Three ways to fix the climate in 2012 and beyond

SOLAMON ALTERNATIVE ENERGY :


Over the last two years, the consequences of 150 years of fossil-fuel development have materialized with a vengeance. The U.S. has experienced the worst drought in 80 years, replete with unprecedented Western fires and fears of widespread crop failure. This on the heels of record-breaking U.S. spring temperatures, with record daily highs outpacing record daily lows at a staggering pace of 12:1 since the start of the year. This on the heels of record U.S. flooding throughout the Mississippi basin last year. These examples reflect only the U.S. experience, in a world where record-breaking extreme weather is becoming the norm.

It’s hot. It’s going to get hotter. And despite the politics of the moment, extreme weather will eventually drive a national consensus on climate action. What can each of us do to insure we get there soon, rather than too late?

There are three answers. The first is to build political power. Elect clean-energy champions at the municipal, state, and national levels who can pass policies enabling a clean-energy revolution. The second is to stop expansion of the global carbon infrastructure. This will cut pollution — some — but will also build the morally grounded movement that must ultimately drive a strong clean-energy politics. Answer three? Grow the green shoots of the emerging sustainable economy.

Job #1: Politics

Nationally, global warming is barely getting a mention in the 2012 election. There has been some sparring over “clean-energy future” versus “Solyndra waste and fraud.” Romney has tried to beat Obama with a Keystone pipeline stick. But Obama has had little incentive to campaign hard on a green economy, while Romney wants to steer clear of his flip-flopping record on climate.

That said, this election matters, and the presidency is critical. Depending on the outcome, Clean Air Act regulation of carbon pollution will either unfold in a slow and steady manner, or it will be gutted. Critical Supreme Court appointments will shape the next 20 years of judicial decisions at they relate to action on climate. Finally, it is possible that, freed from reelection constraints, Obama may develop into the kind of visionary leader who could drive legislative gains post-2014, particularly if extreme weather continues to pound the country.

Experience shows that smart policy is critical to drive rapid clean-energy investment: feed-in-tariffs in Germany; wind power subsidies in the U.S.; municipal PACE financing (until it was cut off by the lending agencies) in Berkeley, on Long Island, and in other U.S. communities. But good policy requires powerful politics, electing politicians who understand and are committed to the vision.

In the short term, the House is likely to retain a climate-hostile majority, so national climate-friendly and green legislation will be stalled for at least two more years. This reality only underscores the urgency of the political project. For the remainder of 2012, and starting again in January 2013, pushing for strong clean-energy majorities in state legislatures and Washington, D.C., must be job No. 1 for the climate movement. (To get involved, contact your state’s League of Conservation Voters.)

#2: Saying no, getting to yes

After the electoral smoke clears, no matter who is president, another side of the climate movement must swing into action: disciplined, large-scale opposition to new coal, oil, and gas development, including nonviolent direct action.

Facing slow-growing and even declining demand at home, U.S. oil and coal companies are seeking to ship North American oil and coal abroad, primarily to feed booming demand in Asia. Building ports and pipelines to export tar-sands oil and Powder River Basin coal only lines the pockets of these corporations. This infrastructure, over its lifetime, will lead to tens of billions more tons of carbon dioxide in the atmosphere.

At the same time, hydrofracking technology has created a rush toward gas production in the U.S. — often in highly populated areas. While natural gas has the potential to serve as a “bridge” fuel to renewables, recent research has highlighted dangers not only to local communities in terms of water supply and impacts on natural lands, but also to the global climate. Depending on the so-called “fugitive emissions” of natural gas from leaks, natural gas can be as bad as coal in terms of global-warming impacts.

The good news is that slowing gas development until technologies can be proven safe — and the leaks can be better understood, identified, and plugged — is a smart strategy for gas-rich regions. The gas is not going away. Communities that ban drilling until the risks can be effectively managed (if they can be) are simply storing away their natural wealth for a later date. And potentially they will earn more money in the process, when the value of the gas in the ground has risen.

The Keystone XL pipeline action in which more than 1,200 people were arrested at the White House could set the precedent for post-election climate activism, regardless of whether the president is Obama or Romney. If so, tens of thousands of students, citizens, retirees, and taxpayers will take their personal commitment to climate stabilization up several notches.

The personal experience of widespread civil disobedience is highly combustible fuel for a political movement. It inspires and equips the participants to become powerful moral ambassadors to their communities about the unacceptable future that we are locking in for our children, and for ourselves. These collective experiences, channeled into a winning, morally grounded politics championing a prosperous and just clean-energy economy, can be a recipe for real change in America. Serious policy change demands powerful politics, and strong politics only grows from the ground of deep moral commitment.

Saying no to new fossil-fuel development is part the battle of climate stabilization. The rest of the job is up to “change agents” in businesses and communities across the country. Ultimately, clean energy alternatives have to be scaled up and their costs driven down. This is the work of green business entrepreneurs, supported by smart policy.

#3: Grow green

From Cleveland to Portland, from Grand Rapids to New York, and in Sacramento, Kansas City, Baltimore, and dozens of other American cities and towns, there are game-changing, sustainable enterprises beginning to spread their wings. Within the confines of existing national policy, municipalities and states are creating space to incubate a new generation of business leaders.

