htm

Yes, 50% of the refining capacity has been shut down in the Northeast.  Why? 

“The refineries are losing money because they are old and cannot process the cheaper, heavier types of oil that are increasingly in supply from Canada's oil sands, Saudi Arabia, Venezuela and elsewhere.”  Old refineries have not been upgraded to deal with the new types of oil that are entering the global market.  (Now I can make an assumption here…not supported by the facts, that the oil industry has made billions in profits and not poured money back into new or upgraded refineries and infrastructure.) You make the assumption that it is Obama (and the wacko enviros) that have shut them down due to excessive environmental regulation.  Neither side is supported by what is said in the article.  We would both be wrong…and just stating our biases.  Read…and if you can, and try to comprehend!

Needless to say, the article goes on with “East Coast gasoline shortages are a real possibility -- but not because there isn't enough gasoline in the United States. The real problem lies in transporting that gasoline to the Northeast.”  Hence support for my original article that there is a glut of oil and gasoline in the US, and the industry is exporting product to other places in the world.

Nowhere does the article make any reference to $6 a gallon as you say….”So gas in New York is over $6 a gallon and rising.”  Actually, the current price is $4.11 today (cheaper than in Arcata), and is coming down.  http://www.newyorkgasprices.com/index.aspx?&area=COOPER&area=MANHATTAN&area=NEW+YORK&area=NYC&area=New+York+City

So in my opinion, what you are saying is just pure bullshit!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!

So, what is my "fixation" on Fox, Kocks, Ailes, Rove, et.al.?  I have emailed you my concerns over the years, but obviously you've never read them.  You are mirrored in their media ideology of mis-statements, lies, and distortion…all in the name of news.  Say what you want (whether it's true or not), say it often enough, and it becomes infixed in the brains of the mindless.  Pavlov was a great inspiration for Hitler, Mao, Jong, etc.  Create a menu of headlines, broadcast your interpretation of what the actual articles say, and hope no one actually reads them…and if they did, they’re probably too stupid to understand it and form their own opinion.  You did that exact thing on that article you sent me a while back with the headline claiming manmade global warming is a hoax.  http://thinkprogress.org/climate/2012/04/06/458651/fox-news-again-turns-to-tabloid-for-climate-science/  You obviously did not read the article because it had no reference to “man-made influences;” and when I sent you the piece in which the actual scientist argued that he was misquoted and misrepresented by the reporter, and that his research had nothing to do with current climate change…you stood by your argument claiming you believed the “renown scientist.”  You believed the mis-statement of the facts by the reporter…not the scientist! 

Need I say more?   

Very scary…a terrorist threat to this country far greater than Al Queda, the federal deficit, health insurance, or Secret Service parties.  Integrity, morality, honesty, accountability...whatever...the best democracy money can buy!

And as to what I read… I try to look at a wide range of points of view.  Yes, every day I look at Huffington, Think Progress, Politico, Media Matters, Daily Kos…left wing stuff; but I also look at Fox News, Drudge Report, Breitbart. Wall Street Journal, Bloomberg, Forbes, as well as NY Times, BBC, Al Jazeera, LA Times, SF Chronicle, St. Petersburg Times, and I scan Yahoo and MSN news service.  I also have several "collectors" that glean energy articles (no bias) and of course, a big focus on nuclear stuff (again, both sides.)  We don’t really watch TV…no Fox, MSNBC, CNN…although I cruise a few of those channels in between innings of the Giants games!

I guess I pride myself for trying to understand what is going on…sometimes I’m right, sometimes I’m wrong (or left); sometimes I agree; sometimes I disagree.  I'm constantly open to learning something, and I try to make up my own mind, rather than have someone else tell me what to think. Try it sometime!

Yes, I am a conservative...I care about the rights of all human beings and the environment we all live in, which is under attack from the greed and corruption of the few.

 ********************************************************************

Here are the emails exchanges that led to this final discussion!!!!

 EMAIL #4

Gee.................maybe this is not to be believed, as CNN is probably a right winger................

 http://money.cnn.com/2012/04/10/news/economy/refineries-gas-prices/index.htm

 I like your !!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!’s...............

What’s with your fixation on fox, kock, etc???           Brainwash works both ways you know......................Huff and Puff................

