Individuals are consuming oil as fast as it's pumped out of the ground - to the tune of 75 million barrels a day. While each drop we consume took millions of years to develop, we use it up in seconds. One thing you can count on... someday that oil will run out.

Until recently, Shell Oil executives were among the cheerful optimists who estimate that we have enough oil to last at least 100 years. Geologists and other analysts counter the Shell opinion, estimating global oil reserves to be dangerously exaggerated.

The New York Times reported that internal documents and other data indicated that Shell had over-estimated its proven oil reserves in Oman by as much as 40% - because everyone there hoped the latest drilling techniques would reach more deposits than in the past and merit upgrading the estimates. If you take oil prices currently at around US $37 a barrel, the highest for nearly 15 years, and add in the effects of war and terrorist attacks on diminishing supplies, you have a recipe for inflation and economic slowdown.

Meanwhile, here in Wisconsin Jason Toews has decided to do something for the average Joe... And, it confirms my greatest fears - that gas prices in Door County are among the highest in the state. If you want to find the best deal on gas prices, Jason offers an elegant Web-based solution. GasBuddy.com and the more specific WisconsinGasprices.com rely on you, as a network of volunteer "gas price spotters" to update price listings at filling stations around your neighborhood. The Web site is actually 4 years old, but co-founder Jason Toews says the audience has grown with the recent spike in prices.

Wisconsin's U.S. Rep. David Obey (D) became the first lawmaker to "demand to know whether the Bush administration transferred $700 million to Iraq war planning efforts out of counterterrorism funds without informing Capitol Hill." According to Bob Woodward, the $700 million came out of a supplemental Appropriations bill meant for Afghanistan operations. And a close look at the two supplemental Appropriations bills that passed between 9/11 and July 2002 when the secret transfer took place shows that both bills mandate the White House to inform Congress if money is moved.

Similarly, while the summer 2002 supplemental bill allows the administration to transfer "up to $275 million" in unused money within the Pentagon budget, it requires the president to notify Congress within 15 days of moving money. So far, the administration has not produced a shred of evidence that it followed these laws and informed Congress. As Woodward said, "Congress, which is supposed to control the purse strings, had no real knowledge or involvement, had not even been notified that the Pentagon wanted to reprogram money."

From: http://www.americanprogress.org/

The Ontario government is acting to correct some of the problems of ozone pollution by completely phasing out its coal-fired power plants by 2015.

"Coal-fired power plants account for more than 60 percent of the nation's sulfur dioxide and 23 percent of its nitrogen oxide emissions, which contribute to acid rain, smog, and nitrogen pollution that damage forest and aquatic ecosystems. These plants also produce more than 32 percent of mercury pollution, which ends up in our waters to poison wildlife throughout the food chain and imperil human health. In addition, coal-fired power plants emit more than 31 percent of the nation's carbon dioxide, the gas chiefly responsible for global warming that threatens wildlife, ecosystems, and human communities around the world."

From... The Toll from Coal How Emissions from the Nation's Coal-Fired Power Plants Devastate Wildlife and Threaten Human Health


Here in Door County recent headlines have once again brought to light the problems of invisible ozone pollution... and yet Wisconsin Energy gets go-ahead to build 2 coal power plants in Oak Creek.

Connect the dots.

I like documentaries - candid shots vs. posed grip-n-grins. Talking with my young friend Myles, a filmmaker, about the media and censorship led me to call Randi Rhodes on Air America Radio. I asked her to help me trace the problem of censorship in the media. Randi advised me to explore The Fairness Doctrine, in place from 1949 until 1987, when the Federal Communications Commission discontinued it.

The Fairness Doctrine once required broadcasters, as a condition of getting their licenses from the FCC, to cover controversial issues in their community, and to do so by offering some balancing views. It did not require equal time for opposing views. It merely prevented a station from day after day presenting a single view without airing opposing views.

In 1987 a bill to place the Fairness Doctrine into federal law passed the House by 3 to 1, and the Senate by nearly 2 to 1, but President Ronald Reagan vetoed it. In 1989 the Fairness Doctrine easily passed the House again, but didn't proceed further as President George Bush threatened to veto it. In 1991, hearings were again held on the doctrine, but President Bush's ongoing veto threat stymied passage.

Myles and I got into this topic while talking about the the effect that Clear Channel (which owns about 1,200 radio stations in the United States) is having on freedom of speech. I played him a copy of Barry McGuire's 60s mega-hit song "Eve of Destruction," explaining that with the run up to the war on Iraq, Clear Channel banned all such anti-war songs. Even Willie Nelson backed down. After writing a Christmas anti-war song titled "What Ever Happened to Peace on Earth," that he sung once in Austin at a Kucinich raly, Willie refused to record and release it as a single.

And with "fairness" a dead issue, Clear Channel can concentrate on further limits to freedom of speech... At WTKK-FM (96.9), host Jay Severin is no longer allowed to use the term "effing." In other cities, some stations have dropped risque talkers entirely, including the king of crass, Howard Stern. I am no fan of Howard and have only seen and heard him a few times but Puritanical intolerance is scarier than Stern himself.

Fairness & Accuracy In Reporting (FAIR) just released "The Oh Really? Factor: Unspinning Fox News Channel's Bill O'Reilly" (Seven Stories Press, 2003). Written by FAIR's Peter Hart, the book sets the record straight on the errors and inconsistencies on the most-watched program on cable news.

If you want to find out what's really going on in Door County or Iraq ask a local - Rahul Mahajan provides a candid view from the streets in Blogging from Baghdad.

Watch for a screening of local student and filmaker, Myles Kristen's latest work on how the war is affecting people in Wisconsin at the Compass Internet Cafe. Join us on Thursday April 22, for the first Door County Kerry in 2004 Meetup, one of hundreds taking place all over the nation on the 4th Thursday of each month. So far, 94,036 participants have signed up on-line. In Door County Kerry Meetups take place at the Compass Internet Cafe in Fish Creek at 7 PM.