One example, local to my region: In Troy, N.Y., two entrepreneurs have set out to eliminate Styrofoam from the face of the earth. Ecovative grows big blocks of what are essentially mushrooms and carves them up to make sculpted shipping sleeves, shipping peanuts, and even the equivalent of foam insulation wallboard. Instead of a petroleum-based product that requires intensive mining and processing to produce, and after disposal persists for tens of thousands of years, the company’s product grows at room temperature, and after it has served its purpose, it can be broken up and put into a garden as compost.

What companies like Ecovative have is a powerful vision. Through the traditional business lens, environmental and social problems appear as costs that companies are best off externalizing. In contrast, sustainable business leaders consider these as challenges to be solved, profitably, through innovation. Indeed, solving many of the world’s most pressing environmental and social problems can only be achieved if the solutions are profitable, and therefore able to rapidly achieve global scale. But business cannot solve our problems alone. Ecovative, for example, relied on critical government start-up grants to develop a competitive product.

So the third strategy leg is to grow the green economy ASAP. We all need to become green change agents—starting our own businesses or driving change internally on “green teams” within our existing workplaces.

This is an “act local, impact global” strategy. At a political level, slowly but surely the “jobs vs. the environment” story is getting beaten out by the “green economy” story. Perhaps the best political news of the last two years was the way that California voters, treated to a full-throated duel between these two narratives in the battle over Prop. 23 in 2010, endorsed a clean energy future by a 2-1 margin. This explains the desperate attack by the fossil-fuel industry on green tech.

As the real green economy grows stronger, business interests begin to align with planetary survival, making progressive energy policy easier to push through, and harder to repeal. Failure by Congress to renew the wind energy tax-credit, for example, threatens 37,000 jobs. Romney’s opposition to the credit is threatening his campaign in states like Iowa, where even Tea Party congressmen support wind development. And in states like California and Oregon, a powerful virtuous cycle is emerging: A stronger green business sector pushes for better policy, which strengthens the sustainable business sector further, empowering it to push for yet stronger policies.

Two roads

Over the next 15 years, the carbon blanket surrounding the planet is virtually certain to rise from its current value of 400 parts per million to 420 ppm. But what we achieve — as political citizens, as anti-fossil-fuel activists, and within the businesses where we work — will determine what comes after: whether we can turn the course of civilization, whether the planet will heat up 4 degrees F, or 12 degrees F, within the lifetimes of our children.

The good news is that we don’t need to lay awake at night worrying what to do with our lives. Good work, with profound consequence, is everywhere.

SOURCE LINK: http://grist.org/climate-energy/three-ways-to-change-the-climate-in-2012-and-beyond/

Nuclear energy can help abate global climate change

http://qctimes.com/news/opinion/mailbag/nuclear-energy-can-help-abate-global-climate-change/article_52da0998-fefe-11e1-9cd1-001a4bcf887a.html

According to realclimate.org’s Aug. 26 update on the Arctic sea ice, “We noted earlier that the Arctic sea-ice is approaching a record minimum. The record is now broken, almost a month before the annual sea-ice minima usually is observed, and there is probably more melting in store before it reaches the minimum for 2012 — before the autumn sea-ice starts to form.”

The past 12 months have been the hottest ever in recorded history, nationwide and worldwide. Ice reflects a lot more sunlight back into space than open water does. The melting speeds up global warming.

The change in sea ice causes the jet streams to become wilder, causing more radical weather down here. For agriculture, it means it rains at the wrong time, and there is less food.

Many countries are already having a food crisis. The food crisis will come here if we continue causing more global warming. Over 1,500 U.S. counties are drought disaster areas now. Global warming means no food here by some time just after the middle of this century.

We can do something about global warming. We can convert all fossil-fueled power plants to nuclear.

Fuel subsidy fraud: Court refuses young Tukur, Arisekola-Alao's application to travel

Lagos (WorldStage Newsonline)-- A Lagos High Court in Ikeja on Friday rejected the requests of Mahmud Tukur, son of Peoples Democratic Party (PDP) National Chairman, Alhaji Bamanga Tukur and Abdullahi Alao, son of Ibadan based businessman, Alhaji Abdulazeez Arisekola-Alao, for a leave to travel abroad while their trial over alleged fraud in fuel subsidy collection is ongoing.

Justice Lateefat Folami, a vacation judge, told the accused persons including Felix Ochonogor, who are directors of one of the oil companies indicated for oil subsidy scam, Oil Marketing and Trading Companies (OM&Ts) to wait until their trial judge, Justice Adeniyi Onigbanjo  resume from his annual vacation to hear the application.

The judge while ruling on the application by the trio seeking the permission of her court to travel abroad for Hajj and business trip that she cannot overrule the earlier order granted by the trial courts which adjourned the matter till November 13, 2012.

According to Justice Folami, she cannot grant their application to travel outside the country, since Justice Adeniyi Onigbanjo, who ordered the seizure of their travelling documents did so to ensure that they appear for their trial on the fixed dates.

The court also held that allowing them to travel for Hajj rites which would begin in October will clash with the November dates earlier fixed for trial by the trial Judge and that the dates allegedly meant for their business trip abroad had been overtaken by event.

