I saw a temperature map of the Pacific Ocean on TV. The temperatures were mapped by bright colors with deep red being hottest at the equator and dark blue being coldest. The program showed the equator temperature color go from fire engine red to deep blue and the announcer said there was a 15 degree drop in temperature in about a month. He used the term "La Nina" to indicate that the world weather seems to be going from the La Nino climate model to the opposite, both of which are not normal. La Nina is supposed to mean the East Coast is going to get creamed by a series of hurricanes and the coming winter will be nasty and cold. While this causes insurance companies to cringe, as well us poor Floridians, it just could mean energy prices may climb as the northern hemisphere has a cold and nasty winter. If/when the plant is upgraded to 1,000, it will become very profitable as product prices climb.
Since February, we have had 2 inches of rain at our house in North Florida, all in one night. We are supposed to water lawns under certain rules so that the water pressure doesn't drop too low. If the lawns aren't watered, they die. The lack of rain means temperatures soar because there aren't any afternoon storms to cool off the state. The ground is dry deep down and once brush starts to burn, it is hard to put out. In areas that have underground organic material called "muck", the muck starts to burn and must be flooded by the fire department or it will continue to burn until there is plenty of rain, even if that takes months.
I don't look forward to hurricanes, but I do look forward to cooling storms. And I really look forward to when the plant starts producing and energy prices start to climb.
Charles
P. S. For now though, oil prices are back down.
LONDON (June 17, 1998 01:45 a.m. EDT
nando.net) -- OPEC is facing the weakest oil
market since the disaster year of 1986, and traders
are betting the producers can't find a quick fix, if they
find one at all.
OPEC's average price plunged to $10.11 per barrel
early this week -- a 12-year low and less than half the
official OPEC target of $21 that analysts now call a
joke.
Some of the biggest players in OPEC, including
Saudi Arabia and Venezuela, are promising a new
round of production cutbacks -- after an earlier
emergency deal failed to rescue the market. Kuwait
and the United Arab Emirates pledged more cuts
Tuesday night.
nando.net |
