CKUA

[Rocketred]

The Stock Market Casino is over FOLKS last one too leave turn the lights out

[Rocketred]

THe rout is on who will survive the CRASH

[johnlw]

Nice to know I am not alone:

“We are in a moment of turmoil. Vision is blurred,”

http://siliconinvestor.advfn.com/readmsg.aspx?msgid=25029599

[KastelCo]

Heresy LOL

[johnlw]

Old Farmers Almanac: Global cooling may be underway
By David Tirrell-Wysocki, Associated Press Writer
DUBLIN, N.H. — The Old Farmer's Almanac is going further out on a limb than usual this year, not only forecasting a cooler winter, but looking ahead decades to suggest we are in for global cooling, not warming.

Based on the same time-honored, complex calculations it uses to predict weather, the Almanac hits the newsstands on Tuesday saying a study of solar activity and corresponding records on ocean temperatures and climate point to a cooler, not warmer, climate, for perhaps the next half century.

"We at the Almanac are among those who believe that sunspot cycles and their effects on oceans correlate with climate changes," writes meteorologist and climatologist Joseph D'Aleo. "Studying these and other factor suggests that cold, not warm, climate may be our future."

It remains to be seen, said Editor-in-Chief Jud Hale, whether the human impact on global temperatures will cancel out or override any cooling trend.

"We say that if human beings were not contributing to global warming, it would become real cold in the next 50 years," Hale said.

For the near future, the Almanac predicts most of the country will be colder than normal in the coming winter, with heavy snow from the Ozarks into southern New England. Snow also is forecast for northern Texas, with a warmer than usual winter in the northern Plains.

Almanac believers will prepare for a hot summer in much of the nation's midsection, continuing drought conditions there and wild fire conditions in parts of California, with a cooler-than-normal season elsewhere. They'll also keep the car packed for the 2009 hurricane season, as the Alamanac predicts an active one, especially in Florida.

But Editor Janice Stillman said it's the winter foreasts that attract the most attention, especially this year, with much higher heating prices.

So, in line with the weather and economy forecasts, the Almanac includes information on using wood for heat: the best wood, how to build a fire in a fireplace, whether to use a wood stove and how to stay warm — all winter — with a single log.

Here's the secret, popularized in 1777: Throw a log out an upstairs window, dash down the stairs and outside, retrieve the log, dash upstairs, throw the log out the window and so on.

"Do that until you work up a sweat and you'll be warm all winter," said Stillman.

Last year, the Almanac correctly predicted "above-normal" snowfall in the Northeast — an understatement — and below-normal snowfall in the mid-Atlantic states.

New Hampshire, home of the Almanac, saw the most snow in 134 years and missed an all-time record by 2.6 inches.

Established in 1792, the Old Farmer's Almanac is North America's oldest continuously published periodical. The little yellow magazine still comes with the hole in the corner so it can hang in outhouses.

Boasting 18.5 million readers, this year's edition contains traditional tips on gardening and astronomical information and tide charts so accurate the government considered banning them during World War II, fearing they would help German spies.

The Old Farmer's Almanac is not to be confused with the Maine-based Farmer's Almanac, published "only" since 1818.

The 217th edition also predicts social trends such as sofas that measure body temperature, shopping carts that sound an alarm when filled with too much junk food and closet shelves and hangers that talk to give advice on matching shirts and ties.

"I would really hate that," Hale said. "What do you mean these don't match? Of course they match! You kidding me? Pink goes perfectly well with yellow," he joked.

Upholding its tradition of being "new, useful and entertaining," the Almanac offers tips on how to keep gardens alive, even in snow, and how to keep people alive, even for 100 years. (Some examples: Take it easy, use your brain, laugh and flirt!)

As printed publications fold around the country because of falling readership, Stillman says the Almanac is keeping pace with the 21st Century with a website that offers the printed version and supplements that can be personalized based on a reader's ZIP code.

Hale said the magazine with the familiar features remains popular in a digital age because, well, it's an almanac, and readers have said they like it being predictable.

"'Oh good,' they say, 'Not everything is disappearing."'

This year, after 154 pages of words of wisdom from scientists and other experts, the 2009 edition closes with words from children — letters to God from first- and second-graders.

One, signed Joyce, shows little kids know not to be ungrateful, even when faced with a big disappointment.

"Dear God," she wrote. "Thank you for the baby brother, but what I prayed for was a puppy."

[johnlw]

[johnlw]

ATCO launching water division
GE partnership to focus on infrastructure

Geoffrey Scotton
Calgary Herald

Wednesday, October 01, 2008

Seeking to leverage the growing focus of municipalities, industries and businesses on water, diversified industrial and utility giant ATCO Ltd. said Tuesday it is launching a new division to design, build and operate water and wastewater infrastructure.

"We've been thinking about our future and we've got a tremendous amount of related resources and expertise," ATCO president and chief executive Nancy Southern said in an interview. "We believe that this could be a very good business -- and an important business."

The new unit, ATCO Water, has already reached an agreement to partner with the water technology unit of global business behemoth General Electric Co. -- GE Water & Process Technologies -- to market processes in water purification and recycling. "We see it as a great opportunity not just in Alberta but in the North, north of 60, and internationally as well," said Southern.

Here in Alberta, the government is spending tens of billions of dollars on infrastructure, but with what has been the fastest-growing economy in North America, demand is relentless. In late April, the province unveiled a three-year infrastructure capital spending plan to provide $22.2 billion to municipalities for infrastructure building.

"It's hugely important," said Alberta Infrastructure and Transportation spokesman Jerry Bellikka on Tuesday. "There's a lot of stuff that we're building, but there's a lot more we need to build."

ATCO Water will be headed by Bob Myles, who has held senior roles in ATCO's gas, pipelines, midstream and strategic planning groups. The unit is being shaped to aim for projects linked to so-called P3 structures, or public-private partnerships, and utilize ATCO's substantial network of personnel in utilities, pipelines and related businesses throughout Alberta and around the world.

The P3 structure is increasingly popular in Alberta, particularly for infrastructure such as schools and roads.

ATCO and GE -- which has stated it is enthusiastic about the opportunities in Alberta -- have worked together on many projects in the past, including generating turbines, workforce housing and water treatment for ATCO power plants. Southern said she is hopeful ATCO Water will produce as much as $20 million in after tax earnings in as short a time frame as five years.

ATCO Water will further expand the $3-billion-a-year parent company's reach, which revolves around utilities, energy, logistics, facilities management, technology.

Like much of the existing ATCO network, the new unit will focus on Alberta but also pursue opportunities elsewhere.

"(It's) a natural extension to the range of services we currently offer our customers," said Southern. "The combined technical strength and operational excellence of ATCO Water and GE ensures customers will receive the very best in water services."

The launch of the division, to be a subsidiary of major ATCO natural gas and electricity utilities unit Canadian Utilities Ltd. through its ATCO Energy Solutions arm, was timed to match the opening Tuesday in Edmonton of the annual conference and trade show of the Alberta Urban Municipalities Association.

The announcement's timing allows ATCO to unveil its new business in the home of what has been a major competitor in natural gas and electricity and will be in water: City of Edmonton-owned Epcor Utilities Inc. The announcement speaks to the intense rivalry between the ATCO group and city-owned utilities generally.