The accused persons who were arraigned in July by the Economic and Crimes Commission (EFCC) before Justice Adeniyi Onigbanjo over their alleged roles in the Petroleum Support Fund (PSF) fraud were specifically accused of conspiracy, obtaining money under false pretence, forgery and use of false documents.

In their Motion on Notice dated August 14, 2012 before the vacation Judge, the applicants had through their counsel, Olaniran Obele said they need to travel to Paris and London for a business trip.

Specifically, Mahmud, the first applicant wants to travel abroad to attend a board and committee meetings of which he is a director and also intend to perform this year's Hajj.

Ochonogor, the second applicant also want to travel to Paris to enable him attend a bond holder meeting which should have hold last month but was rescheduled to August 27 to enable him attend and explain his present situation before the board.

In their application, they tendered three exhibits comprising Notices of Meetings which they intend to attend both in London and Paris.

Their lawyer had argued before. Justice Folami that the applicants will not abscond should their application be granted, adding that the first applicant's father who is PDP Chairman stood surety for him and he would not want to jeopardise that.

"The second applicant was abroad when they were charged and was called by the first applicant and he came back for his arraignment voluntarily.

"When they were granted administrative bail, the second defendant traveled to Ukraine and did not abscond but came back for his arraignment", he said.

However, opposing the application, EFCC counsel, Rotimi Oyedepo told the court that Justice Onigbanjo's order asking the applicants to drop their International Passport has not been reviewed.

He said there was nothing in the exhibits tendered by the applicants that showed or suggesting to show that the meeting to be attended by the second applicant has been rescheduled.

Subsidy scam trial: court grants bail to suspect

 One of the suspects of fuel subsidy fraud, Oluwaseun Ogunbambo, who was earlier denied bail due to his history of unresolved criminal allegations and multiplicity of identity, on Monday regained his freedom before another judge of a Lagos High Court. This came after the Economic and Financial Crimes Commission (EFCC) filed separate charges of banking fraud against him. The accused allegedly obtained separate loans of N230 million and N430 million from Stanbic IBTC Plc in 2010 with forged documents. Justice Adeniyi Onigbanjo had on August 1 denied Mr Ogunbambo bail after he was arraigned along with Habila Theck and their firm, Fargo Energy Limited, on six counts of fraudulently collecting N976.6m from the Federal Government purportedly as payment for subsidy on importation of petrol. While Mr Theck was granted bail, Mr Ogunbambo’s bail application was refused.

 The accused however was on August 19, released on bail by Justice Lateefat Folami, a vacation judge, who the accused turned to during the original judges’ annual vacation. Mr Ogunbambo had asked Justice Folami for bail on the grounds of health. The judge had granted the bail despite admitting that his grounds of ill health were “unmeritorious”.

 Justice Onigbanjo had ordered that Mr Ogumbambo be remanded in Ikoyi Prisons, saying “his multiple identities and his propensity to get multiple passports each time one was seized,” were weighty enough to warrant the denial of the bail.

 The judge also refused the bail application on the grounds of the accused person’s “previous and unresolved criminal allegations”. Rather than granting bail, Justice Onigbanjo granted an accelerated hearing of the trial, saying the suspect’s criminal history had “cast a huge question” and doubt on his claim that he would not “take flight” and be available to attend trial. Counsel to the EFCC, Rotimi Jacobs, had earlier told the court about the difficulty encountered by the commission in arresting Mr Onigbanjo and charging him to court.

 Mr Jacobs said Nigerian and British passports were seized from him in 2010 when he was granted administrative bail during his investigation for the alleged banking fraud. “He was invited and released on bail but jumped bail and that has stalled the trial since 2010,” he said.

He added that despite the seizure of his passports, Mr Ogunbambo was found to still be travelling abroad. The EFCC lawyer had said, “Even if he deposits a passport with this court, this will not guarantee his presence because he will go and get another one. “He uses different names and changes names as he likes. “In the UK passport his name is Benson Oladayo Adetokunbo Shobowale. But in this case, he is Oluwaseun Ogunbambo.” Apart from using forged documents to obtain loans from the Stanbic Bank, Mr Ogunbambo was also said to have been caught with cash at an Irish airport, a matter which he said was still under investigation.

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Ethanol Industry Scam

Sophie Saar's Blog - (Redgage) - Oh, this one just keeps getting better and better...

The EPA — or what I like to call the Environmental Pawn Agency (because since its inception in 1970, it has served as an excellent pawn for whoever happens to be squatting at the White House at the time) — decided a few years back that it would allow higher concentrations of corn-based ethanol in gasoline.

Why would the EPA do that?

Two reasons:

1. Big Ag worked around the clock and “donated” millions of dollars to various campaigns to ensure that this particular welfare scam keeps funneling taxpayer dollars away from our paychecks and into the hands of ADM, Cargill, and Monsanto — the latter being Obama's “inside guys” who continue to dictate agricultural policy. Who do you really think drafts the farm bill?
2. The government is terrified by the reality that this country's economy is directly tied to its reliance on something that it absolutely must get from other countries, including those who seek to destroy what they lovingly refer to as the "Western Imperialist regime"... and a little extra corn in the tank provides a bit of breathing room.

