benson, I am so in agreement with you. Not a goddamn thing can get built in this part of the country. It’s truly disgusting.
I wish we really went ‘locavore’. Maybe if we drilled for our own oil, generated our own electricity, and had our own slaughterhouses (like we used to on 125th Street when I was a kid) we would know the costs and benefits of things.
Look at the Westway fiasco.
And most people’s idea of ‘green’ is some kind of shopping.
I used to have an apt in Houston back when I was in the international marine biz and totally agree about Texans having a better attitude about these things. A lot I didn’t like about Texas but the fact that they actually make stuff, build stuff, and provide opportunities to the working classes was quite refreshing.
denton….I meant taking route for Manh bridge is faster not bridge itself…unless headed to city hall area. If I walked to Brk Bridge on way home I’m sure would take me much longer.
benson, I’ve watched that bullshit with the proposed windmills off of Nantucket. It has been mostly the NIMBYs (you can imagine nantucket NIMBTism as the epitome of NIMBYism) who have stymied the process. Cape Cod has electric rates similar to Long Island as you might imagine.
For the past two days, I attended a conference on Washington DC on offshore wind power. I’m still trying to recover from this “conference”. My blood pressure is sky-high. Never have I seen an event that best demonstrates the lunacy of the way politics is practiced in the Northeast and Washington DC these days. Let me explain, and you decide for yourself.
What part of the country has the highest electricity rates, BY FAR, and the most trouble building new power plants, due to its density? The Northeast, of course. What part of the country has the best offshore wind “resources”: the Northeast. The solution seems simple: build some “wind farms” offshore, right? But NNNNOOOOOOOO, this is the Northeast, where we are “sophisticated” about these things. Let me explain.
The first issue is that the NIMBY’s who own beach homes don’t want to look at off-shore windmills,despite their professed love for green energy. The solution? Developers are now proposing to move them out about 12 miles off-shore. However, doing so raises the cost of these projects enormously, for two reasons;
-the engineering gets alot more difficult. It’s not easy building a row of windmills in deep water;
-more importantly, you are now talking about Federally-owned waters, rather than state-owned. This opens up a PANDORA’S BOX of federal regulations, which was really the main point of this conference. At this conference, two lawyers spent ONE AND A HALF HOURS giving a SUMMARY of the regulations. More than TWENTY types of studies and permits have to addressed. Some of them are legitimate – things like making sure the wind farms don’t interfere with shipping lanes. Others are pure LUNACY. One of the studies required is to determine the effect of these wind farms on BATS. YES, BATS!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!! WHO THE HELL CARES IF A FEW BATS ARE KILLED BY THESE THINGS???? You want to hear the ultimate lunacy? You also have to perform a study on the “Cultural and historical landmark” impact of this proposal. Are they for real???? What are we supposed to be concerned about: a brownstone that sunk to the bottom of the ocean??
At the end of this presentation, the director of the Interior Department who is responsible for this lunacy said that she was “proud” of this process. Really????
Of course, after this presentation, there were presentations from teams of lawyers, consultants and other folks with expensive suits who were offering their services to help you navigate through this process, all for a nice fat fee, of course. And of course, they were filled by the very same people who helped develop these regulations, including an ex-US Senator who was there (Senator Tydings of Maryland) They estimated that it would take “at least two years” to navigate through this maze. They must have used the word “stakeholders” 400 times. Leeches!!!! Parasites!!!! Why don’t you do an honest day’s worth of work, for once.
So, the reason that everyone was at this conference is they were faced with a predicament. Given these constraints, the possibly cheap wind power would now be super-expensive, more expensive than current rates. What to do?? NOOOOO PROBLEM. – the leeches have another answer: use stimulus money to build these things!! The geniuses in expensive suits thought that they were so clever.
Oh wait, though, there is a problem. When you use stimulus money, it’s supposed to create “good American Jobs”. All of the hardware for wind mills comes from overseas companies. They come from one Japanese company (the one I work for) and three European companies. So, the leeches invite representatives from these companies to attend, in the hopes that we will agree to set up some manufacturing operations here.
MEMO to the leeches: keep dreaming!!! After the presentations, I got together with the other manufacturing reps, and we were almost delerious with laughter at this nonsense. These expensive suits wouldn’t know how to execute an engineering project if their life depended on it.
What the hell happened to the big dreamers in NY and areas like it? At one time, we could build the Empire State building in 13 months, and here we have leeches talking about a two year permit process. Robert Moses built the entire Riverside Park and henry Hudson Parkway in three years.
