Archive for July, 2008

« Older Entries

China Prepares for Olympic Disaster

Monday, July 28th, 2008

By David L. Brown

The 2008 Olympics are only two weeks away and China is still struggling with its horrendous smog problem. Many of the teams are staying away until the Games open, and it is for good reason that they are doing their last two weeks of preparation elsewhere. This photograph showing the smog enshrouded National Stadium tells the story:

beijing-smog_782115c.jpg

China has cut automobile traffic by half through an alternate-days program based on license plate numbers and banned heavy polluting vehicles such as older trucks. It has ordered smog-producing factories and power plants to reduce emissions. And still the capital of the Middle Kingdom is sunk in a cloud of noxious smog and hoped-for winds are failing to sweep it away.

According to a story on the web site of The Telegraph, a major British newspaper,

The area where the games will take place failed the government’s own smog targets, even as officials opened the Olympic Village with great fanfare.

The air was “unhealthy for sensitive groups,” the city’s environmental protection bureau said.

The official targets are themselves much looser than those considered “safe” by the World Health Organisation.

“It doesn’t really look so good,” said Gunilla Lindberg, the vice-president of the International Olympic Committee.

I was in Beijing 23 years ago and the pollution problem was bad enough then, even though there were relatively few vehicles. I remember photographing a major intersection during the morning rush hour, and traffic was mostly bicycles and horse or donkey drawn conveyances. There was also the occasional bus, stuffed full of people like enormous sardine cans and belching great clouds of diesel fumes. Today, as I understand it, the problem is far, far worse.

Warning of possible terrorism during the Games, the Red Chinese masters have ordered 100,000 soldiers to encircle the city, setting up checkpoints and patrolling everywhere. They have also emplaced anti-aircraft batteries around the main venues where the games will take place (although an attack by air seems unlikely). In an earlier post I showed a ridiculous picture of black-clad anti-terrorist soldiers riding on Segways while aiming their rifles. There are sure to be protests, and if the authorities crack down with deadly force it will make the Tienenman Square massacre look like a tea ceremony.

This will be an Olympic Games to remember. If things really go awry, it may be the last one ever held. Coming up is London in 2012, and with the infusion of Islamic hatred of the west in Jolly Olde England there will surely be Paradise to pay. A survey of British Muslim university students last week revealed that one-third of them openly admitted that they felt it was OK for Muslims to kill in defense of their faith. One can assume that many of the other two-thirds may have felt the same, but been too canny to admit it to survey takers. No, Britain is not a safe venue for a future Olympics, not at all.

Posted in Politics, Pollution | Comments Off

Energy Problems Need Short-term Solutions

Friday, July 18th, 2008

By David L. Brown

I read somebody’s esteemed opinion yesterday that just made my jaw drop. After stating that electricity prices were rising in the US, and predicting that we will be experiencing brownouts and loss of power in about three years, the writer stated that nuclear power is the answer if the government would just allow it. Hmm, apparently he has no sense of how long it takes to plan, build and license a nuke plant. Back in the 1970′s when such things were actually being done, it was an 18 year process and with the kind of activist opposition that has arisen against nuclear power, we can bet it will take even longer today. How can something that might take 20 years or more to build solve a problem that is on a three year timeline? It certainly is beyond me.

On the other hand, we could install a lot of wind generators in three years if we put it on the front burner. More voices are speaking out for that, including Al Gore yesterday, T. Boone Pickins through his new initiative and others. I have suggested as long as two years ago that the auto plants that are mothballed or under utilized could be converted to turning out wind generators to help reduce our dependence on imported fossil fuels.

Now that Detroit is going quietly into that good night to whatever corporate version of Paradise awaits them, perhaps the government should take over the soon to be bankrupt companies and convert their plants into a Manhattan Project for wind power. If the full-out production of the auto companies could produce 7 or 8 million wind generators a year, which is something like the number of cars they could build, in three years it would amount to 20-25 million wind generators. That would produce a lot of jobs, both in the plants (those soon-to-be-unemployed Auto Workers could be hired, perhaps without union involvement and at a reasonable cost) and where the generators were being installed.