But not everyone's doing cartwheels over these higher concentrations of corn-based ethanol...

A handful of grocery associations, petroleum groups, and automakers actually filed suit against the EPA back in 2010 in an effort to challenge the new rule...

They came up short as the U.S. Court of Appeals sided with the EPA last week, citing the various groups' inability to prove that they've been harmed by the increased concentrations that would add another 5% to what's being blended currently.

Some folks claim the court's decision is irrelevant because few will sell the increased blend, as they don't want to be held liable for potential damage to engines caused by these higher blends.

I don't know much about whether or not the higher blends will damage engines.

But I do know that relying on more corn-based ethanol to displace a bit of foreign oil is pretty much the dumbest way to do it.

The Puppet Masters Rejoice

They keep trying to downplay the seriousness of the connection between ethanol production and this year's drought and high food prices.

But the fact is more than 40% of this year's mostly depleted corn crop will be diverted from food and livestock to gas pumps all across the nation.

And now we're hearing Brazil is looking to increase its percentage of ethanol as well — but because mills wouldn't be able to meet demand if the blend is raised this year, they'll be looking to the United States for corn imports...

Oh, the Big Ag puppet masters would love that.

With monocrop reliance and the irresponsible overuse of pesticides and synthetic fertilizers, they'll squeeze every last ounce of nutrients from our once-hearty soil because there's big bucks in biofuels. And Washington always makes good on those welfare checks.

Sure, they'll boast the use of ethanol has reduced oil imports by hundreds of millions of barrels. But if the trade-off is wiping out what little arable land we have left to get a transportation fuel that takes more energy to produce than it delivers, what's the point?

Demand, Demand, Demand

If we're serious about ending our reliance on OPEC, we need to stop acting like this is solely a supply-side problem.

It is not.

Our dependence on foreign oil is just as much a demand-side problem. And the solution to this problem will not be found in using our farmland to grow fuel.

I know we spend a lot of time here at Energy and Capital talking about things like domestic oil and gas production as a way for us to limit our reliance on OPEC. Certainly a wealth of unconventional liquids operations and enhanced oil recovery technologies can serve to facilitate our migration away from OPEC.

But if we focus solely on supply — and don't take the appropriate measures to curb demand — we'll be running in circles for decades.

Yes, we absolutely need to take full advantage of our domestic oil and gas resources. As I've mentioned in the past, natural gas alone can help us displace 42% of our OPEC oil reliance if we power our trucks and buses with it.

But if the endgame is to send OPEC packing, we absolutely can't ignore the value of affecting demand...

That can be done with a variety of things like expanded mass transit, hybrid and electric vehicles, high-speed rail, and one day, hydrogen fuel cell vehicles.

Look, if we legitimately want to lessen our reliance on foreign oil, and we want to do it responsibly — without raping our farmland and driving food prices up — then all responsible options must be on the table.

These include everything from domestic oil and gas production to the integration of transportation systems that don't rely on an antiquated internal combustion engine.

Moving forward on anything less will never allow us to break the shackles of OPEC.

 source link: http://www.redgage.com/blogs/sophiesaar/ethanol-industry-scam-energy-and-capital.html

Nigeria: Fuel Subsidy - Massive Fraud, Messy Fight

Sophie Saar's Blog (Redgage) - Finance Minister Ngozi Okonjo-Iweala's resolve to isolate fraudulent oil marketers in payment of fuel subsidy, based on a report of an investigation panel, had a backlash last week. Though NUPENG has returned to work, there are fears that difficult times lay ahead.

A typical scenario of how pockets government funds were pumped into the tanks of oil marketers in the name of subsidy goes thus: "Conoil imported 19.820 million litres of PMS (petrol) with Form M No.1078673 and mother vessel bill of lading dated 31/08/2011 for which N1,532,684,020.31 was paid subsidy.

This payment was made ahead of external auditors' verification in line with the PPPRA procedure; however external auditors did not subsequently verify the claim. Discussion with PPPRA showed this payment was yet to be verified by the external auditors due to their error in sending the verification request to Akintola Williams Delloite instead of Adekanola & Co who witnessed the vessel discharge. Akintola Williams Delloite returned the request unsigned and before they could be sent to Adekanola for their signature, both firms had been disengaged from further participation in the subsidy payment process.

"Differences were noted between the observed volume of litres in the shore tank certificates and the volume in litres used to calculate the subsidies claimed. This is in violation of the requirement of the PSF guidelines that the volume of products for which subsidy is paid should be paid based on duly signed shore tank certificates. The total value of the overpayment in this respect was N33,383,300.79."

The scene above was real, according to the report of the Federal Ministry of Finance subsidy claims verification committee headed by the Group Managing Director of Access Bank Plc, Mr Aigboje I. Aig-Imoukhuede. Here we observe the lack of due diligence on the part of the Petroleum Products Pricing and Regulatory Agency (PPPRA), which made payments when external auditors and independent inspectors had not certified the transaction. Apart from instances involving Conoil mentioned above, the committee said that there were many transactions in which the total subsidy payment of N121,897,757,962.56 was made "In the absence of duly signed shore tank certificates, it appears that processing and payments of subsidy claims were based on fictitious receipts of products."

