In The Maine News

maineyankee said:

So your answer I take it would be to take it off the "Futures Market", in which a lot of commodities are exchanged worldwide. I wonder what ramifications that would cause on the global economy, as I would believe that each country would then be in a price war of sorts. That def would cause the closing of OPEC, and would lead to Oil/Gas Wars with neighboring countries, sort of like what we have going here in the states where a dealer calls the other and asks what they are charging for gas/oil for the day. Very interesting ... Thanks as always Tet for the post

MaineYankee

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LOL answer? What answer? I never said I had an answer

unohu69 said:

The oil issues were created by the Gov... EPA. Anyone wanna look up how many oil refineries were shutdown in this country over the last 35+ yrs, oil supply isnt the problem, increased government regulations caused our manufacturing industry to drop off. hence why we no longer make shit for steel, gasoline, and other hard goods.

we have gone from a commodity producer to a service provider.

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That is so true Uno ... I am very interested in this "Sand Oil" that Exxon and the rest of them keep yapping about in their ads ... I think perhaps Ethanol would be a far better answer to the US to keep away from "Foreign Oil".

Thanks for the post

MaineYankee

I have read that ethanol production, even at the relatively low levels we have today, have already had some effect on food prices and availability with corn being diverted to energy uses. I do not know how true that is.

What pisses me off is American oil companies sell oil to other countries. That makes no sense to me personally. We import oil to replace what we exported already. WTF is up with that. I urge everyone to research what companies in your area sell all American gas, and buy from them. Stop giving our money to people who want to destroy us. Common sense? I would think so.

It is a world oil market. I think the reason one might be using oil and oil products from further away when such commodities are available closer has more to do with distribution channels of individual oil corps. It is essentially a global pool though. And price differences have more to do with taxes than supply and demand.

right, it was explained to me that poor countries couldnt compete with larger countries. so basically if we didnt buy their oil then they wouldnt have an economy. so yeah we shoot ourselves in the foot just so a one legged man has a chance in the race with us. When realistically we can just go conquer their ass and take it.

People will say "oh you cant do that its not right". well it worked for thousands of years before, and no we arent any more civilized then our ancestors. We had war then, we have war now. no different. technology is not civilization.

now im not for conquering anyone, just saying people like to pick and choose morals when it suits them.

tet1953 said:

Much of the increase in oil prices comes from speculation, not normal supply and demand. Something ought to be done about that.

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Very true. Oil is not a commodity in the traditional sense.

Tet - the problem with ethanol is that it takes more energy to produce the corn than you get from the resulting ethanal. That doesn't take into account the normal environmental degradation from corn production, such as soil depletion and erosion.

There is no future in any kind of carbon based fuel. I'm at the point where i think that nuclear power is a better option than carbon based fuels. We'd need a lot of Fukushima's to equal the devastation we are currently staring down.

Maine Brookies said:

Tet - the problem with ethanol is that it takes more energy to produce the corn than you get from the resulting ethanal. That doesn't take into account the normal environmental degradation from corn production, such as soil depletion and erosion.

There is no future in any kind of carbon based fuel. I'm at the point where i think that nuclear power is a better option than carbon based fuels. We'd need a lot of Fukushima's to equal the devastation we are currently staring down.

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I have been in favor of nuclear as long as I can remember. Fukashima was due to poor site location more than anything else. The plants withstood the earthquakes pretty well, I understand.
The only problem I have with nuke is that it was supposed to be "too cheap to meter." What happened to that? Regulation, no doubt.

Question? What was the reason to take down Maine Yankee in the 90's? And also, I read in the online Morning Sentinel this morning concerning the natural gas situation in the State. It seems that this will def be the way of the future, which IMO, is a little bit too late. We should have been doing this in the 50's and 60's ... however, with the lapse in maintaining our infrastructure as of late ... We are probably blessed in a way.

MaineYankee ( Sig is of the Baseball Team, and not affiliated with the "Topple of Maine Yankee" in Wiscasset

maine yankee wasn't safe..

"A lengthy Nuclear Regulatory Commission investigation started in 1995, following allegations of safety problems at the plant. The NRC staff identified so many problems that Maine Yankee Atomic Power Co. decided "it would be too costly to correct these deficiences to the extent required by the NRC and decided to shut the plant down".[1]
The eight-year $500 million decommissioning process spanned from 1997 until 2005.[4] In 2000, the first structures were gutted out by workers. In 2003, the reactor pressure vessel was shipped to Barnwell, South Carolina via barge. Finally, in 2004, the facility's containment building was brought down by explosives.
As of 2010, questions remain about the final disposal of the plant's nuclear waste, following the scrapping of the planned national depository. "

as for is nuclear better than oil, its tough saying not knowing. we have a lot of data on how bad combustion engines have been for our environment, much much more data than we have on what fukushima.. I think human kinds aspirations for energy is higher than our supply.. the answer is sustainable living: geo-thermal heat sincs, solar, wind, tidal current power genartors, more public transit, more public transit for 16 wheelers.. to many little things for most people to consider so everyone talks about huge changes.. personaly i don't know if a nuclear plant is safer than a coal.
I do think this keystone sand oil is a major risky project. it shows how low on oil the world really is, since these companies wouldn't touch this place 20 years ago and now they fight for their lives to dig it and pipeline it out..

no time for proof reading, sorry

Maine Yankee closed at the request of CMP. It was too expensive to maintain.

