The federally chartered Export-Import Bank of the United States has approved a $28.6 million direct loan to a high-tech wind power company in the Central American country of Honduras.
The loan will enable 200 workers in six U.S. states to assemble 12 high-tech wind turbines for export. The cost of those jobs works out to $143,000 per job created.
According to the Ex-Im Bank, the transaction will help to expand a project first supported by the bank in 2010, when its long-term financing of 51 U.S.-built turbine generators established the Cerro de Hula Wind Farm in Santa Ana, Honduras.
Gamesa Wind US, LLC, a technology firm based in Trevose, Pa., will supply and export six each of its high-efficiency model G-87 and G-97, 2.0 MegaWatt turbines to generate electric power in rural Honduras. Gamesa is the U.S. subsidiary of Gamesa Tecnologicos SA, a company based in Spain.
The bank said the loan “is demonstrating the importance of its role to fill gaps in financing for creditworthy borrowers.”
“With this project, we've achieved an impressive win all around: for exporters, for U.S. workers, and for energy consumers in Honduras, because the wind-driven generators cost less to operate than their equivalent in fossil-fueled equipment,” Ex-Im Bank Chairman and President Fred P. Hochberg said in a statement.
The Ex-Im Bank is an independent federal agency a federally chartered agency of the U.S. government, which “helps to create and maintain U.S. jobs by filling gaps in private export financing at no cost to American taxpayers,” according to bank promotional materials.
“In the past five years (from Fiscal Year 2008), Ex-Im Bank has earned for U.S. taxpayers nearly $1.6 billion above the cost of operations,” according to the bank.
The Bank provides a variety of financing mechanisms, including working capital guarantees, export-credit insurance and financing to help foreign buyers purchase U.S. goods and services.
However, critics point to the fact that U.S. taxpayers do indeed back the loans made or guaranteed by the bank – and U.S. taxpayers would be called on to cover loans in the case of default.
Conservative groups also say the Ex-Im Bank is an unwarranted government intrusion into the free-market system and unaccountable in how it dispenses U.S. money.
Efforts led by Sen. Rand Paul (R-Ky.) to abolish the bank fell short last May, when the Senate voted 78-20 to renew its charter for three years and to raise the bank’s lending cap from the current $100 billion to $140 billion.
Legislation offered at the Capitol would allow local governments to restrict wind developments. Proponents claim the measure would protect property owners, while opponents says the bill would cripple the wind energy industry in Wisconsin.
The bill’s author, Republican Senator Frank Lasee, injected a partisan note as he testified before a Senate committee on Wednesday. “It’s unfortunate that the Democrats don’t care about people and their health<’ Lasee said. “If this was an oil issue and there was any suspicion of people getting sick from oil, they’d be all over this and complaining vehemently.”
Last year, the legislature reinstated a controversial rule, which allows the state Public Service Commission to uniformly regulate wind energy operations. PSC 128 regulates the placement of turbines, and factors such as size and allowable setbacks from roadways and buildings.
2013年3月14日 星期四
2013年2月18日 星期一
Wind farm opponents
The Newfound Lake Region Association has announced its support for one of at least three bills before the Legislature that could affect wind farm development in New Hampshire.
The association is backing a bill by Rep. Harold "Skip" Reilly Sr., R-Hill, and co-sponsored by Sen. Jeanne Forrester. It calls for a moratorium on commercial wind projects until the state issues a new comprehensive energy plan.
The association's decision is based on information presented by Dr. Benjamin Luce of Vermont's Lyndon State College to New Hampshire Wind Watch, a 1,300-member group of residents opposed to two proposed wind projects in the Newfound Lake-Cardigan Mountain. Luce told the association that wind power will add little benefit to the state's renewable energy future.
"The NLRA believes that the state should enact a moratorium on all pending and proposed commercial wind projects until a comprehensive energy plan can be prepared to guide state energy policy toward a more carbon-free, cost-effective, locally produced, and high-efficiency energy environment which does not sacrifice the quality of life that supports our economy," the NLRA said in a letter to its constituents Thursday.
Another bill being studied in House and Senate committees would change the process for applying for a certificate for an energy facility. The House bill is sponsored primarily by Rep. Neal Kurk, R-Weare. The Senate version is sponsored by Forrester.