A typical example of another kind of fraud perpetuated in the subsidy regime is captured on Page 32 of the report thus: "There is no proof of the existence of the mother vessel of bill of lading or the daughter vessel for some transactions for which subsidy was paid. The total value of subsidy paid in respect of these transactions was N11,762,998,358.89. It appears that the PPPRA paid subsidies for products that were not supplied and/or delivered... The Lloyds Lists Intelligence (as of June 1, 2012) revealed that the mother vessels for the following (16 transactions mentioned) were not in the location claimed at the time that the daughter vessels supposedly loaded from them... This implied that subsidy was paid on PMS that might not have been delivered. Subsidy claims were paid on the transactions for a total of N21,361,071,313.24..."

These few lines from the 92-page report by the probe committee can evoke tears down the cheeks of poverty-stricken Nigerians. They read like the report of the House of Representatives Ad Hoc committee on fuel subsidy fraud headed by Farouk Lawan. Though the report is tainted with the $620,000 allegedly bribery, Aig-Imoukhuede's investigation has lend credence to the fraud that attended to the fuel subsidy regime. At least, 25 oil marketers have been indicted in the report (see table).

Incidentally, the strike action by the National Union of Petroleum and Natural Gas (NUPENG), which paralysed activities in Abuja was seen as a support for oil marketers, many of whom have questions to answer over the sums they received for petroleum products they imported (and may not have imported). The Minister of Finance, Dr Ngozi Okonjo-Iweala, who seems determined to ensure that the stolen subsidy funds are repaid by oil marketers, demonstrated her resilience throughout the period NUPENG's strike lasted. According to her, those behind the strike were indicted oil companies. In her word, "The firms are being investigated based on evidence that they may have engaged in fraudulent activities under the fuel subsidy regime." She added that while the government said it will do its best to encourage honest efforts by genuine companies engaged in fuel importation, it added that "we will not fall for the cheap blackmail of indicted marketers who are using all kinds of subterfuge to escape sanctions. We would also like to stress that marketers with legitimate and unencumbered claims have been paid and will continue to be paid."

The minister disclosed that government was in discussion with companies with infractions which were relatively minor to ensure quick resolution, adding that, "for marketers with a negative balance with government, i.e. they owe government more in refunds than government owes them, the Aig-Imoukhuede committee will accelerate review of their documents after the Sallah break so that their claims can be processed and settled, if cleared without further delay... We want to make it clear that government will fully investigate their activities and if found guilty, bring them to book and recover all public funds fraudulently obtained in the guise of fuel subsidy claims."

OIL MARKETERS' REACTION OF SUBSIDY FRAUD ALLEGATIONS

In spite of the fact that Mr Aig-Imoukhuede's report has been hailed in many quarters, some oil marketers have faulted it. For instance, in an advertorial in several newspapers, MRS Oil and Gas Co Ltd complained that the report lacked thoroughness as some vital verifications were not conducted before the committee came up with its report.

It argued thus: "Following the invitation and appearance, our company submitted all relevant documents requested by the committee and to the best of our knowledge and understanding, there was no single document that was outstanding after our appearance and no single issue was left unanswered. In fact, all our submissions were wholly accepted by the committee. To the greatest chagrin and bewilderment of our company, the committee in its report recklessly and in total disregard of all documents submitted before it, remarked in Appendix 1, S.N 242 of the said report that "subsidy payments for which there were no shipping documents or evidence of payments for the products in foreign exchange" totalling N6,086,531,305.33 admitted that "all required documents were submitted, but swift confirmation to be provided." The panel then remarked that the issue should be "referred for further investigation," but this was quite clearly disregarded and the committee went on to recommend it as "likely fraudulent case for criminal investigation."

Arguing that it submitted all the required documents to warrant the subsidy it received, MRS said, "It is important to note that providing evidence of sales proceeds is not a requirement under the PSF scheme. However, we went ahead to provide our bank statements to the committee to demonstrate our transparency and resolve to clear any doubts the committee may have had, but this was still disregarded."

It is not clear how many oil marketers have challenged the committee, but from the prosecution of some of the Chief Executive Officer (CEOs) of some oil companies by the Economic and Financial Crimes Commission (EFCC), many of them may have actually committed the fraud.

NUPENG'S ROLE IN THE SUBSIDY PALAVER

NUPENG had cut supplies of petroleum products to Abuja for the period the strike lasted with warnings that the action could snowball into a national strike if the Federal Government refused to implement the recommendations of a communiqué it signed with the unions and other stakeholders.

The communiqué was signed on July 27th, 2012 and in it government agreed to resume payment of 2012 petroleum subsidy arrears, look into non-payment of salaries and threat of job losses for union members, state of the nation's refineries and roads, address labour issues in Shell Petroleum Development Company (SPDC) and Chevron and the restructuring of loan of depot owners and oil marketers.

However, close to three weeks later and without implementation, according to NUPENG, it was left with no choice but to "persuade" government to honour its agreement.

But there is a new twist to the whole matter and maybe also a first in the practice of trade unionism; part of NUPENG's demand is for government to restructure loan obtained by marketers in a purely private business matter. Also perplexing to most Nigerians is NUPENG's initial silence on what government should do with oil marketers and companies indicted in the oil subsidy scam.