The problem with Fukushima was NOT location - at least not proximity to the ocean (the most common location critique). It was lack of regulation, specifically not making the plant replace aging parts because of the required down time. The safety precautions would have been sufficient had they not failed due to mechanical failure.

The too cheap to meter claim was corporate smoke up the ass that was obvious bullshit. Another important thing to realize when ragging on regulation - no federal regulation passes over the objection of the industry it affects unless that industry OK's it. For example - Dodd-Frank ("re-regulation" of the financial industry) was watered down to the point of ineffectiveness before passage.

Nuke plants are built to withstand earthquakes, and Fukashima did. As I understand it, it was the tsunami that did it in. I am not sure that compliance with any regulation could have saved it from that. Hence, the location critique.

tet1953 said:

Nuke plants are built to withstand earthquakes, and Fukashima did. As I understand it, it was the tsunami that did it in. I am not sure that compliance with any regulation could have saved it from that. Hence, the location critique.

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From what i remember, the flood pumps failed. The company had successfully lobbied to have the oversight regulation governing the pumps changed.

Per wikipedia:

"The Fukushima Daiichi nuclear power complex was central to a falsified-records scandal that led to the departure of a number of senior executives of TEPCO. It also led to disclosures of previously unreported problems at the plant,[53] although testimony by Dale Bridenbaugh, a lead GE designer, purports that General Electric was warned of major design flaws in 1976, resulting in the resignations of several designers who protested GE's negligence.[citation needed] In 2002, TEPCO admitted it had falsified safety records at the No. 1 reactor at Fukushima Daiichi. As a result of the scandal and a fuel leak at Fukushima, the company had to shut down all of its 17 nuclear reactors to take responsibility.[54] A power board distributing electricity to a reactor's temperature control valves was not examined for 11 years. Inspections did not cover devices related to cooling systems, such as water pump motors and diesel generators.[55]

In addition to concerns from within Japan, the International Atomic Energy Agency (IAEA) has also expressed concern about the ability of Japan's nuclear plants to withstand seismic activity. At a meeting of the G8's Nuclear Safety and Security Group, held in Tokyo in 2008, an IAEA expert warned that a strong earthquake with a magnitude above 7.0 could pose a "serious problem" for Japan's nuclear power stations.[56]

In March 2006 the Japanese government opposed a court order to close a nuclear plant in the west part of the country over doubts about its ability to withstand an earthquake. Japan's Nuclear and Industrial Safety Agency believed it was "safe" and that "all safety analyses were appropriately conducted".[57]"

Not sure there's a MMJ connection but the headline sure makes it sound that way - Licensing and Regulatory Services does many things, most of which involve oversight of services to the developmentally disabled, mentally ill and elderly.

http://www.kjonline.com/news/DHHS-manager-who-led-medical-marijuana-program-resigns.html

I can personally attest that Catherine Cobb did not have the answers that I was looking for when I called that office in August of 2011. I thought that she was downright rude and insulting ... But I did not report her to the supervisors of that department. The call dealt with my becoming a CareGiver in the future and was before the new laws took effect in September.

I have worked Customer Service for over 4 years, 2 as a team leader for a major distributor in Augusta. had I, or one of my team members barked at a call as she did, they would have been reprimanded by myself as well as the Office Manager.

I have called since then, as recent as last week and talked to John, who is a lot more pleasant than that call was. I am wondering if there will be a follow up story as to the reason for the departure.

Thanks for posting the link MB

The MaineYankee

When i was waiting for my card to be processed a call to Catherine's office expedited the process greatly. In fact, it took that call to her office to get John Thiele to call me back. Once he did call me back everything got resolved very quickly.

Maine Brookies said:

When i was waiting for my card to be processed a call to Catherine's office expedited the process greatly. In fact, it took that call to her office to get John Thiele to call me back. Once he did call me back everything got resolved very quickly.

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It just goes to show you .... "What a Difference A Day Makes".

I am really glad that the call that you made to their office, expedited you receiving the card

The MaineYankee

this catherine cobb instance has me scratching my head (in what works or mmj in maine) i don't trust LePage but he seems to have nothing against MMJ, and she was for sure against mmj she spoke out against it several times during the election.. so her loss aint no loss to us..

i do think it's funny how all the papers tie her to the mmj department, when she was completely against the idea..

I hold 3 cards, my own and 2 caregiver. For each and every one of them, plus one of my patients, it took calls to John (usually more than one) to get action when they had all the documentation they needed within their files. It seems that it often happens that a file which is initially incomplete does not get acted upon when the missing info comes in. It just goes in the file until you bring attention to it by calling. That's what it seemed like for every one of mine.