Southern and her father, ATCO chairman Ron Southern, have long campaigned to have government-owned entities such as Epcor and City of Calgary-owned Enmax Corp. out of the utilities business, claiming they enjoy unfair advantages.

[johnlw]

CN making headway on Athabasca rail line
Upgrade on track to Fort McMurray 75-per-cent complete; economic slowdown no issue, company says

David Finlayson
The Edmonton Journal

Wednesday, October 01, 2008

EDMONTON - The $135 million upgrade of the former Athabasca Northern rail line to Fort McMurray is 75-per-cent complete, and CN has commitments from oilsands customers to ship sulphur and petroleum coke to Asia, executive vice-president Jim Foote said Tuesday.

Coming the other way will be construction materials and diluent, a petroleum product used to thin out bitumen so it can to move through pipelines, Foote said.

"We see the oilsands area as a great opportunity to grow our business," Foote told the chamber of commerce luncheon.

The upgrade of the 300-kilometre line that CN bought back from Athabasca Northern for $35 million early this year will increase train speed from an average of 16 km/h an hour to 40 km/h and allow heavier loads, Foote said.

The line from Boyle, 150 kilometres north of Edmonton, crosses unstable muskeg over 35 per cent of its length, and needed improved rails, ties, bridges and ballast after years of neglect.

It currently ends just south of Fort McMurray, and Foote said CN would be prepared to look at a partnership to build a new road and rail bridge across the Athabasca River to connect with the oilsands projects to the north.

He also said delays to several bitumen upgrader projects planned for just north of Edmonton in Upgrader Alley won't affect the $50 to $70 million upgrade of the portion of line from Edmonton to Boyle that includes service to the Fort Hills upgrader.

"It doesn't change our plan. The oilsands will be developed, and the upgraders will go ahead at some point, whether here or somewhere else."

This year's $430-million Western Canadian spending program also included improving the line between Edmonton and Prince Rupert, where CN opened a container port a year ago to take goods from Asia to eastern Canada, and the U.S. through Chicago.

Foote said the U.S. housing slowdown meant Prince Rupert container traffic didn't grow as fast as expected, but is now up to speed at 65 per cent of the terminal's capacity.

That translates to 10 to 12 trains a week, compared with two trains prior to the new port's construction.

Coal and grain shipments through Prince Rupert have also increased, Foote said.

Two giant container ships a week now visit Prince Rupert, which is two days closer to key Asian centres than any other west cost Northern American port.

But the ships still have to visit other ports to fill up with products going the other way.

Foote said CN is working hard to make sure more than the current 30 per cent of containers go back to Prince Rupert full.

They opened a $20-million centre in Prince George to put forest products into containers, and three years ago built a centre in Edmonton which tips the containers on end and pours grain into them, he said.

"We don't have a crystal ball, but so many people have great ideas. If you had told me three or four years ago we would be shipping diluent into the oilsands in containers we built, and shipping ethanol back to Asia for animal feed, I'd have said you were crazy."

[johnlw]

Oilsands player faces 18-month deadline for extra $3B

Shaun Polczer
Calgary Herald; Canwest News Service

Wednesday, October 01, 2008

CALGARY - The head of embattled UTS Energy Corp. says his firm has about 18 months to come up with an extra $3 billion to fund its share of higher costs at the Fort Hills oilsands project in northern Alberta.

Last month, majority partner Petro-Canada said cost estimates for the project were up about 50 per cent to $24 billion. At a conference in Calgary on Tuesday, UTS chief executive Will Roach said the credit crisis in world markets was a perfect storm of factors lining up against the company.

"From UTS's perspective, this has happened at just the wrong time, when we were trying to access capital markets. The good thing from UTS's perspective is that we've got 18 months to fix the problem."

Petro-Canada's cash call came at almost the same time as major investment banks were imploding south of the border, taking down Lehman Bros. and Merrill Lynch, and fuelling doubts as to whether small oilsands outfits such as UTS will be part of the future oilsands landscape.

Last week, Adam Waterous, president of Scotia Waterous oil-and-gas advisory group, predicted independent oilsands players like UTS are "an endangered species" as financial problems make it harder for smaller players to get enough cash to work in a field dominated by multinationals.

"It's terrifying," Roach said. "The world has changed dramatically. Access to capital has changed over the last year, and that is going to take a whole bunch of time to sort out."

UTS's only assets are its interest in a series of undeveloped oilsands leases. The company has no production, revenue or cash flow.

Its shares -- whose 52-week high is $6.37 -- have lost about three-quarters of their value since July. After losing 12 per cent in Monday's market rout, they fell a further 10 per cent Tuesday to close at $1.27.

"I simply don't really understand it, other than the rationalization must be that the market has decided we will not be able to fund our share of the project and, therefore, we're not a good bet," Roach said.

"I personally think we've got a lot of options and a lot of good assets."

Justin Bouchard, an oilsands analyst with Raymond James in Calgary, said it is "doable" but "challenging" for smaller companies to raise money in the current crisis. Small oilsands companies are in a unique position because they have neither production nor assets other than the leases they hold.

Firms such as UTS are potentially sitting on billions of barrels in production, but depend on support from financial markets and banks. After the latest meltdown, financial institutions in turn will find it increasingly difficult to provide money without cash flow or collateral to backstop the investments.

Without access to cash, many small juniors might be sold or forced to merge. Roach said the issue of maintaining independence is "not something I want to talk about."

Bouchard agrees the market isn't reflecting the value of UTS assets in its stock price, but said markets are the most efficient means of discerning what that value actually is.

Oilsands development "takes a lot of money. Any of these small guys looking for debt or equity today, it's tough. And it's only going to get tougher."

[johnlw]

Neil Waugh
Sun, September 28, 2008

Bitumen talk stirs pot
Alberta Tories not sure where Harper's coming from

By NEIL WAUGH

The last guy who occupied the big office on the third floor of the sandstone castle called a similar touch-and-go attack on Alberta's interests a "drive-by smear."

But Stephen Harper's 12 hours of living dangerously in what's allegedly his home province last week received hardly a murmur of reaction from the Stelmachistas.

Maybe because the prime minister's plan to place semi-tough limits on oilsands exports is the same thing that Premier Ed Stelmach promised he would do two years ago during the provincial PC leadership campaign.

At the time, Stelmach compared shipping bitumen and jobs down the pipeline to Texas and Illinois with stripping the "topsoil" from a farm. After 20 long frustrating months, Stelmach's hopeless Energy Minister Mel Knight and his energy-crats have yet to produce their value-added strategy.

Meanwhile, pipeline companies and energy outfits like EnCana are scrambling to build lines and upgraders south of the Medicine Line to ship and process millions of barrels of raw Alberta bitumen.

On Friday, Harper's campaign plane landed briefly in Calgary to deliver Knight the political slap up the side of the head that the premier should have given him months ago - by announcing a plan that "will prohibit the export of bitumen."

This happened a day after it was revealed that an outfit called Value Creation had walked away from its semi-built $5-billion BA project in Upgrader Alley.

Meanwhile, EnCana was whooping it up about its $3.6- billion upgrader in Roxana, Ill., that will process a quarter of a million barrels a day of Alberta bitumen when it's up and smoking.

UPGRADER ON HOLD

Two more Upgrader Alley projects are in some kind of development limbo, with others expected to follow.

