Sour Grapes for Tuesday, May 13th, 2008

A Merry ‘Ol Soul
I read with interest Bill Stewart’s 2005 revised and republished article about alternative energy in last week’s paper. The argument makes perfect sense as he and several others have pointed out over the years, as our local power generation crisis has grown steadily worse.

Coal powered, steam driven turbine generators provide stable, reliable, cost effective electricity to most of the people on the planet. In our case it bears looking at for several reasons:

First, the cost of refined oil products, especially the expensive top grade diesel fuel our generator engines have been converted to burn, is going up and will continue to go up. Those price increases, already difficult to bear, will soon become impossible to bear causing ever more people and businesses to abandon the CNMI.

Second, the technology to build and run coal powered steam generators has been refined and honed to an easy to manage science over the years. They are simple and safe to run.

Third, it is fast (which we desperately need) and comparatively cheap to build steam generators. We can afford it.

Forth, the fuel, coal, is the most abundant and by far the cheapest form of fuel to be found on planet earth and is located in huge abundance nearby and at a cost we can afford to pay. It is easy to buy and easy to transport.

Fifth, we live on a tiny island and where the trade winds cleanse the air continuously. The tiny plants needed to provide us with affordable, reliable electricity can be built using environmentally sensitive technologies that won’t do substantial harm to the rest of the world either. We won’t notice and neither will they.

Sixth, if we don’t do something soon we will all be standing down by the beach rubbing two coconuts together.

I like the idea of alternative energy. Whether a modern version of nuclear as our researcher from Tinian suggests, harnessing the awesome power of the ocean by converting water motion into electricity, or using the alternative carbon based fuel, coal, each has an appeal. On a smaller scale, wind and solar can be used by individual households and businesses that want to help even more.

We need to ask, beg, cajole, and finally demand that our leaders stop putting their fingers in the CUC dike with short term band aid fixes and cure the root problem of insanely high power costs and increasingly unreliable electric power. The power house is worn out. The engines, once converted from the heavy oil they were intended to run on have never worked properly and are the primary reason for our current electric woes. Let’s replace them with a modern coal fueled plant and solve our problems once and for all.
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Wild Pigs
Do you know how to catch wild pigs?

You catch wild pigs by finding a clearing in the jungle and putting corn on the ground. The pigs find it and begin to come every day to eat the free corn. When they are used to coming every day you build a fence down one side of the clearing. When they get used to the fence they begin to eat again and you put up another side of the fence in the clearing. You continue until you have all four sides of the fence erected and a gate in one side. The pigs, now used to the free corn, start to come through the open gate to eat some more. That’s when you close the gate on them.

At first the pigs run around and around inside the fence squealing in protest, but they are caught. They have lost their freedom. Soon, they go back to eating the free corn. They are so used to it they have forgotten how to forage in the woods for food to feed themselves anyway, so they accept their captivity. There is only one reason why you would want to spend all that ‘free” corn to catch those wild hogs. You know it.

Think about it the next time you see someone cash in their food stamps, or hear about yet another ‘free’ government handout program, or feel inclined to seek a no-need-to-repay government grant. Think about it again as you line up at the TSA counter to be and show your ‘papers’ so you can travel. Think of it again as you see a man’s property confiscated without due process or see a farmer paid to not grow crops. Think of it when someone comes along and wants to decide for you who comes and goes through your borders or who you can employ and how much you should pay them. Think of it when you take that ‘free’ check from the government economic stimulus program in an election year. There ain’t no free lunch.
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Quotes of the week: If there are no stupid questions, then what kind of questions do stupid people ask? Do they get smart just in time to ask questions? Scott Adams (1957 - )

Government is actually the worst failure of civilized man. There has never been a really good one, and even those that are most tolerable are arbitrary, cruel, grasping and unintelligent. HL Mencken (1880 – 1956)

Sour Grapes for Tuesday, April 22nd., 2008

Welcome USS Higgins
Once again we have a US Navy vessel in port, the USS Higgins DDG76. The Higgins is an Arleigh Burke class Destroyer, meaning she is a modern, extremely well equipped warship carrying a variety of armaments and a finely honed crew of technical experts and professional sailors.

The crew of the Higgins has been on deployment for some time now and are here to get some much deserved rest and relaxation. If you have never been to sea, take it from me that everyone on board works long, exhaustive hours to make and keep a Naval vessel ready to respond instantly to any call. They need a rest.

Sailors, you will find Saipan a very military friendly place to spend some time. The scuba diving is great here fellas, as is the golf…world class in both cases. There are scores of great restaurants, outstanding resort hotels, and good shopping for those items to take back home. Bars, lounges and nightclubs abound too.

