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Nuclear Energy and the Next American President
Today's Nuclear Power Plant design is an interim system, relatively speaking. The more Permanent nuclear system - as in Perpetuity - is the Fast Breeder Reactor type of power plant. It can use the 'waste' fuel of today's Nukes and generate more fuel as it generates power. It is a good way to get rid of the 'waste' fuel. Conventional Nuke's uses only 4% of its fuel before removing them as waste. Waste fuel has 96% of power potential left....what a waste (no pun intended)! This the reason why France, the leader in Nuke power plants, is storing their waste in easily retreivable storage. Our nuclear scientists were addressing this technology until 1996 when Sec of Energy, under Clinton, cut it off.
Let us hope Obama appoints an Energy Secretary who understands and appreciate science and pushes to revive the research of 1996. Let us hope that if they do, that the scientists who were involved in those projects in 1996 can be coaxed back to continue where they left off. This is urgent energy security and global warming standpoint and we should not be starting from scratch again.
Obama, McCain and Offshore Drilling
Let us vote for McCain/Palin and throw Obama/Biden/Pelosi/ out and get this country moving again!
ETF Update: Alternative Energy and the Power Grid
The problem alone posed by environmentalist, naturalist, beautiful scenery specialists makes venture capitalist not even want to think about this area.
Only a crisis - in the same magnitude as the oil embargo of the early 70's - will get us moving to solve this problem. Sad but true.
If McCain gets elected, he could push this together with his oil drilling plan especially if he appoints Mitt Romney as his Energy Secretary.
No Joke: Google Introduces Its Chrome Browser With A Cartoon
The features discussed sounds like the features I have been looking for. I hope their anti-phishing, anti-malware scheme works. I also hope they monitor how many people opt to use the "incognito mode"...would be interesting what the statistics would show.
The Economics of Political Spin
"He did NOT understand the consequences of a lot of bills that got to his desk so he signed them all
The Economics of Political Spin
Reagan/Bush 1 passed on a big deficit to Cinton, but for a very good reason. It was needed to bring down the Soviet empire. An excellent return on investment indeed. This in turn (now with the world at peace) allowed Clinton to bring down the deficit.
Then, Clinton's administration, in it's ineptness, did not recognize the threat from Al-Queda and missed many opportunities to get rid of the group. Because of this we had 9/11 and Bush 2 had to address our vulnerabilities. This cost a lot of money, billions of deficit money, for it does not increase nor produce any products -- mostly just security services.
Bush further expanded the deficit by going into Iraq without understanding the consequences of conquering a country. He compounded this with his policy of getting as many people to own a house. These two actions is responsible for much of the financial problems we find ourselves in. Yes he has an MBA, but remember, he got it by just getting by. Intellectually, he is a light weight - incapable of thinking through a subject. Hence, on the two ventures, he did not have a plan after conquering Iraq, and he did not add to his expanding housing ownership policy that only people who had sufficient income should be given a loan. He did understand the consequences of a lot of bills that got to his desk so he signed them all....until the stem cell issue, his first veto that had little economic impact. Most of what he signed had big economic impact one of which is the limited milage improvement on CAFE standards .... hence, we are now in trouble with the high gas prices. He (including many Republicans) could not understand the science of Global Warming, hence did not push really hard on nuclear energy.
On McCain. He is doing the minimum to what he needs to do to get elected without compromising his philosophy too much. Once in office, he can pretty much be the maverick he is.by nature. Lately, he has shown that when he sees a problem, he will address it quickly. He has started advocating for building 45 nuclear plants but should he become President he will be calling for 100 or more. In contrast, Obama wants to solve the waste problem first as if it will take only a year or two to solve it (solutions will take a little longer to be proven and accepted), or he is really against it but does not want to say it.
McCain will be working hard to accomplish is goals in 4 years. He is not saying it for he does not want to become a lameduck President. He will get serious election reform passed, get rid of earmarks and work hard on lowering the deficit to balance the budget. He will set an energy policy for the country.
New Gas Discoveries a Boon for U.S. Energy Sector
As to natural gas in the coast of Florida, you are correct, it is there waiting. Waiting for the Chinese to develop the fields, sell (export) to us the gas futher eroding the value of our dollar.
New Gas Discoveries a Boon for U.S. Energy Sector
Our ultimate goal is to provide the world with clean energy which means we have to transition to an electric driven economy. And where is the electricity going to come from? Solar, wind and - this everyone has to accept - nuclear. We can have 10 to 20% wind and solar but the rest have to come from nuclear. By nuclear I mean not only the common system we now have (PWRs and BWRs) but pebble beds, fast breeder reactors, etc. These are the only systems that we can develop to provide the world with limitless electric power for eons to come and it's clean, CO2 emissions free. The terrorists problem is solvable, so is the waste handling. It is a matter of investing enough money in research. As these new systems are developed and implemented, we simultaneously and steadily reduce our use of hydrocarbon fuels. Consequently, we will also reduce our dependence on Russia and the volatile Middle East. Hopefully, with reduced incomes, come reduced ability to terrorize the world.