Harper talked about how the country can't "afford to export the jobs and spinoff industrial opportunities created by the upgrading of bitumen."

OK, Harper was not exactly being upfront and honest. He's an Ottawa politician, so everything that comes out of his mouth is targeted at a southern Ontario soccer-mom audience.

Albertans - like we were under Brian Mulroney - are nothing more than federal Tory cannon fodder.

That's why the ban was downgraded to bitumen exports to countries with lower greenhouse gas emissions standards than Canada.

Except the only country that bitumen is exported to right now is the United States, which has pretty good emissions rules.

The one Canadian province where emissions are being regulated with a carbon tax is Alberta.

So it's really all make- believe, although Enbridge brass might be feeling a little seasick about their proposed Northern Gateway pipeline to pump half a million barrels a day of Alberta bitumen to a tanker port at Kitimat, B.C.

That's the point that deputy premier Ron Stevens was trying vaguely to make about Harper's oilsands assault.

"That particular kind of idea just lends further uncertainty with respect to the development of our bitumen," Stevens sniffed.

It's an "idea" because Stevens doesn't believe Harper is really serious.

"You're in the business of speculating," he said. "I'm in the business of dealing with this matter with a new government.

WHAT DOES IT MEAN?

"It's 25 words on a page," Stevens continued. "I don't know what it means."

Not exactly all-hands-on-deck-man-your-battle-stations stuff, is it?

Even though Harper's raid "is going to impact on our rights as a province" and on a product "which is owned by the people of Alberta."

Which is a lawyer's way of saying, keep your Ottawa hands off the oilsands which the Canadian constitution says is ours, although the Supreme Court of Canada - which in Pierre Trudeau's Canada is the country's real government - hasn't ruled in Ron's favour yet.

Heck, Harper didn't even tell the Alberta government this was coming down the Tory pipeline.

"He's my MP," Stevens yelped. "His office is right across the hall from mine."

"If in fact they want to pursue it," he added, "we're keen on having that discussion."

And that was about as good as it got.

What would Ralph Klein have done?

[johnlw]

Boom talk downgraded
Shelving of heavy-oil upgrader raises economic 'storm flags'

Dave Cooper, With files from Archie McLean, Journal staff
The Edmonton Journal

Friday, September 26, 2008

EDMONTON - "The storm flags are up, people have to pay attention to what is happening here."

That's the warning from a Sturgeon county councillor after the potential $5-billion BA Energy Heartland bitumen upgrader was shelved this week.

"There is growing apprehension in this region, and we have to realize that these upgrader projects are not a done deal," Coun. Karen Shaw said.

Her fears are shared by Strathcona County Mayor Cathy Olesen.

"What I find really disturbing is that this project was started, and they have already spent a lot of money on this," Olesen said.

County officials figured something was up when most work stopped at the site last winter, Olesen said. But nothing was said by the owners.

The upgrader project was taken over in March by a private Calgary-based company, Value Creation Inc. At the time, the company said it would complete the upgrader.

Company officials this week haven't commented on their mothballing of their construction site.

Premier Ed Stelmach said Thursday that despite the closure, he was not concerned about the Alberta economy.

"But I am concerned about costs that are continuing to double, triple for our projects, especially the massive upgrader projects. And when you can't commit to a scheduled completion time, nor to the labour, you're going to create some uncertainty in the investment climate," he said.

"The other uncertainty is, quite frankly, we need certainty and predictability once the federal election is done, because there isn't a national policy on greenhouse gas emissions. So that's another consideration."

Liberal Leader Kevin Taft says the province has a role to play in stabilizing the marketplace.

"This kind of closure bodes badly for the future for Alberta. The province has a role here to take their bitumen royalty-in-kind and use it to create a win-win," he said, adding that using bitumen will allow the province to participate in and profit from the oil resource.

Alberta will begin receiving bitumen when the new royalty arrangement kicks in after Jan. 1.

Shaw and Olesen both worry too much raw bitumen will be shipped to upgraders in the U.S., bypassing the Heartland industrial region, which already boasts an expanding Shell upgrader and a planned a Petro-Canada upgrader. Three others projects are in the design or pre-construction phase.

"Shipping bitumen south is a national issue, not just an Alberta issue. We just can't let this all flow by," Olesen said.

Two U.S. refineries are being retooled and expanded to handle Alberta bitumen, and several others are pondering the move.

"The governments have our destiny in their hands. We are in a precarious position if this kind of thing continues," said Shaw.

"The federal government has to stop approving new bitumen pipelines to the U.S."

Taft said news of the mothballing of the BA Energy upgrader came the same day as EnCana and ConocoPhillips announced they would begin construction of a $3.6-billion expansion of the Wood River refinery in Roxana, Ill.

The small refinery will be enlarged to handle 356,000 barrels per day of Alberta bitumen.

"I find the timing ironic," he said.

[johnlw]

Upgrader project shelved
BA Energy Heartland unable to find financing to continue construction of $5-billion facility

Dave Cooper
The Edmonton Journal

Thursday, September 25, 2008

EDMONTON - A partially completed oilsands upgrader project near Fort Saskatchewan has been mothballed by its owners.

The BA Energy Heartland upgrader, owned since last spring by Calgary-based Value Creation Inc., was quietly closed down this week.

"They told us it would be three or four years before they go back to the site, it's very disappointing," Gerry Gabinet, manager of Strathcona County's economic development department, said Wednesday.

Hundreds of millions of dollars had already been spent on construction when the previous owners ran into economic trouble earlier this year. When Value Creation acquired the upgrader project, company president Columba Yeung said his firm was "fully committed to the successful completion" of the project.

No company officials were available for comment.

Today, a large tower and rows of fabricated equipment spread across the site near Shell's Scotford refinery and upgrader. As well, much of BA Energy's underground work has been completed.

With recent price escalations, it is expected the project could cost a total of $5 billion. Phase one would have processed 77,500 barrels a day of bitumen blend with production eventually rising to 260,000 bbl/d.

BA Energy intended to buy bitumen on the market and process it for customers. But with the continuing credit crisis and no contracts in hand, obtaining the billions of dollars needed has proved impossible.

Value Creation also has a major underground (steam-assisted gravity drainage) oilsands project near Fort McMurray which would have supplied the upgrader.

"They told us they will focus on that area first," said Gabinet.

Getting the bitumen flowing, and getting some cash coming in, is a pretty normal approach for oilsands developers, said Laurie Danielson, executive director of the Northeast Capital Industrial Association.

"It is logical for these firms. Everything is contingent on financing for them to proceed."

The other independent project, the North West Upgrader, is still a year or more away from major construction.

Located on the west side of the North Saskatchewan River adjacent to Petro-Canada's proposed Fort Hills project, North West is trying to raise billions in cash and establish bitumen supplies and customer contracts.

"We have spent $300 million in engineering and design. And our major vessels, ordered two and a half years ago, are ready to be shipped from Japan," said senior vice-president Rob Pearce. The cost estimate for his upgrader jumped to $4.2 billion last year.

Today, the North West upgrader site is still just a field.

Pearce said his project will produce low-sulphur diesel, in addition to other products. And he has an arrangement with Enhance Energy to provide two-thirds of the upgrader's carbon dioxide offgas for injection to improve oilfield production. "We have our CO2 solution, and we have prefab contracts with KBR (construction) ready to go."