Forrester, of Meredith, said the bills are designed for all power projects in the state, but current proposed wind farms in the Newfound Lake/Cardigan Mountain area "will be addressed by this legislation."
"We want to establish what we want New Hampshire to look like; we don't want to be subject to the will of every wind farm company or whatever other kind of power facility plan that will come our way," the Republican said.
"Let's be intentional about it, not just let it happen," she said.
The state's Site Evaluation Committee, which has permitting control of energy projects, hasn't had enough authority or broad enough criteria in deciding whether to allow a wind farm project, she said.
The committee granted a permit last year for a wind farm project that is now online in Groton, but recently denied a permit to a farm project in Antrim. Larger projects are being proposed by Spanish wind power giant Iberdrola and by Portugal's EBD Renewables in the towns of Grafton, Groton, Alexandria, Danbury and Hebron.
Under present law, residents and their municipal governments have had little control - aside from giving input at SEC meetings - over wind power projects because the companies lease land from private landowners, and need only SEC approval.
The proposals have drawn criticism from local residents and groups, who worry about the negative impact of 40-story wind turbine towers on the views and the tourist economy in the Newfound Lake region.
Republican Sen. Bob Odell is sponsoring a third bill that would establish a new energy plan for the next 10 years.
Odell, who lives in Lempster, where Iberdrola built its first wind farm in the state, said the state's current energy plan is now more than 10 years old, and was designed before wind power projects and other modern energy projects were prominent.
The association is backing a bill by Rep. Harold "Skip" Reilly Sr., R-Hill, and co-sponsored by Sen. Jeanne Forrester. It calls for a moratorium on commercial wind projects until the state issues a new comprehensive energy plan.
The association's decision is based on information presented by Dr. Benjamin Luce of Vermont's Lyndon State College to New Hampshire Wind Watch, a 1,300-member group of residents opposed to two proposed wind projects in the Newfound Lake-Cardigan Mountain. Luce told the association that wind power will add little benefit to the state's renewable energy future.
"The NLRA believes that the state should enact a moratorium on all pending and proposed commercial wind projects until a comprehensive energy plan can be prepared to guide state energy policy toward a more carbon-free, cost-effective, locally produced, and high-efficiency energy environment which does not sacrifice the quality of life that supports our economy," the NLRA said in a letter to its constituents Thursday.
Another bill being studied in House and Senate committees would change the process for applying for a certificate for an energy facility. The House bill is sponsored primarily by Rep. Neal Kurk, R-Weare. The Senate version is sponsored by Forrester.
Forrester, of Meredith, said the bills are designed for all power projects in the state, but current proposed wind farms in the Newfound Lake/Cardigan Mountain area "will be addressed by this legislation."
"We want to establish what we want New Hampshire to look like; we don't want to be subject to the will of every wind farm company or whatever other kind of power facility plan that will come our way," the Republican said.
"Let's be intentional about it, not just let it happen," she said.
The state's Site Evaluation Committee, which has permitting control of energy projects, hasn't had enough authority or broad enough criteria in deciding whether to allow a wind farm project, she said.
The committee granted a permit last year for a wind farm project that is now online in Groton, but recently denied a permit to a farm project in Antrim. Larger projects are being proposed by Spanish wind power giant Iberdrola and by Portugal's EBD Renewables in the towns of Grafton, Groton, Alexandria, Danbury and Hebron.
Under present law, residents and their municipal governments have had little control - aside from giving input at SEC meetings - over wind power projects because the companies lease land from private landowners, and need only SEC approval.
The proposals have drawn criticism from local residents and groups, who worry about the negative impact of 40-story wind turbine towers on the views and the tourist economy in the Newfound Lake region.
Republican Sen. Bob Odell is sponsoring a third bill that would establish a new energy plan for the next 10 years.
Odell, who lives in Lempster, where Iberdrola built its first wind farm in the state, said the state's current energy plan is now more than 10 years old, and was designed before wind power projects and other modern energy projects were prominent.
2013年1月30日 星期三
Surprising tools of gunmaking
Amateur gunsmiths have made lower receivers for years, in metal, although the process requires a certain level of machining expertise. Inexpensive 3-D printers have grown in popularity — their rise has been compared with that of personal computers in the 1980s — in part because they are easy to use. It is not even necessary to know how to create the design files that instruct the device to print bit after bit of plastic to build the object, as there are files for tens of thousands of objects available on the Internet, created by other users and freely shared.
