Needlenose

Tell me this ain’t so…another rig in the Gulf of Mexico just exploded.

Just in case you forgot why nuclear energy is so bad, here is an unpleasant reminder from Chernobyl – the wildfires are near the contaminated area – a burn in the region could release radioactive ash.

Just as BP shuts down the undersea gusher, some drunken redneck smashes his boat into a small wellhead in the Gulf of Mexico.  What are the odds that this could happen?  Well they have a lot of boat-driving drunken rednecks down there in the Gulf, and a lot of wells and pipelines…

The People’s Republic of China has surpassed the U.S. in energy usage.  Seems like only yesterday when CMike was berating me for negatively comparing Chinese output of CO2 to that of the U.S.  That’s a first-place we really didn’t need

The cost of oil.  The cost of coal.  The cost of wind power.

*Update* Tip of the  ’Nose to MIT Buddy: On Faux News they are saying that Obama and the Liberals sabotaged the oil rig.  DrudgeIdiot is calling the spill Obama’s Katrina.  Those fuckers are evil and stupid:

Just how stoopid are Fox viewers?

There is one silver lining to Teddy Kennedy’s demise – the Cape Cod Wind Farm project will now go forward.  The Kennedy family, if you remember, were opposed on the ground that the distant rotors might spoil their privileged view.

We may have invented the solar cell, but China has taken the lead in manufacturing solar panels – and wind turbines as well, to add a little salt into the wound.

President Obama, in his State of the Union speech last week, sounded an alarm that the United States was falling behind other countries, especially China, on energy. “I do not accept a future where the jobs and industries of tomorrow take root beyond our borders — and I know you don’t either,” he told Congress.

That’s just rhetoric, Mr. President, Congress wants whatever their corporate masters tell them to want.  And in spite of what Justice Alito  may have been muttering during your speech, that’s regardless of where those corporate masters may live.  Multinationals just follow the money.

Mythbusters use golfball effect to boost fuel efficiency

Every time Congress considers boosting vehicle fuel efficiency via CAFE standards, the auto industry lobbyists descend on the Capitol to bleat about how higher mileage targets will bankrupt the industry.

I was watching a recent episode of Mythbusters where they ‘dimpled’ a car to see if the dimples would improve the laminar flow and reduce drag like they do on a golfball.

In spite of adding 800 lbs to the weight of the pictured sedan (car was coated in clay rather than denting the metal to get dimples), they were able to increase cruising fuel efficiency 11% !!  Could you imagine what the auto industry could achieve by throwing some skilled engineers and designers on this?   Hell, if they’d just produce cars with an actual streamlined design (rather than what people think is streamlined), they’d greatly increase fuel efficiency.

I’ve whined before about the lack of an affordable plug-in hybrid car on the market in the US.  I’m feeling the first twinges of hope now, though – Giant Blue Locust Buddy sent me a link to a comprehensive list of electric vehicles and their current status.

Of course there is nothing this year, but in 2010 at some point there may be a couple of choices that aren’t the $100K Tesla.  Now if my cheesy old car can just hold out until then…

It dents my American pride to admit that a corrupt crony capitalist state like the PRC shows superior leadership and vision on the green retooling of their automotive industry.  Talk about a lost opportunity!  Instead of using the economic meltdown to recast Detroit as I suggested back in November, the Dems have chosen to throw a bunch of money into the bottomless pit of the Big Three – Obama, like a plastic-suit wearing auto dealer,  is even promising to warranty your next GM purchase!  WTF?!?

In retrospect we should have just pulled the plug last fall, and put those billions into Tesla.