LNG Exports And Coal -- June 15, 2019

Nothing new here; just clearing off the desktop.

The asterisk (*) marks the year of the nuclear reactor disaster in Japan. I don't see a whole lot of difference in coal imports before and after the disaster. From google:

Japan depends on fossil fuels such as oil/coal/natural gas (LNG) imported from abroad. Before the earthquake, dependence was 81% on primary energy supply basis , but it is 89% in FY 2016 due to the generation by thermal power plants and the shutdown of nuclear power plants.

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

LNG Export

In less than two years, US LNG exports have more than doubled.

Japan Court Orders Nuclear Reactor To Shut Down; Keep 2nd Off-Line -- March 10, 2016

ABCNews from yesterday:

A court issued an unprecedented order Wednesday for a nuclear reactor near Kyoto to stop operating and ordered a second one to stay offline.

The Otsu District Court, which issued the injunction, said the emergency response plans and equipment designs at the two reactors have not been sufficiently upgraded after the 2011 Fukushima nuclear disaster.

The order requires Kansai Electric Power Co. to shut down the No. 3 reactor and keep the No. 4 unit offline at the Takahama plant in Fukui prefecture in western Japan, home to about a dozen reactors.

The two reactors restarted this year after a high court in December reversed an earlier injunction by another court. The No. 3 reactor, which uses a riskier plutonium-based MOX fuel, resumed operation in late January, while the No. 4 reactor had to be shut down late last month after operating for just three days because of a series of technical problems.

Kansai Electric said it would abide by the decision and start the shutdown procedures for the No. 3 reactor Thursday morning. The utility, meanwhile, said that the decision was "disappointing" and that it planned to appeal.

The decision reflects Japan's divisive views on nuclear safety and leaves only two of the country's 43 reactors in operation.

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

Market Sell-Off -- 300-Point Swing

The Dow was up 140 points before the jobs report this morning. Huge jobs report allows Fed to raise rates.

Then the extent of quantitative easing in Europe will lead to strong dollar will lead to currency fluctuations and US exports falling.

Profit taking after recent 5-day run in the bull market.

At least that's my take.

Tuesday Morning Views And News -- Part II

Coal: one man's worst nightmare:  How many people remember this: the O'Bama administration's worse nightmare? Coal. Yes, that was noted at this post back on March 12, 2011. That is more than two years ago. And the fallout (pun intended) from the  Fukushima debacle continues; it is worse than ever more than two years later.

Two years ago:

Steven Chu is the country's Secretary of Energy.

He is an advocate of alternative energy and nuclear power.

Steven Chu's worst nightmare:coal.

What about other energy sources? Big Coal won’t be very happy if Dr. Chu gets confirmed as head of the DOE—he’s really, really not a big fan. “Coal is my worst nightmare,” he said repeatedly in a speech earlier this year outlining his lab’s alternative-energy approaches.

This morning there are reports that there has been a huge explosion in one of Japan's nuclear reactors where radiation had already risen 1000 times higher than normal.  [Update: March 12, 2011 afternoon: a second reactor ha now lost its emergency cooling system. Two reactors at risk.]

And so it goes.  Steven Chu's worse nightmare: coal. I can't make this stuff up.

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

Ignoring the law:  I assume all presidents ignore the laws they swore to uphold, but one thing about President O'Bama. He has kept his promise to be transparent. He is very up front about ignoring the laws he does not like. Fortunately there are some who still believe in the rule of the land. For North Dakotans, it will mean another $3.2 million.

The Bimarck Tribune is reporting: the Feds "agreed" to pay the states the mineral rights they were owed. Wow. "Agree" to pay the states the mineral rights they were owed. The O'Bama administration has such contempt for states' rights. All 57 of them; 57 states, that is. If you bother to read the linked article, the best line:

U.S. Sen. Tom Udall, a New Mexico Democrat, said the administration's reversal showed it had "seen reason."

Seen reason. Okay. 

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

WSJ Links

 Soybean, grain prices soar. 

Earthquakes and fracking: 

So much oil and water is being removed from South Texas' Eagle Ford Shale that the activity has probably led to a recent wave of small earthquakes, according to a study that appears in the online edition of the journal Earth and Planetary Science Letters.

The Wall Street Journal reviewed the findings in advance of publication. The peer-reviewed study's authors suggest that taking oil and water out of the ground allows surrounding rock and sand to settle, triggering small tremors that are typically too weak to be noticed on the surface.