Many Nigerians were taken aback and had questioned the rationale behind these positions taken by NUPENG with many wondering if the industrial action was really about workers or if the union was playing the role of an attack dog for some undisclosed interests.

While the strike lasted, Minister of Finance Ngozi Okonjo Iweala had severally stated that the action was orchestrated by interests bent on truncating the investigation and prosecution of those found culpable in the oil subsidy scam.

A union leader, who wanted to remain anonymous, also raised questions with regards to the demands of NUPENG in a private chat with Sunday Trust.

He said "it is a shameful thing when a union is unable to draw the line between unionism and selfish political interests. We have become the laughing stock of Nigerians and worse than that, everywhere you turn to are insults: on the pages of newspapers, on social media, we have been bombarded with accusations and even curses."

The union leader who was also part of the negotiations added "I want to tell you authoritatively that NUPENG has lost it and it lost it the day it admitted oil marketers as members. How can you have employers and employees in the same union, what cause do you think the union will fight? The union has been hijacked and it needs to retrace its steps, if it is serious about defending workers or even remaining relevant to itself and Nigerians. This nonsense must stop."

However, when Sunday Trust contacted NUPENG's President Igwe Achese on the allegations, he said it was "a wrong information which must be cleared," stressing that the reason for the strike was basically to safeguard jobs because marketers were owing drivers up to five months salaries. There're fears of shutting down depots which could lead to shedding of about 15,000 jobs, including those of filling station workers."

He said people were sponsored to run a smear campaign on the legitimate demands of the union which solely seeks to protect workers.

"About 15,000 are going to lose their jobs because marketers are shutting down their depots and the purpose of our strike was for government to tell these people not to sack our workers.

"We went on that strike and when we discussed with a team of government and marketers, we discovered that marketers were agitating in their demands that government owed them and so they cannot continue operations.

"And we said government must secure the jobs of 15,000 Nigerians who are about losing their jobs. We reacted to the insensitivity of government."

He explained that the union was fully in support of the prosecution of subsidy thieves but stressed that their accomplices in government were left out in the trial.

"These issues are arising because of government's insensitivity towards making sure that the refineries of the country are optimally working. We say the refineries must work.

"Government should make our refineries to work and then stop subsidy payment but if they don't want the refineries to work, then they should continue with subsidy payment. These are the two different arguments.

"If we are in shock of such amount of money paid as subsidy, take that money. In fact, if half of that money in question goes into rehabilitating the four refineries of this country to bring them to the optimum capacity, it will be good.

"Nigeria is just wasting her money and here we are. You want people to suffer because you are also involved in fraudulent activities at the ministerial level: officers who are in charge. You ask yourself who approves payment, who signs those documents, is it me, is it you? Is it not the same government officials?

"So, where are the government officials that are being prosecuted in this matter? Nigerians must get it right. When you say something, few individuals will be sponsored to come and make noise on something they don't even know about."

Well, the strike had come and gone but only the next meeting of the stakeholders in two weeks time will determine if there is more pain to come or not.

For Abuja residents, it was nightmare while it lasted while those in the states girded themselves for the worst, with some places in the neighbouring Nasarawa State feeling the same heat if not more than some residents of Abuja.

On Thursday 23rd, August 2012 when the strike was called off, Minister of Labour and Productivity Emeka Wogu, who read the communiqué, said all parties agreed to work together towards finding a lasting solution to all the issues in dispute.

Wogu said the Federal Government and the unions agreed that all those accused in the fuel subsidy scam should endeavour to submit to the ongoing verification exercise and confirmed that the Federal Government has been paying all verified claims and will continue to pay all claims verified.

He explained that the meeting set up two subcommittees to respectively look into issues concerning unfair labour practices in SPDC and of penalty clauses in the PPPRA rules.

According to him, the government agreed to provide platform for all critical stakeholders to meet and discuss efforts being made in the provision of infrastructure and rehabilitation of the refineries with view to find a way forward.

He stated that depot owners and oil marketers agreed to keep their facilities open and pay the salaries of their workers, stressing that "the meeting agreed to meet in two weeks to review the status of implementation.

NUPENG President Comrade Igwe Achese told reporters that the outcome of the meeting was satisfactory and expressed hope that two weeks were enough for all concerned to reach an amicable resolution. Acting president of the NLC Comrade Adewusi also echoed NUPENG's sentiments.

WHAT FUTURE FOR AVAILABILITY OF OIL IN THE COUNTRY?

Speaking with Sunday Trust, the former chairman of Depot and Petroleum Products Marketers Association (DAPPMA), Key Sylverius Okoli said marketers do not have the money to finance importation of petrol. They rely on banks. Unfortunately, since the commencement of the probes, banks have suspended granting credit facilities.

"As a result, many of our colleagues have not even concluded the importation of products under the second quarter allocation, not to talk of third quarter due to lack of funds and failure to secure loans from banks as a result of the N200 billion outstanding owed by the federal government," he explained.