Hydrocarbon usage will never disappear. We need it to power our ships and airplanes and some land based applications. But it will be at a much more reduced rate that our environment can tolerate for the long term.
The sooner the US gets into it in a massive scale of research the sooner we control our world and the sooner the West can reduce it's dependence on Russia and the volatile Middle East and Venezuela. And the biggest problem of all - Global Warming, has to be turned around quickly.
From the standpoint of energy, we are at a crossroad. Who we elect as President has never been as important as today. We need today a President who has the proven wisdom, maturity, honesty, integrity and passion to lead the US and the world in the right direction - regardless of politics - and has already demonstrated through numerous past actions that he cares a lot about our country's future. More importantly, a man who will, upon election as President, will not be hampered in his decisions by having to look ahead to a second term.
Two Takes on Obanomics
Jimmy Carter had a good team that beat a very respectable President Ford and got him elected to the Presidency. But his team had smarts only in winning elections but little smarts required in running a country. Georgia at that time was a relatively simple state to run and no exposure to international events. His team had no experience in running a large entity, let alone a country. Carter was a narrow visioned micromanager who got tied up in the multitude of problems landing on his desk daily.
In contrast, when Reagan became President, he took his highly experienced and competent team with him. The same team he had when he was Governor of California for 8 years. California was already a large State with plenty of International exposures. Reagan was a delegator and a visionary. He was very successful in his first term. However, some of his old reliables left after 4 years and his second term was not as good.
George Bush Sr was a successful President. He was Vice President for 8 years, had learned the job well and was well qualified when he took over. He had in place a good team who had worked well together for years under Reagan. He managed to complete bringing down the Soviet empire and beat back Saddam Hussain with little loss of American life. He lost to Clinton only because his campaign manager for his first election died during his second run for President.
Obama, should he become President, would be worse than Carter. Obama has never managed a State, City or an enterprise. Consequently, he has not built up a cadre of people who have proven competence and expertise that is needed in running the US government. He does not have a team of people who have worked together for years, with a proven record of making good decisions that affect millions of people. With him being very light in managing experience and global experience, a highly cohesive and competent team is essential. It will be very difficult for him to form such a team for the people who have the needed qualities will not want to be part of a team bound to fail. It is not worth their time and reputation. His only resource will be a team formed from his campaign organization. Just like Carter's, a team good at winning an election but terrible in running a government. Would we want for this to happen...make the US government as Obama's training grounds? We should reject this kind of change.
McCain is a seasoned veteran. He knows the issues and has the correct solutions. He is Maverick enough to do what is right for our country regardless of what his party thinks. He has people who are of proven competence and honesty around him that will form his team. Add to this his nominating Romney as his VP. Now, Romney has a proven successful track record of running a big State (MA) and big businesses that requires vision. He will bring his cadre of people to run the US government. McCain and Romney is the team our country needs during this hard times to bring order and sanity once more.
In 2002 and 2004 Olympics and in-between, we have seen the USA Basketball Team loaded with superstars fall to other countries. Great players individually, but did not play as a team. In 2008 we had an Olympic team of great players who have 3 years playing together and we won the gold! The US needs a Team of competent people running our government or we wind up losing to China, Russia and even Iran and North Korea.
Obama Is Bad for the Economy - Barron's
On Bush. During the primaries of 1999 my instinct told me he will not be a good President for he is an intellectual lightweight and is too reliant on his newly acquired religious beliefs. I was right. He was not intelligent enough to counter his advisors arguments and he hired people who had the same religious leanings as his - instead of the most competed people.
We have seen the results: launched war on the Iraq without a Plan on what to do after the invasion. Appointed incompetents such as Brown of FEMA, Gonzales, etc., (thank goodness we avoided Harriet Miers), fired US Attys who were doing well but were not in the same religious vein, allowed US car companies to resist stricter mileage standards, allowed mortgage companies to give loans to people who cannot afford it because he believed that every family should own a house without regard to their financial capabilities.
Lesson we should learn from the Bush years here is - do not elect an intellectual light weight who has a very narrow experience in world history and economics and who relies on his religion to carry him through.
On Obama: my instinct tells me he is another intellectual light weight who has little knowledge of world history, no experience in economics, a racial (well hidden) agenda and radical (again well hidden) beliefs, but because he is a smart and convincing talker, is very dangerous.