But Pearce said he will spend the next year trying to get supply and customer contracts lined up, then go after funding. He hopes construction could start within a year

Fee-for-service or merchant upgraders will be eagerly eyeing Alberta's new royalty program, which begins on Jan. 1. The province will be accepting bitumen as payment for royalties.

Petro-Canada has said it will decide by the end of the year whether to proceed immediately on its upgrader. Shell's Scotford upgrader is currently being expanded. Two other upgrader projects, from French oil giant Total and Norway's Statoil-Hydro, are still in the regulatory approval stage.

[johnlw]

Financial boss blasts income trust uncertainty

Reuters

Wednesday, September 24, 2008

TORONTO - It was "terrible" for the Liberal Party to put Canadian income trusts back in the limelight as an election issue, raising the spectre of prolonged uncertainty, the head of fund manager CI Financial Income Fund said Tuesday.

"I would like income trusts to be taken off the table once and for all," Bill Holland, chief executive of CI Financial, told an investor conference.

CI, one of Canada's largest independent fund managers, converted to the tax-advantaged income trust structure in June 2006, after delaying an earlier conversion plan.

Four months later, the governing Conservative Party shocked markets by announcing that income trusts' distributions would be taxed, starting in 2011, basically shutting down the creation of new trusts.

[johnlw]

The financial crisis: From the U.S. to the world

JOHN CURTIS

Globe and Mail Update

September 22, 2008 at 7:54 AM EDT

The drama unfolding in the United States' financial markets has already attained the proportions of a major event in economic history. Its causes, and the responses by governments, central banks, and business, as well as its consequences within the U.S., in this country and around the world, will be the subject of “instant histories” appearing on bookshelves and of deeper analysis in the professional literature for years to come. Fingers will be pointed, legends will be fashioned and new policies and practices implemented.

The facile analysis is already in: Greed, the triumph of free market ideology over prudence and the reckless economic policies of the Alan Greenspan-led Federal Reserve Board and the Bush administration have created the mother of all bubbles, the bursting of which is the “perfect storm” now raging in U.S. markets with spillover effects here and around the world.

There is some merit to all three elements of the 30-second analysis heard or seen all week.

The preposterous executive compensation of the past decade or so, tied to stock market performance, coupled with golden parachutes to safeguard executives from risk, led to exactly what anyone would expect: excessive risk-taking to maximize short-term gains and thus financial rewards for those in a position to benefit from taking these risks.

Ideology also played its part. Regulators and some central bankers have long worried about the market dynamics that the explosion of new forms of assets such as financial derivatives could lead to. But with the prevailing ideology that “markets know best,” concern did not lead to adequate prudential regulatory measures to better protect the institutions and better safeguard the interests of consumers, including borrowers.

U.S. economic policy played its part as well. The Bush administration, and, to some extent, its predecessor, and the Federal Reserve gave the U.S. the best economic expansion that money could buy - cheap cash, tax cuts and deficit spending. Never mind the imbalances between what the U.S. produced and what it consumed (the current account deficit) and between what its households earned and what they spent (the negative household savings rate).

But there is more to the story.

For the third decade in a row, a global expansion, synchronized with the U.S. business cycle (which has a rhythm of about 10 years, featuring recessions in 1981-82, 1991 and 2001), hit rough financial waters as the expansion matured. In October, 1987 (Black Monday), it was the stock market meltdown; in July, 1997, and into 1998, it was the Asian crisis; in 2007-08, it is the American (now the world's) crisis. In each case, monetary tightening in line with the maturing of an economic expansion had exposed weakness in the financial system.

In the financial crisis years of 1987 and 1997, the subsequent emergency injection of money by central banks led to a snap back of economic activity and a short-term burst of inflationary growth. But in those earlier periods, the U.S. “consumer of last resort” was still in shape to provide the buying power to take advantage of cheap money. This time, however, the U.S. consumer cannot help.

What happened? Since the late 1970s and throughout the 1980s, governments have been intent on making the labour market more “flexible” - another way of saying that risk was transferred from capital to labour. But workers are also consumers. As corporate profits expanded as a share of national income, households went into debt. What Henry Ford early in the last century had grasped, that paying his workers well meant he had customers for his mass-produced cars, has been largely unlearned in recent years.

And there is more. No one should underestimate the sophistication of financial markets today. The combination of very bright minds, very powerful information technology and vast amounts of data has spawned financial technology beyond the ken of ordinary mortals. So why, we might ask, has every stage of the present crisis been a surprise? The financial technology is not limited to the banks that issued mortgages, the financial institutions of all sorts that bought them and the insurers of the debt of all of the above, but is available also to the credit rating agencies, the external auditors, the supervisory office and, of course, the myriad sophisticated investors, including hedge funds, pension funds, sovereign wealth funds and so on.

This recalls the Asian crisis, during which South Korea suffered five credit-rating downgrades by one agency for a total of 12 rating points in seven months - not only a totally unprecedented sequence of events (the probability of one such downgrade is on the order of one in 1,000), but also testimony to serial failure to understand what was happening. Other Asian crisis countries had similar experiences - and all the rating agencies were involved.

And this lack of understanding of the modern-day financial world should worry us all. We do not know what we do not know. But we do know that there is no substitute for sound policy, especially U.S. policy, good behaviour and a sense of balance in markets and in our society. We also know that globalization, with its many benefits, has its costs, too.

[johnlw]

September 21, 2008
Yet another Dion doozy!
A carbon pipeline between Alberta and Saskatchewan is questionable if no one's heard of it
By NEIL WAUGH


In a week when stock markets around the world had a near-death experience - and several banks and brokerage houses never made it off the operating table - you'd think the last things Canadians needed was another dodgy bank.

But now that Liberal leader Stephane Dion has all but dropped mention of his punitive Green Shift energy tax grab from his stump speech, he hasn't got much left to talk about.

Except for his Alberta to Saskatchewan (or is it the other way round?) carbon capture and storage pipeline.

It's one of the several mega projects tacked onto his $70-billion "unprecedented" infrastructure plan sprung on suspicious Canadian taxpayers last week.

All of it will be paid for with "unanticipated" budget surpluses that will roll in.

Presumably, that's after his Green Shaft begins stripping wealth from Alberta's oilsands plants, upgraders, coal-fired power stations, gas plants, pulp mills, petrochemical facilities and just about anything else with a smoke stack.

"In these times of economic difficulties, we Liberals understand," Dion boomed.

You sure do, Stephane. Pierre Trudeau taught you well.

The tax-and-spend part is predictable, but the SaskBerta carbon line came winging right out of the ozone.

And a highly placed Alberta government official was more than a little perplexed when I broke the good news too him.

Has anyone in the Alberta or Saskatchewan governments actually asked for the cross-border CO2 connection?

The answer was a definitive "no."

There wasn't a word about it when Premier Ed Stelmach met his Saskabush counterpart Brad Wall at Lloydminister a few days ago.

NO ONE'S HEARD OF IT

A TransAlta pitch to inject emissions from the Wabamun power plants into Drayton Valley oil wells is being kicked around.

And there's another for the Industrial Heartland plus a Fort Mac to Swan Hills connection.

But, so far, nobody has heard of Dion's interprovincial big inch.

