Register for free to join our community of investors and share your ideas. You will also get access to streaming quotes, interactive charts, trades, portfolio, live options flow and more tools.
Register for free to join our community of investors and share your ideas. You will also get access to streaming quotes, interactive charts, trades, portfolio, live options flow and more tools.
CRIS That be the last time I tell you bums where my stops are. <G>
CRIS stopped out at 2.36
Added CRIS @ 2.43 with a stop at 2.36
OT Who needs a rod?
http://media.putfile.com/Incredible-Fishing-Video
Energy rebates
I just installed a Munchkin Boiler M-80, purchased online from Radiant Heat Products. I get a rebate for about $350 from my natural gas supplier and a $225 tax credit from the state (Oregon). The system has a FUE rating of 92% so my heating bills will drop as well. The old (very old) Bryant boiler ran at 312k BTU's. The Munchkin heats the same area with an 80k boiler. Cost of the boiler + parts was about $2500.
Such a deal.
Is It Warm in Here?
We Could Be Ignoring the Biggest Story in Our History
By David Ignatius
Wednesday, January 18, 2006; A17, Washington Post
One of the puzzles if you're in the news business is figuring out what's "news." The fate of your local football team certainly fits the definition. So does a plane crash or a brutal murder. But how about changes in the migratory patterns of butterflies?
Scientists believe that new habitats for butterflies are early effects of global climate change -- but that isn't news, by most people's measure. Neither is declining rainfall in the Amazon, or thinner ice in the Arctic. We can't see these changes in our personal lives, and in that sense, they are abstractions. So they don't grab us the way a plane crash would -- even though they may be harbingers of a catastrophe that could, quite literally, alter the fundamentals of life on the planet. And because they're not "news," the environmental changes don't prompt action, at least not in the United States.
What got me thinking about the recondite life rhythms of the planet, and not the 24-hour news cycle, was a recent conversation with a scientist named Thomas E. Lovejoy, who heads the H. John Heinz III Center for Science, Economics and the Environment. When I first met Lovejoy nearly 20 years ago, he was trying to get journalists like me to pay attention to the changes in the climate and biological diversity of the Amazon. He is still trying, but he's beginning to wonder if it's too late.
Lovejoy fears that changes in the Amazon's ecosystem may be irreversible. Scientists reported last month that there is an Amazonian drought apparently caused by new patterns in Atlantic currents that, in turn, are similar to projected climate change. With less rainfall, the tropical forests are beginning to dry out. They burn more easily, and, in the continuous feedback loops of their ecosystem, these drier forests return less moisture to the atmosphere, which means even less rain. When the forest trees are deprived of rain, their mortality can increase by a factor of six, and similar devastation affects other species, too.
"When do you wreck it as a system?" Lovejoy wonders. "It's like going up to the edge of a cliff, not really knowing where it is. Common sense says you shouldn't discover where the edge is by passing over it, but that's what we're doing with deforestation and climate change."
Lovejoy first went to the Amazon 40 years ago as a young scientist of 23. It was a boundless wilderness, the size of the continental United States, but at that time it had just 2 million people and one main road. He has returned more than a hundred times, assembling over the years a mental time-lapse photograph of how this forest primeval has been affected by man. The population has increased tenfold, and the wilderness is now laced with roads, new settlements and economic progress. The forest itself, impossibly rich and lush when Lovejoy first saw it, is changing.
For Lovejoy, who co-edited a pioneering 1992 book, "Global Warming and Biological Diversity," there is a deep sense of frustration. A crisis he and other scientists first sensed more than two decades ago is drifting toward us in what seems like slow motion, but fast enough that it may be impossible to mitigate the damage.
The best reporting of the non-news of climate change has come from Elizabeth Kolbert in the New Yorker. Her three-part series last spring lucidly explained the harbingers of potential disaster: a shrinking of Arctic sea ice by 250 million acres since 1979; a thawing of the permafrost for what appears to be the first time in 120,000 years; a steady warming of Earth's surface temperature; changes in rainfall patterns that could presage severe droughts of the sort that destroyed ancient civilizations. This month she published a new piece, "Butterfly Lessons," that looked at how these delicate creatures are moving into new habitats as the planet warms. Her real point was that all life, from microorganisms to human beings, will have to adapt, and in ways that could be dangerous and destabilizing.
