Filed under: Uncategorized | Tags: centerline, centerline miles, FHWA, highway infrastructure, highways, transportation, What the Florida, WTF
And the western states don’t.
Via http://www.fhwa.dot.gov/policyinformation/pubs/hf/pl11028/chapter1.cfm
Figure 1-7: Toll Road, Bridges, and Tunnels Centerline Miles by State: 2009
Filed under: Uncategorized | Tags: BP, corexit, Deepwater Horizon, flesh eating bacteria, GOM, lesions, red snapper, shrimp without eyes
A list of disturbing and depressing, some will say alarmist, links, via Naked Capitalism via George Washington’s Blog: http://www.nakedcapitalism.com/2012/04/guest-post-the-gulf-ecosystem-is-being-decimated.html
Filed under: Uncategorized | Tags: Apple, cloud, coal power, energy, green energy, internet energy consumption, internet power consumption, nuclear poer, renewable energy
… But some companies that essentially live on the Internet are moving facilities to North Carolina, Virginia, northeastern Illinois and other regions whose main sources of energy are coal and nuclear power, the report said. The report singles out Apple as one of the leaders of the charge to coal-fired energy.
…
Apple immediately disputed the report’s findings, saying that the company planned to build two huge renewable energy projects at its recently opened data center in North Carolina that would eventually offset much of the coal-fired and nuclear energy use.
But in a contrast that is sure to generate debate in the hypercompetitive marketplace of the Internet, the report asserts that a few other companies, including Google and Facebook, have demonstrated much more commitment to shifting some of their electricity demands to renewable sources like wind, solar energy and hydroelectric power.
via Online Cloud Services Rely on Coal and Nuclear Power, Report Says – NYTimes.com.
Filed under: Uncategorized | Tags: Cesium-137, earthquakes, Fukushima, Japan, MOX, nuclear accident, Plutonium, radiation, radiation leak, reactor 4, spent fuel pool, Tepco
Via EX-SKF: #Fukushima I Nuke Plant: Reactor 4 to Get a Cover and a Crane | EXSKF.
Which dude said, Hey, let’s put the spent fuel pool on the roof of the reactor building. Are the US reactors like that as well (except with far more spent fuel)? Ack.
It would be good to remove the material from the spent fuel pool before it all collapses in a heap. Currently the crane is crumpled in the pool itself. So a new crane will be needed, and a structure to support it. Here are the plans for such released today:
Filed under: Uncategorized | Tags: 7 sisters, de Margerie, energy, IEA forecast for 2012, Jon Thompson, Lee Raymond, oil demand, oil production, Peak Demand, peak oil, Total, XOM, Yergin
Interesting piece by Andrew McKillop.
At the current time there is no sign that either of these Nice Theory solutions coming about in the real world, unless we try the conspiracy theory that the OECD group, led by the US, Europe and Japan voluntarily sabotaged their economies in 2008 – to save oil !
Annual growth of oil demand by China, India, Bangladesh, Pakistan, Brazil, Turkey and other nonOECD, large population, oil importing industrialising countries could hit as much as 1.75 Mbd each year, under 2004-2007 global economic conditions. Not even 2 years of that growth would send oil prices right off the top of the graph. Even with continued slow oil demand growth by the OECD group, or recession-driven decline of their demand … global oil demand can easily bounce.
…
We can simply note that dependable Peak Oil denial from playful flyweights like Dan Yergin or oil industry stalwarts like former CEO Lee Raymond and E&P chief Jon Thompson of ExxonMobil, or Christophe de Margerie of Total has problems staying on track. The real bottom line on global oil production is increasingly heard: world oil output will very likely never achieve more than around 90 Mbd on a short-life basis, before terminal decline sets into operation. The only upside is that necessarily more expensive shale oil, and necessarily expensive GTL (oil from gas) may smooth the downslope.
Today’s IEA forecast for global average daily demand in 2012 is about 89.9 Mbd.
via The Magical Decline Of Crude Oil Demand :: The Market Oracle
Filed under: Uncategorized | Tags: Natural gas, natural gas leak, Nigeria, North Sea, Obite, Rivers state, Total Petroleum
Maybe if they only talk about one of them, the public will think it’s the only one…
The leak at its Obite natural gas site has forced the company to evacuate those nearby and led to daily monitoring of air and water surrounding the plant in Nigeria’s Rivers state. However, Total’s Nigerian subsidiary hasn’t made any public statement about the leak since it likely began following an incident March 20, though the company has given near-daily updates about a similar leak at a plant off the United Kingdom in the North Sea.
via The Oil Drum | Drumbeat: April 14, 2012.
Filed under: Uncategorized | Tags: AIS, China, China oil imports, Daily Star, energy, global oil trade, India, Iran, Iran oil, Iran oil exports, Iran oil production, Iran sanctions
It has long been assumed Iran would sell most of the oil shunned by Europe to China, its long-term strategic and commercial ally. But until now there has been scant proof.
India, however, has been buying oil on Iranian ships on extended credit for several months, industry sources say.
Filed under: Uncategorized | Tags: carbon, energy, fracking, methane, methane leakage, Natural gas, natural gas production, PNAS, radiative forcing, shale gas
Alvarez, Pacala, Winebrake, Chameides and Hamburg, “Greater focus needed on methane leakage from natural gas infrastructure,” Proceedings of the National Academy of Sceinces of the United States of America, 2012.