Charter fishing, snorkeling and many other water sports are available (I will volunteer to take a few of you sailing if you want to go - many others will volunteer to help you out too). Hikers will find lots of jungle trails to keep them busy (check out the Hash Run each Saturday at 3:30PM – meet at the Bank of Guam parking lot across from the Hard Rock). The Flame Tree Festival sporting food, music, dancing plus arts and crafts is coming this weekend too. Finally, Saipan and Tinian are filled with historical and cultural sites that invite exploration.

We welcome you, Officers and Crew, one and all!!
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Will I live to see 80?
A friend of mine wrote to me recently saying:

I recently picked a new primary care doctor. After two visits and exhaustive lab tests, he said I was doing 'fairly well' for my age. A little concerned about that comment, I couldn't resist asking him, “Do you think I'll live to be 80?” He asked, 'Do you smoke tobacco, or drink beer or wine?” “Oh no,” I replied, “I'm not doing drugs, either.”
Then he asked, “Do you eat rib-eye steaks and barbecued ribs?” I said, “No, my former doctor said that all red meat is very unhealthy!” “Do you spend a lot of time in the sun, like playing golf, sailing, hiking, or bicycling?” “No, I don't,” I said. He asked, “Do you gamble, drive fast cars, or have a lot of sex?” “'No,” I said .

He looked at me and said, “Then, why do you even give a darn?”

I find this exchange pretty enlightening. Its allegory bids us to do the things we are interested in doing while we can still do them. If you like to dance, well then dance before arthritis or gout sets in and leaves you sitting on the sidelines.

This advice seems to work for countries as well as individuals. Pozzolan is in the news again, and according to the last expert hired to go up and take a look at the stuff lying around Pagan, because of erosion there is a whole lot less of it now than was reported to be there 15 years ago. The money that natural resource could have provided to the whole CNMI during the last 10 years of economic decline might have made up the difference and our lives and infrastructure might be a lot better now. Maybe we would have a first-world power generation system instead of what we have.

One thing is for sure, we can’t go back 10 years for a redeux, so all we can do now is fret over lost opportunities and vow to do better in the future. Self interest, eco-advocates, court cases, shady deals, investors with another agenda, political pandering, all have played a role in seeing nothing productive happened. Meanwhile the pozzolan ash slides off Pagan into the sea. Maybe the greatest single cause is simple procrastination. We expect the stuff will still be there as a resource forever so we put off tapping the resource. Some few individuals think it may be bad for us so we all put off enjoying the fruits until now it may be becoming too late to enjoy them at all.

This pozzolan pickle is not the only time we will be faced with a similar dilemma. Do we harvest our resources? Do we reserve the right or fight for the right to harvest our countries resources so we may make use of them when the time is right as other more prosperous nations do? Or do we leave the steak on the platter and die without tasting its abundance?
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Water Power
An interesting alternative to the electric power generation problem we have was proposed a number of years ago but languished and went nowhere because the money was rolling in the early 90’s and we could afford all the then-cheap diesel we needed to run our generator’s engines.

Proposed by Seimens, one of the world’s biggest technology companies, the idea was to have the never-ending action of the sea, power our generators using water movement like many other hydroelectric systems do. Water is trapped and released and its moving energy is tapped to drive electricity generating turbines. They wanted to place it facing into the prevailing seas direction up in Marpi. Back then $45 million would have bought the system, but would undoubtedly cost a lot more now.

The lure was 10 cent per kilowatt power generation payback until the system was paid for then 3 cents per kilowatt cost from then on. Compared to our current costs of 41cents commercial and 25 cents (17 this month, maybe) residential it sounds pretty darned good. The question is, is it still a viable alternative? Is this a real possibility, or just a pipe dream? Having been spurned 15 years ago would Seimens be willing to make another proposal? Someone should take the lead and start checking into this alternative as we look at ways to make our power stay on 24/7 and be affordable. Who will step up to the plate?
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Fire Safety
New regulations will soon require business owners to obtain a Certificate of Occupancy from DPW requiring safety checks and adherence to the Uniform Building Code as before, plus a newly created Certificate of Compliance issued after inspections by DPS Fire Division to ensure compliance with the Uniform Fire Code and the CNMI Fire Safety Code.

Pursuant to Public Law 11-56 the new inspections and Certificates will be implemented soon at a proposed cost of $25 for the 1st inspection and additional fees for the certificate itself and for more inspections if a passing mark is not met the first time.

DPS will interact and educate the business public with seminars held at the Rotary Club, the Saipan Chamber of Commerce and other venues. Improved fire safety and prevention measures help insure that all of us are less likely to be victims of fire. If you have ever seen or known a burn victim, as I have, you will be more aware of fire safety and be willing to do most anything to prevent it happening to you, your loved ones or the general public.
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Quote of the Week: We should try to be the parents of our future rather than the offspring of our past. -Miguel de Unamuno, writer and philosopher (1864-1936)