So many of the things that pass for news don't matter in any ultimate sense. But if people such as Lovejoy and Kolbert are right, we are all but ignoring the biggest story in the history of humankind. Kolbert concluded her series last year with this shattering thought: "It may seem impossible to imagine that a technologically advanced society could choose, in essence, to destroy itself, but that is what we are now in the process of doing." She's right. The failure of the United States to get serious about climate change is unforgivable, a human folly beyond imagining.
RTK resuming its climb today
RTK captured 5. Lets see if it can hold on to those gains
RTK good news today. Starting to look legit.
Rentech Signs Coal-to-Liquids Master License Agreement With DKRW Advanced Fuels
Tuesday January 17, 9:00 am ET
DENVER, Jan. 17 /PRNewswire-FirstCall/ -- Rentech, Inc. (Amex: RTK - News) announced today that it has signed a Master License Agreement (MLA) with DKRW Advanced Fuels LLC (DKRW-AF), a wholly-owned subsidiary of DKRW Energy LLC, headquartered in Houston, Texas, for the use of Rentech's patented and proprietary Fischer-Tropsch (FT) coal-to-liquids (CTL) technology.
ADVERTISEMENT
Concurrent with the signing of the MLA, DKRW-AF's wholly owned-subsidiary, Medicine Bow Fuel & Power LLC (MBF&P), has signed an individual site license for its proposed Medicine Bow Project in Medicine Bow, Wyoming. The first phase of the project is being designed to produce 10,000 bpd of ultra-clean fuels from Carbon Basin coal and 200 MW of co-produced electric power. Ultimately, MBF&P intends to expand the CTL production capacity of the plant to a total of 40,000 bpd. Rentech will receive a combination of payments for license fees, catalyst sales and other technical service support at various times throughout the term of the license. MBF&P has already entered into an agreement with Arch Coal Inc. for the purchase of coal reserves and to act as operator for a new mine sufficient to support up to seven million tons of coal supply for the Medicine Bow project.
Under the terms of the MLA, Rentech will also be the exclusive FT technology provider for all future DKRW-AF coal-to-liquids plants. DKRW-AF will pay Rentech license fees and associated payments and will have the right to produce up to 500,000 barrels per day using the Rentech Process Technology, including the capacity from the Medicine Bow Project.
"This agreement represents a significant opportunity for the company and the ability to showcase the potential of the technology on a licensing basis. I would like to extend my appreciation to Claude C. Corkadel III, Rentech's vice president of Strategic Programs, and his team for their work on this agreement," stated Hunt Ramsbottom, Rentech's president and CEO.
"The signing of this licensing agreement is a milestone for Rentech and domestic CTL development, and we appreciate DKRW-AF's vote of confidence in choosing Rentech's CTL technology for this vital project.
"This is the company's first domestic CTL license application. It also marks what we believe to be the kickoff of the full domestic implementation of Rentech's mission to develop technology and commercial projects that transform underutilized hydrocarbon resources, like coal, into valuable alternative fuels, chemicals and power. It is important to note that if the United States is going to address its energy situation in a serious manner, it is going to require management teams with vision, like those at DKRW-AF and Rentech, combining their expertise to strengthen America's energy future by developing projects similar to Medicine Bow.
"Rentech now has multiple domestic CTL projects it is working on to acquire, develop or license; and we believe this confirms Rentech as a leading domestic provider of coal-to-liquids technology," concluded Mr. Ramsbottom.
Additionally, each company has received the option to invest in the other entity. Rentech has an option to acquire up to 5% of DKRW-AF on the same terms as all other equity investors at the time of financial close. Rentech has granted DKRW-AF one eight-year warrant and will grant a second eight-year warrant to acquire a total of three million shares of the company's common stock. The first warrant for one million shares was issued upon the signing of the various license agreements. The exercise price is $2.41, the volume weighted average price of Rentech's common stock over the five-day period prior to signing a non-binding Memorandum of Understanding on September 21, 2005. The second warrant for the remaining two million shares will be issued upon MBF&P reaching financial close on the first phase of the Medicine Bow Project. The exercise price for these shares will be set at that time.
