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Saturday, January 28, 2012

Yet Another Renewable/Alternate/Green Energy Company Ready To Go Under

Drudge Report Says This is The Third This Week!
I've Lost Count! 
Natural Gas: New Low -- $2.50!

Link to Las Vegas Sun here.
Just seven months after California-based solar power company Amonix Inc. opened its largest manufacturing plant, in North Las Vegas, the company’s contractor has laid off nearly two-thirds of its workforce.

Flextronics Industrial, the Singapore solar panel manufacturer that partnered with Amonix to staff the new $18 million, 214,000-square-foot plant, laid off about 200 of its 300-plus employees Tuesday.

Amonix’s director of manufacturing operations, Eric Culberson, said the layoffs are part of “retooling” the factory as the company prepares to roll out its next-generation product. [And that product would be?]

Lewis said employees were confused and disappointed when they heard the news and were directed by human resources to look for other local jobs in retail. [Which sounds like the company does not plan to re-hire, or bring them back.]

"With a promise to bring hundreds of clean energy jobs and boost the hard-hit North Las Vegas economy, the plant was heralded as a success earlier this month by Mayor Shari Buck in her state of the city address.

Buck said Wednesday that she was aware of the layoffs but has faith the company will bring back the jobs.
How's that hope and change working out for you? Or was that, "hope there's a change"? I forget.

This Could Be the Story of the Week -- And There Have Been Some Incredible Stories This Week -- Sort Of Related To the Bakken

Governor Moonbean Fires Anti-Oil Bureaucrats!

Governor Brown, California: drill, drill, drill.

Hell must be freezing over.

Link here to Los Angeles Times.
Late last year, Gov. Jerry Brown pushed for a top state regulator to ease key requirements for companies seeking to tap California's oil. The official balked.

Relaxing rules on underground injection, a risky method of oil extraction common in the state, would violate environmental laws, wrote Derek Chernow, then head of the Department of Conservation, in a memo obtained by The Times.

The process, in which a rush of steam, water and chemicals flushes oil from old wells, had been linked to spills, eruptions and a Kern County worker's death. The federal government had asked the state to tighten its regulations, but the oil industry complained that the stringent rules were killing jobs.

A week after Chernow wrote his memo, Brown had him fired, along with a deputy, Elena Miller. The governor appointed replacements who agreed to stop subjecting every injection project to a top-to-bottom review before issuing a permit.

Brown's decision to side with energy interests over his regulators reflects the economic and political pressures on the governor during his return engagement in Sacramento. The economy is still sluggish in the wake of a deep recession, and unemployment remains high.

Although Brown has fought offshore drilling and sued oil companies throughout his career, making him a favorite of environmentalists, he now talks of tossing cumbersome regulations to revive the economy. The oil industry, in particular, employs tens of thousands of Californians, many of them in Kern County, where the jobless rate is 14.5%.
It is generally thought that Governor Brown is in the twilight of his political career. It's nice to think that he may be actually feeling the pain of the unemployed, and no longer worried about re-election, is doing whatever is necessary to help some dads get back to work.

This is an incredible story. I know the realists and the cynics will say this is just political posturing -- although I can't figure out what that posturing would be -- I like to think that the governor truly feels the pain of the unemployed.

Some "Feel Good" Stories -- Much Needed -- And Appreciated -- The Williston Basin, North Dakota, USA

Link here to Dickinson 7.

The link will be broken sooner or later ... but that's okay ... it's a great story ....
Oil-field work can be dirty work. The oil, grease, and dirt can coat the skin, cover your clothes, and really mess up other clothing in your washing machine.

But one Williston family saw this as an opportunity, and because of it they more than doubled the size of their business.

Now Village Laundry employs 25 workers, and its owners say it’s one of the few shops like it of its kind. They have a special boiler, as well as agitators and soaps to get the oil out.

They also have laundry machines that can hold up to 160 lbs of dirty clothes. They say as the business continues to grow, the plan is to add even more.

Did He Really Say This? -- Absolutely Nothing To With The Bakken

Link here.

Did he really say this?
The General Motors Co. Chevrolet Volt, the first mass-market electric vehicle sold by a U.S. automaker, has become a “political punching bag,” GM Chief Executive Officer Dan Akerson said.

Akerson, testifying before a U.S. House panel today, said the Volt, which the company is fixing after fires following crash tests, is engineered for safety.