Still, some tinkering is usually required. Guslick, who works in information technology and describes himself as a hobbyist gunsmith, printed his receiver on a machine he bought online through Craigslist. He used a file and abrasive paper to make the piece fit properly, but overall the project was not much of a technical challenge.
Only Wilson, a law student who prints his receivers on friends' machines, had overtly political motives, wanting to demonstrate what he called the absurdity of gun-control laws. He took his efforts even further, printing high-capacity magazines like those that would be banned under recommendations proposed by President Barack Obama and successfully testing them earlier this month on a firing range south of Austin. He has posted the drawing files at his website, defcad.org, so that others can print the magazine.
Wilson also has a project to develop a fully printable one-shot weapon, although he has not made much progress. He is seeking a firearms manufacturer's license, which he would need to even make prototypes of a complete weapon.
He gets advice and technical help from a loose network of about 15 collaborators around the world and has posted other printer files at his site, including Guslick's file for a lower receiver.
Baetzel posted his files on his own blog, Ambulatory Armament Depot, after a printer file-sharing site, Thingiverse, forced him to remove them in December. A spokeswoman for MakerBot, a 3-D printer manufacturer that sponsors Thingiverse, pointed out that the site's terms of service prohibit content that "contributes to the creation of weapons."
Guslick, who is machining a couple of metal lower receivers, said 3-D printers were far from the best tool for gun-making, an opinion shared by Neil Gershenfeld, a professor at MIT and director of the school's Center for Bits and Atoms.
"A well-equipped machine shop for a long time has been able to make gun parts," Gershenfeld said. "Three-D printers make not very good ones."
The types of computer-controlled tools found in a machine shop — primarily laser cutters and milling machines — are expensive. But smaller and cheaper versions are now available to dedicated hobbyists, although they do not yet have quite the mass appeal of 3-D printers.
Yet the printers have other drawbacks besides the use of plastic. They are slow, often taking hours to build an object, and the results, while impressive to the eye, can be too crude for extremely closefitting parts.
And as Guslick pointed out, anyone who is desperate for a weapon "has the ability to assemble a zip gun from parts bought in a hardware store for $15."
The National Rifle Association did not respond to messages requesting the group's position on 3-D manufacturing. But for gun-control advocates, the real worry regarding 3-D printers and other machines is what the future might bring in the way of technological advances.
"Down the road it's going to be a big concern," said Josh Horwitz, executive director of the Coalition to Stop Gun Violence. "We don't know how that's going to come about and don't know what technology."
Baetzel, for one, said he did not worry about what other people might do with the technology. "I follow the laws," he said. "I personally think everyone else should follow them." He said he did not post his designs hoping that someone would use them illegally.
Still, some tinkering is usually required. Guslick, who works in information technology and describes himself as a hobbyist gunsmith, printed his receiver on a machine he bought online through Craigslist. He used a file and abrasive paper to make the piece fit properly, but overall the project was not much of a technical challenge.
Only Wilson, a law student who prints his receivers on friends' machines, had overtly political motives, wanting to demonstrate what he called the absurdity of gun-control laws. He took his efforts even further, printing high-capacity magazines like those that would be banned under recommendations proposed by President Barack Obama and successfully testing them earlier this month on a firing range south of Austin. He has posted the drawing files at his website, defcad.org, so that others can print the magazine.
Wilson also has a project to develop a fully printable one-shot weapon, although he has not made much progress. He is seeking a firearms manufacturer's license, which he would need to even make prototypes of a complete weapon.
He gets advice and technical help from a loose network of about 15 collaborators around the world and has posted other printer files at his site, including Guslick's file for a lower receiver.
Baetzel posted his files on his own blog, Ambulatory Armament Depot, after a printer file-sharing site, Thingiverse, forced him to remove them in December. A spokeswoman for MakerBot, a 3-D printer manufacturer that sponsors Thingiverse, pointed out that the site's terms of service prohibit content that "contributes to the creation of weapons."