Robert Kelly, president of DKRW-AF and MBF&P, stated, "We are convinced that coal-to-liquids will play a major role in North America's energy future. We believe that Rentech has the technology to make this vision a reality."
About DKRW Advanced Fuels LLC
DKRW Advanced Fuels LLC is engaged in developing and investing in projects that utilize coal gasification technology, including coal-to-liquids, methanation, and integrated coal gasification combined cycle power ("IGCC") projects. Medicine Bow Fuel & Power LLC employs both coal-to-liquids and IGCC technologies.
NG sold the traders at 9.40
IMAX picked up a few here just above 7
RNDC 4x normal volume not much movement in price. What's up?
San Francisco Chronicle
BAY AREA
BART pay ranks high for transit workers
At contract time, agency surveys comparable pay
Patrick Hoge, Chronicle Staff Writer
Sunday, July 3, 2005
* Printable Version
* Email This Article
BART
2 big unions OK new 4-year pact with BART (7/20)
Local transit agencies debate use of close circuit cameras (7/18)
BART tickets feature A's, Giants players (7/12)
No fare increase under new pact (7/7)
Sigh of relief from commuters (7/7)
Transit alternatives found online (7/7)
BART strike averted (7/6)
BART, union going down to wire (7/5)
Expect gridlock if BART strikes Wednesday (7/5)
BART pay ranks high for transit workers (7/3)
2 BART unions offer new proposal (6/30)
Peninsula line falls short of hopes (6/30)
Union dislike new offer (6/30)
2 unions say they'll walk Wednesday if deal not reached (6/29)
Commute alternatives
Talk about BART
BART workers who are asking for raises in contract negotiations with the transit district are among the highest-paid transit workers in the Bay Area and the nation, according to transit officials.
And train operators, station agents, clerical and maintenance workers for the Bay Area's largest transit district also earn slightly more than the average for all public and private sector workers in the region, according to federal labor surveys.
The wage issue, along with the cost of workers' benefits, is at the heart of contract negotiations between BART and its two largest unions this weekend that are aimed at averting a strike on Wednesday morning that experts say will wreak havoc on the region's commutes.
Negotiators for the two sides met Saturday and were expected to continue talks through the long weekend.
"The two sides have been talking on and off all day. ... We're at the table, and that's a good thing," said BART spokesman Linton Johnson, who declined to discuss specifics but described negotiations as "critically sensitive at this point."
"We're all working very hard to make progress," said Harold Brown, president of Amalgamated Transit Union 1555, on Saturday night. "I'm cautiously optimistic."
Unions representing BART's train operators and clerical and maintenance workers say they are not overpaid, given the region's housing and living costs. They say that the number of managers has increased significantly in the past decade while frontline staff members have been cut. They also contend that managers are overpaid.
Regardless, management says it can't afford to continue paying workers what it says is an average of more than $90,000 a year in wages and benefits, because the cost of benefits is rising rapidly and the system has a $24 million deficit in this year's budget.
Contracts for 2,700 BART employees expired Friday.
BART says it already pays average wages of $64,428 a year for members of its two largest unions, the Service Employees International Union 790 and the Amalgamated Transit Union 1555. Workers in those unions, which represent 2,300 of the district's nearly 3,000 employees, also receive an average benefits package of $29,750.
By comparison, BART station agents are the highest paid among those at seven transit agencies surveyed in a study commissioned for BART earlier this year. BART's station agents earn maximum wages of $64,236 a year, compared with an average $49,260 maximum for the other agencies, in San Francisco, New York, Washington, D.C., Atlanta and Chicago, according to the survey.
The highest-paid station agents at the other agencies were at San Francisco's Municipal Railway, at $63,492 maximum a year, followed by the New York Metropolitan Transit Authority at $59,316 and Washington Metro at $51,120.
BART had the second-highest-paid train operators at $64,296 maximum a year, compared with those working at 12 other agencies, which paid an average of $49,848 maximum, according to the study. Highest was the Port Authority Trans-Hudson in New York at $64,932 maximum per year.
AC Transit bus drivers were paid considerably less, with drivers averaging $40,560 and topping out at $47,923. Under a two-year agreement approved Friday, drivers and mechanics will earn 3 percent more.