“Unfortunately, there is one thing we did not engineer,” Akerson told a House subcommittee led by Representative Jim Jordan, an Ohio Republican. “Although we loaded the Volt with state-of-the-art safety features, we did not engineer the Volt to be a political punching bag. And that, sadly, is what the Volt has become.” 
Did he?

************

The GM CEO is still a salesman.

When Apple was struggling years ago and when Dell was saying that Apple should simple liquidate and close shop, Steve Jobs kept pressing on. One needs to keep selling the product no matter what. One does not say his/her product has become the laughing stock of the industry.

This would be the same as if I walked into a Chevy dealer to look at the Volt, and to be told by the salesman, "Yes, it's a beautiful car isn't it? Unfortunately it's become the laughing stock of the automobile industry." That would certainly turn me off.

I didn't pay much attention to the rest of the article but it certainly makes me think the CEO used this as a trial balloon to prepare the public / the government for the news that GM will throw in the towel with regard to the Volt.

GM can't afford to keep losing money on the Volt. Dealers don't want it (earlier story). People are no longer coming into showrooms to see it. And the bean counters in the back rooms of GM headquarters are showing the front office how much they are losing with the Volt program. It can't go on much longer.

The Volt was simply an experiment that failed. Badly.

Those "Radioactive" Bags of Chinese Ceramics -- Never Mind

Link here to the Minot Press.
Bags of hydraulic fracturing sand stored at a Minot site do not pose a health risk. That was the determination of the North Dakota Department of Health following the completion of testing at and near the location Thursday.

The department was testing for radioactive material.

According to Dan Harman, Department of Health program manager for radioactive materials, the level of radioactivity in the area of the bags was far less than what is encountered by most people on a daily basis. Part of the concern, said Harman, was that the term "hot" is often used in reference to hydraulic fracturing sand.

"Relative to what?" said Harman. "That's a perception. From what we've seen so far they don't pose a health risk. Just being alive in nature the average John Q. Citizen is exposed to about 620 millirads of radiation per year. The readings we got in Minot were 1,000 times smaller than a millirad."

Radioactive readings were so low that they could not be measured by standard Geiger counters.

Alternative equipment was used so that micro readings could be recorded.
The Dickinson Press has not yet picked up this story. But the press does have the headline story that mobile home residents have been evicted so that a parking lot can be put in its place.
Dickinson State University Alumni and Foundation members, along with other investors are attaching student housing to the Oasis Hotel and need space for tenants to park.
Hmmm.  Interesting. Another eviction story. This time not due to the oil companies but by the university.

Where's The Value? $42,000 and Top Speed: 65 MPH -- And That's The Problem (Along With Exploding Batteries)

Headline story in today's Los Angeles Times: another big bet in "EV" goes bust
For politicians betting on electric vehicles to drive job growth, the view from inside Think City's plant here is their worst nightmare: 100 unfinished vehicles lined up with no word on whether they will be completed.

Only two years ago, the tiny Think cars (two can fit in a regular parking space) were expected to bring more than 400 jobs to this ailing city and a lifeline to suppliers who once made parts for gas-guzzling recreational vehicles.

"We've said we're out to make Indiana the electric vehicle state. It's beginning to look like the state capital will be Elkhart County," Indiana Gov. Mitch Daniels said in January 2010 in announcing government incentives used to attract Think to his state.

Instead, the Hoosier State's big bet has been a bust. The plant is devoid of activity; there are just two employees. A Russian investor who recently purchased Think's bankrupt parent in Norway has been silent about its future. A government-backed Indianapolis battery maker that was to supply Think wrote off a $73-million investment in the car company and Thursday declared bankruptcy. Two unrelated electric truck makers Indiana planned to nurture have yet to get off the ground. [The government-backed battery maker was another one of Obama's initiatives. Another Solyndra.]

Indiana's foray into electric vehicles is a cautionary tale for states in hot pursuit of high-tech manufacturing jobs. Think's story illustrates how politicians so badly wanted to stimulate job growth that they showered the automaker and the battery supplier with tax benefits and incentives while at the same time failing to determine whether there was a market for the car: a plastic two-seater with a top speed of about 65 mph and a price tag approaching $42,000.
"Where's the value?" Gregg Fore, an Elkhart recreational vehicle industry executive, said of Think. "I could buy a golf cart for five grand if that's what I wanted to drive."
Fore says the federal and state governments as well as Elkhart subsidized the Think project apparently believing those tax benefits would drive down the vehicle's price and make the cars more attractive. "By giving money to the battery company and electric car company, they are saying, 'We want you to buy their products even though we know you don't want them.'"
No comment, the story speaks for itself. Except to say this was a headline story in the LA Times, not a trivial or conservative newspaper.