We do not know a whole lot about him but we do know enough to be very leary. From his writings and past behavior, we know he truely believes in what his Pastor J Wright says (he denies this cause he knows people will not elect him if he does not), he has no problem associating with seedy characters if it is to his benefit (Rizzo) and he enjoyed associating with radicals. In short, his moral values and principles in life are less than honorable. In grey situations, he will not have a strong moral compass to guide him in making correct decisions. This is very dangerous for the US and the world. Obama will be another Jimmy Carter and we do not want to go that route again.
On McCain: my instinct tells me he is a very principled man (plenty of historical evidence to support this), who will fight the establishment when necessary (again plenty of past actions in the Senate to support this) in order to force honesty and fairness on his fellow senators and congressmen. From the way he answers questions, I can see he is an honest person whose high moral values will (if he becomes President)make him go after companies and individuals who are crooks such as Ken Lay, Mozillo, Merrill Lynch, etc. I see him as one who will try to make put a limit in interest rates on credit cards like it was 25 years ago.
If he becomes President, I see him lowering our dependence on foreign oil and addressing Global Warming in a very serious and significant way. If he becomes a two term President, he will see the resolution before he leaves office.
Intellectually, he has the capability to argue with anyone he encounters. Just as important, a willingness to consult others if the subject of the arguement is beyond his know how. He could be the President who could bring back fiscal discipline to Congress. If he chooses Romney who has a very good business acument, that would be a big plus.
I see McCain as someone who is strong enough to be respected by world leaders like Putin that future wars will be avoided.
On Reagan and Bush 1: Reagan's greatest achievement that the world should be greatfull for is he started the collapse of te Soviet Union. It was Bush 1 who finished it (but got little recognision for it). Without him, Reagan would not have looked as good.
On Clinton: people forget Bush 1 through his good decisions, already had the economic recovery started when Clinton took over. But Clinton took the credit. The economy and the internet bubble was already heading down before Clinton left office and Bush 2 got the blame. Clinton was the one who missed gettting Bin Laden.
The Georgian Crisis: Impact on ETFs?
This is why we need to drill for oil and do it fast. This is also why we should follow T Boone Pickets' lead and free up CNG for our vehicles. This is why we need to build more nukes to provide reliable electrical power. This is why we need to revive nuclear research on fast breeder reactors which can provide us with electric power forever.
China's New Car Tax Could Make Luxury Cars an Endangered Species
The Benefits of Shifting to CNG for Fuel
By the way, Shaw Group just announced they are building 4 westinghouse produced nukes in China and have them producing power in 6 years. If we could only get rid of our non-technical legislators (the Pelosi/Reid types) and environmentalist who keep clinging to 20 year old technological conditions.
Does Al Gore Finally Get It?
To put it in undestandable terms. When you run your car inside a closed garage, CO will accumulate and in about 20 to 30 minutes you will die from carbon monoxide poisoning.
The earth is like a big super duper enclosed garage enclosed by the forces of gravity. At the rate we are burning fossil fuels, it will be about 80 to 100 years before most animals (includes humans) on earth will choke and die. However, this will never happen. why? Because in a few years time, within the next 10-20 years, the climate pattern on earth would have changed so much that our ciites will experience more and more extreme weather like more powerful typhoons, tornadoes and hurricanes, more dry weather in formerly moderate areas and more extremely wet in other areas causing flooding and drought where there it has not happened before. There will be extreme snow fall but for short periods in some areas. Weather patterns will change at a rate much faster than people can adjust. The result - less harvests in farm lands, flooded cities, destroyed man made structures everywhere. This has been happening for a number of years now. An example of this is the Mississippi which is flooding again only 13 years after the last one. The cycle is getting shorter all the time as we continue to burn hydrocarbon.
With all these changes comes changes in insects and diseases. More of them are moving north as the weather pattern shifts. Diseases will cause more people to get sick and/or die.
I other words, the people population on earth (the root cause of climate change) will start to decline and the CO2 generation will decline with it. The earth will self correct our man generated excesses.
How do we prolong the good living on earth as we know it today and pass it on to our next generation? Start reducing our consumption of hdrocarbons fast and bring down the population growth to a more sustainable level. Who decides where the sustainable level is? Mother nature will determine that of course!
Gas Lines Coming This Fall
As T. Boone Pickens pointed out, it is insane for the US to be importing 70%. If do not drill now, in 5 years we will be up to 80-85% dependent on imports....and $8-10/gal gas.
Obama and the Democrats and Environmentalists oposes nuclear power because accoding to them we do not know how to handle the waste. OK. So do they propose a massive research to eliminate the waste? No. They consider nuclear waste an unsolvable problem and therefore will do nothing. They do not even bother to see why France supplies 80% of its needs from nuclear and is now building another nuclear power plant to raise it even higher.
Americans, wakeup! The Democrats and Environmentalist are leading the country down the path of economic collapse. We have to throw the bums out in November.