Guslick, who is machining a couple of metal lower receivers, said 3-D printers were far from the best tool for gun-making, an opinion shared by Neil Gershenfeld, a professor at MIT and director of the school's Center for Bits and Atoms.
"A well-equipped machine shop for a long time has been able to make gun parts," Gershenfeld said. "Three-D printers make not very good ones."
The types of computer-controlled tools found in a machine shop — primarily laser cutters and milling machines — are expensive. But smaller and cheaper versions are now available to dedicated hobbyists, although they do not yet have quite the mass appeal of 3-D printers.
Yet the printers have other drawbacks besides the use of plastic. They are slow, often taking hours to build an object, and the results, while impressive to the eye, can be too crude for extremely closefitting parts.
And as Guslick pointed out, anyone who is desperate for a weapon "has the ability to assemble a zip gun from parts bought in a hardware store for $15."
The National Rifle Association did not respond to messages requesting the group's position on 3-D manufacturing. But for gun-control advocates, the real worry regarding 3-D printers and other machines is what the future might bring in the way of technological advances.
"Down the road it's going to be a big concern," said Josh Horwitz, executive director of the Coalition to Stop Gun Violence. "We don't know how that's going to come about and don't know what technology."
Baetzel, for one, said he did not worry about what other people might do with the technology. "I follow the laws," he said. "I personally think everyone else should follow them." He said he did not post his designs hoping that someone would use them illegally.
2012年11月20日 星期二
Thieves go on coffee-machine binge at Nanaimo Starbucks outlets
Six coffee machines were stolen from three different Nanaimo-area Starbucks locations on Friday, highlighting how thefts increase as the holidays draw near.
The thefts happened at the Terminal Park, University Mall and Country Club locations and in two of the cases a man was seen picking up the machines and walking out with them.
RCMP Media spokesman Gary O'Brien said that he estimates the items were likely sold on the street at a reduced value for drug money.
Incidents of shoplifting and theft begin to increase following Thanksgiving and go up from there, said O'Brien, who actively works with stores on their theft-prevention strategies.
He spoke with Starbucks management on Monday and said that they will be using a demo model for public display from now on.
Theft risks to the public are also on the rise at this time of year, said O'Brien.
Starbucks representatives were unavailable for comment on the thefts.
"There's a lot of pressure," said O'Brien about people's increased financial strain during the holidays.
"People involved in criminal activity also want to provide for their families."
There's "absolutely" more theft at this time of year, said Dave Paulgaard, who provides security services for the Country Club and Woodgrove shopping centres.
He said they encourage people to notify store managers or mall security if they see a person shoplifting, because for any charges to be laid, there has to be eyewitnesses.
"If they're noted shoplifters, I just go shopping with them," he said with a chuckle.
The items in the Starbucks locations were on public display. This is a factor both store theft and in theft of personal items, which also increase at this time of year, said O'Brien
"You get a lot of theft from parking lots because people are just flocking to the malls," said O'Brien.
It's "very common" for thieves work the parking lots by sitting in their cars and watching people entering and exiting stores.
Items commonly stolen from cars are purses and more expensive "high-ticket" items, said O'Brien.
Advice from the RCMP to shoppers is to hide items in the car and make sure the trunk latch is securely locked.
No arrests have been made in the coffee-machine thefts and each incident remains under investigation.
GE Appliances is investing $60 million in new high-efficiency washing machine facility and product, creating 150 new jobs and supporting about 40 domestic suppliers.
The popularity of the high efficiency washing technology has driven more innovation and investment in top load washing machine category.
"There is 150 people on this line that wouldn't have had a job if this product didn't come to GE," said Anitra Wiggins.
The new machine uses an impeller instead of an agitator which allows then to use less water and energy than a traditional washer.
For many of the employees at Appliance Park, the new washing machine means job security.
"Anything coming back to Louisville coming back to appliance park means jobs means jobs for the city," said GE employee Nathan Hall.
Production on the new washer began six weeks ago and they started shipping them out last week. The jobs surrounding the new product have already been filled.
Production also began this year on a new hybrid water heater facility, with plans to upgrade all product lines and facilities including the bottom freezer refrigerator and front load washing machines.
The thefts happened at the Terminal Park, University Mall and Country Club locations and in two of the cases a man was seen picking up the machines and walking out with them.