What kind of impact would that make? Quite a bit actually. The largest wind generators are capable of producing enough energy to power 1400 households. Let’s say for simplicity’s sake that those 20 million new generators would be sufficient to cover just 50 percent of that number, or 700 households per wind generator. That would replace conventional power for a total of 14 million households in the US. If an average of 3.5 people live in each house, that would mean that nearly 50 million people would be covered by wind power, and as a result of just three years of effort.

What if the program were really to be put on a fast track and we could turn out 25,000 wind generators each year? It shouldn’t be impossible. After all, during World War II we produced several hundred thousand military aircraft plus 80,000 landing craft, several thousand ships and 10 million M1 rifles and carbines, all in about that three-year time-frame. (And, oh yes, speaking of the Manhattan Project, well, we did that too.)

Using the figures above, if we could add 75,000 new wind generators in three years, more than 50 million households could be covered by wind powerby 2011, involving perhaps more than half of the total population of the country. That would make an absolutely huge dent in our imported energy needs, particularly if a concentrated shift to electric vehicles were to take place concurrently.

Another advantage of wind power is that as soon as each wind generator is installed, it begins to contribute power to the grid and pay for itself. A nuclear power plant that takes 20 years to build, on the other hand, doesn’t contribute anything until it goes on-line, perhaps in 2028 assuming the planning and licensing process gets under way right now. Our energy challenge is here right now, not in 2028. Heck, we have to survive the next few years just to get to 2028 with a functioning economy and society.

Understand that I am not proposing that no new nuclear plants should be built; I am only making he point that they cannot provide any short-term solution to our energy needs. For the far future, yes, we need every sustainable, non-polluting form of energy possible to totally replace fossil fuels. We need wind now, solar soon, and nuclear in the longer term.

And another thing we need to do is to develop our national fossil fuel resources to help tide us over in the daunting task of switching the entire economic base away from cheap oil. Here is part of the problem:

ocs_map.jpg

This is a map showing the areas of our continental shelf where oil exploration and production is presently prohibited. Why we have allowed our enemies in Russia, Saudi Arabia, Venezuela, Iran and other places to hold us up for trillions of dollars while refusing to develop our own domestic reserves is a question that more people are asking. Like other alternatives, however, this is no quick fix. Exploration, construction of drilling rigs, development of the infrastructure such as pipelines and refineries, not to mention so-called environmentalists in court — all these things need to be done before oil begins to flow. That will take more than a few years.

The fact is, we should have started on that many years ago, just as we should already be far along in the development of sustainable energy. Now, what was an opportunity thirty years ago has become a looming crisis today. What a terrible, crying shame.

Posted in Age of Oil, Energy Technology, Fossil Fuels | 1 Comment »

Decline and Fall of the General Motors Empire

Tuesday, July 15th, 2008

By David L. Brown

As I wrote just a few days ago (“Detroit — Death Throes of an Industry,” posted July 7), the entire American auto industry seems to be in a downward spiral from which there may be no return. But it is almost inconceivable how fast the bad news has been coming.

Things are unwinding particularly fast for General Motors, which has recently announced major plant closings and other draconian steps. And today they made further announcements that underline the very difficult situation they are in. They suspended their dividend, a wise move since they are reportedly bleeding a billion dollars a month and their stock is below $10 for the first time since 1954. They announced plans to lay off numbers of white collar workers. They announced further plans to sell off assets. And, they said they will even further reduce their manufacturing focus on pickup trucks, large cars, and SUVs.

I will take a closer look at these in a moment, but the news report I read had an interesting quote from the company’s CEO. He said something like, “no one could have seen this coming,” and then backed off slightly and stated that 99.999 percent of people would not have seen it coming. Let’s examine that statement with a little basic mathematics, nothing hard, just plain division.

