Get Used to It

Today?s suggestion? Get used to it.

Days of unspeakable heat? The heat taking the usual storm systems and turning them excessively violent? Lack of investment in infrastructure making recovery from those storms lengthy and piecemeal?

Check, check, and check. Remember the ?Snowstorm of 88? narratives we all grew up listening to? The next generation of the-weather-is-bigger-than-we-are stories will be the ones people on the Mid-Atlantic are telling this week: ?Where were you when the lights went out??

As for me, I was hanging around at my house in Raleigh, NC. Guests gone, kids asleep, and sudden wind gusts as we felt the very bottom end of ? something. Something turned out to be a derecho, a kind of thunderstorm on steroids. As the earthsky.org story says, ?the above average temperatures being experienced across the area ? act[ed] as fuel for this system.? Check out some of the videos on the site, especially the radar maps. That storm crossed the eastern states at 60 mph!

Wind blew down a tree somewhere in my neighborhood, and my block went dark. A midnight adventure down our darkened street with my wide-eyed seven-year-old showed no damage at the substation and lights on in adjacent blocks, so we knew our wait would be short. It was.

Not for everybody else. As of June 30 at 5 .m., more than a million and a half people were facing more 90-plus-degree weather without a cold drink or an electric fan, much less air conditioning and cable.

Above average temperatures? Bigger and worse storms? Get used to it.

As for the power grid, according to Venturebeat, ?An outage of Amazon?s Elastic Compute Cloud in North Virginia [took] down Netflix, Pinterest, Instagram, and other services.? They were back up soon enough, but this is what it looks like now when the power goes out. The next day we went to a movie and saw a sign on the door that if the theater experienced one of the brownouts they were having, we were to keep calm; they?d get the movie back up as soon as they could. We were lucky ? ?Brave? ran uninterrupted. You should see it ? it?s real good.

Anyhow, that grid, though, and recovery from storms and response to demand surges? Uh-oh. The American Society of Civil Engineers in its 2009 Report Card gave our electrical infrastructure a D+, and a 2011 followup report under the title ?Failure to Act? laid out the economic consequences of standing around and watching stuff fail. If you think a few trillion dollars of lost GDP by 2040 and more than a half million lost jobs by 2020 you?ll be right on. Again ? that?s not the trillions of dollars by which we?re behind in maintaining and building our infrastructure ? that?s the money we?ll fail to make because we don?t have it. See? Failure to plan earns interest!

And have you noticed the resulting spending spree as investors and taxpayers lined up to make the unsexy investments in transmission lines, backup generation, peaker plants, distribution redundancy, and the kind of smart grid technology that limits outages to the smallest possible area and communicates trouble to the central office? Don?t feel bad ? I haven?t noticed it either.

As for communication, remember ? the way most electrical utilities get information on downed power lines is by using trained mammals to push buttons when the power goes off, and when they push the buttons a bell rings in the utilities? offices. That is, they wait until you and I call them to tell them the power?s off. The Urban Land Institute?s ?Infrastructure 2012? doesn?t paint a much prettier picture.

So. Hurricane season is just starting, and the ocean is warming up. Thunderheads get bigger every day, and there?s only so many trucks with yellow rotating lights. Where were you when the lights went out? I was inside, banging on my VOIP phone, unable to tell the power company my power was out. Fortunately, the cell phone was charged and the tower had a generator.

?

Source: http://rss.sciam.com/click.phdo?i=410b8e5219b081a585c1ea77f46f38a0

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GOP: Voters will have final say on health care law

WASHINGTON (AP) ? Republican congressional leaders said Sunday that voters ? not the Supreme Court ? will have the final word on President Barack Obama's health care law come November. And they are betting that the law's unpopularity will be enough to drive Democrats from power.

The White House's response? Bring it on.

"We've got one last chance here to beat Obamacare, and we can do that in the November election," said Senate Majority Leader Mitch McConnell, calling the law the "single worst piece of legislation" passed in modern times.

White House chief of staff Jack Lew countered that he believes most Americans want to put the health care debate to rest.

"I actually think the American people want us to focus on the economy, on creating jobs and moving forward," said Lew.

