Hi guys,

I saw this link on Fark.com. Lots of interactive maps showing What Rita is doing, what oil rigs are in its path, and all the stuff that may see us at $5/gallon next week

http://www.theoildrum.com/story/2005/9/20/144722/791


John

 

http://www.fromthewilderness.com/fre...ta_storm.shtml

Storm May Be the Coup de Grace for the American Economy and Many of Us As Well

 

maybe time to start considering some of the radical "weather altering" methods that have been discussed ad nauseum by the wackos in the past decades.

Multiple huge non-nuclear concussion bombs dropped in center of hurricane?

"One of the ways to attack a hurricane at its core is through seeding. A South Florida company led by Peter Cordani have developed a powdery substance that is dropped into the eyewall of a tropical storm or hurricane, absorbs the storm's moisture, turn into a gel like substance, and falls back to the earth. While some experts believe that this substance could cause environmental problems, Dyn-O-Mat believes that the material is harmless, but will use it far away from land so that it doesn't affect people or other living things. The folks at Dyn-O-Mat have already encountered some success with their product."

Maybe it's time to put 60 billion dollars into trying to stop these storms rather than paying that money to clean up after them.

 

That's a very funny website! Looking at the other "articles" on there is good for all kinds of entertainment, that's for certain.

At the end of the day, what we're faced with is a pretty serious bad news storm headed for a real important part of the country as far as fuel refinement is concerned. You can't destroy a nation just by having some refineries knocked out. In WWII, entire European nations were turned to rubble but still bounced back and thrived once the war was over. Things will have to change, but anyone who thinks a storm can destroy the United States is apparently unable to read history books.

 

AZCIVIC,you are right.A hurricane is just a pin ***** over the 3.5 milion sq miles of the USA.In fact the quick recovery that the USA economy will make should actually discourage our Mid Eastern enemies.A smallish nuke-say 20 KT like the Japanese bombs-won't cause anyway near as much disruption as one of these huge hurricanes(more lives lost of course,but less property loss and less widespread destruction).
I know I'm a huge pessimist,but I won't be surprised to see that sort of attack.
Now the oil companies-refining companies are absolutely ripping us.Legal of course because they can "price fix" without actually consulting with one another.One of the main problems of pure capitalism is that "it" has absolutely no concern for national interest.One oil company shill actually had the nerve to compare oil to milk.Oil is much more like water-you absolutely need it in the USA to survive.It is no surprise that gasoline prices have had little effect on demand.The demand-with current vehicle-can't be readily decreased.You still have to drive to work-store-school.Most cities have very poor public transportation systems.
Most cities don't farm out water service.It is too important to the security of the city to leave it too a profit seeking company.Once they have a monoply,they would charge what they can get for it with no relationship to their cost.This is exactly the current problem with oil and gasoline.Demand is close enough to total supply that producers can charge as much as the buyers will pay-no relationship to cost of production.
What can be done?
1)Threaten oil-gasoline producers!There really isn't much "threat" behind any threat.It isn't as if President can threaten to nationalize oil companies-refinering companies.They will continue to increae prices until their profits start to drop.Will they build new refineries??Ha,Ha-Why?!So they can sell gasoline for less after spending 1 billion dollars for a refinery??!!The"environmental regs are too strict to build refineries" is absolute BS-always has been.They can make more money with refining capacity less than demand,so why would they build refineries??NFW.The USA's national interest is of no interest to Big Oil-why should it be??
2)Grow fuel?Obviously-this is about the only way we can put pressure on oil producers-refiners.We-the USA- have to be careful that "Energy companies-read oil companies" don't get into the ethanol=biodiesel" industry.They already have what amounts to a monoply on liquid portable energy.We-the USA- need to keep them out of the "grown fuel" industry.
3)Nuclear power plants!Yes!!!They will able to produce the 10 cents a KWR electricity that you folks will use on your jacked up Hybrids.(extra battery-plug in capability).If you are using oil fueled electricity then you will be paying a lot more,and the supply of oil is finite.Yes,nuclear power is a bit dangerous,but it isn't like Oil is safe.
4)Clean up coal(we have about 25-50 years worth of coal,if we used it for are entire energy needs).It can be converted to liquid fuel,but the best use is to burn it in power plants for electricity.Unfortunately it is tough to scrub SOX NOX out of it,and there isn't any resonable way to "scrub" CO2 out of it-so there is the grenhouse problem.If we are using moe NUKE and biomass them we might be able to reduce our current CO2 output while using more coal
5)President Bush is aware that energy is the knife held at our throat,but he isn't really pushing Nuke enough(he is lightly pushing it).Incentives for ethanol and other grown fuels can be increased-.President Bush just doesn't think we can push the "alternative energy" sources without killing our economy.I disagree.
6)Hydro power(we are kinda maxed out on that) wind(important but never more than 1-2% of total needs)solar-strictly rooftop stuff-important but a small percent of needs.We will never see fields of mirrors,like we can currently see fields of windmills(OK-TX-along I-40 you can see what looks like SCI FI fields of HUGE WINDMILLS-the CS whiners on Martha's Vineyard will just have to live withit-they could actually be a tourist draw-they are so unworldly looking.Wind is about as clean-safe-environmentally friendly as energy production will ever be).Too bad there isn't any practical way to harness Rita Katrina(someday maybe,but I doubt it-too unpredictable).
I have run on.Big Oil-and the gasoline producers have a legal monoply.e are currently at their mercy.They can legally charge us what they want-we have to pay.Sorry-Charlie