According to the calculator built into my iPhone, and assuming that there are 300 million people in the United States, his admission that 0.001 percent of people would have suspected there might be trouble ahead for GM and other car companies means that a total of 300,000 Americans did foresee it. As one of those, I am glad to know that I am in good company with a fairly large number of individuals.

It wasn’t even something that was particularly hard to grasp, once you realized that the entire world infrastructure was built on the shifting sands of cheap oil, and recognized that there were limits to how much of the stuff could be pumped out of the ground. The facts were there, plain to see, and the conclusion that Peak Oil would pose a significant threat to the Detroit business model in particular was a straight forward one.

Now my question is, with one of the largest and richest companies in the world at stake, why wasn’t GM’s CEO or at least some of his advisors among those 300,000 individuals? Wasn’t it a pretty important thing to be aware of? Isn’t the price that GM is paying now so severe that almost any effort to accurately predict the future and make preparations would have been worth the cost?

Well, yes, but  the fact is that they and all the other major car makers in the world inexplicably did not believe warnings of the coming Oil Peak or understand that it was going to sweep away their business models like straws in the wind. That includes not only Ford and Chrysler, but also Toyota and Nissan which began building large pickup trucks and SUVs like there was no tomorrow.

Now to comment on the other factoids in GM’s announcement today. Factoid number one: The elimination of their dividend and a stock price that is in the toilet (it closed today at $9.84 but was as low as $8.81 during a chaotic trading day). This is extraordinary because of what GM shares are. They have been absolute icons of the investment world, one of the true blue chip stocks of history, a gold standard stock that millions of small investors have held for generations in the assurance that it would not only hold its value but would continue to generate dividends as regular as clockwork. That is what it was, and now it is, well, just another failed stock. The company’s investors have lost billions of dollars as what was a rock solid investment has turned into just so much wastepaper.

I cannot think of anything to compare with this meltdown. Enron was small potatoes compared with this. Only perhaps Edward Gibbon, the author of The Decline and Fall of the Roman Empire might be able to grok the magnitude of the ongoing collapse of General Motors. And remember that it took hundreds of years for Rome to collapse, while this company has slid over the brink toward what seems to be inevitable bankruptcy in a matter of months.

Factoid number two: Further layoffs of white collar workers (and the company has already eliminated tens of thousands of these jobs). Why only white collar workers, you may ask? Why quite simply because GM is held in a stranglehold by the unions, whose members it must pay whether they actually produce vehicles or simply stay at home watching Archie Bunker reruns and Wheel of Fortune (how about that Vanna White, eh?).

(more…)

Posted in Age of Oil, Transportation | 1 Comment »

New Technologies Emerging for Solar Energy

Sunday, July 13th, 2008

By David L. Brown

There is an old saying about people who live in glass houses, but perhaps that is a model for the future. As it begins to sink in that cheap oil is a thing of the past, it is encouraging that some real progress appears to be taking place in the field of solar energy. For example, a story titled “High-Efficiency Organic Solar Concentrators for Photovoltaics” that appeared in the current issue of Science magazine describes a cheaper and effective method of creating electricity from the Sun’s rays.

The new approach relies on thin film dye coatings on regular glass, channeling the light into receptors at the edges of the glass. The panels do not have to rotate to face the sun, and the researchers at MIT predict the organic concentrator panels could be ready for the market in as little as three years, provide greater efficiency, and at lower cost than current solar collectors.

Here is a diagram from the ScienceDaily web site that reports on the new technology in this article:

080710142927-large.jpg

As the diagram shows, the dye particles that coat the glass transfers the light to the edges, where the solar cells convert it into electricity. By stacking two layers of collectors, both high voltage and low voltage power can be produced, enhancing the efficiency.

Because the panels can be mounted flat on roofs or other plane surfaces, they could easily be installed in many places. It could make it possible for owners of houses and commercial property to cut or even eliminate their electric costs, thus helping reduce the need for power produced with fossil fuels.

