Sunday Morning Rants And Raves -- September 20, 2015

How many remember this post from a month ago?

MichiganLive published an open letter from a solar-installation owner that "net metering would destroy solar investments:

I am writing in regard to [Michigan] Senate Bill 438. My interests are self-preservation, ensuring Michigan is looking to and working toward a sustainable energy plan, and reversing the effects of global warming.

So, how did that work out for the "rent-seekers"? The state legislature is still working this issue, but Midwest Energy News is reporting: 

As major investor-owned utilities push the Michigan Legislature to dismantle the state’s solar net-metering program, the state’s smallest electric cooperative is taking action on its own with a similar policy effective October 1,  2015.

Roughly 20 net-metering members of the Upper Peninsula’s Ontonagon County Rural Electrification Association were notified last month that the co-op would no longer purchase their excess electricity at retail prices.

Instead, the member-owned co-op will purchase excess electricity from its net-metering customers at wholesale rates “minus line loss” — a difference of nearly 10 cents per kilowatt hour (kWh).

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Environmentalists' Nightmare: Ethanol Derailment

I was behind in my blogging while traveling. I received this tweet from a couple of readers, about a derailment back on September 19, 2015:

Authorities say 6 ethanol tanker cars caught fire after Burlington Northern Santa Fe Railroad train derailed on a bridge southeast of Scotland, SD.

Environmentalists can't have it both ways: the desire to ban CBR while shipping ethanol by rail. The bad news for faux environmentalists: ethanol cannot be shipped by pipeline.

Maybe we need to ban EBR. The full story with a great photo at msn. Just think if this had happened in downtown Chicago, or Boston, or even NYC.

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Real Cost Of Filling Up By Country

Don sent me this link while I was traveling when I remarked to him how inexpensive gasoline was in America in the big scheme of things.

With high incomes and some of the cheapest gasoline around, Americans have little to complain about at the gas station. Imagine selling out $7.71/gallon (in Norway) or putting in a full day's work for a single gallon of gasoline (India, Pakistan).
No one can compete with the US when it comes to burning gasoline. Americans guzzle 1.2 gallons/person/day, more than any other country by a long shot. 

And then this:

Even with falling gas prices, America's thirst for the open road can take a toll on budget. [Really?]

Reality:

The average daily income in the US is $155. It takes just 1.8% of a day's wages to afford a gallon of gas, and remember, on average, each American "guzzle's" 1.2 gallons per day or about 2% of one wages. 

Compare that to what one spends at fast food restaurants. Compare that to what one spends at the local multiplex theater for popcorn. 

It cost me about $85 for gasoline from Grapevine, Texas (near DFW) to Williston. Had I brought a friend we would have split the cost, $45 each.

Travelocity, today, shows a roundtrip flight from DFW to Williston, two weeks advance, at around $500. Which, by the way, seems to be lot less expensive than it used to be.

The price for one night's lodging in a 1950's-vintage motel in Belle Fourche, SD, after the tourist season ended, cost me $78, almost exactly what the entire trip from Texas to Williston (1,500 miles) cost me in gasoline.

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What Passes For Science These Days

The Los Angeles Times is reporting, without questioning or critical analysis, that the Sierra Nevada snowpack may be the "thinnest" in over 500 years. The article notes that records of the Sierra Nevada snowpack have only been recorded since the 1930's.

I can't make this stuff up.  By the way, a day later, when this story was picked up by another outlet, the inconvenient truth that data had only been recorded since the 1930's was conveniently omitted.

No mention, of course, was ever made of the "last glacial period" -- something my granddaughters have never mentioned to me, suggesting they are not being taught the whole story of climate change.

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Texas Economy

I really wish everyone had the chance to experience the economic activity in north Texas, specifically north of Dallas-Ft Worth, up through Grapevine, and on to Flower Mound and Denton to the northwest and / or Carrollton and Plano to the northeast. It is quite incredible. It is not an exaggeration to say there are pockets in this area larger than Williston/Watford city combined that show as much ground being broken for new commercial and residential projects as we saw during the height of the Bakken boom.

I saw that yesterday when I made a NASCAR dash from Bob Jones Park (Southlake, TX) the R. E. Good soccer complex in McInnish Park (Carrollton, TX), to get our granddaughter from one soccer game to the next. (We would have helicoptered had a) the weather cooperated; b) we had a helicopter; c) heliports existed; and, d) we had a bit more money.) There are a few roads in disrepair, notably 35E north of Dallas, but nothing compared to the state of roads in some parts of eastern Massachusetts and along the eastern section of the entire US (which I experienced in my drive from Boston to Dallas a couple of years ago). In general, the roads up here (or down here, depending on your perspective) are in incredibly good shape, and many of them relatively new; many are still under construction. Driving the elevated interstates, one can see the booming Texas economy below.

Carpe Diem validates what I am talking about:

By the way, the distance between the two soccer complexes yesterday was 23 miles. Highway driving, our minivan gets about 23 miles/gallon. There were five people in the van -- one driver and four passengers. At $2.09/gallon, the trip cost each of us about 84 cents round trip. Eighty-four cents each. And parking was free and readily available.

Speaking of which: our youngest granddaughter, age 15 months now, got her first experience with tailgate parties. Because of the light rain -- which later turned to pretty heavy rain -- we backed up the minivan, raised the "door," and sat protected while watching the game. She had a grand time.