Recently in Energy Category

I'm on the same side as well known GOP douchebag Dick Armey and opposing Chris Dodd on an issue.

Hidden deep in Senator Christopher Dodd's 630-page Senate housing legislation is a sweeping provision that affects the privacy and operation of nearly all of America’s small businesses.The provision, which was added by the bill's managers without debate this week, would require the nation's payment systems to track, aggregate, and report information on nearly every electronic transaction to the federal government.

They want to know every damn thing according to the former House GOP Leader's new toy, FreedomWorks. Every Credit Card transaction, every online checkout system like eBay, PayPal, Amazon and Google Checkout are included. Everything and anything you buy or sell online or though any electronic means is now official government business. (HT: BBB and Shakes)

John Berlau at The Wall Street Journal wants to know where the outrage is since he and Tom Hartman have been talking about this since May when Berlau alerted us to the requirement that all loan originators submit their fingerprints to a national database, including the FBI and any other government agency they deem appropriate. Mortgage lenders, brokers, even clerical or part-time employees of real estate firms are included in this.

Pal, we've just got started on the outrage front. There's enough angst out here in Blogtopia (y!sctp!) over the FISA Telecom Immunity capitulation that this is just the thing that could serve as a new cause de jure as we await what our champions of liberty in the Senate do with FISA as well as this.

Both Barack Obama and Hillary Clinton are co-sponsors of original version of this bill which also included (but also buried) the fingerprint provision. This should be an interesting week as Obama makes clear just what he means by "fighting" the Telecom Amnesty provisions of FISA and if he or Dodd or Hillary get the memo that we're all quite disillusioned, rather pissed in fact, and this latest abomination just might seal the deal.

Jesus, I'm beginning to think that John Edwards got out of the way of "History" just in time for it to steamroll over us all.

The WSJ also reports that the SEC and the FED are going to do what they can to tighten up some of the regulation that lead to the crisis in the financial markets, a clear signal that there is tacit acknowledgment in Washington and Wall Street that the unfettered deregulation schemes that have been the hallmark of conservative dogma these last 30 years are directly responsible for our current economic meltdowns.

Quick on the heels of the scramble to close the barn door, Barack Obama is making positive noises about fixing the Enron Loophole in a wholly rational, non-gimmicky step towards an immediate solution to the rising cost of fuel by taking the speculators and other pirates out of the market.

Infuriatingly enough, John McCain called Obama a copycat for his initiative and blamed Clinton for the loophole without so much at a blink, knowing that his "econ brain," Phil Graham wrote the Enron Loophole, tagging it's 262 pages to an essential, eleventh hour, eleven thousand page government reauthorization bill signed by Bill Clinton a few weeks before "W" was sworn in.

In the early evening of Friday, December 15, 2000, with Christmas break only hours away, the U.S. Senate rushed to pass an essential, 11,000-page government reauthorization bill. In what one legal textbook would later call "a stunning departure from normal legislative practice," the Senate tacked on a complex, 262-page amendment at the urging of Texas Sen. Phil Gramm.

There was little debate on the floor. According to the Congressional Record, Gramm promised that the amendment--also known as the Commodity Futures Modernization Act--along with other landmark legislation he had authored, would usher in a new era for the U.S. financial services industry.

"The work of this Congress will be seen as a watershed where we turned away from an outmoded Depression-era approach to financial regulation and adopted a framework that will position our financial services industry to be world leaders into the new century," Gramm said.

As Senator Blutarsky's wife's gynecologist said, we fucked up, we trusted him.

"I don't like obscene profits being made anywhere. I'd be glad to look not just at the windfall profits tax -- that's not what bothers me -- but we should look at any incentives that we are giving to people, or industries or corporations, that are distorting the markets."

---- McCain speaking on May 5 in North Carolina.

"[Obama] wants a windfall profits tax on oil, to go along with the new taxes he also plans for coal and natural gas. If the plan sounds familiar, it's because that was President Jimmy Carter's big idea, too. And a lot of good it did us."

---- McCain, speaking on June 17 in (oil-rich) Texas.

Even CNN is beginning to notice McCain's flip-flops.

How much longer before McCain's reputation as a straight-talker is shot to hell?

• Oil up to $139
• Jobless rates leaps to 5.5%; biggest increase since '86
• Dow down 388

(HT to Meteor Blades)

by Mark Adams

As more and more of us begin to appreciate the ramifications of "Peak Oil," or at least its artificially growing myth on our current state of affairs from the gas pump to the how and why the lid has been kept on Iraq's sea of crude since at least 1928, even proven skeptics are joining the throng who upon seeing storm clouds on the horizon pronounce in grave tones that the sky is falling, the end is near, and that you're gonna look fondly on the good old days of $4.00 gas.

But a couple of throw-away statements running 'round Blogtopia (Y!Sctp!) that the price of gold was going up against the weak dollar, yet nobody talks about "peak gold" -- and coincidently we are faced with a housing bust that will most likely suck dry a good deal of pension fund capital right into the Big Shitpile, got me shining up the old tin-foil hat.

It stands to reason that if the folks in big oil (who consider George Bush some kind of savant for getting that MBA from Harvard) can figure out a way to rig the system for maximum profits by exploiting and prolonging the peak oil syndrome where production capacity is maxed while demand keeps growing by keeping the world's 2nd largest proven oil reserves locked up in war or embargo or artificially low quotas for generations; then really smart guys like corporate raider Carl Icahn specializing in real estate and stocks & bonds would find a way to tap into the last great untapped sources of wealth in this country: pension funds and family homesteads.

All that potential liquidity just sitting there, doing nothing. It might as well be rotting for all the good it's doing. If assets aren't trickling up or down or at least somewhere, what good are they.