The new work from MIT isn’t the only news from the solar front. According to this article, also posted on the ScienceDaily site just a few days ago, an Australian researcher at Queensland University of Technology’s Institute of Sustainable Resources (ISR) has developed transparent windows that could reduce heating and cooling costs while producing electricity from the Sun. Here is an excerpt from the story:

Professor John Bell said QUT had worked with a Canberra-based company Dyesol, which is developing transparent solar cells that act as both windows and energy generators in houses or commercial buildings.

He said the solar cell glass would make a significant difference to home and building owners’ energy costs and could, in fact, generate excess energy that could be stored or onsold.

Professor Bell said the glass was one of a number of practical technologies that would help combat global warming which was a focus of research at the ISR.

“The transparent solar cells have a faint reddish hue but are completely see-through,” Professor Bell said.

“The solar cells contain titanium dioxide coated in a dye that increases light absorption.

“The glass captures solar energy which can be used to power the house but can also reduce overheating of the house, reducing the need for cooling.”

Professor Bell said it would be possible to build houses made entirely of the transparent solar cells.

“As long as a house is designed throughout for energy efficiency, with low-energy appliances it is conceivable it could be self-sustaining in its power requirements using the solar-cell glass,” he said.

Imagine living in a house made entirely of glass and requiring nothing but the Sun to provide electricity, heating and cooling. Such a house would be the ultimate in green efficiency, although privacy issues would need to be addressed.

These are only two of the interesting new solar power possibilities that are coming over the horizon. As the cost of conventional energy continues to rise, there will be plenty of incentive for development and marketing of new alternatives such as these. One real bright feature of these new alternatives is that they do not rely on large quantities of silicon, which is expensive and in short supply.

What is needed now is government incentives to match, such as tax deductions, credits or grants for individuals or businesses that install environmentally friendly solar collectors. I know I would respond to such a program if it could be made affordable.

A couple of decades ago the government offered credits for the purchase of solar water heating systems, and the devices sold like hot cakes — until the subsidies were stopped. You don’t hear much about solar water heaters today, and that is too bad because hundreds of thousands of them could have been installed over the past couple of decades, helping to alleviate the current energy crisis. Congress and the administration could move the shift away from fossil fuels ahead by a giant step by instituting financial incentives to help people like me to take the move to solar.

Posted in Default File, Energy Technology, Solar Power | 1 Comment »

Ethanol Continues to Fight for Survival

Saturday, July 12th, 2008

By David L. Brown

The Lords of Ethanol just won’t give up, and yet I guess I can understand it because they have collectively invested hundreds of millions and perhaps more even billions in this dead end scam.

I got another news release yesterday from the Renewable Fuels Association, the outfit created to publicize and hype the ethanol craze. It was full of braggadocio about how the RFA had defended ethanol to the meeting of the G8. Hmm, must have worked, since I didn’t see any move during that meeting toward a freeze on the evil practice of turning food into fuel, nor did I see anything about the World Bank study that blames 75 percent of food price increases on biofuels, as we reported here recently.

What the Lords of Ethanol don’t realize is that they have entered a mine field of resentment and disgust from which they would be wise to retreat sooner rather than later. It is appearances that count, and what they are doing looks horrible. For example, here is an editorial cartoon by Michael Ramirez as it appeared on the cover of the current issue of The Quill, the magazine of the Society of Professional Journalists:

quill.jpg

It is the real world images similar to this that will soon be turning the eyes of humanity on their sins. When the press begins to see this issue as being a crime against humanity, as this cartoon suggests they are, there will be growing pressure to stop the ethanol scam in is tracks.

The RFA is now taking the tack that using corn and other food crops is only a temporary step toward the use of cellulosic processes that use switchgrass, sawdust, and other non-food plant material. To that I say, Bull Muffins! These ethanol plants that have been built or are under construction are made to process corn into alcohol, pure and simple, and chances are slim to none that they can be easily converted to some entirely different process. That just isn’t their plan, and to argue otherwise is hypocrisy at its worst.

