The Iliad And The Odyssey -- May 14, 2016

This ongoing saga is tracked here. If the Kemper clean-coal plant in Mississippi is the 21st century's version of The Odyssey, it was preceded by the 20th century's version of The Iliad: President Obama's war on coal. And like Troy, the US coal industry was finally destroyed.

So, now we have The Odyssey: The WSJ is reporting

A Mississippi power plant intended as a showcase for clean-coal technology has turned into a costly mess for utility Southern Co. , which is now facing an investigation by the Securities and Exchange Commission, a lawsuit from unhappy customers and a price tag that has more than doubled to $6.6 billion.

On Friday, Southern’s credit rating also was downgraded one notch by Fitch Ratings and Moody’s Investors Service, mostly because of its purchase of a gas utility, and because of cost overruns for the Mississippi project and new nuclear reactors it is building in Georgia.

The SEC is looking into Southern’s financial controls and disclosures for the Kemper County Energy Facility in Mississippi, the company disclosed in a regulatory filing this month, amid claims by a former project manager that it misled the public about how long construction would last.

The Atlanta-based company also faces a lawsuit from Mississippi businesses concerned they will be saddled with high costs to pay for the Kemper plant, which is generating power but remains unfinished.

And more:

Conceived as a first-of-a-kind plant, it currently looks to be the last of its kind in the U.S., though China and other nations have expressed interest in the technology. Kemper costs have swelled to $6.6 billion, far above the $3 billion forecast in 2010.

Southern spokesman Tim Leljedal said the company remains convinced that the Kemper plant “is the right project for Mississippi.”

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The Air Force Should Have Hired MuskMelon

Updates

May 24, 2016: Fiscal Times is reporting --

The Pentagon says its total aviation inventory will shrink by roughly 10 percent over the next decade because it can’t afford to build and modernize enough planes to keep up with the pace of aircraft retirements, according to a new agency report.

The assessment found that the Air Force and Navy’s fighter jet fleets would be hard hit in the coming years, going from 3,327 today to 2,981, a loss of 346 warplanes. Such a cut would be a major problem for the Air Force. Last year lawmakers directed the service to keep at least 1,900 fighters in its inventory past 2021. Today the service has 1,971 attack aircraft, so the anticipated reduction would bring the Air Force well below that line. 

Remember: this is over ten years; a lot can happen between now and 2026.

For me, the Air Force logistics/acquisition "arm" lost its credibility when it bought algae-based aviation fuel for $150/gallon vs $3/gallon for conventional jet fuel.

The big question is whether drones are counted as aircraft? Yes, apparently they are. Drones are huge force multipliers. Much less expensive than conventional aircraft and they can do some of the routine jobs now being done by conventional aircraft.

Original Post

 

This story is full of crap. Or more precisely, algae.

Fox News is reporting that the USAF can't get its planes up due to a budgetary crisis and "tired" mechanics. Whatever.

“It's not only the personnel that are tired, it's the aircraft that are tired as well,” Master Sgt. Bruce Pfrommer, who has over two decades of experience in the Air Force working on B-1 bombers, told Fox News.

Fox News visited two U.S. Air Force bases – including South Dakota’s Ellsworth Air Force Base located 35 miles from Mount Rushmore, where Pfrommer is stationed – to see the resource problems first-hand, following an investigation into the state of U.S. Marine Corps aviation last month.

Many of the Airmen reported feeing “burnt out” and “exhausted” due to the current pace of operations, and limited resources to support them. During the visit to Ellsworth earlier this week, Fox News was told only about half of the 28th Bomb Wing’s fleet of bombers can fly.

“We have only 20 aircraft assigned on station currently. Out of those 20 only nine are flyable,” Pfrommer said. 

This story gets recycled every six years or so, usually surfacing about the time Congress is writing the next budget.

It was only two years ago that it was being widely reported that the Pentagon was paying $150/gallon for "green" jet fuel (algae-based) vs conventional jet fuel that was going for $3/gallon.

It seems the US Air Force should have hired MuskMelon. Batteries seem to be the new fad, but more importantly, the Tesla CEO is second-to-none when it comes to getting money from the US government.

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Best Way To Follow The Implosion Of Venezuela

Track airline flights.

This is what we will see. About one week before the coup, airline boardings in Caracas will start to rise, reaching a peak 48 to 72 hours before the coup. Twelve to 24 hours before the coup begins, flights into and out of Caracas will be temporarily halted.

By the way, this little bit of trivia I was unaware of until today: USA Today reported that Caracas, Venezuela is the "world's most murderous city." Back on January 29, 2016:

Just when Venezuelans thought things couldn’t get worse, that’s exactly what they did.

The capital Caracas has now been ranked as the most murderous city on Earth, according to a new study by Mexican think-tank the Citizens Council for Public Security and Criminal Justice.

The report calculates that Caracas’s 3,946 homicides in 2015 gave it a truly terrifying annual homicide rate of 120 per 100,000 residents.

Mexico has a "think tank"? I bet El Chapo could break out of that "tank" with both hands tied behind his back.