compared to US, 24.  So somebody knows how to build efficient cars.  And at this point, instead of bailing out yet one more set of incompetent management team (see Bear Stearns, Fannie Mae, Freddie Mac, more to come), why not let the government take over the companies and give them to their employees?  That would put the fear of the market into management.  But more importantly, it would improve management, and insure that any gains made in production would stay in the US, because you can be sure that if the bailed-out car companies eventually became profitable, they'd abandon the country that saved them in two seconds.

Also -- definitely, some big bucks into public transit, although I'm not sure how that can be made private as well -- except that private firms make the transit equipment.  Certainly, we should be investing as much in transit as Europe.

Add conversion of long haul trucks, trains, tractors, and construction equipment to natural gas.  If only 5% of that gas was biogas from waste, the carbon footprint would be offset.  Farm biogas for tractors for instance.

"...big bucks into public transit, although I'm not sure how that can be made private as well -- except that private firms make the transit equipment."

Yes Jon, the government could own the tracks (tubes are my favorite design, hehey), the auto industry building dual use, cars, vans, and buses that run on both road and rail.  the vehicles privately owned by individuals and transit companies.  Maybe even coop owned buses could bring private non-governmental socialism into the picture.

Non-profits could be helped with government funding to provide transport on low profit routes like rural areas where fixed income citizens need access.

http://amazngdrx.blogharbor.com/blog John Schneider, Northern Wisconsin

........ destroy Tehran with thermonuclear devices, and depopulate the countryside with a mass campaign of ethnic cleansing and then steal their oil. We would then get that oil for free. This would accomplish two things:

Solve our short-term energy problems

and

Remind those countries that are getting on our nerves that we can still kill every one of them if we feel like it.

Victory in Pattani

This is just more of the same "technology will save us" crap.  There wasn't one word about what's needed more than anything re transportation, which is to greatly reduce it.  How about designing communities that are walkable and bikeable?

Another silly plan to desperately try and cling on to the automobile. Instead, there should be massive investment in public transit and high-speed rail. This is what the rest of the world is doing. We are so far behind and we don't even know it. The age of the automobile is over. Why try and protect companies in sunset industries? It does not make economic sense. Let Ford and GM adapt or fade away without giving them a bunch of public money.

The way forward is to create a better transportation system based on rail. People are tired of driving and flying anyway. Why prolong the agony.

rebuild every community in the world so it's more walkable and more bikeable? Any idea what that might cost (in dollars and Carbon emissions?)

Victory in Pattani

To make this the biggest banklruptcy in history?  We're number 1!  We're number 1!

In your face Indymac!  

http://amazngdrx.blogharbor.com/blog John Schneider, Northern Wisconsin

Is actually the most sensible "solution" to the oil problem if your goal is to keep everyone driving their own cars.  Otherwise, rail, bus, biking, and walking will have to take the place of cars.  And goddammit!, I've got a RIGHT to drive a car...I think it's in the constitution somewhere.  

So, who's kids to we send to kill the brown people this time?

Il faut cultiver notre jardin.

I was petroling up at a local gas station in a small central IL town a few days ago.  The station has an E-85 pump that has been dispensing it for $2.95/gallon for several weeks.  

I struck up a conversation with a Monsanto seed co. employee who was driving a new Chevy Silverado 4 X 4 pickup and was filling it with E-85.  He told me the truck was averaging 14.5 mpg.  No comments from me, but my thought was --  that sucks. No wonder GM is going broke. And the ethanol plants that are buying corn at $6.00 to $7.00 per bushel and selling it below cost are certainly not making any profits either.  Double suck.  

Yesterday I was driving back through the same town and a spray plane was applying fungicides on a corn field right on the edge of town.  He was making his turn around directly over the heart of the town.  And he was low!  When we got downwind of the field a very strong chemical odor permeated the air.  I could not freaking believe it!  When I got home, I called the town police dept. to ask if any of the town residents had complained.  My call was routed auotmatically to the county sheriff's office.  I talked with a detective and asked if they had received any complaints.  No. Not one.  In fact he had not received a single complaint in the six years he had been a detective.

Curiosity got the better of me and I called the local FAA office and talked with a flight standards official.  I told him about the incident and asked him if there was any regulation about crop sprayers flying low over towns.  Surprisingly, there does not seem to be.  They have to fly a minimum of 500 ft. elevation when they are traveling from field to field or from base to field.  But when they are actually making their spray runs, the minimum does not apply.  I asked him about the safety of flying low over populated areas like I saw.  He just said it was not prudent.  He also told me that if I saw something like that again I needed to get the N number off the side of the plane and try to get photographs.  He said that in IL right now  there are 320 pilots from out of state, besides our own resident pilots, applying fungicides to the corn crop.  This practice has really escalated in the past couple of years after agronomists documented the yield increases resulting from these chemical applications.  