(more…)

Posted in Age of Oil, Energy Technology, Politics | 2 Comments »

Latest G8 “Summit” Was No Such Thing

Thursday, July 10th, 2008

by Val Germann

The very word, “summit” is so evocative, a leftover from the Cold War era when the leaders of the U.S. and USSR could “go to the mountain” and settle the world’s problems in a day, or so it was thought. Back then there was some justification for the word because for a while those two nations really did have the power, or were thought to have the power, to truly change things. But today the word is a sick joke on the whole planet, spinning as it is toward multiple disasters than no two nations, or group of eight nations, can possibly fix.

The proof of this can be seen today on the TERRADAILY website in an article concerning our Earth’s poster child for disaster, Africa. Once again to the well we go, for the hundredth time (?), with “solutions” to Africa’s problems. But when are we going to give this up? That is, I am old enough to have been down this road over and over again, always with the same result: things get worse than they were before!

And so here we are, decades after “The Green Revolution” and the World Bank were going to put a chicken in every under-developed pot and an automobile in every Third World garage, reading the following:

The leaders of the world’s wealthiest countries vowed to support not only immediate food aid, but also medium- and long-term solutions to the food crisis that is destabilizing many developing countries and driving millions more into hunger and poverty.

Yes, it’s true, we ARE going here again! It’s incredible! As I said, it’s got to be one-hundred times that we’ve read this kind of boilerplate over the last fifty years or so. But with the G8 it gets better:

The crisis is particularly acute for Africa, where the current high prices and food shortages have served to highlight a long-lived “silent hunger” affecting 200 million people, from young to old, and including 33 million malnourished children. In Africa, the underlying cause of this hunger is the longstanding neglect of agriculture on national and international levels.

What? They have to be kidding! How is this possible after the $billions that have been thrown at that unholy continent since World War Two? Can it truly be that there is a “longstanding neglect of agriculture” in Africa? Well, I tell you, I am at a loss for words but not the G8, who once again offer “solutions” to these problems, “solutions” that will turn “crisis into opportunity.” But you just have to laugh:

Their goal is to achieve a uniquely African Green Revolution attuned to the continent’s realities: its wide diversity of crops, environments and farming systems, and a scarcity of resources that leaves millions of smallholder farmers caught in a poverty trap.

Oh, well, there we have it, the “solution,” case closed! Yes sir, that was easy; why didn’t they think of it before? But, ah, wait a minute, I think they HAVE thought of it before, and then dumped $billions into Darkest Africa to back up that thought.

But what’s happened to those dollars, huh? Well, I think we could take a look at the numbered Swiss accounts of those honchos in the Organization of African Unity and find out, very quickly. As for the current round of “solutions” to Africa’s problems, they will no doubt have the same effect as all the others: none.

Posted in Agriculture Issues, Economics, Politics | 1 Comment »

Detroit — Death Throes of an Industry?

Monday, July 7th, 2008

By David L. Brown

I have written several pieces about Detroit in the last week or so, and today there is even more news to raise concern about the future of the American automobile industry. The problems continue to mount. On a short drive the other day I saw two vehicles parked in driveways with “For Sale By Owner” signs in the windshields. Both were shiny, impressive, fairly new vehicles. One was a Hummer, and the other was a Ford Expedition, among the most inefficient SUVs made. Then yesterday as I walked to the mailbox, I saw another vehicle for sale only three doors away from my house. I didn’t get near enough to see the brand, but it looked like a Chevy Suburban.

Obviously, these things are not only dead-on-arrival at dealer lots, but many individuals who already own them would like to dump them if possible. I say lots of luck to them. It may not be possible at all, unless they practically give them away.

And that leads me to a couple of snippets of news and commentary. I picked on Ford a few days ago, so today it’s GM and Chrysler’s turn.

General Motors Goes Into Crisis Mode

According to the news today, GM is reported to be considering eliminating some of its brands, making further white collar cuts, “speeding the introduction of small cars from other markets,” and other steps, according to an unnamed source within the company.