BART mechanics, meanwhile, are the third-highest paid among those at 13 local government agencies in the Bay Area, including San Francisco Muni and AC Transit, according to figures provided by SEIU 790.
BART's latest offer, made Wednesday, would give workers 2 percent raises in each of the final two years of a four-year contract, limit health benefits to Kaiser Permanente's costs and raise employees' monthly contributions from about $25 to $150 over four years. Nationally, the average employee contribution for family medical care is $265 a month, according to the federal Bureau of Labor Statistics.
The unions' counteroffer on Thursday asks for annual raises of between 2 and 4 percent over three years, with current and retired employees paying $75 a month for family health benefits and able to choose plans other than Kaiser without paying extra.
ATU 1555 workers, who include station agents and train operators, get an average of $62,774 in wages and $29,412 in benefits, for a total of $92,156, BART says. Clerical and maintenance workers in SEIU 790 are paid $66,082 in wages and $30,089 in benefits, for a total of $96,171.
That works out to $30.18 an hour wages for station agents and train operators and $31.77 an hour for clerical and maintenance workers.
By comparison, in the San Francisco-Oakland-San Jose area during the first quarter of 2005, full-time employees -- including white-collar and blue-collar workers -- averaged $27.35 per hour, according to the labor statistics bureau.
Nationally, BART's average compensation package was 74 percent better than what full-time private industry workers received, which was $39,998 in wages, or $19.22 an hour, and benefits worth $17,347, according to the federal statistics.
State and local government workers nationwide in the first quarter got wages of $50,461, or about $24.26 an hour, plus benefits worth $23,379, for a package worth $73,840.
BART employees received 22 percent increases in wages over the past four years. By comparison, over the past four years, average wages of private sector employees increased by about 11 percent for the nation, according to the bureau.
BART also funds 100 percent of its employees' pensions (through CalPERS) by making both the employer and employee pension payments, which costs BART the equivalent of 7 percent of each worker's salary.
E-mail Patrick Hoge at phoge@sfchronicle.com.
NG I would be a buyer here @8.20 if I wasn't already fully loaded.
LJPC could just as easily go to .50 as it could 3.50. Very speculative. Reverse split coming soon.
LJPC pop
ECA should buy Calpine
That would create a very neat vertically integrated company.
>>>NG "Now if it would only be a 'good soldier' and follow my orders to reconnoiter the lower $8's before it goes double digits I would be one happy camper."
nice call
NG filled rest of the traders @8.60. Will sell for 9.25
NG Added traders here @8.75
NG "Now if it would only be a 'good soldier' and follow my orders to reconnoiter the lower $8's before it goes double digits I would be one happy camper."
Were you expecting that today?
NG went negative
I am very tempted to sell here (537) as well. I think we see a significant retrench just after the first of the year. Could be many folks are waiting to take their profits in 2006.
I'm with you only higher. Very speculative. Hope it doesn't end up like my last trip to Reno. Depending on the opening tomorrow may average down a bit but not getting crazy. Likin' gold and feelin' frisky.
"I got all I want right now but looks like we will have a news event soon. Tempted to trade it."
In light of the recent dcline, I've actually got more than I want. I got in at .33. Hopefully we will get a bounce before Christmas. What a mess that will be if they can't buy NG.
San Francisco Chronicle
Calpine battles creditors
Energy firm tries to avoid forced bankruptcy filing
Bernadette Tansey, Chronicle Staff Writer
Thursday, December 8, 2005
Calpine Corp. struggled to avoid a forced bankruptcy filing Wednesday, sparring in a flurry of court actions with bondholder trustees who threatened to declare the San Jose energy firm in default on $3 billion in debt if it did not restore $312 million to an escrow account by day's end.
The company appealed to a Delaware judge for a temporary restraining order preventing Wilmington Trust Co., the bondholders' representative, from moving for immediate repayment. A default on these securities, Calpine said in court papers, could "irreversibly damage Calpine's already precarious financial situation and immeasurably injure Calpine's other stake holders."
"Such a declaration could trigger cross defaults on other Calpine debt," Calpine said in its motion for a restraining order, obtained by the Associated Press. (Bond contracts often require the debtor to be making timely payments on its other obligations.) "Calpine will be unable to calm roiled markets, address the company's continuing cash-flow demands and generate the additional cash necessary to redeposit the restoration amount."