RCMP Media spokesman Gary O'Brien said that he estimates the items were likely sold on the street at a reduced value for drug money.
Incidents of shoplifting and theft begin to increase following Thanksgiving and go up from there, said O'Brien, who actively works with stores on their theft-prevention strategies.
He spoke with Starbucks management on Monday and said that they will be using a demo model for public display from now on.
Theft risks to the public are also on the rise at this time of year, said O'Brien.
Starbucks representatives were unavailable for comment on the thefts.
"There's a lot of pressure," said O'Brien about people's increased financial strain during the holidays.
"People involved in criminal activity also want to provide for their families."
There's "absolutely" more theft at this time of year, said Dave Paulgaard, who provides security services for the Country Club and Woodgrove shopping centres.
He said they encourage people to notify store managers or mall security if they see a person shoplifting, because for any charges to be laid, there has to be eyewitnesses.
"If they're noted shoplifters, I just go shopping with them," he said with a chuckle.
The items in the Starbucks locations were on public display. This is a factor both store theft and in theft of personal items, which also increase at this time of year, said O'Brien
"You get a lot of theft from parking lots because people are just flocking to the malls," said O'Brien.
It's "very common" for thieves work the parking lots by sitting in their cars and watching people entering and exiting stores.
Items commonly stolen from cars are purses and more expensive "high-ticket" items, said O'Brien.
Advice from the RCMP to shoppers is to hide items in the car and make sure the trunk latch is securely locked.
No arrests have been made in the coffee-machine thefts and each incident remains under investigation.
GE Appliances is investing $60 million in new high-efficiency washing machine facility and product, creating 150 new jobs and supporting about 40 domestic suppliers.
The popularity of the high efficiency washing technology has driven more innovation and investment in top load washing machine category.
"There is 150 people on this line that wouldn't have had a job if this product didn't come to GE," said Anitra Wiggins.
The new machine uses an impeller instead of an agitator which allows then to use less water and energy than a traditional washer.
For many of the employees at Appliance Park, the new washing machine means job security.
"Anything coming back to Louisville coming back to appliance park means jobs means jobs for the city," said GE employee Nathan Hall.
Production on the new washer began six weeks ago and they started shipping them out last week. The jobs surrounding the new product have already been filled.
Production also began this year on a new hybrid water heater facility, with plans to upgrade all product lines and facilities including the bottom freezer refrigerator and front load washing machines.
2012年11月15日 星期四
Hope for a dying empire?
Because to write about “non-ferrous metals equities” means you're writing about silver, gold, copper, lead and zinc miners, and they are the best. Whether they are hustling money at the annual investment conferences in Zurich, London, Toronto or Beijing I attend, standing their ground against the continued assault by the EPA on property rights in Kellogg, or drilling a heading a mile underground, they are the most unusual and most decent people I have ever met. For every charlatan who works this trade there are 1,000 others doing decent, honourable labour, and in their toils to make a living or get rich, they enrich our lives.
Do I really need to tell the silver story here in Shoshone County, the self-proclaimed silver capital of the world? (Well, maybe excluding Mexico and Bolivia, but what does a chamber of commerce care for such nuances?) We have a silver mining industry here because hustlers 120 years ago were able to raise capital to build the first mines, and we have a silver industry now because good people continue to produce silver for a wage, and promoters continue to hustle money to keep the mines going.
I find what miners do here, and what miners in Canada, China, Africa, and Central and South America do, fascinating and honourable. The purveyors of products and services, indeed our very economies stand on the shoulders of miners. It's too bad this simple fact of life, that if it can't be grown it's got to be mined, is not taught in our local schools.
You couldn't start your car without the labour of a silver miner; your fridge wouldn't run, your washing machine would quit and your computers and cell phones would be so much detritus. When the late Hank SiJohn of the Coeur d'Alene Tribe did his best ticked-off Indian routine up at the Star Mine dump to pump up support for our EPA/Superfund hegemony two decades ago, I wondered if he had ever wondered where the zinc for the bumpers on his gigantic Buick had come from. Most likely out of that mine portal he was standing below.
But this rant will not be about mining, at least not always. Nor will it always be about the EPA bumpkins who have squatted in our neck of the woods like a deranged and disagreeable relative who won't ever leave your guest room, despite numerous broad hints, and demands regular meals served in bed.
