Bloomberg;

The U.S. Postal Service purchased more than 30,000 ethanol-capable trucks and minivans from 1999 to 2005, making it the biggest American buyer of alternative-fuel vehicles. Gasoline consumption jumped by more than 1.5 million gallons as a result.

Drew Thornley;

Robust wind power expansion is expected, as Texas’ Senate Bill 20 (2005) mandated 5,880 MW of renewable energy by 2015 and set a 10,000-MW target for 2025. To this end, $700 million went into new wind Texas farms in January, thanks in part to government subsidies.
In addition to generous federal assistance — namely a 2 cents/kWh production tax credit and five-year, double-declining balance accelerated depreciation for wind-generating equipment — the state of Texas entices wind developers with a franchise tax exemption to manufacturers, sellers, or installers of wind devices; a corporate deduction from the state’s franchise tax for renewable energy sources; and a 100-percent property tax exemption on the appraised value of an on-site wind power generating device. But even with these federal and state subsidies, electricity from wind is more expensive per kilowatt-hour than that generated by fossil fuels.
ERCOT’s estimates for transmitting West Texas wind energy, under four different scenarios, range from $3.78 billion to $6.28 billion. ERCOT estimated costs by using as-the-crow-flies distances for transmission cables. Thus, transmission costs were estimated using a best-case-scenario approach and, as such, should be considered the absolute (and unlikely) minimums. Add to this ERCOT’s estimates of $410 million to $1.03 billion for connecting wind generation to the new collection substations.

Previous.

BBC:

Rocky, a 700lb (317kg) bear, bit Stephan Miller, 39, in the neck at a centre where wild animals are trained for film and TV productions.
But officials have said they are puzzled by what provoked the bear, who had been touted as one of the “best trained” in showbusiness.
Two other trainers subdued Rocky with pepper spray and were unhurt.

I’m no bear expert, but when I was handling dogs, I didn’t “play wrestle” with the Rottie or the Kom.

The bear is not known to have been involved in any previous incidents. The victim’s brother, Randy, told news agency The Associated Press the bite occurred during “playful” wrestling behaviour by a “loving, affectionate, friendly, safe bear”.

Because smart dog handlers know that the lack of a “previous incident” means jack when you’re dealing with something that outweighs you, and has bigger teeth.

Yes, Walmart joins the “rationing.” Customers limited to 200 POUNDS of rice at a time.

(Related: As prices skyrocket, experts warn of an impending world wide shortage of airbrushed goalie masks. This may be the time to stock up.)

Lloyd’s of London warned yesterday that an absence last year of natural disasters or man-made accidents was putting pressure on firms to reduce premiums in 2008.
The world’s oldest and biggest insurance market said that though the lack of major disasters had allowed firms to push up profits 5% in 2007, underwriting margins were being squeezed.

h/t reader Fred.

More.

Via HotAir;

Canada has an estimated 1.6 trillion barrels of oil on its territory, much of it locked in tough-to-excavate tar sands in the province of Alberta. By comparison, oil-rich Saudi Arabia has an estimated 270 billion barrels left. It isn’t even close.
Yet, according to the Financial Times of London, Canada’s government recently sent U.S. Defense Secretary Robert Gates a letter of warning that it might not be able to sell the U.S. any of its oil, which the Pentagon desperately needs for national defense.
For that, you can thank the Energy Independence and Security Act of 2007, passed with great gusto and self-righteousness by the Democratic Congress.

Chris Horner;

So let’s do a quick review of the energy bill so far: environmental degradation, rampant food inflation, and a potential Third World famine due to corn ethanol; increased potential for mercury exposure from mandatory CFL bulbs; and the prospect of a ticked-off major trading partner on our northern border and an increased dependence on ever-more-expensive Middle Eastern crude. If this is the best the Beltway class can do, hopefully the public will become more inclined to trust the private sector and free markets to find solutions.

Law of unintended consequences? Hardly. This is Law To Enrich Socialists, and all is unfolding as planned;

Criticisms of Environment Minister John Baird for the vagueness of the moves announced this week to force oilsands to sequester CO2, and prevent construction of “dirty” coal plants reflects the Alice in Wonderland quality of the climate-change non-debate. Opposition parties brayed that he had not been “tough” enough. Media headlines suggested that big emitters had “won.”
But nowhere in either the policy or the attacks would you find any suggestion that any measures, whether tough or not, would have the slightest impact on the global climate. How did we get to this ridiculous mess? It is all inextricably tied to the remarkable job that the Left has done in the past 20 years to rescue itself from the brink of extinction by exploiting environmental concerns.
[…]
The old/new Left was quick to seize upon the potential of climate change at the huge Brundtland follow-up at Rio in 1992. Rio was organized by Brundtland commissioner Maurice Strong, a long-time committed Canadian socialist who was the strategic mastermind of the new environmental Left. From Rio emerged the processes that led to the Kyoto accord.
Why would governments support the theory of potentially disastrous man-made climate change? It was a combination of the success of the environmental Left — in particular activist non-governmental organizations — in stoking the concerns of the electorate, and of the desire of bureaucrats and policy-makers to stay relevant, busy and in power. This in turn gave them an interest in supporting the NGOs’ radical message, which was amplified by government funding, and by allowing them into the policy-making process. The policy process became self-feeding.
This orientation helps explain why the abject failure of Kyoto was not taken as an indication that such processes were fatally flawed. Rather it was seen as a justification for “redoubling efforts,” and for having bigger conferences in more exotic locales.

They were raising those glasses at the swim-up bar to us, dear suckers.

Technical details.
h/t to reader “Steve”

How many paper clips and where did you stash them?

I’d rather live near an open pit coal mine than have to peer through a hedgerow of these things every day.

The Oscars, liveblogged at Libertas.

I’m heavily invested in the “work till death” retirement plan;

[R]etirement programs are funny things and they have funny consequences. Especially when ALL of the retirement programs designate financial securities (read stocks) as the only medium by which you can save for retirement.
Let me repeat that again…

Its chartapalooza!

One year after first reports;

… in ConsumerAffairs.Com that the Toyota Prius traction control system can fail to operate properly on a snowy road, Prius owners report the hybrid’s TRAC system is still inadequate on slippery inclines.
One Vermont Prius driver, suffering through a recent January snowfall, described Toyota Prius traction control as “dangerous in mountainous snow country.”
[…]
A Langley, Washington Prius owner told us that her hybrid this month “stopped totally on a medium uphill approach to her driveway and garage resulting in the car falling off (the) driveway into ravine of trees” on a snowy December day.
In Medford, Oregon, Mike is the most recent victim of the reluctant traction control system.
“I am a seasoned driver in the snow. I can drive front-wheel drive, rear-wheel drive and four-wheel drive. I am a forester and have been driving in snowing conditions for 28 years, 22 of those years on the job,” he wrote. “I just had my first experience driving my Toyota Prius in the snow today. The engine cut out all power anytime the wheels slipped at all.”
Mike said that the traction control failure made driving the vehicle on an uphill climb almost impossible.
“It was very dangerous as you had no control as other vehicles came toward you, and once I lost momentum and could not start again. This was in 2 inches of wet snow on a 6 percent incline. I finally inched my way home and ended up putting chains on to back into my flat driveway with 2 inches of wet snow,” he wrote.
He concluded that the traction control system in the Prius “is absolutely a design flaw.”

Breaking – Snow hits Tokyo…
Welcome, Windsor Star readers.

OK, fine, but rebuilding a city that is mainly below sea level is — what’s the technical word for it? — oh yeah, stupid.

The only legal expert in the nation who can tell you what David Dingwall takes in his coffee.