And, you bet..........I am a conservative...............and I am sure you are too..............

EMAIL #3 Subject: Re: drill baby drill

 READ!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!

There is a glut of oil and gasoline...we are exporting gasoline product!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!

DUHHHHHHHH!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!

Keep listening to the FOX, Kock, Rove, Adelson, etc million dollar bullshit.  You are such a good brainwashed fiscal conservative!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!

EMAIL #2 Subject: Re: drill baby drill

I am sure you are aware that about 50% of the refineries on the east coast have shut down..........due to excessive EPA regulations, thanks to Obama................

So gas in New Youk is over $6 a gallon and rising................I think it is wonderful…..let them feel the pain…..

EMAIL #1 Subject: drill baby drill

 The US has a huge glut of oil...so much that a tanker carrying Alaskan oil returned to port with about a quarter of its cargo because there was no place to put it!  Yet the price of gasoline is, and is staying at an almost all time high.  Obama's fault...you bet, if you listen to Faux News.

 What is the cause...very complex stuff; but the bottom line is "the power of the world market."  So, we can drill, drill, drill, drill all we want in our National Parks, offshore, in the Arctic, wherever....Romney can personally build the Keystone Pipeline...it would all be like pissing in the ocean, except we'd be dribbling some down our pants!

 http://www.sfgate.com/cgi-bin/article.cgi?f=/c/a/2012/04/23/MN261O78QA.DTL

Slide Show on HBNPP Decommissioning

Here is a glimpse of what is going on at the Humboldt Bay Nuclear Power Plant decommissioning as of April, 2012.

https://skydrive.live.com/?cid=b32ec3aaa6ec96e7#cid=B32EC3AAA6EC96E7&id=B32EC3AAA6EC96E7!1243

My Utilty Bill

For the past 30+ years, I have been monitoring my energy bill here at home, and with the advent of the internet, I’ve been able to track personal and statewide data on energy costs. I did this mainly for the classes I was teaching, making students aware of the energy they use, how they use it, what it costs, and what it meant to use energy more efficiently. As some of you know, I live in an old farmhouse built around 1885; and I have done reasonable upgrades to make it more energy efficient…ie. ceiling, floor, and some wall insulation, double pane windows, cfc light bulbs, etc. We live comfortably with all the amenities we need…computers, TV’s, stereos, microwave, dishwasher, hot tub, and so forth, and over the last two cold winter months, our electricity use averaged 450KWH/month, well below the national averages.

We pay PG&E 13 cents/kwh…a price that has not really changed over the past twenty years. Out of this charge:

30% goes to electricity generation (the wholesale price today was about 2 cents/kwh here in the west; this price does fluctuate depending on the season, etc.

44% goes to transmission and distribution…the cost to keep power lines up and running

12% goes to public purpose…education programs, low-income help, community stuff

1% goes to nuclear decommissioning…for both Humboldt Bay and Diablo Canyon

13% goes to pay off the deregulation boondoggle of 2000…more later

Very reasonable…$50-60/month for the comforts of flicking a switch…actually our biggest expense is probably the electrically heated hot tub and the fridge to cool the beer!

As for natural gas, we use it for our cooktop, heating water, and our forced air heater. We have a wood stove which we use a lot when we are home, but we are spoiled to click that heater switch first thing in the morning, and Susan does like the house a bit warmer than I do. PG&E charges us $1.16/therm…the wholesale price today is 21 cents/therm. Even though natural gas is the cheapest it’s been in 30 years, I guess PG&E has to make up the costs associated with their flawed gas pipeline program over the past 50 years!

The big mystery is how does the energy industry come up with the “price” that is put out on the market. The wholesale cost that the California ISO purchases and resells to the utilities is an “average” of all generation costs offered for sale. Old hydro plants might produce electricity at less than 1 cent/kwh; while the Diablo Canyon nuke might be putting out its kilowatt/hours at 14 cents (which it did back in the late 90’s and early 2000’s.) So more expensive solar, wind, and nuclear are balanced out by cheaper natural gas and hydro. There is also the consideration as to how these generating plants operate. Today, California is expected to use 28,000MW of electricity at it’s peak usage time of 9pm. Around 5pm, this demand is going to be around 25,000MW. There is another 10,000+MW available as standby, just in case everyone decides to flip switchs at the same time. Back in 2000, the standby was 53,000MW. These peak power plants sit idle 90% of the time, and only come on when the high demand is there…hence their cost is very expensive. The whole power plant equation has changed dramatically in California in the past 10 years, primarily due to efficiency in supply and demand, and the use of renewables which tend to generate electricity during peak demand. So, even though solar is in itself expensive (why? Will be discussed later), it is still the best buy today outside of natural gas (the price of which is at the mercy of the free market and the gas companies, and can change anytime.)