He said if government fails to open letter of credit for the marketers, they will not import. "What we have in stock presently is almost exhausted and if nothing is done urgently to beef up supply, Nigeria will again witness major fuel scarcity as supplies from the Nigerian National Petroleum Corporation (NNPC) alone cannot meet the current spate of consumption in the country," he stated.

Okoli who is also the Chief Executive Officer West Africa Bitumen Company (WABECO) lamented that the delay in payments has led to accrual of lots of interest from banks they borrowed the funds from, adding that the neglect has caused marketers great pains. "If we suspend operations, certainly there will be problem because the fuel we bring to augment that of NNPC will not be there," he stressed.

The DAPPMA leader said inability to settle led to significant rate of interest and exchange rate differential coverage, which has to be claimed with the participating companies and reimbursed by the federal government.

He said all concerned oil marketers have served a notice with their intention to shun importation of products in the third quarter.

He explained, "The country imports the bulk of its petrol needs through a subsidy regime. The current business environment in the sector makes it necessary for all of us to bring to attention associated with government, factors that inhibit our chance to import petrol in Q3 2012.

"Due to the fact issuance of Sovereign Debt Information covering balance 2011 and present 2012 PMS import transactions were initially severely delayed now currently suspended, we have massive outstanding, verified and unpaid subsidy claims over N200 billion from the federal government.

"Non-reimbursement of the subsidy claims impairs the flexibility of any company to meet its obligations for the banks for loans advanced for the purpose of importing PMS under the scheme for your Nigerian public."

A joint statement was issued by the oil marketing companies, including Major Oil Marketers Association of Nigeria (MOMAN), Depot and Petroleum Products Marketers Association (DAPPMA), Independent Petroleum Marketers Association of Nigeria (IPMAN), and Jetties and Petroleum Tank Farms Owners of Nigeria (JEPTFON) called for urgent payment of the subsidy claims. The statement which was signed by Obafemi Olawore, Executive Secretary MOMAN, Mike Osatuyi, National Secretary IPMAN, Ikem Ohia, Secretary DAPPMA and Enoch Kanawa, Executive Secretary JEPTFON, said the association controls 90 percent of functional facilities and market share of the downstream sector of the petroleum industry.

According to them, their members, who own over 25,000 filling stations, have tank farms and storage facilities with about 2.5 billion litres and with dealers in excess of 25,000 and employ about 300,000 station attendants and over 100,000 drivers and mates. They said there are about 100,000 direct staff and several millions of indirect staff such as contractors and peddlers.

The oil marketers warned government and the general public of the impending fuel crisis that will follow shut down of their operations should the Ministry of Finance fail to reimburse them their subsidy claims since January.

They said interest rate has risen to a minimum of 22 percent while interest charge in naira stands at N3.7 billion per month.

The associations said: "Our member-companies are under the threat of being driven into extinction due to the non-payment of the huge sums of legitimate money due to them that have been verified under the subsidy scheme.

"It is important to stress that our members financed the importation on behalf of the federal government with loans borrowed from Nigerian banks at ridiculous interest rates which are presently due. Further delays will result in additional charges that may completely erode our slim margins allowed under the scheme.

"We humbly call the attention of the federal government to the above and strongly appeal that all our outstanding payments be made immediately. We wish to reiterate our support for government's efforts towards sanitising the PSF scheme but take exception to a selective payment process where majority are deemed guilty as a result of an investigation that has lasted seven months."

source link: http://www.redgage.com/blogs/sophiesaar/nigeria-fuel-subsidy-massive-fraud-messy-fight.html

Chevron fire a step to more biofuel attention?

http://solamonalternativeenergy.com/chevron-fire-a-step-to-more-biofuel-attention/


The only crude distillation unit of Chevron Corp’s refinery in Richmond, California is facing up to 6 months of shutdown after a fire broke out there last week.

The investigators and Chevron itself have refused to provide any timeframe for resuming the plant’s full operations at California’s second largest plant following the fire last week in its crude unit. Apparently, investigators have discovered severe damage in the pipe racks, heater and cooling towers.

According to reports Chevron submitted to the pollution regulators last week, the unit is expected to be shut down for several months, following the blaze at a pump which leaked a diesel-like substance. Meanwhile, a spokesperson from Chevron has insisted that there is only one crude oil unit at their plant and it was kept shuttered while the other parts of the plant operated.




Chevron is still undecided whether to continue operating its secondary units that are running on feedstock.

A small leak in the pipe was readily found by engineers of Chevron — with the alert as something that may have just saved the Contra Costa Country from numerous casualties.

“It was good they found the leak early … the sooner you find the (leak) and ignition point, the less fuel there is to burn at the ignition point.”

What the public and the investigators want to examine is why did Chevron not replace the part of the old pipeline that leaked when it was discovered last year during a maintenance check of the plant.

“The crude unit is still off-limits because of safety concerns”, where probes are conducted so as to determine the exact cause of the fire, although corrosion is highly suspected as the cause of the leak.

And as the plant is only producing gasoline at half of its normal capacity, the decreased output of the refinery has negatively affected the gas and energy prices as it increased from the average cost per gallon of USD 3.86 to USD 4.07.

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About | Solamon Alternative Energy

Solamon Alternative Energy offers insight and provide the public with a deeper understanding on the availability and viability of alternative fuel sources that can be used instead of the usual oil and petroleum we have today.

