The Mississippi River is not known as "Old Muddy" for nothing. By the time it empties out into the Gulf of Mexico (GOMEX), it carries a vast load of sediment, organic material (plants, plant parts, bacteria, algae, fish, protozoa, sewage from animals and possibly humans) and even dissolved chemicals (hydrolyzed plant and animal material, dissolved minerals, and ammonia/nitrates, phosphates, sulfates, etc). It is what is called nutrient laden, and with sufficient oxygen, lots of things could grow in this medium. And did.

As you may know, about 50% of the electricity in the U.S. is made by coal burners, and coal is being increasingly touted as the fuel of the future. And also the chemical feedstock of the future, especially for ammonia and methanol, and as the thermal source for those crop to ethanol facilities. Unfortunately, this just cements the position of fossil fuels and CO2 pollution (= fossil fuel combustion byproduct trash dumped into our atmosphere) in "renewable" fuels. It puts the "non-renewable" into renwable fuels. How's that for some truely twisted logic?

The recent Al Gore Speech has had one great effect - widespread news, publicity for the idea, at least for a day. he made the evening national news...so far, so good. And he focussed a lot of people on the tremendous wind resource that our country just happens to have.

Somehow, some constructive and positive news about energy happened this week - and no, its not the temporary decline (by ~ 10%) in the price of crude oil. Give it time - it will bounce back, and eventually resume its upward price trajectory. First there was T. Boone Pickens' plan and his website (http://www.PickensPlan.com), and then Al Gore's speech (see previous posting). There was also Jerome a Paris' commentary and further explanation of how either plan could work (see

This morning on the Today Show, Exhibit Z in Another Version of "Why this country is such a mess" was shown, in the form of a suburban family of consumers who were asked to "do with less" for a week. Pedicures, manicures, the lawn service, going out for meals, and even the expensive Starbucks beverages were zipped out for a week. They saved $660 versus "normal", and then came the "I had no idea" phrase got uttered by the Ms.

Since Peak Oil Day (May 21, 2008), when the genie's (= Peak Oil) presence outside of the lamp was officially acknowledged by The Wall Street Journal, among other very establishment business media entities, the U.S. public has shown that it is also increasingly "getting it". Vehicle miles traveled is down, SUV sales are down, small car (which get better mileage than big cars) sales are up, to name just a few examples. The frown on people's faces as they gas up their vehicles is becoming quite noticeable.

No, it’s not the title of a new and cheesy monster movie epoch, though these twin new horses of the Apocalypse are apt to bring in a new epoch or two, and there will be little that is not affected in this country by these events. Like a slow motion avalanche, it’s best to step out of the path where possible, and definitely “go with the flow” if avoidance is not possible.

By now, people are quite aware that oil prices are going up and up and up (see http://www.oilnergy.com if you need convincing, especially the "Brent Crude" section for the last year and last 20 years). What follows are some thoughts on the fact that as of May 21, lots of Peak Oil Denialists finally woke up and smelled the empty gas can.

Note: While the Great Lakes and Great Plains are different, they are both "Great" in their own way. This is a tale about how some of the least expensive electricity in the USA is NOT put to work in a way that would create jobs and decrease our addiction to imported ammonia and imported gasoline, and make the world a better place. You decide, but the present course of (in)action may be leading to evil things...NYPA stands for the "New York Power Authority" (http://www.nypa.gov), in theory owned by the State of New York, and hence the "Peoples Power Company" of NY. In theory.....

If you look at the recent (May 1, 2008 ?) edition of USA today, they have a story of/based on an article recently published in Geophysical Letters (here is the abstract:
http://www.agu.org/pubs/crossref/2008/2007GL032887.shtml) about the CO2 emissions inventory. The big news is that China appears to have bumped the USA aside in terms of the biggest emitter of CO2 via burning fossil fuels. Actually, there is no pride in winning that award.....but, stuff happens.