Full article: http://www.pnas.org/content/early/2012/04/02/1202407109.full.pdf+html
Filed under: maps | Tags: Arvada, becquerels, Boulder, DIRTY BISMARK, Hardy, hot particles, Krey, Krey-Hardy, Martell, morgul bismark, NCAR, Plutonium, plutonium contamination, Ralston Creek, Rocky Flats, Standley Lake
Via http://leroymoore.wordpress.com/2010/10/03/map-rf-contam/
Low-res scan of hard copy from a relatively recent civil case, map based on Krey-Hardy study, 1970.
click to enlarge
That’s a very large area.
Filed under: Uncategorized | Tags: Edward Martell, Leroy Moore, NCAR, Plutonium, Rocky Flats
As far as we’re concerned…
From Leroy Moore’s blog: http://leroymoore.wordpress.com/plutonium-is-forever/
The late Edward Martell, NCAR radiochemist, pointed out as early as 1970 that the radioactivity from plutonium dust particles at Rocky Flats is “millions of times more intense than that from naturally occurring radioactive dust particles (uranium) of the same size. Minute amounts . . . are sufficient to cause cancer.”
Martell maintained that standards for permissible exposure to plutonium are at least 200 times too lenient. He called for the appointment of independent researchers to develop far more stringent standards. This has yet to happen. When in 1983 he heard that antinuclear activists planned to encircle Rocky Flats, he warned: No children or women of childbearing age should go near the place.
via Hot particles forever « LeRoyMoore's Blog.
Filed under: Uncategorized | Tags: Cheniere, energy, fracking, hydraulic fracturing, liquefied natural gas, LNG, Natural gas, natural gas exports, shale gas, tight gas
Energy independence? Not so much.
The government may decide as soon as next week on Cheniere’s request to build a $10 billion Louisiana plant that would be the largest in the U.S. to liquefy gas and load it onto ocean-going tankers. Regulators will discuss the project April 19. Cheniere’s shares rose as much as 11 percent in New York.
via LNG Export Plant Verges on U.S. Approval Amid Shale Glut – Bloomberg.
Filed under: maps | Tags: bike lanes, Bloom, New York City, NYC, NYC bike map, NYC cycling map, Shoom
http://www.nyc.gov/html/dot/downloads/pdf/2012_nyc-cycling-map.pdf
Filed under: Uncategorized | Tags: denial, economics, energy, joules, Peak Demand, peak oil, physics, thermal energy, Tom Murphy, waste heat
Or, My Dinner With Andre the Giant Economist.
Another fun bit from Tom Murphy. Shades of Plato’s Republic.
…The upshot is that at a 2.3% growth rate (conveniently chosen to represent a 10× increase every century), we would reach boiling temperature in about 400 years. [Pained expression from economist.]
via Exponential Economist Meets Finite Physicist | Do the Math.
The economist says he believes that energy will become “arbitrarily cheap” in the future, before realizing how stupid that is.
Filed under: Uncategorized | Tags: China oil consumption, China oil imports, oil reserves, oil reserves purchases, SPR, strategic petroleum reserve, US oil consumption
China consumption rising, US consumption dropping. From the Wall Street Journal:
Analysts have been watching China’s import data climb higher over recent months. The wave of imports, added to domestic production, has exceeded the amount of crude the country’s refineries can process, analysts said.
Moreover, China has been increasing its oil purchases even though prices have soared, a rare occurrence for a country that usually steps out of the market when prices are high. The market’s conclusion: After a three-year hiatus, China is filling up its strategic petroleum reserves.
via China Seen Bolstering Oil Reserves – WSJ.com.
Filed under: Uncategorized | Tags: bicycling, mountain bike skills, mountain bike technique, off-road, Robert Hurst, singletrack, The Art of Mountain Biking
…and download a preview of my new book! The Art of Mountain Biking: Singletrack Skills for All Riders: http://www.falcon.com/pdf_files/9780762769858.pdf
Filed under: Uncategorized | Tags: Boulder, mountain bike park, pump track, quadracopter, quadricopter, valmont bike park
Filed under: Uncategorized | Tags: Argentina, glyphosate, Misiones, Monsanto, Philip Morris, Roundup
The farmers say the tobacco companies that bought their crops asked them to replace the native tobacco with a new type, used in Philip Morris cigarettes, which required more pesticides.
They say the defendants pushed for excessive use of pesticides and failed to warn them of the dangers or provide them with information or protective gear.
Most farmers in Misiones used Roundup, a glyphosate-based herbicide made by Monsanto, to kill weeds and clear tobacco fields, according to the complaint.
Filed under: Uncategorized | Tags: armored car, bulletproof vehicle, MBPV, pitchfork resistant vehicle, PRV, stapler-proof, Tata, weasel power
A little armored electric vehicle for battling The Enemy or disgruntled employees indoors. By Tata.
Via Treehugger: http://www.treehugger.com/cars/tata-introduces-perfect-nano-urban-america.html
Filed under: maps, Uncategorized | Tags: Boulder, Broomfield, Colorado, Community Ditch Trail, Dirty Bismarck, DIRTY BISMARK, Garmin, Koppenberg, Lafayette, Louisville, Marshall, morgul bismark, Morgul-Bismarck, off-road, Superior
I don’t know — is that the proper term? Sounds nasty.
I rode this for the first time recently. A new twist on an old classic near Boulder.
Filed under: Uncategorized
Probably for the first time since the birth of the suburbs…
The annual rate of growth in American cities and surrounding urban areas has now surpassed that of exurbs for the first time in at least 20 years, spanning the most recent era of sprawling suburban development.
Industrialized Cyclist Notepad 