Republicans and Democrats have been wrangling for the upper hand in the health care debate since last week's Supreme Court ruling upholding the law's mandate that individuals buy health insurance or face a penalty. Chief Justice John Roberts, a conservative, provided the pivotal vote in that decision by ruling that the penalty was legal under the government's taxing authority.

While technically handing a political victory to Obama, Roberts' ruling invigorated Republicans eager to cast the law as a new tax.

"The American people do not want to go down this path," said House Majority Leader John Boehner, R-Ohio. "They do not want the government telling them what kind of insurance policy they have to buy, and how much they have to pay for it, and if you don't like it we're going to tax you."

Democrats refute the characterization of the law. Lew said the mandate would impact only 1 percent of Americans ? those who can afford health insurance but refuse to buy it.

"This is a penalty on free riders," said Sen. Chuck Schumer, D-N.Y.

Yet public opposition to the health care law remains high. Forty-seven percent of respondents in a recent Associated Press-GfK poll said they oppose the law while 33 percent said they support it.

However, much of the polling does find strong support for individual elements, like allowing young adults to remain on their parents' plan to age 26. Some Democrats see that as an opening to reframe the debate.

Republicans say they believe last week's ruling by the high court gives them fresh ammunition to attack Obama ? and the Democrats who support him ? in the upcoming election because of the health care bill's connection to jobs. The GOP says the law puts onerous mandates on industry that could stifle job creation.

"I think it's intertwined with the economy, and I think it's an example where Washington doesn't get it," said Sen. Tom Coburn, R-Okla., of the health care bill.

House Minority Leader Nancy Pelosi said Sunday that Republicans, including Mitt Romney, are "being the mouthpiece of the health care industry" and that the bill will actually improve the economy.

"The costs were unsustainable," she said of the current health care system. "It's a competitiveness issue for business and for our economy. So we had to (come) to a place where we lowered costs to all concerned, and that we again take it down a path where we continue to lower costs."

If given control of the Senate next year, McConnell said he would support using budget reconciliation rules to repeal the health care law. Doing so would prohibit Senate filibusters and require only 51 votes to succeed. In 2010, Republicans lambasted Democrats for relying on these rules to pass the health care bill, calling their tactics unusual and hyperpartisan.

McConnell said he'll do whatever it takes to repeal the law.

"I'm confident they're going to give us the votes to repeal it," he said of the American public.

The House is scheduled to vote to overturn the law on July 9. The vote will largely be symbolic since the Democrats control the Senate. But it will put lawmakers on record for the upcoming political campaign.

McConnell and Lew spoke on "Fox News Sunday." Boehner, Schumer and Coburn spoke on CBS' "Face the Nation." Pelosi spoke on NBC's "Meet the Press."

Source: http://news.yahoo.com/gop-voters-final-health-care-law-143118921.html

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Video: What?s Casey Anthony up to?

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Arctic drilling creeps forward now, and in 5 years

In this photo taken Monday June 25, 2012 near Bellingham, Wash., and released by Shell Alaska, members of Shell?s well delivery group, along with representatives from the Bureau of Safety and Environmental Enforcement witnessed the deployment of the capping stack that will join Shell?s Alaska drilling fleet. The device looks like a giant spark plug. It's designed to kill a blowout by providing a metal-to-metal seal on a busted blowout preventer. Its successful deployment 200 feet below the water meant Shell passed another requirement for drilling exploratory wells in Arctic waters for the first time in more than two decades. (AP Photo/Shell Alaska)

In this photo taken Monday June 25, 2012 near Bellingham, Wash., and released by Shell Alaska, members of Shell?s well delivery group, along with representatives from the Bureau of Safety and Environmental Enforcement witnessed the deployment of the capping stack that will join Shell?s Alaska drilling fleet. The device looks like a giant spark plug. It's designed to kill a blowout by providing a metal-to-metal seal on a busted blowout preventer. Its successful deployment 200 feet below the water meant Shell passed another requirement for drilling exploratory wells in Arctic waters for the first time in more than two decades. (AP Photo/Shell Alaska)

FILE - In this June 27, 2012 file photo, ships bringing oil drilling equipment to Alaska, left, pass through Seattle's Elliott Bay as a Washington State Ferry passes on its way into Seattle. A capping stack, a containment dome and a flotilla of vessels carrying cleanup gear are accompanying two drill ships to Alaska and are part of a response plan that has won the blessing of Interior Secretary Ken Salazar. (AP Photo/Donna Gordon Blankinship, File)

ANCHORAGE, Alaska (AP) ? In choppy water under blue sky off Bellingham, Wash., a Shell Oil crew on Monday lowered a "capping stack" 200 feet in the water and put it through maneuvers with underwater robots connected by cable to operators on the surface, a test that fulfilled one of the final steps required for permission to drill exploratory wells in Arctic waters.

