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Biggest U.S. offshore wind farm planned for Texas coast
Officials have approved a plan to build the biggest offshore wind farm in the U.S. off the coast of Padre Island, Texas. Say it with us now: everything’s bigger in Texas.

Superior Renewable Energy LLC plans to erect as many as 170 turbines, with the capacity to power about 125,000 homes. Some conservation groups are up in arms, as the farm will be built in a major migratory route for several rare birds, but SRE vice prez Michael Hansen said the firm would study bird migration patterns and use turbine blades unlikely to harm our avian friends.

As the project will be built off an unpopulated swath of the island, it may not suffer the NIMBYism plaguing the Cape Wind project in Nantucket Sound. No rich people are in danger of losing their scenic views. You may all breathe a sigh of relief.

straight to the source: The Washington Post , Steven Mufson and Juliet Eilperin, 12 May 2006

Blessing or curse? Making resource projects a "blessing and not a curse" in developing countries by encouraging the reporting of revenue flows was made a priority by the Blair Government in 2002 when it formed the Extractive Industries Transparency Initiative (EITI). The head of EITI’s secretariat, Ben Mellor, said EITI was about disproving the accusation that the extractive industries were an inevitable "curse" to the economic performance and stability of developing countries.

Dark side of resources trade: "Oil and mineral wealth, if managed transparently, has the potential to play a major role in the sustainable economic development of countries," Mr Mellor said. "But too often weak governance of these revenues has led to poverty, corruption and conflict."

Elites "capture" benefits: He said, typically, in a non-transparent, resource-rich country, revenue was captured by a small elite that established a network of personal political patronage. "The elite can be unwilling to encourage opposition movements that could remove them from power. Unsurprisingly these countries are prone to civil war," Mr Mellor said.

Wars for profit: Conflicts in Sierra Leone, Liberia, Angola and the DRC were largely financed by revenues from oil, gas and mining, he added.

The Age, 10/5/2006, p. B5

Source: Erisk Net  

180 day deadline: That law required the companies to cede production to YPFB, Bolivia’s former state energy monopoly, which would set its price and sell it. The decree puts this into immediate effect. It also gives the companies 180 days to accept new contracts, the terms of which will be set after a government audit.

State take to soar: In the interim, the State’s take from the two largest fields will rise to 82 per cent from 50 per cent (itself an increase from 18 per cent a year ago). This boosts the Government’s annual gas revenue by $320m to $780m.

Who’s the boss now? Secondly, YPFB will take a majority stake not just in the main gas and oil production companies, but in refineries and pipelines. Previously, the foreign companies had 51 per cent, with 49 per cent split between private pension funds and the government, which used the dividends to pay a pension to older Bolivians.

Pension system at risk: Those shares will be handed over to YPFB, potentially wrecking the pension system. (Since the funds have sold some of the shares, this provision may be unenforceable.) The extra shares needed for a majority stake will be "nationalised" – by unspecified means.

The Economist, 6/5/2006, p. 41

Source: Erisk Net  

Dams can’t compete say the stats: A dam will capture only 5 per cent of the rain that falls in its catchment and less in a dry year. Half of that then will evaporate from the dam surface. The price of a 22,000 litre tank (already used on most farm houses) is $2700, for which a council rebate of $750 is available. Add $500 for plumbing, and the annualised cost of 7 percent of` the net $2450 is only $171, which will deliver the 250kL of water at a cost of $0.68/kL compared with Brisbane City Council’s $0.89/kL.

Tanks are streets ahead: Water tanks deliver a 40-fold improvement in catchment efficiency, substantially reduce infrastructure costs, increase the value of your house by as much as you spend on the tank and protect you from future price increases. A very smart investment.

The Courier Mail, 6/5/2006, p. 29

Source: Erisk Net 

Consumption efficiency may be the only option: In the three years since Mandil became head of the International Energy Agency, oil price has tripled and, he concedes, could continue rising. "That means, in my view, that the only way consuming countries and consuming communities have to loosen the tightness of the market is to be very serious indeed in energy efficiency improvement."

A lot can be done now: He argued that a lot could be done immediately to slow the increase in consumption of oil and gas – and at acceptable costs. This was particularly so in the area of transportation.

Sounds crazy, but … "This is something which seems a little bit silly or funny but which is very important: our estimation is that if all cars in the OECD countries had a tyre pressure which was optimum, you could save as much as 5 per cent of oil consumption." This is simply because cars use more fuel when tyres are insufficiently inflated.

A huge difference: A 5 per cent saving means 4 million barrels a day. That is double the existing spare global capacity. Said Mandil: "It’s a huge difference. The question is how to obtain that. We are convinced that governments can play a major role by making public opinion aware of that and perhaps organising public education and perhaps organising free tyre-pressure checking."

Stand-by power another challenge: Mandil lists other possibilities for increasing energy efficiency through simple changes to consumer habits, such as reducing the amount of electricity consumed by electrical equipment with stand-by functions. The IEA calculates electricity consumption by all OECD member countries could be cut by 20 gigawatts of peak consumption by introducing one-watt stand-by systems.

But no one cares: "This is possible with existing technologies," he says. "But nobody cares about that. When we buy a computer, we don’t care about its stand-by consumption. It is not a criterion for buyer appreciation."

Not sexy enough for governments: Mandil sees it as vital that governments act to make consumers aware of the role they can play to reduce energy use but concedes it is easy to be pessimistic about the willingness of governments to take such action.

The Australian Financial Review, 8/5/2006, p. 60

Source: Erisk Net  

Shocked into protest: Beaudesert Shire Mayor Joy Drescher said her constituents were shocked by last week’s surprise announcement but had quickly organised websites and protests, with the next one at Rathdowney on 5 May night. "They’re as mad as hornets," Cr Drescher said.

Lack of consultation: "For some God-forsaken reason, the Government chose this spot and didn’t tell us a thing about it." Mary River Action Group spokeswoman and landholder Glenda Pickersgill said about 2000 were at a meeting at Kandanga last week.

We’ll consult later, says minister: Water Minister Henry Palaszczuk said dams would be built on the Mary and Logan catchments by the end of 2011 and residents would be consulted widely.

The Courier Mail, 5/5/2006, p. 12

Source: Erisk Net