Personal confession

I have to confess that I am an angry non-car owner. I would have one if I could afford it.

My being a bicyclist isn't just about the feeling of the wind in my hair or loving to get exercise on the way to work. It's because I have to be a bicyclist.

There's a lot of talk about how people should conserve more so our oil will last longer and so more environmentally-friendly technologies will be enough. Would that really happen?

Japan Tries to Save Energy

Japanese Workers to Go Casual This Summer


By CHISAKI WATANABE
The Associated Press
Tuesday, May 31, 2005; 11:28 AM

TOKYO -- Japan's bureaucratic rank and file march in dark jackets and ties to government offices every day, sweating their way through the country's sticky, sweltering summers. Starting Wednesday, they'll be sweating a little less.

In a nationwide campaign to save energy by cutting down on air conditioning, the government has asked public workers to leave their ties and jackets home for the summer.

Free E-mail Newsletters

* Today's Headlines & Columnists
See a Sample | Sign Up Now
* Breaking News Alerts
See a Sample | Sign Up Now

Many people would have no problem with that but in Japan, where conformity and tradition are prized, workers find it tough to comply. To persuade them to set their inhibitions aside, the effort, dubbed "Cool Biz," has enlisted help from the highest authorities.

Prime Minister Junichiro Koizumi recently showed up in a newspaper advertisement wearing a half-sleeve shirt with no tie, urging his Cabinet to follow suit.

"If the ministers are wearing a tie, their subordinates would feel uneasy about not wearing it," he said a few weeks ago. "So the ministers should not wear a tie."

The Environment Ministry campaign has nothing to do with loosening up Japan's stodgy government ministries _ and everything to do with meeting targets under the Kyoto global warming protocol. Tokyo needs to cut so-called greenhouse gas emissions to 6 percent below 1990 levels by 2012.

To help make the goal, air conditioners in government buildings will be set at a toasty 82, the maximum allowed by law. Offices usually keep the temperature at around 77.

Some private companies already allow employees to dress casually for summer. But the government endorsement is expected to make casual attire more acceptable.

The Energy Conservation Center estimates if all offices in Japan increase summer temperatures to 82, it could save 81 million gallons of oil in one summer.

To rally support, and reassure bureaucrats unfamiliar with being laid-back, the Environment Ministry has released a manual on dressing down _ with hints such as matching the colors of your belt and shoes.

"We try to explain why just untying your necktie won't do. We show how to achieve an acceptable business look without wearing a tie," said Kentaro Doi, the ministry official in charge of the campaign.

The ministry is even planning a "Cool Biz Collection" fashion show June 5 at the 2005 World Expo in Aichi, with top executives _ including Toyota chairman Hiroshi Okuda _ strutting down the runway.

Major developments in Mikhail Khodorkovsky's case

awww, oil tycoons can be prosecuted

Backgrounder: Major developments in Mikhail Khodorkovsky's case
www.chinaview.cn 2005-06-01 05:30:57

　MOSCOW, May 31 (Xinhuanet) -- Former Russian oil tycoon Mikhail Khodorkovsky was sentenced to nine years in prison Tuesday after being found guilty of charges including fraud and tax evasion.

Following are major developments leading up to a guilty verdictin Khodorkovsky's case:

July 2003 -- The judicial campaign against Khodorkovsky's company Yukos began when his business partner Platon Lebedev was arrested on charges of theft of state property in a 1994 privatization deal.

Oct. 25, 2003 -- Khodorkovsky was detained for failing to show up for questioning in the Siberian city of Novosibirsk, where his private jet landed to refuel en route from Nizhny Novgorod to Irkutsk.

The same day, a Moscow court ordered the arrest of Khodorkovskyon charges including large-scale fraud and tax evasion.

Nov. 3, 2003 -- Khodorkovsky resigned as chief executive officer of Yukos. Simon Kukes, a Russian-born American, was appointed to replace Khodorkovsky.

June 16, 2004 -- Khodorkovsky went on trial along with Lebedev at Moscow's Meschchansky Court eight months after his arrest.

March 29, 2005 -- The state prosecution demanded 10 years in jail for Khodorkovsky and Lebedev.

April 11, 2005 -- The Meshchansky Court completed the trial of Khodorkovsky and announced it would deliver its verdict on April 27.

April 27, 2005 -- The court postponed the verdict on Khodorkovsky till May 16, giving no reason for the delay.

