CleanTechnica thinks so, detailing how Pickens’ planned mega-wind farm and Ogallala water rights could be used, at least in part, to power nuclear plants in Texas Panhandle. Thus he would have steady nuclear power and intermittent wind power traveling on his new transmission corridor from the Texas Panhandle to urban areas.

Texas has their own self-contained electrical power and grid. They don’t need power from anyplace else. Nor, I’m guessing, would there be much protest were multiple nukes to be built in the Panhandle.

No Comments »

If speculation was mostly responsible for the rise in oil prices, then massive intervention by a central bank shorting oil should be enough to drive prices down. But this hasn’t happened. So, either they don’t want to intervene (doubtful) or they know that intervening would do little to lower prices.

The Fed and other governmental entities certainly seem to have intervened in the stock market at times to stabilize a teetering market, something half-jokingly referred to as the actions of the Plunge Protection Team.

But this hasn’t happened with oil. Which leads credence to the view that decreased supply and increased demand, not speculation, are what’s pushing prices higher.

No Comments »

We started seeing smoke from the California fires at the Nevada / Utah border on our way back from southern Utah yesterday, a distance of at least 350 miles. Reno was quite smoky, no visible blue sky, just smoke and a red sun.

No Comments »

Bank seizures were up a staggering 171%. $3.5 trillion in homeowner equity has vaporized since the peak in Spring 2006. By the end of the year between one-fourth one-third of all home sales will be bank-owned.

Nevada has the highest foreclosure rate, followed by California. The end is nowhere in sight and rising oil prices are making things worse for housing areas far from job centers.

No Comments »

So says a former Federal Reserve President.

This of course wasn’t supposed to happen. So, naturally, the Bushies have no contingency plans. Even though a multitude of financial blogs have predicted for months now that this would happen.

No Comments »

We’re back in S.F. after a 700 mile drive in one day from southern Utah visiting DJ of Asymptotic Life and his wife.

Highway 50 goes through the middle of Nevada. You pass through huge semi-arid valleys seemingly about the size of Rhode Island that have no perceptible human habitation in them. There are few gas stations and they are 60-80 miles apart. Sue loves drives like this. Me, I can’t help but think, what happen if the car breaks down… Cafes there have bumper stickers, “I survived Highway 50. The Loneliest Road in America.”

However, the spectacular scenery does make it all worth it. Mountain passes, rolling meadows, deserts with 10,000 foot mountains surrounding them - and more.

No Comments »