Feb. 17 - Remember 1973? If you do, there are plenty of reasons to wish you didn’t. Chief among them (right after leisure suits) would be the oil crisis that began in October. The Middle Eastern OPEC nations stopped exports to the United States and other Western nations just as stateside oil production was peaking.  The artificial shortage that followed had devastating effects: The price of gas quadrupled in the United States, climbing from 25 cents to more than a dollar, in a matter of months. The American Automobile Association reported that in one isolated week up to 20 percent of the country’s gas stations had no fuel; in some places motorists were forced to wait in line for two to three hours to gas up. The number of homes built with gas heat dropped. 

But that was the 1970s and this is now, right? Not according to David Goodstein. Saudi princes and SUV drivers may do well to read his new book, “Out of Gas: The End of the Age of Oil” (W.W. Norton), in which Goodstein argues that our oil-dependent civilization is in for a crude awakening when the world’s oil supply really begins to run out—possibly within a few decades. “As we learned in 1973, the effects of an oil shortage can be immediate and drastic, while it may take years, perhaps decades, to replace the vast infrastructure that supports the manufacture, distribution, and consumption of the products of the 20 million barrels of oil we Americans alone gobble up each day,” he writes.

Goodstein’s book is not a happy read, but an important one. In layman’s terms, he explains the science behind his prediction and why other fossil fuels might not do the trick when the wells run dry. Goodstein, a physicist and vice-provost at the California Institute of Technology, recently spoke with NEWSWEEK’s Brian Braiker about the fundamental principles of oil supply and demand, and whether civilization can survive without fossil fuels. Excerpts:

NEWSWEEK: This is scary stuff. You’re saying that oil production will soon peak.

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911: 9/11 Panel Head Assails Delay (Inquiry Might Have to Be Limited)

posted by admin on Thursday February 19, @06:15PM

Chairman Warns That Inquiry Might Have to Be Limited

The independent commission investigating the Sept. 11, 2001, attacks will have to consider scaling back the scope of its inquiry and limiting public hearings unless Congress agrees by next week to give the panel more time to finish its work, its chairman said yesterday.

Former New Jersey governor Thomas H. Kean (R) also said in an interview that the commission has not decided whether to accept an offer from the White House under which President Bush would meet privately with a small delegation, rather than with the panel as a whole.

Kean's comments indicate that two of the most important issues facing the 10-member bipartisan panel have yet to be resolved just three months before its current deadline of May 27. The National Commission on Terrorist Attacks Upon the United States, created in late 2002 after months of fierce congressional debate, has been hobbled by a series of disputes with the Bush administration over access to documents and other issues.

The White House reversed course earlier this month and announced it would support a two-month extension of the commission's deadline, to July 26, with the panel shutting down a month later. But House Speaker J. Dennis Hastert (R-Ill.) has said he is opposed to any delay. Many Republicans fear that a later deadline would put the release of a potentially damaging report on the terrorist attacks in the middle of the presidential campaign.

more…
http://www.washingtonpost.com

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Poor to Put 'Bushville' Tent City at NY Convention

posted by admin on Thursday February 19, @05:21PM

By Grant McCool

NEW YORK (Reuters) - A group fighting poverty announced plans on Thursday to erect a tent city called "Bushville" during the Republican Party convention in August, one of several demonstrations expected in a summer of political protest in New York.

The Poor People's Economic Human Rights Campaign will put up the tents for five days before the Aug. 30-Sept. 2 meeting, which will nominate President Bush to run for a second four-year term in the Nov. 2 election.

The group said it will also demonstrate at the Democratic Party's national convention in Boston at the end of July, but had no plans to set up a symbolic shantytown there.

"We will be marching because both Democrats and Republicans alike have failed to address our real life and death issues," said spokeswoman Cheri Honkala. She said the political establishment neglected poor and homeless people and issues such as health care, housing and farm workers' rights.

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Scientists Accuse White House of Distorting Facts

posted by admin on Wednesday February 18, @07:10PM

By JAMES GLANZ
Published: February 18, 2004

The Bush administration has deliberately and systematically distorted scientific fact in the service of policy goals on the environment, health, biomedical research and nuclear weaponry at home and abroad, a group of about 60 influential scientists, including 20 Nobel laureates, said in a statement issued today.

The sweeping charges were later discussed in a conference call with some of the scientists that was organized by the Union of Concerned Scientists, an independent organization that focuses on technical issues and has often taken stands at odds with administration policy. The organization also issued a 37-page report today that it said detailed the accusations.

Together, the two documents accuse the administration of repeatedly censoring and suppressing reports by its own scientists, stacking advisory committees with unqualified political appointees, disbanding government panels that provide unwanted advice, and refusing to seek any independent scientific expertise in some cases.

"Other administrations have, on occasion, engaged in such practices, but not so systematically nor on so wide a front," the statement from the scientists said, adding that they believed the administration had "misrepresented scientific knowledge and misled the public about the implications of its policies."

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International: Musharraf retains ties with N Korea despite nuclear scandal

posted by admin on Wednesday February 18, @06:45PM

By Andrew Ward in Seoul
Published: February 19 2004 4:00 | Last Updated: February 19 2004 4:00

Diplomats in Seoul said the US was privately putting pressure on Pakistan to provide information about Mr Khan's dealings with North Korea, to strengthen its negotiating position in next week's talks. "The big question is how much information has the US got from Pakistan?" said a senior Asian official.

"Washington needs to present some evidence that proves the HEU programme beyond doubt. "I am worried that the talks could be derailed by a clash over HEU."

Pyongyang's denials that it possesses an HEU programme have emerged as a serious obstacle to the diplomatic process because the US will not accept any settlement to end the nuclear crisis unless it includes dismantlement of the uranium enrichment facilities.

North Korea admits operating a plutonium-based nuclear programme and has offered to freeze it in return for economic rewards from the US. But Pyongyang has refused to discuss the alleged HEU programme.

It was the US allegation in October 2002 that North Korea was developing a clandestine HEU programme that caused the collapse of a 1994 arms-control deal, under which the plutonium-based facilities had been frozen. Since then, North Korea has withdrawn from the nuclear non-proliferation treaty and resumed production and reprocessing of plutonium, with some estimates that Pyongyang could now possess enough nuclear material for up to eight bombs.

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International: My pact is with Germany, Chirac tells Blair

posted by admin on Wednesday February 18, @06:04PM

Tony Blair's strategic ambition to position Britain as an equal partner with France and Germany at the heart of an expanded Europe was publicly rebuffed at the Berlin summit last night by President Jacques Chirac.

With the prime minister a few feet away as the EU's "big three" grappled to generate fresh momentum for the sluggish European economy, Mr Chirac insisted that the Franco-German relationship is "very specific" - and not for export.

"It is not something that can be transposed or exported in the short term. It is a very intense relationship which is illustrated by regular contacts, daily contacts between government and public officials," he reminded Mr Blair.

With TV cameras on him Mr Blair took the first chance he could to say he "totally agrees about the Franco-German relationship. It is a very specific relationship". But the three countries can and will work closely together for the common benefit of all Europe, he said. "There should not be any sensitivity about this, any sense of exclusivity," Mr Blair emphasised.

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