May 16, 2005 -- The court started reading a voluminous verdict on Khodorkovsky, which contained about 1,200 pages.

May 31, 2005 -- Khodorkovsky was found guilty of charges including fraud and tax evasion and sentenced to nine years in prison, capping 12 days of laborious verdict reading. Enditem

Article source

New Caspian Sea pipeline to boost economic prospects in region

yah, how many extra months will this buy us?

good luck!

From My West Texas.com

05/29/2005
New Caspian Sea pipeline to boost economic prospects in region
AP DataStream
Midland Reporter Telegram

Advertisement
Article

By Aida Sultanova

Associated Press

BAKU, Azerbaijan -- Presidents and oil company executives will inaugurate a 1,100-mile pipeline Wednesday that will carry millions of gallons of crude from the landlocked Caspian to the Mediterranean -- a much-needed alternative to Mideast energy resources.

Analysts say the $3.2 billion, U.S.-backed Baku-Ceyhan pipeline could also help bring stability to the troubled region. The Caspian is thought to contain the world's third-largest oil and gas reserves.

"This global project will completely change the economic situation in Azerbaijan, and in the political sense it will influence the rest of the Caucasus and Central Asia," said Vafa Guluzade, a former foreign affairs adviser to the Azerbaijani government.

Built by a consortium led by BP PLC, the pipeline runs from Azerbaijan through Georgia to the Turkish port of Ceyhan.

Until now, Caspian states sent almost all their oil through Russian pipelines to reach world markets. The new route will neutralize any Russian attempts to use economic levers to bring former Soviet republics back under its wing, Guluzade said.

The pipeline "will carry a huge volume of oil, and Russia is nervous that it is being deprived of big money and also the possibility to dictate its terms to these states," he said.

Azerbaijan will earn taxes and royalties on the oil, while Georgia and Turkey are to profit from transit fees.

The presidents of Azerbaijan, Kazakhstan, Georgia and Turkey are to be on hand -- along with U.S. Energy Secretary Samuel Bodman and oil executives -- to watch Azerbaijani President Ilham Aliev open the taps Wednesday for the first symbolic drops of oil to enter the pipeline at the Sangachal oil terminal, about 25 miles south of the Azerbaijani capital, Baku.

Aliev and Kazakhstan President Nursultan Nazarbayev planned to sign an agreement on transporting Kazakh oil through the new pipeline Tuesday.

"We view this as a significant step forward in the energy security of that region," Bodman said Tuesday in Moscow.

The president of the pipeline consortium, Natik Aliev, said it would take up to a month and a half to fill the Azerbaijani section of the pipeline. The Georgian part will be ready after that, and then the Turkish stretch, which Turkish authorities have said should be filled by Aug. 15. It will take approximately 420 million gallons of crude to fill the entire pipeline.

Bodman said deliveries would begin in the fall.

"This is a contribution toward ... an increase supply in oil in the world," he said. "It adds a new supplier of some consequence."

But experts say the new oil will provide only short-term relief to a world that is consuming more crude every year. Oil prices, while down from their recent highs, are still hovering around $49 a barrel.

Four years ago, oil officials spoke of finds that could rival the Middle East's production. But experts now say the Caspian should pump some 168 million to 210 million gallons per day, on a par with Iran.

Eshan Ul-Haq, chief analyst at PVM Oil Associates in Vienna, Austria, said the pipeline will have an impact -- but only for Europe, because initial volumes will be low.

He also said the pipeline's oil could bring prices down for sour-grade crude such as those produced by Iraq and Saudi Arabia, and it could mean lower prices for Russian Ural oil. The oil most in demand is light, sweet crude, which most refiners prefer because it is low in sulfur and easy to process.

Azerbaijan, meanwhile, hopes the pipeline will raise its profile and swing international support behind Baku in its dispute with Armenia over the Nagorno-Karabakh enclave, which ethnic Armenian separatists took control of more than a decade ago. The conflict continues to simmer, undermining the region's security.

The pipeline "will bring a certain element of stability in terms of cooperation," with big states pressuring both "Armenia and Azerbaijan to resolve the Karabakh conflict as quickly as possible," said analyst Rasim Musabekov.