Environmental and community groups have expressed concerns about a link between earthquakes and hydraulic fracturing, a method of injecting water into dense shale formations in order to crack them open and tap into trapped oil.

The new study doesn't find much evidence that the man-made fracturing is causing earthquakes all by itself.

The connection is more indirect, the study found: New wells are extracting nearly 600,000 barrels of oil a day and a considerable amount of water as well. Given the scale at which oil is now being removed, enough liquids are being disturbed that rocks are settling and faults slipping, causing the small earthquakes.

The cause of the earthquakes in South Texas is similar to what occurred around the city of Long Beach, Calif., last century, said Cliff Frohlich, one of the study's authors and an associate director at the University of Texas at Austin's Institute for Geophysics.

Oil production and groundwater wells caused much of the area to sink nearly 30 feet over many years.

Harrisburg gives the court its plan to pay off $360 million in debt. I follow these stories here.

Harrisburg's state-appointed financial overseer released a plan on Monday for Pennsylvania's financially troubled capital to rid itself of $360 million in debt through the sale of an incinerator and the lease of its parking facilities for 40 years.

William B. Lynch, the city's receiver, filed a proposal with the Commonwealth Court in Harrisburg for approval. A spokesman for Mr. Lynch said a decision could be made within three weeks. The receiver has negotiated with the city's creditors, who have agreed to take about $100 million less than they are owed, although they could recoup more money after 25 years from parking revenues.

Court approval would bring the city significantly closer to stabilizing its finances after years of missteps and the intervention of the state's governor. The sale and lease also require city council to approve legislation sanctioning the deals. A council member said bills to do so would be introduced Tuesday.

Under the plan, Harrisburg would sell its debt ridden incinerator for between $126 million and $132 million to Lancaster County Solid Waste Management Authority.

Why O'Bama is being pulled into the Syrian debacle: one word - Iran. 

After two years of trying hard to avoid involvement in a conflict that he fears could easily become a long-term quagmire, that has little popular appeal at home, and that his own Pentagon chiefs have essentially called a losing proposition, President Barack Obama stands on the edge of a military commitment in Syria.

The reasons the situation has come to this are many and varied, but the most complex one can be summarized in one word: Iran.

As the force behind the Syrian regime, Iran is the country most responsible for fueling the regime's fight, and the nation whose influence will be most enhanced if President Bashar al-Assad prevails. 

The timing is such, President O'Bama will leave the next president to clean up this mess.

A bittersweet story: a civil rights leader finally gets his medal of freedom. He died in 1987. 

A Quaker born in Pennsylvania in 1912, Mr. Rustin grew up a star athlete and talented musician. He joined the Young Communist League in the 1930s, drawn to what he saw as the party's efforts toward righting racial wrongs in the U.S., though he broke with the party after concluding that its allegiance was more to the Soviet Union.

During World War II, Mr. Rustin spent 27 months in federal penitentiaries for refusing to submit to the draft, in keeping with his Quaker beliefs. In prison, he led protests against segregation behind bars and got in trouble for sexual activities with other inmates.

After his release, he wound up on a North Carolina chain gang after organizing protest rides against racial segregation on buses. He traveled to India in the 1940s to study the nonviolent tactics of Mahatma Gandhi.

Teaming up with Rev. King, he helped organize the 1956 bus boycott in Montgomery, AL.

Louisiana LNG to Japan -- Another Incredible Story

"Anon 1" sent this very incredible story.

JapanToday is reporting:

The operator of Japan’s crippled Fukushima nuclear power plant said Wednesday it plans to buy 800,000 tons of light liquefied natural gas (LNG) annually from the United States as it looks to cut its fuel bills.

Tokyo Electric Power (TEPCO) said it had agreed to buy 400,000 tons a year from Mitsui & Co trading house, and was in final talks with Mitsubishi Corp trading firm for the same amount. Both will come from the U.S. Cameron liquefaction project to be operated in Louisiana.

The power company says it wants the LNG every year for two decades, starting 2017, and has already secured a further 1.2 million tons of light LNG, mainly from North America.

Just the beginning. 

Japanese Nuclear Disaster: Timeline For Shutting Down Reactor -- To Start Shutting Down in Early 2012

Updates

May 7, 2012: Japan is nuclear-energy free. The last of 54 nuclear reactors was shut down. Japan is the first major economy in the modern world to be nuclear free. 

