"We" haven't moved from coal to natural gas, much less, from natural gas to wind and solar.
With regard to natural gas, I find this incredibly remarkable. As I've said earlier, this explains why federal and state governments want to ban natural gas stoves and ovens: natural gas absolutely destroys the interest in renewable energy by consumers who actually pay for their electricity (by the way, this has huge implications for investors in oil and gas):
The Book of Eels, Our Enduring Fascination with the Most Mysterious Creature in the Natural World, Patrick Svensson, c. 2020.
The Mind of a Bee, Lars Chittka, c. 2022. Princeton University Press. A scientific treatise. The pitch of the print is so tiny -- if one regularly reads in 12-pitch, this book must be printed in 9-pitch, and even possibly 8-pitcch. Very challenging to read unless one really concentrates but it probably resulted in this 213-page book (text, not including index) from being 3x thicker.
I'm spending the week in Portland, OR, visiting our 3-year-old grandsons.
Portland
gets a lot of bad press. One can't "judge" a city in the northern tier
of the United States during the winter, so I won't.
I visit Portland not less than two times a year. So far, I've been here three times in eight months.
Many
years ago when we first moved to the Dallas / Ft Worth area, I was
struck by the number of huge -- and I mean huge -- churches in the area.
I arrived ahead of my wife and I knew she would be put-off by these
huge churches, which to her represents the "southern Bible Belt" (which
it does) and a very, very conservative mindset (which it does) and for
her, a racist ideology (I don't know, but my wife is very insightful and very,
very well-read).
Six months after living in the Dallas / Ft
Worth area, I no longer noticed the churches. They are still there, but
they are so much part of the environment they disappear into the trees,
McMansions, and quarter-mile wide intersections.
I thought of that
when driving through Portland yesterday -- not sightseeing but running
errands -- when my daughter pointed out the changing character of a
homeless encampment by which we passed. She said at one time it was one of
the larger homeless camps in the area. It's still huge, of course, but
had she not pointed it out, I would not have noticed. It simply blended
into the east Portland purlieus. Seriously.
Downtown:
I
took the Blue Line into downtown Portland, yesterday and then again
today. There is now security on the entire line -- something I had never
seen before. It was my impression there were almost no unsavory riders
on the train, but it could simply be due to the blustery, rainy whether.
Those folks, I assume, are hunkered down in their tents.
Speaking
of which, the tents -- at least in the outlying areas -- have gotten a
lot nicer. Run a few extension cords for space heaters, or better yet,
put in a few diesel generators and the rent would go way up. LOL.
[Update: I understand there's now a city program for providing REI-like tents for the homeless. Whoo-hoo.]
By the way, if one wants to move some of the more undesirable camps from certain locations downtown, it could easily be managed:
find
large open fields, or better yet, abandoned warehouses, at least one
half-mile but not more than two miles from the MAX (light rail); in the
big scheme of things, the homeless population is not that huge that it
can't be made more humane;
there are youth basketball / indoor soccer facilities in north Texas the size of two or three a/c hangers that could handle the entire homeless population in Portland
install a diesel generator or two, donated by the local power utilities;
install trailer-home hook-ups for electricity, donated by EV charging companies (as a condition for operating in the city); I spent one summer in Williston, ND, working for MDU; in less than a week we wired a brand-new "trailer camp." Two professionals and two untrained college kids. 80-hours of professional wages and 80-hours of minimum wage. Mr MDU could have paid for it and his annual salary would have been minimally impacted;
placement of Port-a-Potties, donated by Waste Management and construction companies (again, as a condition ...)
one hot meal a day, provided by any number of go-good operations already up-and-running in the city;
amenities:
a weekly traveling library; free wi-fi; a 24-hour coffee / snacks kiosk
/ with postal services (yes, it could be done; I've lived in military
tent cities at the end of the world);
provide security with
time and services donated by the police unions who are always looking
for ways to boost their stature in the community;
and, then, the coup de grace, budget miscellaneous expenses and pay for these miscellaneous expenses with federal grant money raised by quadrupling the tax on "share buybacks."
miscellaneous expenses (much of the following could be managed by Salvation Army stores, or Goodwill (the fact that they aren't also speaks volumes):
toiletries including feminine hygiene products;
toilet paper and wet wipes;
"Purell"
underwear, socks,
weekly transportation to shower facilities -- now, wouldn't that be great?
"St Jude" marketing; fund-raising
Wouldn't it be great if we could regionalize this? A multi-billionaire would partner with a university for a four-year capstone project in return for a tuition-free education:
Pacific Northwest: Bill Gates and University of Washington
Southwest: Tim Cook and UC-Berkeley
South: Elon Musk -- UT-Austin
Midwest: the Koch brothers, Charlie Munger and Warren Buffett -- U of M or U of MI (Madison)
Northeast: Bloomberg and CUNY or The New School (NYC)
Southeast: Bob Iger and University of Miami (Florida)
Folks
might scoff at the "diesel generator" angle, but I've spent time in
African nations in which entire towns "ran off" a single generator, or
larger cities, used multiple generators as back-up emergency power.
I won't listen to any "pushback" until the naysayer has read Lady Almina and the Real Downton Abbey at least twice.
