Scary Windmills

Courtesy Watthead.

"Ahmadinejad Should Be Killed"

From the Telegraph:

"Ahmadinejad should be killed," chanted some of the protesters, who were denounced as "vandals" by state radio. Iran possesses the second-largest oil reserves in the world and produces 4.3 million barrels a day.

Couldn't happen to a nicer firebrand nationalist who is seeking nuclear weapons.

More from Gateway Pundit.

PJM has video.

No More Oil For War

As the New York Times reports, the Air Force Hopes to Cut Oil’s Role in Fuel:

The United States Air Force has decided to push development of a new type of fuel to power its bombers and fighters, mixing conventional jet fuel with fuels from nonpetroleum sources that could eventually limit military dependence on imported oil.

This is a brilliant idea... that should have been set into motion thirty years go.

Nonetheless, this is good news. (Courtesy, Instapundit)

Iran's Meltdown

As the Guardian reports the Iran interest rate cut sparks panic selling, we also hear reports of Ahmadinejad's crackdown on "Children of Allah influenced by International Imperialism."

These latest developments, coupled with the recent U.S. Navy war games in Iran's front yard, and the video of women beaten in the streets by religious police spell chaos, dissent and decline for the Iranian regime.

Finally, as icing on the cake, Iran has recently hiked the price of gasoline by 25 percent.

Things are not looking good, not even for Ahmadinejad's fellow non-aligned buddy Hugo Chavez.

Viva la resistance!

American CO2 Emissions Fall

Instapundit cites a WAPO article:

U.S. carbon dioxide emissions dropped slightly last year even as the economy grew, according to an initial estimate released yesterday by the Energy Information Administration.

This can't exactly be credited to Bush per se, but it's a good sign for the country.

...And what was that about Kyoto?

Big Trouble in Persia

Iran hikes gasoline prices 25 percent

TEHRAN, Iran — Iran jumped gasoline prices 25 percent Tuesday in a new blow to consumers already disgruntled over high inflation, and the government said it will begin rationing fuel in two weeks.

Let's Get Energetic About Energy Legislation

The New York Times had a decent Editorial today titled A Fresh Start on Energy

Particularly, the

...Ten-in-Ten Fuel Economy Act, was approved last week and is mainly the handiwork of Senator Dianne Feinstein of California. It would raise the fuel economy standard for passenger cars from 25 to 35 miles per gallon over the next 10 years, and — for the first time — would require steady improvements in fuel efficiency for medium and heavy-duty trucks. The debate over fuel economy has been deadlocked for three decades, and approval of this bill would represent a major breakthrough.

Weaning ourselves from foreign oil is great, but let's not forget about the Merchants of Fear:

The world's best known hysteric and self promoter on the topic of man's physical and moral responsibility for global warming is Al Gore, a shill for the nuclear industry and the coal barons from the first day he stepped into Congress entrusted with the sacred duty to protect the budgetary and regulatory interests of the Tennessee Valley Authority and the Oakridge National Lab. White House "task forces" on climate change in the Clinton-Gore years were always well freighted by Gore and his adviser John Holdren with nukers like John Papay of Bechtel.

Self-Preservation

These are multi-billion dollar computer model programming bureaucracies as intent on self-preservation and budgetary enhancement as cognate nuclear bureaucracies at Oakridge and Los Alamos. They are as unlikely to develop models confuting the hypothesis of human-induced global warming as is the Intergovernmental Panel on Climate Change to say the weather is possibly getting a little bit warmer but that there's no great cause for alarm and indeed some reason for rejoicing, since this warming (whose natural causes I discussed in that recent column) gives us a longer growing season and increased CO2, a potent plant fertiliser. Welcome global greening.

If you can't beat 'em... cheat

As Richard Kerr, Science magazine's man on global warming remarked, "Climate modelers have been 'cheating' for so long it's become almost respectable."

Clean Nuclear

Courtesy Instapundit:

Nuking Nuclear Waste

Energy officials argue for a new breed of reactors that run on recycled radioactive fuel

Later this year, scientists at Oak Ridge National Laboratory in Tennessee hope to take a big step toward solving America's nuclear-waste woes. Pending clearance from the Department of Energy, they will demonstrate a new toxic-waste recycling process.

The aim of the demo—part of a controversial $405-million government project called the Global Nuclear Energy Partnership (GNEP)—is to transform nuclear leftovers into fuel for a new breed of reactors. The new reactor/fuel combo, GNEP officials say, could produce up to 100 times as much energy as conventional reactors and could generate 40 percent less waste. The initiative is a key part of the Bush administration's long-term strategy to meet America's rising demand for electricity—according to the DOE, it's expected to jump by 45 percent from 4,000 billion kilowatt-hours in 2005 to 5,800 billion kilowatt-hours in 2030—without creating more greenhouse gases. "Nuclear energy is the biggest source we have for meeting our energy needs without contributing to global warming," says Sherrell Greene, director of the nuclear-technology program at Oak Ridge.

Sounds promising.

Switching to Fluorescent like the Australians

A U.S. Alliance to Update the Light Bulb

WASHINGTON, March 13 — A coalition of industrialists, environmentalists and energy specialists is banding together to try to eliminate the incandescent light bulb in about 10 years.

Randall B. Moorhead of Philips Electronics North America with a 60-watt incandescent bulb, left, and his company’s energy-saving bulb.

In an agreement to be announced Wednesday, the coalition members, including Philips Lighting, the largest manufacturer; the Natural Resources Defense Council; and two efficiency organizations, are pledging to press for efficiency standards at the local, state and federal levels. The standards would phase out the ordinary screw-in bulb, technology that arose around the time of the telegraph and the steam locomotive, and replace it with compact fluorescents, light-emitting diodes, halogen devices and other technologies that may emerge.

This is a good move in the right direction, although not for Edison patent holders.

China, Iran and oil

The U.S. should not be perplexed if China votes down further sanctions against Iran, which nearly everyone is calling for. Why? Because: Iran biggest crude oil supplier to China

Iran, which may face additional United Nations sanctions after defying a deadline to stop uranium enrichment, was China's leading supplier of crude oil in January.

Shipments from Iran, holder of the world's second-largest oil reserves, rose 13 percent from a year earlier to 2.1 million tonnes, according to General Administration of Customs figures received Thursday. Imports from Iran almost tripled from December's level of 738,000 tonnes.

The Chinese position may be firm, but they will certainly not back harsh restrictions on their energy interests. Already, China has made it clear: China wants talks to resolve Iran issue.

How far the Chinese are willing to go remains unclear. Iran, unlike North Korea, is not in China's backyard, which may diminish their sense of urgency.

Iran should worry about itself

The New York Times:

Pressure Increases on Iran’s Fragile Energy Industry

Political and economic pressure from the United States and other Western governments has chilled foreign investment in Iran and is now squeezing the country’s long-fragile energy industry at a time when consumption is booming. The squeeze is adding strains to a government that is burdened by sanctions and yet wants to prevent unrest at home.

• Iran will have no oil left over to export within a decade
• Its oil exports, totaling $47 billion last year, account for half the government’s revenue
• Iran might have no more oil to export by around 2015
• The government plans to begin rationing gasoline in March
• Iran has signed no firm oil or gas contracts with foreign investors since June 2005, when Mahmoud Ahmadinejad was elected president and began flaunting the country’s nuclear ambitions and renewing tensions with the West
• The country is forced to import 40 percent of its gasoline