Original Post

Link here.

The operators will be able to start shutting down the reactors in early 2012.

A two-phase plan that involves first plugging leaks and cooling the reactors, then shutting them down by the beginning of 2012 is the most concrete [no pun intended?] timetable offered yet for resolving Japan's worse nuclear crisis.

Our own Secretary of State Hillary Clinton helps draw up the plan.

I honestly did not know she also had training as a nuclear physicist.

Why do visions of "The Simpsons" suddenly flash across my mind?

I keep updates on the Japanese nuclear disaster here.

The Administration's Worst Nightmare: Coal. The EPA Is Worried About Fracking. Meanwhile, Massive Explosion at Japanese Nuclear Reactor: Sixth Reactor Fails

Updates

August 27, 2013: Japan may be nuke-free but "the mess" is getting bigger. More and more contaminated water is being released; it is so bad, the government has taken over operations from the private utility company. 

May 7, 2012: Japan is nuke-free; all 54 reactors are shut down. Japan is the first major economy in the modern era to be nuclear-energy free. If they get through the summer without brownouts/blackouts, nuclear energy is dead forever.


April 17, 2011: Timetable devised for shutting down the crippled reactors. The plan calls for the operator to begin shutting down the reactor in early 2012.

April 8, 2011: Japan raises disaster to highest rating (7/7); equal to Chernobyl.

April 4, 2011: Japan is now asking for Russian assistance. Specifically, Japan is looking for a special unit trained and equipped to handle nuclear submarine disasters. The article states that Japan is no closer to controlling this disaster than when it began. The site is discharging radioactive water directly into the ocean.

April 3, 2011: For the first time, Japan officials have provided a timetable of the disaster going forward -- it will be months before they have control of the situation. Months. And then it will be months (years?) trying to figure out how to dispose of all the radioactive seawater and debris that's been collecting.

April 2, 2011: Radioactive waste water is now flowing into the ocean.

March 31, 2011: World's largest cement pump being airlifted from the US east coast to Japan. Radioactivity found in Washington state milk.

March 30, 2011: the operator of the reactors now says it will be impossible to save the reactors. In addition, it is likely that radioactive water from the reactors will reach the ocean.

March 14, 2011, mid-day: Rods now melting at three Japanese reactors.

March 14, 2011, morning: GE CEO/Immelt defends nuclear power plants; others say this could be turning point for nuclear energy globally. 

March 13, 2011, evening: It is being reported that there has been an explosion at Fukushima reactor #3.

March 13, 2011, evening: It is being reported that the failing Japanese reactors 23 "sister" reactors designed by GE in the United States.

March 13, 2011, morning: Cooling effort fails: Japan braces for explosion.

March 12, 2011, evening: Sixth reactor fails.

A third reactor at the Fukushima No 1 plant loses its emergency cooling capacity, bringing to six the number of reactors that have failed at the two Fuskushima nuclear power plants since the earthquake and tsunami. 

Original Posting

Steven Chu is the country's Secretary of Energy.

He is an advocate of alternative energy and nuclear power.

Steven Chu's worst nightmare:coal.

What about other energy sources? Big Coal won’t be very happy if Dr. Chu gets confirmed as head of the DOE—he’s really, really not a big fan. “Coal is my worst nightmare,” he said repeatedly in a speech earlier this year outlining his lab’s alternative-energy approaches.

This morning there are reports that there has been a huge explosion in one of Japan's nuclear reactors where radiation had already risen 1000 times higher than normal.  [Update: March 12, 2011 afternoon: a second reactor ha now lost its emergency cooling system. Two reactors at risk.]

The explosion has been described as "massive."

[Update: reports are conflicting but it sounds like Japan will use a last-ditch effort stop the meltdown by flooding the nuclear reactor with salt water.

US nuclear experts warned Saturday that pumping sea water to cool a quake-hit Japanese nuclear reactor was an "act of desperation" that may foreshadow a Chernobyl-like disaster.

Several experts, in a conference call with reporters, also predicted that regardless of the outcome at the Fukushima No. 1 atomic plant crisis, the accident will seriously damage the nuclear power renaissance. -- March 12, 2011, evening]

This would be as good a time as any to have Mr Chu testify before Congress on the relative safety of coal vs nuclear energy. 

I assume I'm in the minority on this, but coal has never been my worst nightmare.