The capping stack looks like a giant spark plug and is designed to kill an undersea oil well blowout by providing a metal-to-metal seal on a malfunctioning blowout preventer.

Shell is sending the capping stack, skimmers, boom and a containment dome on board a flotilla accompanying drill ships to Alaska's northern shores as part of a spill response plan that has the blessing of Interior Secretary Ken Salazar. Shell expects final approvals within weeks and drilling by late this month.

But environmental groups contend the government has it wrong. Despite reforms put in place after the Deepwater Horizon blowout in the Gulf of Mexico, their basic objections remain. Shell has vastly overstated its ability to respond to a worst-case scenario spill in open water, said attorney Holly Harris of Earthjustice, and no oil company has demonstrated it can clean up a spill that lingers into the Arctic's eight months of sea ice.

A spill will threaten whales, polar bears, ice seals and walrus plus the Alaska Native subsistence communities that depend on the ocean's bounty, according to environmental groups.

The federal government requires a spill response plan to show how the drilling company will clean up a worst-case discharge in adverse weather. Shell's worst case for drilling in the Chukchi and Beaufort seas is a spill of 25,000 barrels per day. Environmental groups have seized on the phrase that for planning the onshore response, "the worst case discharge scenario assumes that 10 percent of the 25,000 barrels per day discharge escapes the primary offshore recovery effort at the blowout."

Said Harris, "If you base a spill plan on the assumption that 90 percent of it is going to be recovered in the open water, and only, quote, 10 percent of the daily discharge is going to escape those cleanup efforts, then you don't have to have as many spill response assets near shore protecting things like coastlines, lagoons and the near-shore environment."

She said "there is no evidence before this agency or anywhere else" that the oil company has come close to having enough boats, enough oil-containing boom or enough people to control 90 per cent of the damage.

Shell Alaska spokesman Curtis Smith said opposition groups are purposely mischaracterizing Shell's oil spill response plan. The plan does not claim Shell can clean up 90 percent of an oil spill, he said.

"We say in our plan we expect to 'encounter' 90 percent of any discharge on site ? very close to the drilling rig," he said. "We expect to encounter 5 percent near-shore between the drilling rig and the coast. And we expect to encounter another 5 percent on shore. We never make claims about the percent we could actually recover, because conditions vary, of course."

The Bureau of Safety and Environmental Enforcement signed off on Shell's response plan in February. At a news teleconference Tuesday, when asked about the 90 percent claim included in Shell's response plan, Salazar did not answer directly but put his faith in federal on-site inspectors.

"I believe, first of all, that there is not going to be an oil spill, because frankly, the scrutiny that is going to be involved, including the prevention effort that we have, and the oversight effort that we have ? the inspectors we have on 24/7, and all of the rest of the measures that have been taken, and the high risk, frankly, that Shell and the entire industry would have is something were to go wrong ? I don't expect that there is going to be a problem," Salazar said.

"Now if there would be a problem, which one always has to anticipate, I believe that the response capabilities are there to be able to arrest the problem in a very quick fashion and avoid environmental damage," he said. "If we were not confident that that were to happen, I would not let the permits go forward."

Salazar commented as he announced more Alaska offshore real estate will be included in the 2012-2017 five-year oil and gas lease program ? the Chukchi Sea in 2016 and the Beaufort in 2017. The Shell experience, he said, will develop critical science and information to guide future development.

Shell hopes to drill in both seas during the 2012 open water season. The Kulluk, a 266-foot ship with a hull reinforced for ice, and the Noble Discoverer left Seattle on Wednesday for Dutch Harbor in the Aleutians, where they will wait for open water this month for the last leg to the Beaufort and the Chukchi.

Shell estimates it has spent more than $4 billion on Arctic offshore development. The target is the 26.6 billion barrels of recoverable oil and 130 trillion cubic feet of natural gas estimated by federal managers.