Where's the value? Where's the beef?

Here We Go: 80-Room Hotel Near Dickinson -- South Heart -- The Williston Basin, North Dakota, USA

Link here.
South Heart may soon be home to an 80-room hotel and other developments.

Centerra Development Co., Colorado-based, intends to open an office in Dickinson and develop commercial properties including a hotel, restaurant and apartment complex, said Tom Davidson, president of the company.

The hotel will have at least 80 rooms and will be constructed in north South Heart in the spring, 2012.
And then this,
The property, south of Highway 10, was a good place to begin in North Dakota, Tsiaperas said.

“It’s just kind of amazing the growth that’s going on up there,” said Kim Bradley, program manager. “It’s a huge black gold rush that’s going on right in your town and we’re all very excited.”

South Heart Mayor Floyd Hurt feels the city of about 310 people will welcome the development.
Any strategic planning, or just more of the same?


My Love For Evermore, The Hillbilly Moon Explosion

Mike Filloon: EURs Are Too Conservative

Link here.

I've been saying that for two years -- EURs are way too conservative. Remember EURs of 409,000? I haven't read Mike's complete article, but I will in a moment. Will he be brave enough to predict EURs of one million bbls -- Oasis says 900,000, or was it KOG that said it will have EURs of 900,000 in its core Bakken. I forget.

But that's not the big story. EURs are for a single well.

"They" are going to put in upwards of ten wells in 1280-acre spacing units.

Remember, this is not an investment site. For an investor like Mike Filloon, EURs are very important. For me, what I find more interesting, and the basis for this blog, is the incredible production potential of the entire Bakken. Individual wells hold little interest for me except as data points to support my thesis: the Bakken is bigger than we are being told. (When I say "the Bakken" in this context, I am referring to all formations in the Williston Basin.)

Okay, back to Mike's article. What does he say about EURs?

Hmmm, unless I missed it, after the opening paragraph, he didn't mention EURs again. It was all about IPs. Hmmm.

Global Warming -- The Tip of the Spear

Updates

January 29, 2012: Anchorage on track to set record -- 
Meteorologists agree: January is on track to be one of the most frigid months on record in Alaska history, according to the National Weather Service. 

The average temperature in Anchorage for January so far is 2.7 degrees.

That's chillier even than the legendary winter of 1989, when the Daily News reported a freeze so deep that the Anchorage Police Department couldn't start 21 of their patrol cars one January morning.
Read more here: http://www.adn.com/2012/01/27/2287406/anchorage-on-track-to-set-record.html#storylink=cpy
Same day, minutes later: Global warming hits Fairbanks. January may not set a record, but January may be one of the coldest on record for Fairbanks, Alaska; it appears Fairbanks did not get the memo about global warming.
The temperature in Fairbanks has not reached 50 below zero but this month may be one of the coldest Januaries in community history.

The Fairbanks Daily News-Miner reports the average temperature through Wednesday was 24.6 below.
That's the coldest since 1971, when the January averaged minus 31.7. The coldest average on record was 1906 — a chilly 36.4 below zero.

National Weather Service meteorologist Scott Berg describes the cold this year as "persistent," with temperatures about 15 degrees below normal for much of the month.
This would be a great story for the Dickinson Press to report. 

Same day, minutes later: the continental United States, especially the northern tier, has largely escaped winter this year. And that's the problem with global warming science: where do you place the thermometers and how do you "weight" them for relevancy? If you place all your thermometers in Fairbanks, one would get a different picture than if you placed all your thermometers in Boston.

Original Post
The house of cards is about to fall.

Before mainstream media prints a "big story," that story has been kicked around in the back rooms for awhile, as the pros and cons of the story are discussed. When one sees something in print in mainstream media, it is often a reflection of what the "big boys" are talking about in the back rooms. By the time it hits the front pages of the mainstream media, it's pretty much old news to the movers and shakers.

