NAMI News
The latest trinational news.Friday, November 28, 2008
About Latin America.
NY Times Opinion, November 28, 2008 - “The Bush administration is leaving behind so much turmoil and resentment around the world that President-elect Barack Obama might be tempted to put off dealing with the nation’s extremely sour relations with Latin America. That would be shortsighted. There is a unique opportunity to improve ties with a region that shares key interests and values with the United States. And given how bad relations are right now, it will not take much more than good sense and sensitivity to make progress. For starters, the Obama administration could gain a lot of good will by supporting more aid, mostly from the International Monetary Fund, for Latin American countries sideswiped by the financial meltdown.” Read more.
Thursday, November 27, 2008
A Land Rush in Wyoming Spurred by Wind Power.
NY Times, November 27, 2008 - “The man who came to Elsie Bacon’s ranch house door in July asked the 71-year-old widow to grant access to a right of way across the dry hills and short grasses of her land here. Ms. Bacon remembered his insistence on a quick, secret deal. The man, a representative of the Little Rose Wind Farm of Boulder, Colo., sought an easement for a transmission line to carry his company’s wind-generated electricity to market. His offer: a fraction of the value of similar deals in the area. As Ms. Bacon, 71, recalled it: “He said, ‘You sure I can’t write you out a check?’ He was really pushy.” A quiet land rush is under way among the buttes of southeastern Wyoming, and it is changing the local rancher culture.” Read more.
Wednesday, November 26, 2008
Mexico cheers Obama but fears his trade stance.
Reuters, November 26, 2008 - “Mexico’s government and business leaders are worried about U.S. President-elect Barack Obama’s commitment to free trade and the war on drug cartels, even though Mexicans cheered his election win as a chance to restore a jaded friendship. Mexico felt neglected as President George W. Bush, who made his first foreign trip as U.S. president to Mexico in 2001, became embroiled in the wars in Iraq and Afghanistan and failed to win a much-vaunted reform of U.S. immigration laws.” Read more.
Climate change still a concern despite economy: poll.
CTV, November 26, 2008 - “Despite the ongoing global financial crisis, a new poll of 11 countries, including Canada, shows nearly half are still more worried about climate change. The Climate Confidence Monitor 2008, which surveyed 12,000 people around the world, found 43 per cent of respondents chose climate change ahead of global economic stability when asked about their top three concerns. Worldwide, 48 per cent of people believe governments should be playing a leading role in tackling climate change but only 25 per cent think they are actually doing so.” Read more.
Cheap oil, but at what cost?
Chicago Tribune, November 26, 2008 - “From here in the far north of Canada through a web of transcontinental pipelines down to a network of refineries ringing the Chicago area, a new supply of precious oil has begun flowing into the gas tanks of more Americans, tapped from a source so vast it could one day furnish close to half of U.S. oil needs for 50 years or more. This Canadian oil is stable and reliable. It promises to substantially reduce America’s future dependence on volatile Middle Eastern sources of oil. And much of it is profitable to produce even with oil prices hovering around $50 per barrel, which explains why some of the world’s largest oil conglomerates have invested tens of billions of dollars here despite wild short-term swings in international oil prices.” Read more.
Tuesday, November 25, 2008
‘In fact, every Canadian has a stake in this.’
Vancouver Sun, November 25, 2008 - “Alberta is losing the public relations war when it comes to the oilsands, just as a new U.S. president is poised to renew America’s energy policy. “We can’t think of a bigger fight to be a part of,” said David MacLean, vice-president of communications for the Alberta Enterprise Group in Edmonton, who sounded an alarm in an interview last week. “Every Albertan has a stake in seeing our industries succeed. And we need all hands on deck, so to speak, to make sure our message is getting out there. In fact, every Canadian has a stake in this.” The organization, established 18 months ago by Alberta business interests, insists there’s a robust case to be made for the massive project. For starters, the development has created 150,000 jobs.” Read more.
Napolitano Offers Obama Pragmatic Take on Immigration.
The Washington Independent, November 25, 2008 - “If Arizona Gov. Janet Napolitano becomes the new secretary of homeland security, this centrist Democrat could have the opportunity to institute nationwide reforms to address continuing problems with illegal immigration and border security. These reforms could grow out of the policies and programs that Napolitano has tested in her 15 years of public service in a state that is ground zero in America’s struggle to control its borders. Napolitano, 50, is now frequently mentioned as President-elect Barack Obama’s leading candidate to run the Dept. of Homeland Security, a sprawling bureaucracy with 200,000 employees and a $50 billion budget that is responsible for protecting against future terrorist attacks, securing borders from illegal entry and responding to natural disasters through oversight of the much-maligned Federal Emergency Management Agency. The department also includes the Secret Service, the U.S. Coast Guard and other agencies.” Read more.
