Tis the Silly Season

Not much real news the last couple days. The Republicans campaign on "We're not Democrats." The Democrats claim "We're not Bush." That's news?

Some wacko in Florida holds hostage the major figures of the non-War on Terror up to and including the Commander-in-Chief, and they don't know what to do about it. The media fans it like kids egging on a fight in the schoolyard. We're waiting, Mr. Prez. Got a clue?

The Secretary of State claims our debt and deficit place us in a disadvantage in foreign affairs. Really? Could that be true? With China the largest holder of US debt and manipulating their currency to give them trade advantage, we beg them to improve the situation, they ignore us, and we are afraid to correct the situation by simply placing a tariff on Chinese imports because they might dump our debt--and that prevents us from acting in our own best interest?

Makes one wonder how civilization has gotten this far if our fearless leaders cannot figure out and handle this simple situations. What are they going to do with the tough ones? I wouldn't expect it to go much better, but that's just a personal opinion.

BP 1; EPA 0; Greenies 0.

"Government scientists studying the BP disaster are reporting the best possible outcome: Microbes are consuming the oil in the Gulf without depleting the oxygen in the water and creating "dead zones" where fish cannot survive." REF

EPA failed to test dispersants in the 20 years since Exxon Valdez, so restricted BP's usage by 75% because it "might" hurt something. Unknown to EPA, apparently, the Brits had tested it and approved unlimited usage outside of 10 miles of coast. After EPA restriction, the oil came ashore.

Is EPA more responsible for the damage ashore than BP?

Greenies opposed any use of dispersant because they wanted all the oil to come to the surface so it could be seen. Instead of minimizing damage to the environment, they apparently wanted to maximize it to make points. With friends like them, the environment doesn't need enemies.

The plumes of underwater oil thought so horrific turn out to be so diluted one could swim through a plume without realizing it. Seems it takes mass spectrometry or other sophisticated chemical analysis to detect the oil in the plumes. Most just failed to mention this little fact. Wonder why?

These criticisms in no way should be interpreted as exonerating BP of the shoddy engineering practices in their attempt to save money. They blew it and we all will pay for it--including BP--but not including the EPA and greenies. I just wanted to assure EPA and greenies got their full and just credit. They did so much.

Lessons from Katrina Not Learned

Katrina offered multiple opportunities to learn lessons, but many have been ignored. It is fitting to review a few on this fifth anniversary, although media coverage has made Katrina a bit nauseating. However, the BP spill proves some major lessons were not learned from either Katrina or Valdez.

One of the biggest can be called chain of command, but actually is under-empowerment. Brown, head of FEMA, took the major hit for Katrina, but responsibilities for the failures belong to his superiors. During the reorganization of government following 9/11, FEMA was made a minor department within Homeland Security. Instead of a cabinet post, head of FEMA was now several positions away from the President.

The original Secretary of Homeland Security was Tom Ridge, an ex-governor, who knew the importance of FEMA. Even so, FEMA was not seen as mainline to the primary mission of Homeland Security, and primary mission think eroded FEMA's budget, power and preparedness. When Chertoff took over, he did not have any background and it showed. Brown had submitted his resignation early in the year, but was talked into staying through hurricane season.

The biggest mistake Chertoff made was NOT appointing a Principal Federal Officer (PFO) before Katrina hit. In fact, that omission was not corrected for over a week until the appointment of Lt. Gen. Honoré, “The Ragin' Cajun.” As New Orleans Mayor Ray Nagin so adroitly put it, "Now, I will tell you this -- and I give the president some credit on this -- he sent one John Wayne dude down here that can get some stuff done, and his name is Gen. Honoré. And he came off the doggone chopper, and he started cussing and people started moving. And he's getting some stuff done." The PFO had been appointed and empowered. His public exposure came when he told a reporter “Don't get stuck on stupid.” Had Honoré been appointed two days before Katrina, history would have been different.

When the BP Oil Spill was realized as serious, a PFO was appointed (April 30, 2010), but called National Incident Commander. Admiral Thad Allen got the appointment, and served in both that post and as Commandant of the Coast Guard until May 25, 2010. His empowerment was not total as indicated by response to a reporter's question about his chain of command. It was through various officials of Homeland Security before reaching the President.

What this meant is illustrated by a proposal or request made by a Louisiana Parrish. The request was routed through 14 different federal departments, any of which could kill, modify, or simply delay the request. The Louisiana request to build 40 miles of berm to protect their wet lands from oil took 14 days to wind through the bureaucracy, coming back with only 6 miles approved. Several days later, it was also announced that BP would only pay for one mile.

Later while building the berm, a single official with the federal wildlife service forbid taking fill from a spot she considered a threat to later subsidence of an island the berm was to protect. Her requirement delayed building the berm until a pipe could be laid and assembled to a dredge offshore. The official asked why they couldn't just get volunteers to place the pipe. The pipe was so large one could ride an ATV down it, thus required a crane to lift each pipe section in place, then welders to connect them to adjacent sections. An empowered bureaucrat without a clue shows the main problem was a National Incident Commander without the power to command all the departments involved to be proactive in an emergency instead of impediments as usual.