Look at three headlines in the past six months.
  • Canada withdraws from the Kyoto Protocol (top energy story of the year, by the way)
  • Alternative energy companies promoted by this administration are declaring bankruptcy**
  • The president endorses natural gas -- "a 100-year supply in the US" in the state of the union address
I think Canada's withdrawal from the Kyoto Protocol was the tipping point.

Canada has long been at the tip of the spear; the US has been the shaft, to continue the analogy:
  • 1960s: took in US anti-war / draft dodgers*
  • 1990's: led the environmental charge; one of the first to sign the protocol
  • 2010's: develops the oil sands, promotes Keystone XL, withdraws form the Kyoto Protocol
The thing that strikes me most about the global warming story is that it is no longer in the scientific arena.

The second thing that strikes me most about the global warming story is that the west feels China does not have to play by the same rules, the country with the most coal plants and building them at the rate of one per week, is it? I forget ... but you get the point .... and the story that China is using clean coal technology ... give me a break.

Farther down the list of interesting things. No one has ever told me what the Earth's thermostat should be set at, and Who (yes, the capital "w") set the thermostat. No one has been able to provide data that the 0.6 degree rise in temperature over the next century is either reproducible or statistically significant. And the Warm Age of the Vikings is still very perplexing and unexplained (unless their Viking ships were coal-powered, as has been suggested).

It appears there are at least sixteen scientists who now agree.
“The lack of warming for more than a decade—indeed, the smaller-than-predicted warming over the 22 years since the U.N.’s Intergovernmental Panel on Climate Change (IPCC) began issuing projections—suggests that computer models have greatly exaggerated how much warming additional CO2 can cause,” they wrote. “Faced with this embarrassment, those promoting alarm have shifted their drumbeat from warming to weather extremes, to enable anything unusual that happens in our chaotic climate to be ascribed to CO2.”

In these scientists’ opinion, carbon dioxide is not a pollutant, but rather a key necessity for life — spurring the growth of plant life.

The group further condemned the climate of fear that has acted to trample dissenting view points that to no ape the “global warming is a crisis” message.
So, the three barbs at the tip of the spear:
  • Canada withdraws from the Kyoto Protocol
  • Alternative energy companies increasingly declaring bankruptcy; those that survive, only with government grants, subsidies, and mandates
  • The president embraces natural gas, a 100-year US supply, in the biggest speech of the year -- the State of the Union Address

It doesn't take a weatherman to know which way the wind is blowing.

By the way, if you get a chance today, build a house of cards -- take a 52-card deck of playing cards, and build a structure as high as you can. Then let it fall. Record the noise it makes and post it on YouTube.

*********

*Draft Dodgers: Tim O'Brien's books on the Vietnam War and his coming of age books should be read by all of us who grew up in the 1960's or were affected by the Vietnam War in some respect; I think it was The Things They Carried that allowed me to reflect on that period in a more meaningful, and adult way.

**Headline story in today's Los Angeles Times: another big bet in "EV" goes bust
For politicians betting on electric vehicles to drive job growth, the view from inside Think City's plant here is their worst nightmare: 100 unfinished vehicles lined up with no word on whether they will be completed.

Only two years ago, the tiny Think cars (two can fit in a regular parking space) were expected to bring more than 400 jobs to this ailing city and a lifeline to suppliers who once made parts for gas-guzzling recreational vehicles.

"We've said we're out to make Indiana the electric vehicle state. It's beginning to look like the state capital will be Elkhart County," Indiana Gov. Mitch Daniels said in January 2010 in announcing government incentives used to attract Think to his state.

Instead, the Hoosier State's big bet has been a bust. The plant is devoid of activity; there are just two employees. A Russian investor who recently purchased Think's bankrupt parent in Norway has been silent about its future. A government-backed Indianapolis battery maker that was to supply Think wrote off a $73-million investment in the car company and Thursday declared bankruptcy. Two unrelated electric truck makers Indiana planned to nurture have yet to get off the ground.

Indiana's foray into electric vehicles is a cautionary tale for states in hot pursuit of high-tech manufacturing jobs. Think's story illustrates how politicians so badly wanted to stimulate job growth that they showered the automaker and the battery supplier with tax benefits and incentives while at the same time failing to determine whether there was a market for the car: a plastic two-seater with a top speed of about 65 mph and a price tag approaching $42,000.