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Published Nov 5 2006 by EB, Archived Nov 5 2006

N. America energy policy - Nov 5

by Staff

Click on the headline (link) for the full text.

Many more articles are available through the Energy Bulletin homepage


Clinton stumps for Calif. proposition 87 (video)
Bill Clinton, speech via Marc Strassman (etopiamedia)
Former U.S. President Bill Clinton repeats his arguments and exhortations in favor of California’s “Clean Energy Alternative” Proposition 87 that he previously made on October 13, 2006, at UCLA, at a rally in San Francisco on November 1, 2006, with an additional reference to Niccolo Machiavelli, an Arkansas joke and an Arkansas story. Clinton is introduced by “Desperate Housewives” vixen Eva Longoria.
(2 Nov 2006)
The original UCLA speech is also available at the site.

As noted in other EB articles, former President Clinton is aware of peak oil and is an enthusiastic reader of Richard Heinberg's book, The Party’s Over.

Nothing new here content-wise, but it is always instructive to watch a Master Politician at work, framing issues in terms voters respond to. Clinton echoes the usual Democratic line (new jobs, biofuels, renewables, climate change) but adds grace notes such as:

I am sick of America's being the caboose of the world's train to the future.

and

California is in the business of tomorrow

He wisely emphasizes the economic potential of renewables, especially as a source of new jobs. He does not mention peak oil and relocalization, probably thinking they are too much for voters to handle right now.

-BA


American car buyers get a case of amnesia
Alex Taylor III, Fortune Magazine
When gas prices take a breather, consumers' common sense takes a hike.
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NEW YORK (Fortune) -- Who can remember all the way back to last summer, when we had daylight-saving-time, baseball and $3 a gallon gasoline prices?

Not American car buyers, apparently, and you can see the evidence in the results of October auto sales.

Sales of big pickup trucks and SUVs went through the roof - doubling from the year before in some cases. Sales of small, fuel-efficient cars, meanwhile, remained stagnant. It is as if all that moaning and groaning about price gouging by oil companies never happened.

Actually, it is worse than that. American consumers have reinforced all the stereotypes they are labeled with: short attention spans, lack of social consciousness and thinking with their wallets.

Does anyone seriously believe that having once spiked up to $3 with very little provocation, gasoline prices won't do it again? Have they forgotten about the ongoing instability in the Middle East?
(2 Nov 2006)
Sounds like James Howard Kunstler. Is the message getting through? -BA


Canadian clips on global warming and energy (audio)
CBC via Global Public Media
A round up of recent relevant stories collected from CBC Radio in Canada.
(4 Nov 2006)