Even Bush knows about peak oil and biodiesel

I hear that Bush even has solar power on his ranch. That's the problem- a lot of these alternatives to oil and gasoline aren't reachable for poor folks and busy people who have kids. So here is an article about Bush visiting a biodiesel plant. The history of biodiesel is pretty interesting and shows how oil and politics are so closely entwined.

article:
Visiting a biodiesel plant near Richmond, Virginia, President Bush
today called biodiesel “one of our nation’s most promising alternative fuel
sources” and discussed the importance of a comprehensive energy plan to
wean the United States from foreign petroleum.

“Biodiesel is one of our nation’s most promising alternative fuel
sources, and by developing biodiesel you’re making this country less
dependent on foreign oil,” Bush said, while speaking to a crowd gathered at
Virginia Biodiesel Refinery, LLC, a biodiesel plant that began operating
in March of 2004.

The President said high petroleum prices highlight how consumers and
lawmakers need to look towards domestic energy sources, and he pressed
Congress to pass a comprehensive Energy Bill.

“The high prices we pay today have been decades in the making,’ he
said. “For the sake of the American consumers it is time to confront our
problems now and not pass them on to future congresses and future
generations.”

For more details, visit
http://biodiesel.grassroots.com/Bush_Virginia_Biodiesel.

For a transcript of the speech, visit
http://www.whitehouse.gov/news/releases/2005/05/20050516.html

If you want to share this news with others, click here,
http://biodiesel.grassroots.com/f2f, to use our forward to a friend
feature.

Thanks for your interest and support.

Joe Jobe
Executive Director
National Biodiesel Board
article on indybay

People are worried about their gas mileage!

Looks like they're starting to get worried...isn't it awful when the middle class has to worry about gas mileage, instead of watching it as a hobby?

Bringing Reality to Gas Mileage Figures

By Cindy Skrzycki

Tuesday, May 24, 2005; Page E01

It's another kind of sticker shock.

What new car owner hasn't found, after some real-world driving and a fill-up at the pump, that the sticker in the window promising decent gas mileage was considerably inflated?


Now, for the first time in 30 years, the Environmental Protection Agency may have to get in gear to revise the test it has been using on new vehicles to determine a more realistic estimate of expected mileage for city and highway driving.

That's because, with gas prices at high levels, consumer and environmental groups backed a provision offered by Sen. Maria Cantwell (D-Wash.) in the just-passed Senate highway bill that would require the EPA to issue a new rule to bring the test results closer to the real world.

The EPA first started testing vehicles in 1974 to gauge their expected miles-per-gallon performance. In 1985, the agency "adjusted" the numbers downward, but hasn't addressed further how changes in technology, models and driving habits affect gas mileage. The agency says it has been analyzing the gap for the past couple of years and was already planning to address it.

But Cantwell said her amendment was necessary to make sure the agency takes action. Changing the test may result in estimates that are 10 percent to 30 percent lower than consumers are used to seeing on a new-car window label, according to supporters of the legislation and the Energy Department , which tracks annual energy use nationwide.

"We want consumers to believe in this number and the information," Cantwell said in an interview. "EPA needs to do a new test. It's hard to be accurate if you don't base the test on the driving behavior and conditions we have today."

The provision calls for the agency to take into account speed limits, acceleration rates, braking, weather variations, vehicle load, use of air conditioning and driving patterns when it comes up with a fuel economy number. If the measure is accepted by a House-Senate conference committee, the EPA will have until the end of the year to issue a proposal. The final rule deadline is 18 months later.

Currently, car manufacturers test prototypes and then the EPA checks their accuracy at its lab in Ann Arbor, Mich. The vehicles are tested by placing their wheels on a dynamometer, a kind of indoor treadmill that simulates driving. A professional driver takes the vehicle though driving routines. The amount of carbon in the exhaust is measured to determine the amount of fuel used.

The problem is the conditions under which the test is done: The speed is an average of 48 miles per hour, with a top speed of 60. There is no air conditioner creating a gas mileage "penalty." There is no road congestion or accelerating to high speed.

"If you drove that way, you would get great gas mileage," said Chris Plaushin , national manager of regulatory affairs for AAA . "But there would be an angry line of people behind you."

To give its members a more realistic idea of what to expect, AAA does its annual mileage tests on as many as 200 different vehicles. It puts kids in the back, groceries in the trunk, and drives in both city and highway conditions, rush hour, stop-and-go, with the AC running and the windows down.
The rest of the article...