Then again, his Infrastructure Bank - where Canadians "would have the opportunity" to stash their hard-earned savings - only arrived on the scene last week.

The money would then be doled out to municipalities to provide "low-cost financing" for "green" infrastructure.

And promoters with "renewable energy infrastructure" schemes could also tap Dion's pot.

Lucky Canadians will be able to buy "tax-free Green Bonds," Dion's blurb beams.

How the Liberal leader would balance the books by providing low interest loans to cities at the same time as offering a high enough bond rate to pry mom and pop's retirement cash from banks, credit unions or mutual funds, the nutty professor doesn't say.

But I suspect the taxpayer figures in the deal somewhere.

It also appears to be lost on the prime minister wannabe that most folks already have the interest from their investments protected from the tax man because they are locked away in RRSPs.

Predictably, the Conservative war room dined out on Dion's latest failure to communicate.

They accused him of "threatening to throw Canada into deficit," noting that none of this showed up in Dion's Green Shift documents.

TRANSFER OF TAXES

Those papers see a revenue-neutral transfer of taxes on Alberta's hydrocarbon economy to voters in southern Ontario and Quebec through a myriad of tax rate tweaks.

Of course the Ottawa Liberals aren't the only politicians loading up on the debt.

The Alberta Tories were hard at it last week when Education Minister Dave Hancock released details of the $634-million deal where a Brit outfit called Babcock & Brown will build 18 schools.

That's despite the fact that former premier Ralph Klein cut up his giant "paid in full" credit card and vowed the province would never go into debt again.

There's already $664 million on the books after the PCs went the Private Public Partnership route for portions of the Edmonton and Calgary ring roads.

By 2011 that number is expected to hit $1.8 billion.

Now the Alberta Tory brainiacs have come up with a perfect solution.

Debt isn't debt if you re-brand it "Liabilities for Alternatively Financed Capital Projects." Which is almost as brilliant as Stephane Dion's Green Bank.

[johnlw]

NOVA SCOTIA
Sewage spills flush away clam harvesters' income

OLIVER MOORE

September 16, 2008

Clam harvesters in southwestern Nova Scotia are furious after repeat sewage spills caused them to miss months of their season.

The spills have had the double effect of reducing harvesters' immediate income while also making it harder for them to work enough to qualify for full employment insurance benefits. Some of them are out thousands of dollars, and there are new concerns about residents leaving for the oil patch and an increase in local crime.

"That town should've been made to fix that sewer the first time it spilled," said Weymouth resident Corey Gavel, 40, who dug his first clam when he was seven years old. "And then it happened two more times. They should pay the wages of every harvester who lost money this year."

The town he's talking about is not his own community but the nearby regional centre of Digby. Several times this year, the sewer system there has overflowed because of heavy rain, fouling the Annapolis Basin.

Town clerk Tom Ossinger said his community is part of a new federal pilot project under which officials are obliged to report each time "bypass" occurs in the system. This rule did not come into existence until last spring, and he could not say how regularly the system overflowed before that.

Harvesters face tight restrictions no matter the size of the spill, according to local reports, because of a new protocol based on the U.S. system.

Mr. Ossinger said the town's storm and sanitary sewer systems, which date back to the 1970s, were designed to handle about 2.5-million litres daily. That is close to twice the normal daily flow, he said, but the system has buckled during bouts of particularly heavy precipitation this summer.

"We've had some unusual weather this year," he said, noting that the town recently got 100 millimetres of rain as the area felt the after-effects of hurricane Hanna. "I don't think we should be crucified for it."

Mr. Ossinger said the town has drawn up the terms of reference for a study of what it needs to do to prevent future spills. He said it's too early to discuss costs and a potential timeline, but officials are looking to get an engineering firm in to assess their options.

Some clammers are not placated by the town's response.

"They're getting away with it," Mr. Gavel said heatedly. "But if I pump [sewage] into my ditch and it runs down to the water they'll be right on me."

A clammer since quitting school at 15, he is considering legal action against the town. He's not alone in his anger.

"This here is a manmade problem and it can be fixed by man," said Ken Weir, president of the local clam harvesters association. "This year here is going to be a catastrophe. If they get no stuff to feed their families, some of the young ones will turn to crime."

There are about 300 clam licences in the area, but locals say no more than half are actively used. Harvesters dig for soft-shell clams once the tide goes out, using a pitchfork with its tines bent into a scoop. It's backbreaking work that, on a good day, will gross the harvester $150 to $175.

The season lasts seven months, but this year they've been cut off for so long from so many of their spots that some report earning half that.

Hard times for clam harvesters

Some shellfish beds in the Annapolis basin have been closed because of bacterial contamination from a recent sewage spill in Digby. Clam harvesters in this area are angry because of repeated spills.

HOW MYA ARENARIA FUNCTIONS

Soft-shell clams feed on microscopic plant and animal matter suspended in the water column just above the bottom. A current is created through the beating of hair-like cilia that draw water through the incurrent siphon. Up to 54 litres of water may be filtered per day by each clam.

[KastelCo]

Hope you get a few lobster dinners in man.. food is great out east..

[johnlw]

OD'ing on seafood chowder here

[Rocketred]

Still loading up as the system is crashing

[Arrow335]

The Stars are Aligning - But For What?
BY ROB KIRBY

Fannie and Freddie were finally nationalized on Sunday, September 7, 2008 – a date that may very well live in infamy. Shareholders of the mortgage behemoth mortgage giants have been effectively wiped out.

By Glenn Somerville and Mark Felsenthal

WASHINGTON (Reuters) - The U.S. government on Sunday seized control of mortgage finance companies Fannie Mae and Freddie Mac in an aggressive move to help the distressed U.S. housing market and economy.

Officials were concerned mounting losses at the two companies, which own or guarantee almost half of the country's $12 trillion in outstanding home mortgage debt, was sapping their vitality and threatening to undermine them at a time other sources of housing finance have largely run dry.

"Our economy and our markets will not recover until the bulk of this housing correction is behind us," Treasury Secretary Henry Paulson said at a news conference. "Fannie Mae and Freddie Mac are critical to turning the corner on housing.”

The decision to take control of the companies, which have $1.6 trillion in debt outstanding, and place them into a conservatorship under their regulator could amount to the largest financial bailout in U.S. history. The Treasury Department, which is taking an equity stake in the two firms, said there was no reason to expect that taxpayers would have to shoulder losses.


Folks should appreciate and understand that the Fannie / Freddie bailout are being conducted with the resources of the U.S. Treasury and not the Federal Reserve. The Federal Reserve’s balance sheet simply would not allow it.

Ladies and gentlemen, I would contend that the U.S. Treasury’s balance sheet cannot either.

The Back Drop For Context

In what many folks might disregard as an unimportant revelation, the Bank of Montreal’s Don Coxe provided in his weekly web-cast to the bank’s institutional and private banking clients, a telling descriptive [transcript available here] of recent market events where he lays out how the Federal Reserve and the U.S. Treasury in conjunction with the CFTC and SEC “RIGGED” the recent collapse in commodities complex and the accompanying bounce in financials to purposely destroy people who were making commodity bets and shorting financials.

Coxe’s presentation is titled,

“And Hank And Ben Looked At Their Handiwork And They Were Glad.”

