[Vision2020] Building and development planning: Fusion?

[Phil Nisbet]

Ted

All of that is fine and dandy, but if immediate impacts are to be dealt 
with, the objective has to be to switch from our current patterns of 
consumption.

You have yet to even deal with my example of the waste of half a million 
gallons of fuel so that Latah County can be declared 'mine free'.

And that was only an example.  If you look at the extensive shipping of raw 
materials and building produts from the East Coast to the West Coast in the 
United States, you can get a real idea of how silly we have become.  Bulk 
materials that should be produced and can be produced locally are shipped at 
a cost exceeding their price at railhead in the East over to us here, 
consuming large amounts of cash and large amounts of fuel to do so.

Another example for you.  Kyanite 
http://minerals.usgs.gov/minerals/pubs/commodity/kyanite/kyanimcs05.pdf and 
you will note that the sole producer is in Virginia.  Half of all use is in 
the Western US, so 50,000 tons are shipped here from virginia annually.  The 
cost of the material is $165 a ton at the mine site and the shipping coasts 
to get it here to the West are equal to the price of the mineral.  That 
means that at least 8 million bucks a year are wasted in shipping that 
refractory here and over 2 million gallons of fuel are also burned doing so.

And guess what?  Clearwater County, a farily depressed area next door to us, 
has major Kyanite deposits.  The rocks in our region are loaded with it.  If 
we supplied the westr coast markets from here, that would save large amounts 
of deisel fuel, create a needed local industry and improve depressed 
economics in the area.

So please tell me Ted, would you support such a minerals operation outside 
of Orofino?  Or would it be more likely that those same folks who complain 
about Global Warming and about fuel prices and about lose of jobs and low 
wages would all gang up to oppose anybody who might even think about trying 
to mine kyanite in the area?

And that is just one of hundreds of bulk commodities that are not produced 
locally and a small one at that.  We are spending humdreds of millions of 
gallons of fuel each and every year dragging materials across a Continent 
because regardless of any other consequence, people here do not want to see 
mine or plants located here in the West.

The best thing about the fuel crisis as far as I am concerned is that just 
amybe some people will wake up and see that we need to start using 
conservation economics and free market environmentalism and regionalize bulk 
materials production.  Its one of the easiest ways around for us to cut back 
on burning fuel and one that will assist in lowering the price of goods made 
right here in the USA.

Phil Nisbet


>From: Tbertruss at aol.com
>To: vision2020 at moscow.com, pcnisbet1 at hotmail.com
>Subject: Re: [Vision2020] Building and development planning: Fusion? Date: 
>Thu, 18 Aug 2005 02:47:27 EDT
>
>
>Phil et. al.
>
>As the world economy now gorges on the economic benefits of cheap fossil 
>fuel
>sourced energy, explain how the economic markets on our planet are now
>figuring in all the costs of transitioning to other technologies and energy 
>sources
>out to fifty years ahead, or whenever a "critical" state of fossil fuels
>depleted is reached, along with the environmental costs if continuing 
>increasing
>rates of fossil fuel use result in global warming with flooding of all the 
>major
>harbors and coastlines on the planet, which is just one cost that will be
>incurred if global warming continues as some climate models predict and 
>current
>evidence supports, then you can insist that I don't understand "freemarket
>conservatism."
>
>Without cheap fossil fuels, the US and global economy will be in dire
>straits, unless there are technologies and forms of energy in abundance 
>that can c
>heaply replace fossil fuels.  Right now this is a pipe dream, and I do not 
>see
>any rational reason to assume automatically that science and technology 
>will
>save us, though there are promising developments, such as fusion:
>
>http://news.bbc.co.uk/2/hi/science/nature/4044895.stm
>
>Place your bets in Vegas!   I'm not sure what the odds are, though.
>
>If ocean levels rise sufficiently, what is the total cost of rebuilding 
>every
>major harbor on Earth?   And is this future potential cost being figured 
>into
>the economics of out of control fossil fuel use now?
>
>Ask Dick Cheney.  Maybe he's hoping Halliburton will get the contract.
>
>Ted Moffett

_________________________________________________________________
Express yourself instantly with MSN Messenger! Download today - it's FREE! 
http://messenger.msn.click-url.com/go/onm00200471ave/direct/01/