Energy expenditure is not only in energy we use for industrial, residential and commercial purposes, but also on the automobile sector. It is undeniable that the number of automobiles around the world alone (and their subsequent use of fuel) is already a very large contributor in polluting nature.

The possible options we’d like to see the governments consider for use in the future and are being explored in the present are fuel cells, biofuel and batteries.

Use Of Biofuel In The Military Faces Tough Opposition | Solamon Alternative Energy

Barack Obama’s administration has backed the use of biofuels in powering its military, seeing it as a chance to immune itself from sharp fuel price fluctuations, especially after the Navy’s successful test of the technology.

But despite their efforts, the US Congress could stop the Defense Department from investing in alternative fuel until the price has become competitive to conventional sources.

The Navy has made its first attempts in “going green” in 2009 and made tests on the jet engines on the biofuel mix in 2010. However, the project was questioned in 2011 when the Navy reportedly spent USD 450,000 on biofuels (composed of chicken fat and algae), costing around USD 15 per gallon, which is quite expensive compared to the USD 3.60 for the usual fuel.



The plan was met with strong criticism for its being very costly. Moreover, the Department of Defense was reportedly obliged to implement budget cuts by reducing the number of its personnel, aircraft, ships and important military programs.

McCain insists the program is simply too expensive, saying “I was just reading, it’s the cost of one destroyer – $1.8bn extra – they want to spend on this green technology. The fact is, I just do not believe that we need to spend that kind of money on it.”

“Absolutely it was worthwhile to show that biofuels can compete and can be used in every single thing that we do in the navy. This shows that it’s operational. Everything before now has been a test. This shows we can use biofuels and other alternative energies in an operational manner,” said Navy Secretary Ray Mabus.
Mabus is trying to reassure Republicans that there will be no big purchases of such biofuel until the time it becomes cost-competitive with conventional aviation fuel.

As they said, they only have to find a way to get local-made fuel which has a stable price and could be competitive with the usual oil.

Mabus also said that the test exercise will prove for the first time that aircraft carriers and jets can run with advanced biofuel as their energy sources.

For the carrier strike test, the Navy bought 450,000 gallons of alternative fuels amounting to USD 12 million (USD 27 a gallon) but because they were mixed with the conventional petroleum in a 50-50 blend, the final cost is roughly USD 15 a gallon. A strike force of 71 jet fighters, transport planes and helicopters set off on a demonstration flight off Hawaii this week using the biofuel mix.

Mabus added, “It was worthwhile to show that biofuels can compete and can be used in every single thing that we do in the Navy. Everything before now has been a test. This shows that we can use biofuels and other alternative energies in an operational manner.”

The modern biofuel used in the Navy vessels is a combination of cooking oil and algae made by Dynamic Fuels of Lousiana and Solazyme of San Francisco.

After the seemingly successful test exercise, the secretary of agriculture announced that the next stage would be to foster a local biofuel sector that is making fuel from inedible plant parts and other non-food stocks.
Mabus said that the Navy is still pushing through its aim of using alternative fuel for half of its requirements by 2020.

Auto Industry Sees Big Potential For Fuel Cells | Solamon Alternative Energy

Carmakers are recently starting to invest heavily on fuel cells with several of them already launching models.

Suzuki and Intelligent Energy have teamed up to create SMILE FC System Corp that will develop air-cooled fuel cell systems.

According from the announcement, their joint venture also consists of a non-exclusive license agreement that will give Suzuki the access to IE’s fuel cell technology to be employed on their vehicles. On the other hand, IE stands to benefit from the production expertise of Suzuki and the Japanese supply chain.

It’s indeed a huge step towards the commercialization of auto fuel-cell systems. In fact, IE’s air-cooled fuel cell system is in the Burgman scooter that became the world’s first such vehicle to get the European Union’s WVTA (Whole Vehicle Type Approval) in 2011.

Strong interest in fuel cell cars from the industrial sector and government departments in Korea, China and Japan have seen a promising growth.

For instance, General Motors has already allotted USD 2 billion in R&D and is slated to introduce fuel cell cars in Europe and America on 2016.

According to a prominent oil firm, fuel cell vehicles can possibly make up 40% of the global auto market by 2051. Automakers on their part, are saying that vehicles that run on natural gas might end up as only 5% of the total global number by 2040.

The British government has already introduced a new system supported by the automobile industry that will increase the progress of fuel car development.

Daimler, Toyota, Hyundai and General Motors all support the UK H2 Mobility in coming up with a plan to make fuel cell cars commercially available on 2015.

Other supporters are Nissan, Tata, ITM Power, BOC, Air Products, Air Liquide, Scottish and Southern Energy.

Hydrogen fuel cell vehicles are gradually being known as one of the effective alternatives as the world moves to a reduction of carbon emissions in the future. They are very efficient as they can be fueled in a few minutes and does not have any tail-pipe emission but can still travel an equal range to that of the usual combustion engine.

The involved government departments and firms are set to confer in several months to plan the development of hydrogen fuel cell automobiles before the year ends.

According to a report, fuel-cell prices on a variety of applications can be expected to fall in the future, removing a crucial barring factor for the world to adopt it.