Throughout the permitting process, Shell has stressed the extreme measures it will take to make sure no oil ever hits the water.

Environmental groups say the lack of infrastructure on sparsely populated Arctic coast would make cleanup a nightmare.

"Where are we going to house all these people?" Harris said. "How are we going to feed all these people? How are we going to provide basic services ? the sanitation and spill response infrastructure?

There's also the problem of dealing with a spill when ice moves in, she said. The last spill exercise in U.S. waters with ice was conducted in 2000 and showed boom intended to corral oil was no match for broken, floating ice.

The rate of recovery for the Exxon Valdez was just 8 percent, Harris said, and likely would be less in the Arctic.

"The lack of attention paid to this decision was discouraging," Harris said.

Associated Press

Source: http://hosted2.ap.org/APDEFAULT/386c25518f464186bf7a2ac026580ce7/Article_2012-07-01-Shell-Arctic%20Offshore%20Drilling/id-51f84af095fb473b9aa7e11183509cd7

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Greene: Why do we pay politicians for no results? (CNN)

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Dior Homme: Masterly Minimal

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ECB official: Greece must deliver '100 pct'

BERLIN (AP) ? Greece must fulfill the targets of its austerity and reform program "100 percent" to stay in the euro, a top European Central Bank official said Sunday ? offering little hope of substantial wiggle room for Athens and questioning whether it can be given more time to comply.

Greece's new government wants to lower some taxes, freeze public sector layoffs and extend by two years the mid-2014 deadline for austerity measures demanded by creditors in exchange for loans that are keeping the country afloat, conditions that are hugely unpopular in the country.

But ECB executive board member Joerg Asmussen told Germany's ARD television that there can be no departure from the aims of consolidating Greece's budget and restoring its competitiveness.

"The so-called mix of measures ? in other words, how do I reach the target ? one can talk about that," he said. But that, he added, means that "if the government intends to lower a tax, it will have to increase another tax by the same amount."

Asked whether Greece would get more time to comply, Asmussen replied: "I don't think so." He noted that any extension would lead to a need for more external financial help ? "that means that the other 16 eurozone states and the IMF would then have to provide more financing."

The ECB is part of the so-called "troika" of debt inspectors overseeing the Greek program, along with the European Commission and the International Monetary Fund. On Monday, the inspectors are expected to start their review of the country's finances and meet with the new government. Their conclusions will be critical to whether Greece will be able to renegotiate parts of its international bailout conditions.

"My preference and the preference of the ECB is very clearly that Greece remain in the eurozone," Asmussen said. "For that, the country must implement 100 percent the program targets that were agreed."

An exit, he said, would make things economically difficult not just for the country leaving the eurozone but also for all the others.

Other eurozone countries ? in particular Germany, the bloc's biggest economy ? have appeared cool to giving Greece much of a break on its targets or timeline.

"From Germany's point of view, a substantial loosening of the program, of the reform agreements, does not come into consideration," Foreign Minister Guido Westerwelle said Sunday. He insisted that Greece must implement those agreements "step by step, solidly and reliably."

At a European Union summit last week, German Chancellor Angela Merkel made concessions to Italy and Spain ? notably agreeing to allow countries that pledge to implement reforms demanded by the EU's executive Commission to tap rescue funds without having to go through the kind of tough austerity measures demanded of Greece.

But officials insist that help to struggling countries and banks will still come with strings attached, and that Germany has no intention of agreeing to share government debt through jointly issued eurobonds in the foreseeable future. Berlin fears that would cut struggling countries' borrowing costs at its expense and also take pressure off them to get their finances and economies in order.

Westerwelle, a member of the pro-market Free Democrats ? the junior partner in Merkel's coalition ? insisted Sunday that eurobonds should stay off the table permanently.

"Too little solidarity endangers Europe, but too much solidarity does not endanger Europe any less," he said.

"Even if we already lived in a European federal state, I would be strictly against us Germans taking on liability for all debts in all of Europe."

Associated Press

Source: http://hosted2.ap.org/APDEFAULT/f70471f764144b2fab526d39972d37b3/Article_2012-07-01-Europe-Financial%20Crisis/id-ba3fabf807244663abbfb93fc26b95e5

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