The thought occurred to me later about the kind  of measure anyone would use to justify getting a few more bushels per acre of corn by risking the safety of local town residents?  The crop was not at risk of a major yield loss from some serious pest problem.  But this kind of symbolizes the entire system in the way that we lopsidedly weigh the short term economic benefits of an industrially based system of agriculture against the long term perspective of environmental quality, biological diversity,  sustainability, and longevity of rural communities.

I am sure that the vast majority of the farm community is very happy with these scenes of progress around here.  But sometimes, it all looks like a war to me. And one that we may not survive for even 50 years.  

Why am I such a cynic?    

I'm still in shape, just got off active duty last year, and really am not fond of Islamic anythings, but particularly Islamic states. Of course, for me, the question is always how much first and foremost. I didn't fight for ideology, I did it for money, it was a job.

Victory in Pattani

Justlou,

     If you've got a plane spraying pesticides over residential areas, you should immediately call the regional EPA enforcement office in your area or contact EPA's Office of Pesticide Programs.  EPA regulates most of the pesticides on the market and there are very strict rules regarding spray drift, aerial spraying, etc.  Local police can't do anything about it...you need to call EPA.  If you have information about the time/place (and photos would be even better) of the incident, they'll investigate.  It could quite possibly be a totally benign chemical that was being sprayed....and then again it could have been a nerve agent...

Il faut cultiver notre jardin.

With the way our J.O.-in-chief is running the economy into the ground and the bailouts I expect he'll push through to keep his criminal friends rich, I'm guessing the dollar is going to be devalued very quickly.  Maybe we can pay you in pesos to take over the Iranian oilfields for us?

Il faut cultiver notre jardin.

Will pay him.  Finally after US troops are gone from Iraq, the oil money will flow.

The mercenary army will fight on.  In the employ of the oil monopolies.  

Plenty of ex-service members have joined the contractor forces.  If he had the courage of his convictions he would be blogging from Iraq right now.  

To all the bush faithfilled oil war mongers, join up or STFU.  I have said this for years, not one of these specimens has taken up the challenge.

http://amazngdrx.blogharbor.com/blog John Schneider, Northern Wisconsin

You might also have a lawsuit if you were sickened or injured by the spray, or even for an injunction to force the pilots to remain within the legal limits.

John,

There's no such thing as a "benign" chemical.  Pesticides, which is almost certainly what this was, are chemicals meant to kill something.  Aerial spraying is the most ecologically damaging way to apply pesticides, because it's very difficult to impossible to control where the spray goes and doesn't go.  Aerial spraying should be banned without exception as the first step toward eliminating pesticides.

And the money was good. But not good enough to make me leave my FAT life in Thailand.

Victory in Pattani

I did call the IL Dept of Ag that does regulate spray drift.  The standards state that no drift is allowed by any means of application including aerial, ground or even hand.  I smelled it but that could have been the odor from the petrochemical carrier of the active ingredient.  Unless I could document some actual deposition or damage with samples or photographs it would be just about impossible to pursue a complaint.  Plus, the aerial pilot was not spraying over residences, but was circling his plane over the town to maneuver for his next spray swath on the field next to town.  That in itself was bad enough from the safety point of view and not "prudent" according to the FAA official I talked with.    

Rather amazingly, I asked the state official at the IL Dept. of Agriculture how many reports or complaints of spray drift had been filed last year in the entire state of IL.  How does 60, yest sixty, sound to you?  I am sure the actual number would have been in the thousands.  The size and scope of agriculture just cows most folks into a state of submission.  Most people just conform and don't complain even when it affects them or they don't recognize chemical damage when they see it on their plants or whatever.  Of course some people do have the balls to discuss such issues directly with the applicator or neighboring farmer and are satisfied with "we'll try to be more careful in the future".  Been there myself a couple times.  But, living the middle of this corn/soybean factory, I usually get several adrenaline rushes each spring when the applicators are out spraying on very windy days which has happened quite frequently this year.  

You are right about the part of the reach of local police but only as it affects the spray drift portion.  But local police do have some jurisdiction over civil aviation.  If they see some pilot doing something dangerous they do have the authority to hunt the pilot back to his base of operation and pursue the issue with him.