He goes on to state,

“So, let’s talk about this, what they did, why they did it and how brilliantly they did it, because this is the most massive intervention of government into the capital markets or the financial system since Roosevelt closed the banks back in 1933, briefly.”

Coxe goes on to explain,

“So what they did – and this is why you want in a crisis like this, you want a Goldman Sachs ex-CEO at work. People sometimes sneer about the fact that Goldman seems to just get all these big appointments. But what it means is you’ve not only got somebody that really knows the markets, but somebody who’s access to information is terrific and who really understands how you can intervene in the markets successfully. Because if you’re going to do a strategy like this, it’s got to work.”

The unintended beauty [sic] of Cox’s words is that they “drip” with nuance illustrating the incestuous relationship between the Federal Reserve / Treasury and one of their favorite private sector agent / provocateurs - Goldman Sachs.

This space has extensively documented the role of both Goldman Sachs [primarily in the investment banking / commodities space] and J.P. Morgan Chase [primarily in the commercial banking / interest rate complex] and their use as “TOOLS” to implement Federal Reserve Monetary Policy via stealth, all the while trying to maintain the illusion of “free markets.”

If my read on these goings-on is only half correct, this grand stage illusion of a charade is about to come to an end.

Our capital markets have been grossly manipulated and rigged. Regulators have been complicit. For those of you who have no problem with this, I would now like you to consider existing U.S. anti-trust laws:

The Sherman Antitrust Act is a Federal law prohibiting any contract, trust, or conspiracy in restraint of interstate or foreign trade.

The Sherman Act also provides that no person shall monopolize, attempt to monopolize or conspire with another to monopolize interstate or foreign trade or commerce.

A felony, an individual violating these laws may be jailed for up to three years and fined up to $350,000 per violation. Corporations may be fined up to $10 million per violation.

The Clayton Act regulates general practices that potentially may be detrimental to fair competition. Some of these general practices regulated by the Clayton Act are: price discrimination; exclusive dealing contracts, tying agreements, or requirement contracts; mergers and acquisitions; and interlocking directorates.

To imagine: I was always taught, growing up, that America was a country where the rule of law meant something.

Connecting Dots

The factual picture I’m painting here is that something egregiously, horribly wrong is occurring right now, under our collective noses, in our financial markets. I’m left with a sinking feeling that things are coming to a head, so to speak, and all that’s been missing to this picture is the exact timing of the culmination.

The timing, however, I now believe is very closely tied to this; illustrated by the work of Adrian Douglas, GATA consultant and frequent contributor to LeMetropolecafe.com:

September 2 session on the TOCOM Goldman Sachs COVERED an absolutely stunning 1,612 short contracts AND ADDED 351 LONG CONTRACTS to bring their long position to 1,049 contracts (a 50% increase in one session!!!!) and their net short position to 2,537 contracts (a 44% reduction in one session!!!). This is a NEW RECORD LOW for their net short position but beats the previous low by 1,963 contracts! This has absolutely astonishing implications for the gold market. GS is running for the hills. Clearly the gold market is headed MUCH higher.



The activities of Goldman Sachs “shorting gold” on TOCOM [Tokyo Commodities Exchange] was first brought to my attention by Adrian Douglas via Bill Murphy’s daily Midas commentary at Lemetropolecafe.com. on Jan. 10, 2006. Douglas has reported on Goldman’s daily TOCOM gold futures position changes for almost 3 years.

With Goldman Sachs representing a defacto surrogate of the Federal Reserve, it is clear that the Fed is moving from being “overextended short” to flat – or possibly going long gold.

I believe this transition is critically important, much like a fuse burning toward explosives.

When this position crosses over from short to long, as I expect it will sometime this month, I expect that some large deafening bells will be ringing – somewhere.

Those bells might possibly be ringing first at Fort Knox, Kentucky or West Point, N.Y., where much of the U.S. sovereign stock [8,150 metric tonnes] of gold is alleged to be stored, but has never been independently [third party] audited since the Eisenhower administration.

I hope everyone has secured their own personal cache of physical gold already.

Today’s Market

Overseas equity markets began the week with Japan’s Nikkei Index rocketing 412 points to 12,624. North American markets were mixed with the DOW ahead 289.80 to 11,510.70, the NASDAQ adding 13.88 to 2,269.76 and the S & P gaining 25.50 to 1,267.80. NYMEX crude oil futures were unchanged at 106.23 per barrel.

On foreign exchange markets – Ripleys Believe It Or Not – the U.S. Dollar Index gained .86 to 79.42.

In the interest rate complex, the benchmark 5 yr. bond finished the day at 2.96% while the 10 yr. note ended the day at 3.66%.

The precious metals complex was torched [arson, perhaps?] with COMEX gold futures down 1.30 to 803.00 per ounce while COMEX silver futures were singed for .14 to finish the day at 12.14 per ounce. The XAU Index dropped 5.35 to 124.29 and the HUI was mauled by 14.61 to 286.54.

On tap for tomorrow, at 10:00 a.m. July Pending Home Sales data are due – expected +2.0% vs. prior +5.3%. Also at 10:00 a.m. July Wholesale Inventories data are due – expected +.5% vs. prior + 1.1%.

Wishing you all a pleasant evening and a happy back to school season!

Rob Kirby

Copyright © 2008 All rights reserved.

Contact Information
Rob Kirby
Kirby Analytics Newsletter
Toronto, Ontario, Canada

[johnlw]

Wow
http://siliconinvestor.advfn.com/readmsg.aspx?msgid=24920387

[KastelCo]

CNQ also matches up pretty well but I only tried mostly large cap Canadian stocks.


Still Chicken here..

Explorer won't be ready until 4 ... :o(


Now I need to look for a small car ...

[johnlw]

I don't know if SU should be the poster child for that theory.
I thought part of their decline was due to the turnaround that went bad, I don't think they have ever got back to expected production:

Post/wire say Suncor may miss 2008 production target

2008-07-04 06:23 MT - In the News

The Financial Post reports in a Reuters dispatch Friday that Suncor Energy is unlikely to meet its 2008 production target for its Alberta oil sands operations, analysts said Thursday, and may be forced to revise the goal for a second time this year. The unbylined item says Suncor, Canada's No. 2 oil sands producer, has forecast that daily output at its site near Fort McMurray, Alta., would average between 275,000 and 285,000 barrels per day (bpd) this year. However, production in the first five months of 2008 averaged just 225,000 bpd. June output was likely lower than that due to a longer-than-planned maintenance turnaround in part of the operation -- from mid-May to June 24. To meet the current forecast, the company would have to produce more than 310,000 bpd from June through the end of December. Some analysts doubt the company will be able to reach that goal.

[KastelCo]

OUCH!! VNP not working out for me :o( Still in for now..

Something is gonna pop here short term... if you can pick it good coin will be made.. I have no clue..

Peter Brieger on BNN says oil close to bottom.. BUT I look at this chart of Suncor.. The purple line is $WTIC ... note the out of phase section in July... Stocks leading crude.. Now I heard about a brand new chart picture the other day... Mother and Baby.. Where baby is a continuation of mother.. Looking at the chart I cannot determine but a high probability that stocks may be leading crude again ? ... I really don't know.. which is why I'm 81% cash... I don't see a reasonable bet either way..