Negotiations and court arguments had not settled the issue by late Wednesday. Even if Calpine wins a delay, it remains perilously close to bankruptcy.
The firm, which launched a program of rapid power plant construction in the late 1990s, was a Wall Street darling during the California energy crisis. But it faced a staggering cash-flow crunch once demand for electricity faded and prices rose for the natural gas that fuels many of its generators.
According to its latest reports, Calpine's debt burden is about $17 billion.
Calpine's position was dire enough last week, when a Delaware court ordered the firm to return $312 million to a Bank of New York trust account by Jan. 22. The ruling said the company had improperly used proceeds of an asset sale to buy natural gas to keep its power plants running, instead of paying its debt.
But that timetable wasn't quick enough for Wilmington Trust, which appealed to the Delaware Supreme Court.
Then, in a move outside the court process, the bondholder trustee informed Calpine that it would be held in default under bond-contract terms if the millions were not returned Wednesday.
Calpine has also appealed the lower court ruling, and the Delaware Supreme Court is set to hear arguments on the expedited appeals by all parties Dec. 15.
Sources close to the case said Wilmington Trust could be trying to make sure Calpine redeposits the money in the Bank of New York account before it files for bankruptcy protection, when the assets would be open to claims by all creditors.
If the millions are returned to the account, they cannot be spent by Calpine while the bondholders have an objection pending.
Wilmington Trust declined to comment in detail but issued a prepared statement. "Wilmington Trust, as indentured trustee for Calpine Corp.'s second priority bondholders, is exercising its fiduciary responsibilities on behalf of those bondholders and is seeking to preserve all of the rights of those bondholders pending the scheduled appeals of the Delaware Chancery Court's decision,'' the company said.
Calpine shares closed at 20 cents in over-the-counter trading. The New York Stock Exchange last week suspended trading in the stock Tuesday and is moving to delist the securities.
Chronicle news services contributed to this report. E-mail Bernadette Tansey at btansey@sfchronicle.com.
Page C - 1
JOE CPN
Calpine bonds, stock fall as debt news anticipated
Thu Dec 8, 2005 12:58 PM ET
Printer Friendly | Email Article | Reprints | RSS
NEW YORK, Dec 8 (Reuters) - Bonds in power producer Calpine Corp. (CPNL.PK: Quote, Profile, Research) fell sharply on Thursday and its common stock declined further as markets awaited news on negotiations for the company to avoid defaulting on $3 billion in debt.
Calpine's 8.5 percent notes due 2008 fell to 19.06 cents in active trading on Thursday from 25 cents on Wednesday, according to MarketAxess.
The common stock fell almost 1 cent to 19.3 cents on the Pink Sheets, where it moved after being suspended from the New York Stock Exchange earlier this week.
Wilmington Trust, as trustee for Calpine's second lien holders, had served Calpine with notice that it faced having to pay all $3 billion of the second lien notes unless it immediately repaid almost $312 million that a court found it improperly spent to buy fuel. It was unclear when Calpine was served.
Calpine asked a Delaware court on Tuesday to issue a temporary restraining order preventing Wilmington Trust from enforcing the default notice, saying it would trigger other defaults and irreversibly damage the company.
Late on Wednesday, Calpine and Wilmington told the court they would negotiate through the night to try to reach a deal to avoid an actual default. Spokespeople and attorneys for both sides were not available to comment as of early Thursday afternoon.
James,
It will be interesting to see how NEM handles 50
excellent call on CPN
Nana walls
We are considering NANA walls for a cabin overlooking a creek. Has anyone had any experience with that company?
http://www.nanawall.com/
ECA should buy up CPN. If nothing more, at least the Canadian power plants.
"OT: has anyone here ever had a good root canal experience, almost everyone i talk too says dont..(its back lower molar)
to yank or root canal"
Tie a string to your tooth and the door. Use the money you save to buy GOOG.
NEM I've had this stock for some time now. I recall when gold hit 450 NEM touched 50. Here we are today with gold approaching 500 and NEM is sitting at 47. In fact today gold is up and NEM is down. That's not exactly what I was expecting. Many of the pundits predicted the miners would do better than the price of gold because their profits are leveraged.
