Just kidding, of course.
Off-shore rigs are still shut-down, waiting for Cowboy Ken Salazar and Energy Secretary Steven Chu (excuse me, the Nobel Prize winning US Secretary of Energy, Steven Chu) to give them the green light to re-start.
No sites being developed in ANWR, no new off-shore rigs, existing rigs mothballed … and the Middle East in turmoil.
It’s gonna take a lot of windmills and solar shingles …
My bet: $5 gas this summer …
Just kidding, of course.
Off-shore rigs are still shut-down, waiting for Cowboy Ken Salazar and Energy Secretary Steven Chu (excuse me, the Nobel Prize winning US Secretary of Energy, Steven Chu) to give them the green light to re-start.
No sites being developed in ANWR, no new off-shore rigs, existing rigs mothballed … and the Middle East in turmoil.
It’s gonna take a lot of windmills and solar shingles …
My bet: $5 gas this summer …
Peggy Noonan was a Republican speech writer … then she jumped on the Hope & Change train … then she fell out of love with O … then the Tucson speech reignited her enthusiasm … then came the State of the Union.
Here a few of the notable quips from her WSJ op-ed …
I hate writing this. I wanted to write “A Serious Man Seizes the Center.” But President Obama was not serious and he didn’t seize the center, he went straight for the mush.
It is a strange and confounding thing about this White House that the moment you finally think they have their act together — the moment they get in the groove and start to demonstrate that they do have some understanding of our country — they take the very next opportunity to prove anew that they do not have their act together, and are not in the groove. It’s almost magical.
Rhetorically the speech lay there like a lox, as if the document itself knew it was dishonest, felt embarrassed, and wanted to curl up quietly in a corner of the podium and hide. But the president insisted on reading it.
The President continues not to comprehend America’s central anxiety about government spending: that it will crush our children, constrict the economy in which they operate, make America poorer, lower its standing in the world, and do in the American dream.
We’ll focus on “greater Internet access,” “renewable energy,” “one million electric vehicles on the road by 2015,” “wind and solar,” “information technology.” “Within 25 years, our goal is to give 80% of Americans access to high-speed rail.” The administration continues to struggle with the concept of priorities. They are like people who’d say, “Martha, the house is on fire and flames are licking down the stairs—let’s discuss what color to repaint the living room after we rebuild!” A better priority might be, “Get the kids out and call the fire department.”
The president will limit the cost of government by whipping it into shape and removing redundant agencies. Really? He hasn’t shown much interest in that before. He has shown no general ideological sympathy for the idea of shrinking and streamlining government. He’s going to rationalize government?
On education, the president announced we’re lagging behind in our public schools. Who knew? In this age of “Waiting for Superman” and “The Lottery,” every adult in America admits that union rules are the biggest impediment to progress. “Race to the Top” isn’t the answer. We all know this.
There is often about the president an air of delivering a sincere lecture in which he informs us of things that seem new to him but are old to everyone else. He has a tendency to present banalities as if they were discoveries. “American innovation” is important. As many as “a quarter of our students aren’t even finishing high school.” We’re falling behind in math and science: “Think about it.” Yes, well, all we’ve done is think about it.
When you talk this way, as if the audience is uninformed, they think you are uninformed. Leaders must know what’s in the national information bank.
He too often in making a case puts the focus on himself. George H.W. Bush, always afraid of sounding egotistical, took the I’s out of his speeches. We called his edits “I-ectomies.” Mr. Obama always seems to put the I in. He does “I implants.”
The president made a semi-humorous reference to TSA pat-downs, but his government is in charge of and insists on the invasive new procedures, to which the president has never been and will never be subjected. So it’s not funny coming from him.
WSJ, An Unserious Speech Misses the Mark, Jan. 27, 2011
TakeAway: Like many new, innovative products, there is an adoption chasm between the early adopters and the early majority.
While the new Chevy Volt has already demonstrated appeal to the early tech adopters, there are some issues that could spell trouble.
One, the short battery range doesn’t really offer a complete solution to eliminating the need for gasoline.
Two, once you have exhausted the battery, it’s just another car. Until the battery technology improves, the “killer application” seems to be lacking.
* * * * *
Excerpted from NPR, “Electric Cars Steal the Spotlight at Auto Show,” by Sonari Glinton, January 14, 2011
When the North American International Auto Show opens in Detroit on Friday, there’s going to be electricity in the air. …
… the star of the show is the Chevy Volt, the electric car with a backup gas engine. It won the top prize — the 2011 North American Car of the Year. …
GM has high hopes that the Volt will be adopted by a mainstream audience.
“Today a lot of our customers are early tech adopters — typically the first on the block to have an iPhone or an iPad,” says Tony DiSalle, the head of marketing for the Chevy Volt. He thinks those numbers will improve over time.
“The most important thing is to get consumers — mass-market consumers — to understand the benefits of the Volt,” DiSalle says.
GM expects to sell about 10,000 Volts this year. In 2012, the company will ramp up production to about 45,000 cars. But even that figure is small compared with the more than 2.2 million cars and trucks that GM’s four brands sold in 2010. …
One of the barriers to the adoption of the electric car is a phrase that keeps coming up at the auto show — range anxiety. Many of the cars on display can only travel under electric power for short ranges. Analysts say that until the big car companies can conquer consumer fears of running out of charge, electric vehicles will remain on the fringes.
“Look, the electrification of the American fleet is not going to happen overnight,” says Bob Lutz, who retired as vice chairman of GM in May.
… He says electrification will be a gradual process, predicting that it will take until 2025 for electric vehicles to account for 10 percent to 15 percent of the overall market. …
Edit by DMG
TakeAway: Like many new, innovative products, there is an adoption chasm between the early adopters and the early majority.
While the new Chevy Volt has already demonstrated appeal to the early tech adopters, there are some issues that could spell trouble.
One, the short battery range doesn’t really offer a complete solution to eliminating the need for gasoline.
Two, once you have exhausted the battery, it’s just another car. Until the battery technology improves, the “killer application” seems to be lacking.
* * * * *
Excerpted from NPR, “Electric Cars Steal the Spotlight at Auto Show,” by Sonari Glinton, January 14, 2011
When the North American International Auto Show opens in Detroit on Friday, there’s going to be electricity in the air. …
… the star of the show is the Chevy Volt, the electric car with a backup gas engine. It won the top prize — the 2011 North American Car of the Year. …
GM has high hopes that the Volt will be adopted by a mainstream audience.
“Today a lot of our customers are early tech adopters — typically the first on the block to have an iPhone or an iPad,” says Tony DiSalle, the head of marketing for the Chevy Volt. He thinks those numbers will improve over time.
“The most important thing is to get consumers — mass-market consumers — to understand the benefits of the Volt,” DiSalle says.
GM expects to sell about 10,000 Volts this year. In 2012, the company will ramp up production to about 45,000 cars. But even that figure is small compared with the more than 2.2 million cars and trucks that GM’s four brands sold in 2010. …
One of the barriers to the adoption of the electric car is a phrase that keeps coming up at the auto show — range anxiety. Many of the cars on display can only travel under electric power for short ranges. Analysts say that until the big car companies can conquer consumer fears of running out of charge, electric vehicles will remain on the fringes.
“Look, the electrification of the American fleet is not going to happen overnight,” says Bob Lutz, who retired as vice chairman of GM in May.
… He says electrification will be a gradual process, predicting that it will take until 2025 for electric vehicles to account for 10 percent to 15 percent of the overall market. …
Edit by DMG
The Homa Files 