While no decisions have been made, the seriousness of the company’s condition can be gauged from the Draconian possibilities under consideration. This news comes only weeks after the company announced it is closing down four major plants which make pickups and SUVs and said that it is beginning plans to construct a new factory to build small, efficient cars.

Last week GM stock closed below $10 for the first time since September, 1954. Nineteen fifty-four! And back then, $10 was some real money. You could buy a good dinner for under a buck, and $10 would probably feed a family of four for a week. And dare I say it, back in those days you could have bought 50 to 100 gallons of gasoline for ten bucks,. Today you’d be lucky to get 2.5 gallons (I paid just under $4 a gallon today for regular). So where does that put the value of GM stock today? Umm, somewhere south of Tierra del Fuego? At the bottom of the deepest oil well ever drilled? At the center of the Earth? Yeah, somewhere like that. If they’re not careful it will become as worthless as a Zimbabwean $10 million bill.

Wanna see how that looks in graphic form. Here is a chart of GM stock prices for the last ten years, ending today at just above $10:

gm-prices-10-years.jpg

Notice the startling downturn that began sometime late last year when the price still was able to poke its head above the $40 mark as if to say “goodby cruel world,” then entering what might be called The Doomsday Dive of Death in recent weeks. This turkey is falling like a lead balloon and though the graph is logarithmic it’s hard to visualize it, but the bottom of the chart really is ground zero, solid ground coming up fast. This is a graphic version of Wile E. Coyote falling into the canyon, and that little puff of dust cannot be far behind. Shoot, I’ve been predicting big trouble for GM for nearly two years, so why didn’t I sell it short? Curses, riches have once more passed me by.

To further examine the options reported today, GM builds cars abroad for the European and Asian markets and it seems to be considering shifting some or perhaps a great deal of that production to the U.S. market, which hitherto had to be satisfied with lumbering monstrosities instead of economical little cars such as are favored overseas.

(more…)

Posted in Age of Oil, Transportation | 1 Comment »

World Bank Study: Biofuels Guilty as Sin

Friday, July 4th, 2008

By David L. Brown

Well, this should put a final nail in the coffin of schemes such as making ethanol from corn and fake diesel fuel from soybeans. According to an article appearing today on The Guardian newspaper’s website, a confidential World Bank report concludes that biofuels are responsible for 75 percent of the increases in food prices that have taken place in recent years and months.

Here are the lede grafs from this absolutely damning report from The Guardian (a respected United Kingdom newspaper):

Biofuels have forced global food prices up by 75% – far more than previously estimated – according to a confidential World Bank report obtained by the Guardian.

The damning unpublished assessment is based on the most detailed analysis of the crisis so far, carried out by an internationally-respected economist at [the] global financial body.

The figure emphatically contradicts the US government’s claims that plant-derived fuels contribute less than 3% to food-price rises. It will add to pressure on governments in Washington and across Europe, which have turned to plant-derived fuels to reduce emissions of greenhouse gases and reduce their dependence on imported oil.

Senior development sources believe the report, completed in April, has not been published to avoid embarrassing President George Bush.

“It would put the World Bank in a political hot-spot with the White House,” said one yesterday.

We have been ringing a warning bell about this problem for a long time, and the Frankenstein Monster just kept staggering around creating havoc. Only in recent months have soaring food costs and increases in ag production costs become a problem serious enough to raise concern. Now with this latest revelation, all pretense that biofuels based on food crops have any place in the world must be shattered. This is the smoking gun that almost certainly will be the beginning of the end for this blind alley approach to breaking the oil addiction.

The article continues:

“Without the increase in biofuels, global wheat and maize stocks would not have declined appreciably and price increases due to other factors would have been moderate,” says the report. The basket of food prices examined in the study rose by 140% between 2002 and this February. The report estimates that higher energy and fertiliser prices accounted for an increase of only 15%, while biofuels have been responsible for a 75% jump over that period.

It argues that production of biofuels has distorted food markets in three main ways. First, it has diverted grain away from food for fuel, with over a third of US corn now used to produce ethanol and about half of vegetable oils in the EU going towards the production of biodiesel. Second, farmers have been encouraged to set land aside for biofuel production. Third, it has sparked financial speculation in grains, driving prices up higher.