Monday, November 24, 2008
Alberta’s engine drives Canada.
Toronto Star, November 24, 2008 - “Ontario is going through a painful time right now. Canada’s traditional economic engine now stands on the verge of becoming a have-not province. This is a shock not only to Ontarians but to everyone else in Canada. It shows us just how significant the economic slowdown is, and how important it is that Canadians work together for a strong recovery. I have no doubt Ontario will recover, but in the meantime there is only one major reliable source of increased jobs, investment and government revenue in Canada – and that is Alberta’s oil sands. There are many suggestions to stimulate a return to economic growth across North America, but all depend on accessible, reliable energy.” Read more.
Oil Is Cheap. Why Is Gas, Which Is Made From Oil, Even Cheaper?
NY Times Economix Blog, November 24, 2008 - “Crude oil futures recently fell to about $50 a barrel, the cheapest they have been since May 2005. How does this relate to gasoline prices? There is a relationship between crude oil prices and gasoline prices, since oil is used to make gasoline. But there is not a simple, linear, one-to-one relationship. In the futures markets, a gallon of gasoline has been, on average over the last six years, 22 cents more expensive than a gallon of crude, according to John C. Felmy, chief economist for API, an oil and gas trade association. (A barrel of oil contains 42 gallons, by the way.) That 22-cent difference comes primarily from the costs of refining oil into gasoline. Right now, though, the decline in gas prices is outpacing that in oil prices on the futures markets.” Read more.
Mexican government looking beyond remittances.
Huffington Post, November 24, 2008 - “As the United States economic crisis worsens, the money that Mexicans living here send home to their families has declined — reaching record lows over the summer. But the Mexican government has long known that the day would come when the historic migration North would slow, and the remittance revenue stream — Mexico’s second largest source of foreign income behind oil exports _ would eventually dry up. Mexico prepared for the scenario with initiatives to solidify ties to its citizens abroad, especially with the U.S.-born children of Mexican immigrants whose allegiance to their homeland weakens with each new generation.” Read more.
Saturday, November 22, 2008
Stanford professor leads Obama immigration team.
SF Gate, November 22, 2008 - “Stanford law Professor Tino Cuéllar was named this week to lead President-elect Barack Obama’s transition working group on immigration, putting him among the many scholars from the Bay Area who are helping shape the next administration. The team is one of seven policy groups Obama has convened to develop priorities for the first months of his presidency on topics ranging from education to the economy to national security. The task of overhauling the nation’s immigration system stymied President Bush, who favored an approach combining tougher enforcement with legalization for the country’s estimated 12 million undocumented immigrants and a guest worker program to allow low-skilled foreign workers to enter legally in the future.” Read more.
Friday, November 21, 2008
Oil’s Shrinking Sandbox Leads to Northern Alberta.
Morningstar, November 21, 2008 - “In recent years, the challenges of securing global energy resources for a growing, industrializing world population have been made painfully apparent by soaring prices. Record profits at the world’s largest public oil companies can often paint a tempting target in the search for a villain amidst our collective turmoil. But the world of energy isn’t a simple one.” Read more.
Friday, November 07, 2008
Obama’s Energy Department.
Washington Post, November 6, 2008 - “Let the speculating begin. Not oil speculation, but job speculation for the new Obama administration. Here’s what I’m hearing, and thinking. First, the Energy Department is an odd beast. Thirty six percent of its $25 billion budget is related to national security, dealing with nuclear materials from things like decommissioned nuclear weapons and naval reactors.” Read More.
Thursday, October 23, 2008
Water Innovations Alliance Launches to Support the Development of New Technologies.
MarketWatch, October 21, 2008 - “A leading group of entrepreneurs, investors and policy experts today announced the launch of the Water Innovations Alliance—an international trade association for emerging watertechnology companies and the organizations and communities they support—during the fourth annual Lux Executive Summit. The Washington, D.C.-based Alliance will work to expand markets, increase research funding, strengthen research and development, create a collaboratory environment, and improve education and outreach for water industry professionals. A huge gap currently exists between global water needs and global water solutions.” Read more.
Pemex Enters Gulf Ultra Deepwater in Search of Oil.
Bloomberg, October 22, 2008 - “Petroleos Mexicanos has started seismic studies for oil under seas three times deeper than anything it has drilled, marking its entry into ultra deepwater as it seeks to offset an almost five-year decline in output. Pemex, as the state-owned oil company is known, began laying seismic cables in the Gulf of Mexico on Oct. 18, according to a bulletin on Mexico’s Merchant Marine Web site. The study of the area just west of the Mexican side of the Gulf’s El Perdido Foldbelt will last until April and provide two-dimensional data on deposits in water as deep as 3,500 meters (11,484 feet).” Read more.
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