All you have to do in the new economy is own a suit! Here’s how it works: All Americans will stop going to school and will pay a visit to the local портной when they turn 18. There, you will be armed with a suit. With this technology – free for all Americans – you will have the opportunity to meet with at least half of the Senate and 150 Congressmen (multiple times each, at that!). These wise old sages, who aren’t nearly as corrupt as everyone says they are, will look at your suit and instantly make you a billionaire entrepreneur. That’s the new economy! Get in line now, though – there are already a lot of people wearing suits in Washington. Bloomberg (2/25/13) reports: “Musk also said in the interview today that Model S demand would be 10 percent to 20 percent less without a $7,500 U.S. tax credit.”
Wind is unreliable and turbines wear out much faster than expected. Got it. Now you’re telling us if you put lots of turbines together it decreases their effectiveness even more? Phys.org (2/25/13) reports: “Yet the latest research in mesoscale atmospheric modeling, published today in the journal Environmental Research Letters, suggests that the generating capacity of large-scale wind farms has been overestimated. Each wind turbine creates behind it a “wind shadow” in which the air has been slowed down by drag on the turbine’s blades. The ideal wind farm strikes a balance, packing as many turbines onto the land as possible, while also spacing them enough to reduce the impact of these wind shadows. But as wind farms grow larger, they start to interact, and the regional-scale wind patterns matter more.”
EPA closes a plant “in a community that has historically been disproportionately impacted by environmental contamination,” failing to mention that the community has also been disproportionately impacted by 33.8% unemployment. EPA (2/25/13) reports: “‘This settlement will eliminate the source of almost 200 tons of air pollutants each year, in a community that has historically been disproportionately impacted by environmental contamination,’ said EPA Regional Administrator Susan Hedman… As part of the consent decree, Geneva will also withdraw all permits and permit applications submitted to Illinois EPA and surrender all sulfur dioxide allowances. Based on an analysis of financial information, the government concluded that Geneva is insolvent and unable to pay a civil penalty.”
Somewhere down the road, we’ll be able to lean on Mexico for advice about how to drag the economy out of the dumps. WSJ (2/25/13) reports: “‘It is very hard to explain why Mexico is an expensive energy country while having abundant resources,’ he says, quickly answering his own riddle by reminding me of something his boss campaigned on. ‘He said it is time to get free of our ideological constraints and be a lot more practical.’ Those “constraints” date back to the 1917 constitution, which stipulates that the oil belongs to the state, and to the 1938 nationalization of the oil sector. Mexican politicians have long demagogued foreign investors, insisting that the oil is national patrimony that must not be ‘stolen.’”
First they partner with the Sierra Club, now Sinopec. Clearly the era of Aubrey McClendon is not over at Chesapeake. Chesapeake Energy (2/25/13) reports: “Chesapeake Energy Corporation (NYSE:CHK) and Sinopec International Petroleum Exploration and Production Corporation (Sinopec) today announced the execution of an agreement which provides for Sinopec to purchase a 50% undivided interest in 850,000 of Chesapeake’s net oil and natural gas leasehold acres in the Mississippi Lime play in northern Oklahoma (425,000 acres net to Sinopec). The total consideration for the transaction will be $1.02 billion in cash, of which approximately 93% will be received upon closing.”