But there's another source of wealth in America those smarty-pants Wall Street types overlooked. All that dirty, old, gold jewelry in your dresser drawer! What use is it just laying there? Don't you know there are nice gentlemen who will even send you a pretty envelope so you can mail back that tarnished junk and they'll send you a nice, new, big, fat check in exchange! Doesn't that sound great?

So, here's the plan:

First, I'll send you a nice envelope, see, and you send me all of your gold you aren't using right now. Any precious metal will do. That old class ring, the extra-backs and orphaned earrings whose mate was lost who-knows-where. You might as well face facts and get rid of that extra wedding ring since s/he ain't coming back.

Chains? Really? That's so 80's. Junk 'em.

But instead of sending you back a check any pawn shop owner could give you, I'll be sending you a stock certificate in my new venture capital investment plan, see. They've got all these audio-cassets (real cheap now since they're from 2006) on how these guys called hedge-fund managers can make oodles of dollars investing other people's pension money and refinacing their second mortgages. I'm going to listen to most of them and get cracking.

It's easy money and you can be part of this exciting opportunity just by sending me all of your precious metals and I'll give you ... something really neat my daughter designed using her certificate-maker module from iWork's Pages.

That's right. I'm asking you to give me something of value for absolutely nothing in return. But what the heck? It might make you feel better squandering your wealth on someone who's at least honest about stealing from you instead of the swindlers picking your pocket at the gas station, bank and whatever arm of government that put out its hand this week. And it sure as hell will make me fell better.

Cuz Obama ain't buying me no Jet Ski, and I can't afford one without your help.

• According to the NY Times, the Obama campaign raised over $31 million in April -- and has $37 million in cash on hand.
• According to the LA Times, the Clinton campaign is nearly $20 million in debt even after raising $22 million in April, one of her best months.
• According to MSNBC, McCain ($22 million) plus the RNC ($40 million) has more cash on hand than Obama ($37 million) plus the DNC ($4.5 million) has.
• No word from the Republicans on how bad it sucks to be the NRCC and the NRSC.
• Hillary wins Kentucky in a blowout, now needs only 104% of all remaining unpledged delegates to secure the nomination. Terry McAuliffe is optimistic.
• In other news, the price of oil topped $130/barrel for the first time on Wednesday.






• And last, but not least, the Detroit Pistons claimed victory last night in the first game of the Eastern Conference Finals when they outscored the Boston Celtics in the fourth quarter, 22-19. Unfortunately, the referees insisted on counting the scores of the other three quarters as well and the Celtics got the nomination...erm, won the game.

Shai Agassi is a Silicon Valley technologist with a great idea.

Agassi believes in the future of electric cars, but he doesn't want to build a company to produce them; he wants to create an intrastructure of electric-charging stations in the US and around the world.

The innovative part of his plan is that he isn't so much interested in battery technology. In other words, people don't have giant gas tanks in their cars now, nor do they have fuel storage tanks at their homes. They buy gas, on the road, when they need it. So why bend yourself out of shape trying to develop a battery with a long range of travel?

He'a already raised $200 million and expects to roll out the plan in 2008.

“If you listen to the car companies, they suggest there is a fix, but it’s not there yet,” said Stephen J. Girsky, a partner at the investment firm Centerbridge Partners who formerly served as an adviser to General Motors.

However, the new venture, which Mr. Agassi has named, for now, Better Place, would be viable even with existing lithium-ion battery technology, he said.

The economics will be more compelling in Europe, where gasoline is roughly twice as expensive as in the United States, he said. Assuming a life span of 1,500 battery recharges, he said that the energy cost of all-electric cars would be about 7 cents a mile. That would be less than a third of the cost of driving a gasoline-powered car today.

“It’s much easier to transport electrons than octane molecules,” he said. “We’ve already got a grid that goes around the entire world; all we have to do is extend it.”

The sooner we're independent of foreign oil, the sooner the Middle East ceases to matter to us, one way or the other.

It's official:

Gasoline prices have soared to levels never seen before as even the inflation-adjusted price for a gallon of unleaded topped the 1981 record spike in price that had stood for 26 years.

See kids: Iraq can't be a war for oil -- otherwise the price would have gone down!

I feel so much better now.

• Barack Obama criticizes (Detroit) automakers on fuel economy. I would have liked to have seen him knock the unions, too, because they bellyache as much as anyone when the topic of fuel economy comes up. Bottom line: Detroit is reaping what it sowed.

• Hey -- is everything seen through the prism of Detroit vs. Chicago? If so, the Pistons scored a big one for the Motor City, kicking the Bulls' ass again -- by over 20 points -- to go up 2-0 in the second round of the NBA Eastern Conference playoffs. Hey Obama -- can you play point guard?

• Certain Europen governments have floated the idea that they'll let the US pick the next World Bank president -- but only if Wolfie leaves right now. Congrats, Bushies: another loss of world prestige on your watch.

• $3.23: That's the highest-ever price per gallon of gas, corrected for inflation. It dates back to the oil-embargo years, the energy-shock, gas lines around the block, Carter years of the 70's. I mention it now because gas prices are higher than ever. And (coincidentally?) Bush's approval ratings are in Carter territory.

• Does Romney believe in evolution or not? Inquiring religious fundamentalist zealots want to know. The rest of us? We just want to know...

• ...Is Romney really just a science fiction fanboy with a great haircut and $2500 suit? Recently, Mitt claimed that the French engage in 7-year marriages with an option to renew or move on at the end of the contract. Turns out he read that in a science fiction novel. By a fellow Mormon. About Mormonism in space. And this, after saying his favorite book was Battlefield Earth by L. Ron Hubbard. Wonder what Ann Coulter is thinking now?

• Has the Republican caucus really given Bush a do-or-die deadline of September -- or else they walk away from Bush on Iraq? Color me skeptical.