I have also heard that the main reason for the poor performance of many of the miners is the cost of energy. To me it looks like almost a 25% hit on the stock price. That's a heavy hit. One would think the share prices would go up (relative to the price of gold) as the energy prices have come down. I'm not seeing that.
Question for the board. What else is suppressing the miners relative to the price of gold?
OT...She is looking for a few good men...
LAS VEGAS - Former "Hollywood Madam" Heidi Fleiss says she's bound for a brothel in the southern Nevada desert that she wants to help remake into a resort featuring male prostitutes serving female customers.
This isn't the best place for her to solicit help. Too many swing traders or shorts. She's looking for long and strong.
basserdan,
I assume with gold up as much as it is today that you will partying like a rock star tonight. Congrats.
Interesting that gold is up big the same time the dollar hits new highs. What happened to the divergence they normally followed? Small moves contrary to the divergence pattern are understandable, but one this big must be fairly significant. What do you think it portends?
nwsailor
National Alert Status
As many are aware, the French government recently announced a raise in its terror alert level from "Run" to "Hide".
The normal level is "General Arrogance", and the only two higher levels in France are "Surrender" and "Collaborate".
The rise was precipitated by a recent fire that destroyed France's white flag factory, effectively paralysing the country's military capability.
It's not only the French that are on a heightened level of alert:
Italy has increased the alert level from "Shout loudly and excitedly" to "Elaborate military posturing".
Two more levels remain, "Ineffective combat operations" and "Change sides".
The Germans also increased their alert state from "Disdain" to "Dress in uniform and sing marching songs".
They have two higher levels: "Invade a neighbour" and "Lose".
Seeing this reaction in continental Europe the Americans have gone from "Isolationism" to "Find another oil-rich nation for regime change".
Their remaining higher alert states are "Attack random countries (ideally those without any credible military)" and "Beg the British for help".
The British are also feeling the pinch in relation to recent bombings and have raised their security level from "Miffed" to "Peeved".
Soon though, security levels may be raised yet again to "Irritated" or even "A Bit Cross".
Londoners have not been "A Bit Cross" since the Blitz in 1940 when tea supplies all but ran out.
Terrorists have been re-categorized from "Tiresome" to "Bloody Nuisance".
The last time the British issued a "Bloody Nuisance" warning level was during the Great Fire of 1666.
The Mexican Fisherman.....
A boat docked in a tiny Mexican village. An American tourist complimented the Mexican fisherman on the quality of his fish and asked how long it took him to catch them.
"Not very long," answered the Mexican.
"But then, why didn't you stay out longer and catch more?" asked the American.
The Mexican explained that his small catch was sufficient to meet his needs and those of his family.
The American asked, "But what do you do with the rest of your time?"
"I sleep late, fish a little, play with my children, and take a siesta with my wife. In the evenings, I go into the village to see my friends, have a few drinks, play the guitar, and sing a few songs . . I have a full life."
The American interrupted, "I have an MBA from Harvard and I can help you! You should start by fishing longer every day. You can then sell the extra fish you catch. With the extra revenue, you can buy a bigger boat."
And after that?" asked the Mexican.
With the extra money the larger boat will bring, you can buy a second one and a third one and so on until you have an entire fleet of trawlers. Instead of selling your fish to a middle man, you can then negotiate directly with the processing plants and maybe even open your own plant. You can then leave this little village and move to Mexico City, Los Angeles, or even New York City! From there you can direct your huge new enterprise."
"How long would that take?" asked the Mexican.
"Twenty, perhaps twenty-five years," replied the American.
"And after that?"
"Afterwards? Well my Friend, That's when it gets really interesting," answered the American, laughing. "When your business gets really big,you can start selling stocks and make millions!"
"Millions? Really? And after that?" said the Mexican.
"After that you'll be able to retire, live in a tiny village near the coast, sleep late, play with your children, catch a few fish, take a siesta with your wife and spend your evenings drinking and enjoying your friends."
And the moral is: Know where you're going in life... you may already be there.
FLIR adding it to my core today just under 23. I think it's a bit oversold and has good prospects.
LJPC something just happened.