A comparison story was from the Storm of the Century in 1993. The Emergency Manager of Buncombe County requested the NC Department of Transportation (DOT) equipment clear the way for the power company trucks to reach places necessary to restore power in the county. DOT refused, claiming their primary focus was to clear main roads first, then back roads in sequence of importance. The Emergency Manager, knowing the Governor, dialed his number from memory, told him of the problem with a colorful opinion of DOT performance, and hung up. Ten minutes later, DOT called the Emergency Manager, asking which roads he wanted cleared and in what sequence.

The National Incident Commander needs that link to authority, that empowerment. When Thad Allen was required to retire by law from the Coast Guard by June 30, 2010, he negotiated the needed power to stay on as National Incident Commander. He got it and he stayed. Had he not, July 1, he could have been on all news programs with an explanation of why he had not stayed, an intolerable prospect for national authority figures. Allen's new power was expressed by 76 approved exceptions to the EPA's ban on dispersant usage.

EPA did not object too loudly because it had failed to test dispersants in the 20 years since the Valdez spill, but, when greenies screamed, forbade further usage in the BP spill because “it might harm the environment.” The Brits had tested it, and approved unlimited usage more than 10 miles offshore. Testing within ten miles of shore did not happen because the Brits would not consider usage within coastal proximity. When Allen approved usage, EPA did not howl too loudly because of its embarrassing non-performance. When they did, Allen was nice to them by explaining that all 76 incidents were to prevent oil coming ashore.

Perhaps the EPA will test dispersants now, or just ban them as an appeasement to the greenies. Will the fed learn the lesson of appointing and empowering the National Incident Commander next time? We'll have to wait until next time to see.

Flu Vaccine

That time again comes early this year. Vaccines are already available, but the arguments lag. I got mine before the rush, and feel a bit uncomfortable. To me that indicates I've been vaccinate against a strain I would have been susceptible to. Better a day or so of slight discomfort than weeks of sheer misery.

Those who no longer get the vaccine because "it made me ill" or "it gave me the flu" know not what they do. Reaction to the vaccine that expresses as symptoms indicates high susceptibility. Those symptoms will diminish in following years as immunity builds. Ceasing vaccination puts that person and those around them at risk.

Least amusing are the health-care workers who refuse to get it or bitch about having be inoculated. If they work with those whose immunities are compromised, and transmit flu which proves lethal, are they not guilty of at least manslaughter?

One is contagious for a day or so before expressing symptoms. That day they are potentially an Angel of Death.

"Bearing" With It

Many say that the heat of global warming will kill the polar bears. Here is a bear at the San Diego Zoo, scratching his tummy and quite content in his outdoor confines. I am glad no one told him the heat is lethal.

Sniffing Ethanol

The problem with corn ethanol is that creating it requires about as much energy as it generates. Were it not for government subsidies, it would fail. Instead government mandates its expansion.

Farming corn requires only 35% of the production energy total; refining 65%. In terms of EROEI (Energy Return On Energy Invested), the most efficient U.S. refinery produces 1.18 output for 1.00 input. In the attached table, Minnesota's 1.14 (EROIRG, in the last column) is the most efficient. In other words, for 7.5 gallons of ethanol produced, 6.5 gallons or their energy equivalent are consumed in growing and refining. In states such as Texas and Missouri, ethanol production requires more energy input than output. In the table, the next-to-last column (EROIPG) relates the efficiency of farm production.

Overall, the average efficiency is approximately 1.05 to 1.00, one gallon net for every 20 gallons consumed, less than 5% efficiency. Compared to gasoline, one gallon is consumed for every ten gallons produced, or a 90% efficiency. Even Canadian tar sands or oil shale outdistance ethanol, easily, and this is before considering ethanol has only 62% of the energy of gasoline.

Ethanol production stands on the government's subsidy of 51-cents per gallon, combined with a protective tariff of 54-cents per gallon. Otherwise sugar-cane ethanol from Brazil could compete with subsidized corn-based ethanol. Unsubsidized corn-base ethanol cannot compete with its own costs of production, and this doesn't consider soil or aquifer depletion. It's a boondoggle keeping the price of corn up, bio-refiners in business, Midwestern congressmen in office, and food prices higher the world over.

Ethanol produced in oak barrels, by comparison, provides profits to its producers, $16 per gallon taxes to the Federal government, 6-10% sales tax to state governments, products for export, and contributes to the pursuit of happiness for its consumers.

An End to Nuclear Arms? Doubt it!

The Russian Federation sits above China. Russia has a population of 141 million, down from 148 million when the Soviet Union dissolved. The majority of that population resides in the European areas near Moscow and St. Petersburg; few in the Asian areas where the majority of Russia's plentiful natural resources are.

Russia is the richest country in the world in terms of natural resources. After the Soviet Union went bankrupt, Russia invited many international corporations in to develop its natural resources with revenue sharing as the contingent reward. It worked well. Twenty years later, Russia is the world's second-largest exporter of oil and natural gas and the seventh-largest holder of American debt.

China is the most populous country in the world with 1.3 billion people and could well use the natural resources to its north. Without Russia's nuclear arms, how long would China take to acquire those natural resources?

Russia is not suicidal.