Mostly CASH but solar Powered

[KastelCo]

Lots of stops hit. 81% + cash

[johnlw]

Wife gets a little twitchy
One shoulder can't take it

I might even be working a few days this week

[Ed Monton]

Why not ?

[KastelCo]

Another Haynesville?
This is why I got in early in all the shale players in Quebec.
JNX.V ATI.V GMR.V QEC.TO PCQ.V and CQM-h.V

Talisman Energy Announces Successful Test in Quebec
Tuesday September 2, 6:54 pm ET


CALGARY, ALBERTA--(MARKET WIRE)--Sep 2, 2008 -- Talisman Energy Inc. (Toronto:TLM.TO - News) (TLM - News) announced a successful test from the Utica shale in its Gentilly well in Quebec. The Gentilly well is located on the south side of the St. Lawrence River, approximately 100 kilometers south of Quebec City. Talisman holds a 75% interest in the well and is operator.

The well, which is a re-entry to a previously drilled Trenton-Black River well, flowed at 800 mcf/d from one completed interval on a sustained basis during the 18-day test period. At the time of shut in, the well was still cleaning up and pressures and flow rates were constant.

"We are encouraged by the initial results of this vertical well," said John A. Manzoni, President and Chief Executive Officer. "We have additional testing to do on the well, including zones within the Basal Lorraine and Lorraine shale formation, but this is a very promising start to our unconventional program in Quebec."

The Lorraine shale sits on top of the Utica and can be up to 6,500 feet thick. The Utica shale ranges between 300 and 1,000 feet. Early indications show that both the Lorraine and Utica rocks are thick, porous and appear brittle and over pressured, all of which are conducive to artificial fracture stimulation.

Talisman has an extensive land position with an option to earn 760,000 net acres through drilling in Quebec. The Company is in the early stage of evaluating the rock properties and reservoirs. Talisman will test three to four pilot areas over the next 18 months, with up to four additional wells planned prior to year-end.

Talisman Energy Inc. is an independent upstream oil and gas company headquartered in Calgary, Alberta, Canada. Talisman has operations in Canada and its subsidiaries operate in the UK, Norway, Southeast Asia, North Africa and the United States. Talisman's subsidiaries are also active in a number of other international areas. Talisman is committed to conducting its business in an ethically, socially and environmentally responsible manner. The Company is a participant in the United Nations Global Compact and included in the Dow Jones Sustainability (North America) Index. Talisman's shares are listed on the Toronto Stock Exchange in Canada and the New York Stock Exchange in the United States under the symbol TLM.

http://siliconinvestor.advfn.com/readmsg.aspx?msgid=24904216

[johnlw]

Oil production falls
News Services
Published: Wednesday, September 03, 2008

OTTAWA -- The domestic production of crude oil and hydrocarbon equivalents in June came to 12.5 million cubic metres, a decline of 0.5 per cent from a year earlier. The decline was due to lower domestic demand as exports of Canadian crude and equivalents was up 3.5 per cent in June from a year earlier. Exports accounted for 71 per cent of Canadian production. Total production of marketable natural gas production in Canada in June was down 9.7 per cent from a year before. Exports accounted for 61 per cent of that.

[johnlw]

Can't golf every day Ed.

[Ed Monton]

Is this the new day trading thread ?

[johnlw]

I went back to the well once too often on COS today
Going to hold it overnight it appears

[KastelCo]

Well looks like I got snookered on my NA and BMO as they are both above my sells presently... and the shoes are close... YIKES...

[KastelCo]

Sold National bank (NA.TO)

66% cash... was down to 53%


EDIT; I'm Chicken... out BMO.. 72% CASH


Mostly CASH but solar Powered

[KastelCo]

Stopped out of my PSS.. for a nice profit but not eh best trade..

Out STM for a few tanks of gas..

[KastelCo]

Yeah have some thunking to do tonight...

[johnlw]

Yeah
Tough market

Trying to scalp a few quarters in the the oil sands

SU seems rather oversold in comparison to CNQ and COS this morning

[KastelCo]

Baby going out with the TSX bathwater ...

[KastelCo]

Added to RCI.B


EDIT: Evidently I'm too early... DRATS


EDIT EGAD... in for more RCI.B...


Funny Funny Me... Altered Images...


Mostly CASH but solar Powered

[KastelCo]

Stopped out of OIL.TO for a small loss..

Started a position VNP.TO Something a little different...

[johnlw]

Sherritt delays plan to build plant near Edmonton

JOHN COTTER

The Canadian Press

August 29, 2008 at 6:16 PM EDT

EDMONTON — Sherritt International Corp. is delaying its plan to build a $3.3-billion coal gasification project near Edmonton due to uncertainty over carbon dioxide regulations and the products the plant could make.

Sherritt's original plan was to file its environmental impact assessment on the proposal this year and start construction next year, with production to begin in 2012.

A Sherritt official told The Canadian Press the new timeline would see the environmental report submitted next year with construction starting in 2010 and production to begin in 2014.

“Progress continues and we are now planning to submit the environmental impact assessment report and application once there is greater clarity on carbon dioxide regulations and we are able to better align our project with the timing of our potential customers,” the company said in a statement.

“We will be reaching out to the provincial government and regulators to discuss some of our concerns.”

Sherritt's Dodds-Roundhill project would be the first commercial coal gasification plant in Canada.

The plan is to surface mine a 500-million-tonne coal deposit near Tofield, Alta., and build a processing plant that would break down the coal into a product called synthesis gas, or syngas. The gas would be sold as a fuel or as a petrochemical feedstock.

Before beginning its environmental assessment Sherritt plans to complete a “pre-feasibility study” that will look at other products the plant could produce, including clean diesel, methanol and synthetic natural gas, a company official said Friday. The report is expected to be complete by the end of the year.

“It will just give us more marketing flexibility,” the official said. “This just gives us more options just to figure out what is the best thing to meet our potential customers' needs.”

Sherritt declined to explain what information it is looking for from the Alberta government and regulators regarding carbon dioxide regulations.

In July 2007, Alberta's Climate Change and Emissions Management Act came into effect, requiring large emitters of carbon dioxide to reduce their emissions intensity by 12 per cent.

Corporations that can't meet the cuts have the option of paying $15 for every tonne that they are over the target limit.

The Alberta government has also commissioned a task force to study carbon capture and storage – it is to hand down a report with recommendations this fall.

Alberta Environment spokeswoman Cheryl Robb said the province is trying to harmonize its climate change policies with the federal government's climate change policies, which are still being developed.

“Alberta has given industry clear signals to where we are headed when it comes to greenhouse gas emissions. We are in discussions with the federal government to harmonize our regulations. But we aren't waiting for the feds. We are still working with industry to have things in place so they have certainty.

“Alberta has been the regulator and we want to have one regulator when it comes to industry and will work with the federal government to ensure that Alberta continues to be that regulator.”

Sherritt has so far not filed environmental assessment documents with the province or filed an application for the project with Alberta's Energy Resources Conservation Board.

The proposed gasification plant faces other hurdles.

Tofield residents, farmers and other landowners in the area 80 kilometres southeast of Edmonton held rallies in June against the proposed project.

Conservationists are also worried about how the mine and plant would affect a sanctuary near Beaverhill Lake just north of the site that is on a major migration route for snow geese and other birds.

