[…] Segment 2 […]

Hey Al,

Great show as always, I personally believe Pebble bed reactors is the way to go. It’s safe and requires less human intervention to shutdown when things go bad. It’s also a lot more cost efficient then the current old technology.
Below is a interesting article I found tonight.

http://dumpdc.wordpress.com/2011/03/27/china-embraces-new-nuclear-technology/

SEG 5….great info…great interview…
David and Randy have great insight,like hearing their market comments
regarding the ratio .

Yep, they are two very sharp guys.

Big Al

SEG6 ……. I THINK ETF’S are a risk according to GATA.
What do you say? Aren’t ETF ‘s paper gold/silver and carry the possiblily
that if there is a run ,,you may get paper $$ inlieu of physical metal…?
thanks,,,great show
JERRY.

Al,
Enjoyed your weekend show as usual. During the segment discussing Obama’s energy policy, just wondering why you did not bring up the fact that Obama gave Brazil $2 billion for their own oil industry, Petrobras, so that they can drill, explore and bring oil to the market all on tax payer money. I can’t get over the fact that he wants everyone in the world to drill except the US. There was also a one billion to a Mexician company Pemex. Shouldn’t this be a major concern when reviewing Obama’s policy?

Seg.8 AL….Tell Mickey that ethonal can be made from other feed stocks other than corn….anything that has sugar or starch can make ethonal….
The only reason we are making ethonal from corn is that under JIMMY CARTER,
that is what was easy political conversation in IOWA… and where do all political
campaigns start and what do they grow in Iowa? Do some reading on the country of Brazil,,, they run all the cars on sugar cane ethonal…since 1975,
The problem with ideas it is always political,,, with which big corporation
benefit…. Reagon hijacked the ethonal movement with ARCHER DANIALS
AND THE DOE.(DEPT. OF ENERGY) after he was elected . Do some history reading regarding the FmHA and the DOE… in the time period of 1979, when the ethonal movement was getting started…(and was grassroots, not big corporations)
I am not saying that ethonal is a final solution,,, but , neither is oil, electric, nat.gas
and I do not have a dog in this hunt..but, I do say the govt and the politicans
are not going to do anything that does not benefit them directly.
All comments are made with respect and for additional information
for all to benefit.
Great show..
JERRY

Entitlement? After paying into Social Security (and much of that with pre-inflation dollars, to boot) which is legally supposed to be self-funded and separate from the general budget during my entire working life , I am now hearing from Teapublicans that I am on “entitlement”, i.e., handout.

Where was this outrage when real entitlements were being handed out in the form of hundreds of billions in corporate bailout, hundreds of millions in the form of executive bonuses out of taxpayer’s pocket not to mention hundreds of billions more in tax giveaways for the super-rich and three endless wars?

By the way, since fiat currency makes saving impossible, if income insurance like Social Security is also taken out, then we will eventually end up with an elderly population in dire poverty and a social upheaval of unimaginable magnitude.

Also, before Social Security for the elderly is cut off, I would like to see our Senators and Congressmen take a substantial pay cut themselves, give up their legalized bribes called “campaign contribution” as well as their own taxpayer-paid cushy pensions and government-run health care which they deny to the rest of the public. Talk about sharing the pain!

You will never drill you’re way out of an energy crisis. The earth is not endowed with infinite hydrocarbons. Oil is an ‘addiction’. That should be faced. It is also finite, and North America is the most drilled continent in the world as it all started here.
Now don’t misunderstand me. Oil companies should drill all they want, but there should be extreme penalties for turning oceans into toxic waste dump sites just because they were in a ‘hurry’. But once the orgy of drilling is allowed to proceed, it will be soon be discovered, that a country that burns through a billion barrels of oil in 9 weeks, with most of it’s existing oil infrastructure decaying and most of it’s onshore stock of thousands of oil fields, largely drilled 30 or more years ago, are now mostly in terminal decline, there just ain’t a lot more you can do. You might be able to slow down the oil production decline somewhat, but you will not reverse it.
It’s true biofuels are a joke, but we have an opportunity to change our transportation infrastructure over to electrification. Alternative energy (the real McCoy, not biofuels) can power`anything you want. Total energy output from solar, wind. geothermal, are each individually many multiples of what we get from oil, if they would be developed. And, they are not finite in any real sense.

Hi Mark,

I am not an expert, as you appear to be, in the energy sector.

If what you say is true, and I have no reason to think it is not, you make a good point.

Please explain to me how we can change our transportation infrastructure over to electrification effectively. Is that really possible?

Thanks for bringing this up and stirring up my interest.

Big Al

Al, I have 25 years in the oil industry, and am retired now. When I retired in 2002, the industry was finding one barrel of oil for every four it produced from the ground. That figure has worsened somewhat since then. This is why further drilling will delay, but not stop, the demise of the Age of Oil.
Note these headlines:

Wind Power Supply Record Set In Spain
http://www.energymatters.com.au/index.php?main_page=news_article&article_id=225

and this:

Germany set to abandon nuclear power for good
http://www.cbsnews.com/stories/2011/03/23/501364/main20046187.shtml

These countries are showing themselves to be leaders. The U.S. should embrace the Picken’s Plan, which substitute wind, solar, and natural gas for unsafe Nuclear and Oil supplies that will dwindle over time. Natural Gas is a transitional fuel, we have a lot more gas than oil, but national research impetus should use the time to do a rapid Manhatten style project on electrical storage systems (not limited to batteries, there are quite a few candidate technologies, they need more R&D, particularly the ‘D’ part). With energy storage licked, everything else falls into place. Hybrids and all electric cars will be a reality at 1-2 cents a mile, and much lower complexity (electric cars are very simple, maintenance much lower than Internal combustion engines.)

Here is the Pickens Plan details:

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Pickens_Plan

As an Oilman, T.Boone Pickens knows that ‘drill baby drill’ is a dead end, the cry of an addict, that will end badly as the now ancient oil fields of the U.S. gradually ebb away. New production will not, as it has not, kept up with the declines in this huge previous base of aging fields…

One more thing, here is the graph of Alaska Oil production:

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/File:Alaska_Crude_Oil_Production.PNG

It peaked, as you can see, 1987-1988. I can assure you the decline that followed was not because drilling stopped. It did not.

There is less drilling there now, of course, because remaining oil in Alaska is not economic at current prices. Even 300 dollar a barrel oil will not totally reverse this graph, however. The easy stuff is gone…

Sorry, one more thought, if the world transitions to wind and solar, no more will young men die on the battlefield to steal oil from poorer nations, as we have, and still do. That will come to an end.

Hi AL. Please pass on my thanks to all your guests , who share their knowledge & wisdom with the rest of us. Thank you.

Mark,
I will go over all the informational leads you sent me and then do a Daily Show. Thanks. You are a perfect example of why our show would not be what it is without folks like you.

Best again,,

Big Al

[…] http://www.kereport.com/2011/04/02/deficit/ Posted by WANKA @ 12:27 am :: Uncategorized Comment RSS :: Trackback URI […]