This summer looks to be interesting in southern California, due to the fact that unit 1 of the San Onofre nuke will probably not me restarted. That’s 1000MW of baseload, that will have to be made up some other way…a Chinese company is looking to build a huge solar plant in south Nevada to sell renewable electricity to California!

The economics of energy are very complex (especially the price of gasoline, oil, etc) and I’ll post more later.

http://www.caiso.com/outlook/SystemStatus.html

http://www.bloomberg.com/energy/

http://www.bloomberg.com/energy/ (look at the ticker at the bottom)

The PV-Fuel Cell Connection

What I've been saying all along...using solar 24/7 down the road.

Apple is building a 20MW solar system in North Carolina. As of now, it will sell the electricity it produces to Duke Energy. However, they also just announced a plan to build a 4.8MW fuel cell facility that will generate electricity from hydrogen that is converted from purchased natural gas. Other options include buying natural gas from a landfill, or some other biogas producer.

http://www.heraldnet.com/article/20120404/BIZ/704049934

There will eventually be one more link in this system down the road, and that is the technology to produce hydrogen from water using electrolysis (or some other new process) from electricity. If their Data Center only uses 4.8MW of electricity, they could use the other 15.2MW of solar to produce hydrogen to run the fuel cells at night . Then, they could be totally self-sufficient 24/7 in electricity for their facility.

We (Humboldt State) did this in 1991. We built a 7kw solar PV system, a part of which provided power for aeration pumps at our Marine Lab. The largest amount of electricity produced during the day went into an electrolyser, which produced Hydrogen and Oxygen (basic 1st chemistry lab experiment in high school), and stored the hydrogen to be used a night...or basically when the sun isn't shining. Our students developed this and installed all the equipment. The first fuel cell purchased from Teledyne Corporation (I don't know if they are still around) cost $78,000 and was a total failure, so our students designed and built their own! Things have been upgraded over the years, and a lot has been learned. This is still an educational tool and a continuing learning process for over 20 years! The technology has come a long way in efficiency, and most of all, it has come down in cost.

http://www.schatzlab.org/projects/real_world/schatz_solar.html

So...where is Bechtel, Martin-Marietta, Lockheed, Duke Energy, Boeing, United Technologies, etc???

The big boys (government included) aren't doing anything because the "super rich" fossil fuel players have/are doing everything in their power (excuse the pun) to keep the renewables from advancing. That's really the bottom line! So it is going to take the "non-players"...Apple, Google, Microsoft (even though they are going down the wrong nuclear path), and other investors who have the vision to see not only the "green" benefit from this, but also the eventual huge amounts of money that can be made.

Georgia Power is sucking $8.5 billion of federal subsidies to build a $24 billion nuclear complex just south of Apple's project.

http://www.georgiapower.com/environment/renewable.asp?nav=top_ee_renew

They boast about having a 28kw solar demonstration project on their corporate rooftop, to study the feasibility of solar energy! Smart. My students started doing this type of research in 1982, resulting in CCAT going off grid a few years later.

http://www.ccathsu.com/

So things are moving along...very slowly...but moving along. If this nation were to seriously put forward an energy policy based on renewables, the technological and economic might and the real brainpower we have available to us could speed things up significantly, creating jobs, sustainable and local energy, and a cleaner environment. But as of now, we have to deal with all the lies, ignorance, propaganda, and downright greed that is holding us back.
Instead of paying wind power producers to not generate electricity when it is not needed, those turbines could produce hydrogen, which can be stored, and used in fuel cells when the electricity demand calls for it.

http://www.foxnews.com/politics/2012/03/07/wind-power-companies-paid-to-not-produce/?test=latestnews
There are so many options and choices.