As we have also pointed out, food shortages have led to hoarding on national levels as countries that would otherwise export rice, wheat or other foodstuffs have begun to hold them in reserve instead. This factor leaves many poor nations that depend on imported grain hanging over an abyss of potential famine.

(more…)

Posted in Age of Oil, Famine, Politics | 1 Comment »

Awesome Tidbits from the News

Thursday, July 3rd, 2008

By David L. Brown

Here is a brief synopsis of some news items that are relevant to recent postings on Star Phoenix Base.

Oil Prices Continue to Rise — Is No End in Sight?
We wrote a few days back that once oil punched through the $140 price there would be no keeping it back from reaching $150 a barrel.

One week ago today, June 27, we announced that that breakthrough had occurred.

Yesterday, July 2, it broke through $144 a barrel.

Today, July 3 it broke through $145 a barrel.

It was just on January 2 this year that oil surged past the $100 mark. Is there no end in sight? We shall see, but we obviously are not nearly to the point where supply satisfies demand at current prices, otherwise the cost of oil would not continue to be bid up.

It is curious that the Saudi Arabian oil thieves have announced the discovery of a huge new oil reserve that will just absolutely out produce anything we have seen before and solve the oil problem. Do we believe them? Do we believe Lyle the Lying Liar, winner of the International Twisted Tongue Award? Well, you never heard of Lyle because I just made him up, but with a name like that would you believe him? No? Well neither should you believe those lying sheiks.

If there is any place on earth where oil exploration has taken place in depth, and for many decades, it is on that sandy bit of wasteland where the Saudis live, and for them to claim an enormous new discovery now is just too much to accept, except as evidence of their desperate state of panic.

Wheels Continue to Fall Off the Bus in Detroit

Just yesterday I wrote about the mess Detroit finds itself in. Today there are a couple of items of interest, both concerning the No. 2 automaker, Ford.

First, the SUV has been declared “dead,” based on a statement from Ford Motor Company that they foresee the faux 4WD vehicles as continuing only in a “niche market.” Industry analysts interpreted that as the death knell of the SUV.

According to Ford’s lead sales analyst George Pipas, “Our view is that gas prices aren’t likely to go down and, more importantly, consumers have moved on. We believe that the [SUV] segment has merit for certain consumers, but is not likely to rebound at any point.”

As FoxNews.com noted in an article titled “R.I.P. the SUV?”:

Apparently that’s Ford-speak for “the SUV is dead,” said Charlie Vogelheim, chief auto industry analyst with J.D. Power and Associates.

“The popularity of the SUV is done,” Vogelheim said. “The SUV is more of a four-letter word than the station wagon.”

Out of respect to the numerically challenged I won’t comment on whether “SUV” or “station wagon” are four letter words, but speaking of station wagons, which apparently are (thankfully) extinct automotive dinosaurs, Ford also this week announced its latest new vehicle, the Flex. Amazingly, this thing looks like … a station wagon! In fact, a boxy retro looking thing that could have come from the 1970s when station wagons were kings of the road. Here is a photo of this amazing new offering from Ford:

1_61_flexside320.jpg

Well, what can you say? The Flex not only is saddled with a stupid name but looks to have all the qualities of a station wagon plus hints of an SUV, with striking similarities to the classic Chevy Suburban or those old Jeep Grand Wagoneers. It even has some of the lean-and-hungry demeanor of a Hummer, for crying out loud.

Obviously this is another example of Ford’s total inability to forecast the future and plan its product line accordingly. The announcement of this new monstrosity seems particularly strange in light of Fords admission that the SUV is essentially dead. As I asked in my posting yesterday, what is wrong with these people?

China Prepares for Olympics

As Confucius wrote, some pictures are worth a thousand words. For example, this one showing Chinese anti-terrorist troops demonstrating how they will handle anyone who gets out of line during the upcoming 2008 Olympic Games. Grrrr!