Wow, once you start "managing" the problem, everything starts to work:
public health: needle exchange; condoms; HIV medication; immunizations; TB (tuberculosis) testing;
social work: the entire service network;
basic adult education;
income tax services;
voting booths; voting registration;
EVs golf carts to transport residents to public transportation;
the homeless would get pre-paid passes on public transportation, paid for by car companies; public transportation would have another revenue stream.
The fact none of this is being done, speaks volumes about the seriousness of those speaking to the challenge.
The premise: a civilized society gives the most unfortunate "more than enough" to be humane without giving these less unfortunate so much it discourages upward mobility. When Hillary Clinton was 25 years old, she would have had the energy and expertise and idealism to see this through. Now, she has no energy and no idealism left .. but she has the expertise and the connections .. if only ...
Correlate: the problem doesn't have to be solved "overnight." But after forty years of this -- since the Vietnam War era -- certainly "we" could have shown a lot more progress;
Powell Books:
most incredible bookstore in the world, some might argue; I wouldn't disagree;
I was most impressed by the fact that no homeless folks are camped out there; don't know why; didn't ask;
the store was not particularly busy but it was 10:00 a.m. on a blustery, drizzly morning in the middle of winter;
I was most disappointed with the coffee shop; I had planned to buy my books and then hang out there all day;
the coffee shop has been completely renovated since I was last there more than three years ago;
the coffee shop in Powell's Books was incredibly welcoming; one of the nicer coffee shops I had / have seen in quite some time;
there were no customers in the coffee shop -- none, nada, zilch
then I looked at the menu:
coffee: $3.50 / cup -- no selection of coffees; they probably had a selection, I simply didn't see the selection if it existed;
they offered about eight food items; six were ex-ed out with black grease market; one sandwich for $8.95 was offered;
I did not go in.
literally
around the corner, a Starbucks with a 4.3-star rating on Google maps; a
Starbucks a bit farther away had a 3.8-star rating.
Starbucks Coffee
surprise,
surprise. One of the nicer Starbucks I've been in and because downtown
is "empty" during the winter in Portland, I practically had the place to
myself. It could easily seat 32 folks with 6-foot Covid-19 spacing -- I
mean this place was cavernous ...
coffee and a bacon-egg-cheese sandwich, heated -- cost me less than $9.00.
this will be both breakfast and lunch;
c'mon man: find a less expensive breakfast and lunch in a downtown US city over 100,000 in population -- and I get rewards.
I
quit looking at my rewards over a year ago when Starbucks changed their
reward program -- but two weeks ago, a barista in north Texas pointed
out I had 155 points -- enough points to get me through the next six
weeks of winter forecast by P. Phil (link here for those who can't spell his name either).
music for keeping Portland weird in this Starbucks: 60's rock. Are you kidding me?
speaking
of which, did you all hear who "won" Song of the Year" earlier this
week at the 65th Annual Grammy Awards. LOL. Made my day. How old is she,
Bonnie? 73 years old. She was stunned, she mouthed "I don't believe it"
when the award was announced. Lives in Burbank, CA. This is like living
in Southlake, TX.
those nominated who did not win need to ask
for a recount; but I know what happened -- the other four split the 75%
of voters who did not vote for Ms Raitt. What a riot!
Name the two of the following who have won a Grammy: Snoop Dogg, Jennifer Lopez, Diana Ross.
I saw my grandsons using these and curious to see if Amazon had them. Went to Amazon and put in search ipad etch a sketch and the following popped up.
Some
entrepreneur literally took a very small amount of software already
written, and a generic "pencil" (low tech plastic stylus: a dime a
dozen) and a thin piece of plastic (slightly higher tech, a dime a
dozen) with a very, very tiny battery, and selling these (made in China)
for $12 for a two-pack.They will be three years old soon.
Apple iPads: the new ones are coming down in price.
Remember, the new iPads do not support the second generation Pencil. That's a deal-killer for me. The older iPads are just as good and support the the second generation Pencil.
INTC: prepare for a dividend cut. If not, Intel simply redistributing cash from a government bailout.
Wednesday, February 8, 2023: 22 for the month; 92 for the quarter, 92 for the year 39020, conf, CLR, Rhonda 6-28H1, 38916, conf, Rampart Energy, Coteau 2, 38466, conf, Crescent Point, CPEUSC Riley Anne 8-36-156N-98W-TFH, 38465, conf, Crescent Point, CPEUSC Riley Anne 9-36-156N-98W-MBH,
Tuesday, February 7, 2023: 18 for the month; 88 for the quarter, 88 for the year None.
The National Environmental Policy Act was created to ensure federal
agencies consider the environmental impacts of their actions and
decisions, but it is the Council on Environmental Quality (CEQ), which
serves as the White House’s environmental policy arm, that provides
guidance as to how those agencies should evaluate the projects subject
to their review. Energy and environmental policy have shifted under
President Biden, and interim guidance recently submitted by the CEQ
extends efforts to prioritize the administration’s commitment toward
lowering greenhouse gas (GHG) emissions. Still, it’s not easy to swiftly
change policy, for a variety of reasons. In today’s RBN blog, we look
at the CEQ’s interim guidance and why the real-world impact on energy
and environmental policy might be hard to quantify for a variety of
reasons, at least in the short term.