In a newsletter to the community, Sherritt said it has begun negotiating to buy land for the plant site and has already acquired options on several parcels. Sherritt is a diversified natural resource company that produces nickel, cobalt, thermal coal, oil and gas and electricity.

Meanwhile, Epcor has said it has stopped work on its plan to build, operate and own a power plant, water and wastewater treatment facility at the proposed gasification site pending Sherritt's assessment of the Dodds-Roundhill project.

An Epcor release said Sherritt is expected to give stakeholders an update early in the new year.

[KastelCo]

Well if I never rolled my Safari Van I figure a newer SUV is gonna be fine..

A big ass truck will just sit unless hauling... Cannot justify that expense... Those size vehicles I'm looking at all are fine for home depot runs, ski trips to the Laurentians .. just more flexible..

If the 4Runner doesn't pan out I may need a bigger SUV..

Also a truck cannot handle 4-5 passengers plus 2 dogs.. My requirements are a little stringent I guess :O)

With that truck you posted me.. I would likely just pull my house :O)

K

[johnlw]

Trash talk: $100-miliion gasification plant for Penhold

By Laura Tester - Red Deer Advocate

Published: August 29, 2008 9:05 PM

Political leaders are glad the trash talk is finally over.

Now they can get on with building a $100-million gasification plant, making it one of only a few in the world.

On Friday, a pinnacle deal was signed between Central Waste Management Commission and PLASCO Energy representatives for PLASCO Energy to divert garbage from landfills by using a gasification process.

Under the contract, the Ottawa business will fund the project 100 per cent so there is no cost to Central Alberta taxpayers.

Red Deer MP Bob Mills, who has devoted much of his life towards seeing the end of landfills, is ecstatic.

“After 33 years of dreaming for this, I’m so excited,” Mills said. “We’ll put our name on the map.”

Barcelona, Spain has a test plant and so does Ottawa right now. Ottawa has recently signed on to build a full-scale plant. Vancouver is also considering a plant.

The Red Deer region is going ahead with a full-scale plant without the first step of testing. It may open around the same time as Ottawa’s.

“I bet you next year, you’ll see 50 of these plants and then you’ll see thousands of them,” Mills said.

The gasification plant will likely be built at Red Deer County’s Horn Hill Waste Transfer site, just east of the Hwy 2 and Hwy 42 turnoff near Penhold.

The commission, representing 15 member municipalities, was in negotiations with PLASCO for the past year. An agreement in principle was signed in June 2007.

Commission chair and Red Deer County Mayor Earl Kinsella said he believes PLASCO would like to start construction in spring 2009 with completion one year later.

Household garbage is definitely on tap, but commercial, institutional and industrial waste, may also end up going to the site.

“The only risk that Central Alberta municipalities have is they must supply the garbage,” said Kinsella. “I don’t think that will be a problem.”

Kinsella said the agreement hinges on 300-tonnes a day going to the plant.

“There is a provision, that if not enough municipalities sign up, the plant can go down to 200 tonnes a day,” Kinsella said.

Member municipalities will be able to sign individual agreements with the commission over the next two months. Red Deer County is expected to sign on within two weeks.

The City of Red Deer plans to commit about 20 per cent of all its household waste.

Councillor Lynne Mulder, the city rep on the commission, said the rest would go to the city’s landfill.

“There is a provision made for that to gradually increase, once the technology is proven and we’ve worked out all the blips, if there are any,” Mulder said.

Mills said this plant will be “so successful” that those hesitant, like Red Deer, will end up transferring all of their garbage.

“I think there will be increasing pressure,” he said. “Once you see it working, it will be pretty positive.”

Once the plant becomes profitable, it would give 25 per cent of its profits back to the waste commission.

The company uses intense heat to convert more than 99 per cent of the waste processed into valuable products, including synthetic gas to operate engines for electricity production.

“I think this plant will produce at least a third of the electricity used by Red Deer,” Mills said. “Think of the bragging rights there.”

Other byproducts are sulphur and carbon dioxide.

The gasification process also produces a black carbon-based material. It’s ground up in Ottawa and sold to concrete companies for binding cement.

Overall, officials hail gasification as a win-win situation.

“There are no emissions into the land, water or air,” Kinsella said.

A huge number of people will have to be trained to work at the plant.

Red Deer College President Ron Woodward said he’s on board with this and he added the college has been in discussions with PLASCO to do research on enhancing the gasification process.

[Arrow335]

May save some cash down south. Can't give SUV's away.

http://cgi.ebay.com/ebaymotors/Cars-Trucks___2006-Ford-Explorer-Eddie-Bauer_W0QQitemZ120298455079QQddnZCarsQ20Q26Q20TrucksQQddiZ2282QQcmdZViewItem?hash=item120298455079&_trkparms=39%3A1%7C65%3A-1%7C240%3A1318&_trksid=p4506.c0.m245

[johnlw]

Explorer, Yukon et al
Don't those things have a tendency to roll over?
Or is that an urban myth?

Not looking at trucks?

[KastelCo]

Well I test drove a 2006 Explorer today. 17500 asking. OK to start negotiations.

Good news.. Drives really nicely.
Wife liked it and liked driving it.
Has traction control and hi and low AWD override instead of leaving it up to computer.
Nice inside for cockpit area. Superior comport by far than my Safari van.
Bad news.
Only one row of back seats.
Horrible news... Back seat are terribly uncomfortable..
Guess we are spoiled by nice seating in Safari Van for passengers. NO good for the long trips we plan.

Offered me an Aviator. Same chassis as Explorer. Lots of luxury.. Very comfy back seats.. DVD for kids.. Third row of seat.. not too easy to access ans only for two but that's OK.
Good News..
@1K and very negotiable..
Comfy back seat.
same tow capability as Explorer.
drives nice..
BAD news.. uses Super... so I pay a premium won a vehicle that will log lot of klics and it is less fuel efficient to boot.. WHY I wonder... really just an upscale explorer.. CRAP!!..

Pressure sales of course LOL..

Anyway I need to look @ the 4runner next.. Better mileage anyway.. If that does not work out.... I may need a big badass SUV after all LOL... Saw a Yukon hybrid LOL.. but > 70K YIKES...

[KastelCo]

Next major high school reunion is 2012... 40 years I shudder think about that.. 56 yech...

Added a few Novartis.. (NOV) and more RCI.B (Rogers Comm)

Had I been home to trade I would have let go a few of my PSS.. Some kind of rally into the close.. looked like the TSX went from -20 to + 20 in the last 30 seconds..

[johnlw]

Not going to let one link spousal money up, so that is going to make it a little tougher with only $5k to play with initially.
The ol' trusts back then were too good to be true.

I think you should have a big ass truck to pull into to that high school reunion ...

[KastelCo]

Yeah BMO has had it on the Investorline Main Page... reading the details ... it's almost too good to be true.. This almost makes up for Flaherty's screwing around with the income trusts... well it does for me since I had none at the time..

Interestingly (to me, arcane to you LOL)I recently found out that Flaherty is a Loyola boy like me.. about 10 years ahead of me.. :o)

Saw him in my alma mater's monthly alumni newsletter..


Loyola Boy ? What the hell is that ... Someone who attended high school here ... they subsidised rif raf like me if you did well on the entrance exam.. I fooled them LOL
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Loyola_High_School_(Montreal)

[johnlw]

The Royal is pimping this
Bring it on
:)