000802ab4a6309d6895613.jpg

Wow, those athletes and fans better stay cool or we might see some serious, er, Segwaying and Shooting. Oh, perhaps that will be the latest Olympic “sport!” I can see it now, with gold, silver and bronze medals awarded on the basis of the number of misbehaving athletes and fans that can be run down and dispatched in the shortest period of time.

I still can’t believe that the Chinese Olympics won’t turn into a true public relations disaster for the Middle Kingdom, and this picture does nothing to reassure me. The whole world is going to be watching China, and demonstrations and other anti-Chinese outbursts are sure to occur. Will this be China’s response? Wow, that will make some great footage for CNN, won’t it, as the black-clad killers roll over the bleeding bodies of their victims. It could make Tienanmen Square look like a Baptist Sunday school picnic.

Of course, chances are good that when these guys come Segwaying up with rifles at the ready, everyone will just break out laughing. I know I would. It would be like a scene from the Keystone Kops.

Meanwhile, China Daily (from which I lifted this hilarious picture) today reported on a survey of Chinese people on the question of whether the French president Nicolas Sarkozy should be allowed to attend the Olympics. Due to his criticism of China, the vast majority said he should not be invited to come. That’s the old international spirit of the Olympics, you bet! The only question I have is, why would Sarkozy want to come?

And while we’re on that subject, why in the name of Allah does our President plan to attend and by so doing lend “face” to this evil, criminal nation, operators of the largest slave labor camp in history? The best thing the West could do is to begin to close once again that door to Red China that Nixon and Kissinger opened, much to our nation’s harm.

That’s enough news for today. Have a good ‘un!

Posted in Age of Oil, Transportation | 1 Comment »

High Crimes and Misdemeanors in Detroit

Wednesday, July 2nd, 2008

By David L. Brown

I can’t help wondering at the mess Detroit finds itself in. Can it really be that the geniuses that run GM, Ford and Chrysler didn’t see the end coming for the giant gas-guzzling monstrosities they’ve been pawning off on us for years? Apparently not, although among any thinking persons it should have seemed obvious that change was coming and that it was high time to be prepared.

Well, obviously they didn’t foresee the future of their businesses very clearly or they wouldn’t find themselves in the deep doo-doo now. GM has announced that four major plants will be closing, and in particular ones that make SUVs and big pickups. GM stock took a trouncing yesterday and some analysts are using the “B” word (as in B stands for Bankruptcy, and that rhymes with … well, idiocy for one.) As the trouble deepens I suspect even more bad news will be coming in the months ahead.

Ford has similarly announced that sales have plummeted, especially for its F-150 pickup, long the best-selling vehicle in America. Now they can’t give them away. (You can sense desperation in the radio commercials from the major Ford dealer here in New Mexico, offering over $10,000 in discounts on big new pickups.) And why is it that this company is headed up by someone named Ford? Was that the best they could do, put the great grandson of the founder in charge? Surely someone else might have been able to do better? Well, perhaps not…

And now Chrysler has announced the imminent closing of the plant where it makes mini-vans, sales of which are also in the toilet, and is cutting back truck production. Their big, shiny Ram Tough trucks are a sight to behold as they cover acres and acres of car dealership lots from sea to shining sea, slowly deteriorating as they remain unsold despite big discounts plus six year interest free financing and a promise to help pay for the fuel.

What is going on at GM, Ford and Chrysler, not to mention other major corporations? How could they have let their companies get into the situations they are in today, when it was as plain as an illuminated billboard in Times Square that the predicted Peak Oil would soon be reached and there would be no more cheap gas to power those mechanical monsters? Did they actually believe the lies of Arab sheiks and oil company executives? Did they buy the drumbeat of hype and disinformation aimed at convincing the world that there would always be plenty of cheap oil? Apparently, and that makes them a gullible lot and fools at best.

(more…)

Posted in Economics, Essays and Opinion, Transportation | 1 Comment »

« Older Entries