We'll leave local politics out of this conversation as well — for the most part. If you want my opinions, read the Letters to the Editor column. But I do miss our old politicians: Fred Cantamessa. George Gieser. Bill Noyen. Lou Horvath. Bill Lytle. Vern Lannen. God rest their souls. As a young reporter-slash-editor I could walk in to the county commissioners' den and get honest answers, and a lively dialogue would ensue. I remember the weekly phone hook-up at the Kellogg Chamber meeting, engineered by Ray Chapman, when Lou, Bill and Vern would fill us in on the shenanigans in Boise. I remember driving to Wallace from “up the river” and maybe killing a grouse along the way, gutting it, stuffing into a bread-sack, and keeping it cool in the county's pop machine while I walked my rounds.
I remember when there was a cigarette machine at the bottom of the county courthouse steps, instead of a signed scolding not to get near that marble facade with a fag lit within 20 paces. Heck, I'm even old enough to remember when the airlines gave you a little pack of Winston cigarettes to smoke after your in-flight meal and let every curious kid up to the cockpit to help drive those great, beastly DC-6Bs and Lockheed Connies, fueled-up with 130-octane avgas stored right underneath all those cigarette smokers, and even if you were just seven years old, you wore a tie to fly. Back then, the airlines might not let a slob onto one of their mighty liners, but they certainly wouldn't balk at a nail-clipper or a personal handgun.
Do I really need to tell the silver story here in Shoshone County, the self-proclaimed silver capital of the world? (Well, maybe excluding Mexico and Bolivia, but what does a chamber of commerce care for such nuances?) We have a silver mining industry here because hustlers 120 years ago were able to raise capital to build the first mines, and we have a silver industry now because good people continue to produce silver for a wage, and promoters continue to hustle money to keep the mines going.
I find what miners do here, and what miners in Canada, China, Africa, and Central and South America do, fascinating and honourable. The purveyors of products and services, indeed our very economies stand on the shoulders of miners. It's too bad this simple fact of life, that if it can't be grown it's got to be mined, is not taught in our local schools.
You couldn't start your car without the labour of a silver miner; your fridge wouldn't run, your washing machine would quit and your computers and cell phones would be so much detritus. When the late Hank SiJohn of the Coeur d'Alene Tribe did his best ticked-off Indian routine up at the Star Mine dump to pump up support for our EPA/Superfund hegemony two decades ago, I wondered if he had ever wondered where the zinc for the bumpers on his gigantic Buick had come from. Most likely out of that mine portal he was standing below.
But this rant will not be about mining, at least not always. Nor will it always be about the EPA bumpkins who have squatted in our neck of the woods like a deranged and disagreeable relative who won't ever leave your guest room, despite numerous broad hints, and demands regular meals served in bed.
We'll leave local politics out of this conversation as well — for the most part. If you want my opinions, read the Letters to the Editor column. But I do miss our old politicians: Fred Cantamessa. George Gieser. Bill Noyen. Lou Horvath. Bill Lytle. Vern Lannen. God rest their souls. As a young reporter-slash-editor I could walk in to the county commissioners' den and get honest answers, and a lively dialogue would ensue. I remember the weekly phone hook-up at the Kellogg Chamber meeting, engineered by Ray Chapman, when Lou, Bill and Vern would fill us in on the shenanigans in Boise. I remember driving to Wallace from “up the river” and maybe killing a grouse along the way, gutting it, stuffing into a bread-sack, and keeping it cool in the county's pop machine while I walked my rounds.
I remember when there was a cigarette machine at the bottom of the county courthouse steps, instead of a signed scolding not to get near that marble facade with a fag lit within 20 paces. Heck, I'm even old enough to remember when the airlines gave you a little pack of Winston cigarettes to smoke after your in-flight meal and let every curious kid up to the cockpit to help drive those great, beastly DC-6Bs and Lockheed Connies, fueled-up with 130-octane avgas stored right underneath all those cigarette smokers, and even if you were just seven years old, you wore a tie to fly. Back then, the airlines might not let a slob onto one of their mighty liners, but they certainly wouldn't balk at a nail-clipper or a personal handgun.
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