One final comment. At the very end of the conference, a guy got up to talk who made my day. He looked like the stereotypical sourthern highway patrol man. Tall and heavy, spoke with a drawl and wore a cheap suit. He was the president of an engineering company in Texas. He announced that he was already building wind farms off the coast of Texas. They were close enough in to fall into Texas waters, and the permit process was already done. I, and the other manufacturers’ reps., gave him my card and told him that we would be pleased to do business with him.
“Rob,
Denton is bit off. Manhattan bridge is quicker route.
I’m an expert.”
Sorry Pete. Facts are:
Brooklyn Bridge: 5989 feet long
Manhattan Bridge: 6855 feet long.
Maybe not a 5 min diff, but no way MB is faster than BB. Been doing that walk for over twenty five years almost daily. Unless you’re including a tourist factor on the BB.
m4l, they’re talking about Asians & Chinatown in the rocery Stores thread.
Not making fun of their accents, just talking about dietary habits!!!
Do you guys know you can get Maine lobsters in Chinatown for about $6.00 per lb.!!!!
benson, I am so in agreement with you. Not a goddamn thing can get built in this part of the country. It’s truly disgusting.
I wish we really went ‘locavore’. Maybe if we drilled for our own oil, generated our own electricity, and had our own slaughterhouses (like we used to on 125th Street when I was a kid) we would know the costs and benefits of things.
Look at the Westway fiasco.
And most people’s idea of ‘green’ is some kind of shopping.
I used to have an apt in Houston back when I was in the international marine biz and totally agree about Texans having a better attitude about these things. A lot I didn’t like about Texas but the fact that they actually make stuff, build stuff, and provide opportunities to the working classes was quite refreshing.
denton….I meant taking route for Manh bridge is faster not bridge itself…unless headed to city hall area. If I walked to Brk Bridge on way home I’m sure would take me much longer.
AND, that may be The Best Rant of The year.
benson, I’ve watched that bullshit with the proposed windmills off of Nantucket. It has been mostly the NIMBYs (you can imagine nantucket NIMBTism as the epitome of NIMBYism) who have stymied the process. Cape Cod has electric rates similar to Long Island as you might imagine.
“I see my mail as it come is when I’m logged into yahoo IM. No need for me to constantly check it.
Pull yourself into the 21st Century Re Writer.”
Oh honey, I am. But seems that others on here aren’t.
OK, so here is my promised super-rant.
For the past two days, I attended a conference on Washington DC on offshore wind power. I’m still trying to recover from this “conference”. My blood pressure is sky-high. Never have I seen an event that best demonstrates the lunacy of the way politics is practiced in the Northeast and Washington DC these days. Let me explain, and you decide for yourself.
What part of the country has the highest electricity rates, BY FAR, and the most trouble building new power plants, due to its density? The Northeast, of course. What part of the country has the best offshore wind “resources”: the Northeast. The solution seems simple: build some “wind farms” offshore, right? But NNNNOOOOOOOO, this is the Northeast, where we are “sophisticated” about these things. Let me explain.
The first issue is that the NIMBY’s who own beach homes don’t want to look at off-shore windmills,despite their professed love for green energy. The solution? Developers are now proposing to move them out about 12 miles off-shore. However, doing so raises the cost of these projects enormously, for two reasons;
-the engineering gets alot more difficult. It’s not easy building a row of windmills in deep water;
-more importantly, you are now talking about Federally-owned waters, rather than state-owned. This opens up a PANDORA’S BOX of federal regulations, which was really the main point of this conference. At this conference, two lawyers spent ONE AND A HALF HOURS giving a SUMMARY of the regulations. More than TWENTY types of studies and permits have to addressed. Some of them are legitimate – things like making sure the wind farms don’t interfere with shipping lanes. Others are pure LUNACY. One of the studies required is to determine the effect of these wind farms on BATS. YES, BATS!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!! WHO THE HELL CARES IF A FEW BATS ARE KILLED BY THESE THINGS???? You want to hear the ultimate lunacy? You also have to perform a study on the “Cultural and historical landmark” impact of this proposal. Are they for real???? What are we supposed to be concerned about: a brownstone that sunk to the bottom of the ocean??
At the end of this presentation, the director of the Interior Department who is responsible for this lunacy said that she was “proud” of this process. Really????
Of course, after this presentation, there were presentations from teams of lawyers, consultants and other folks with expensive suits who were offering their services to help you navigate through this process, all for a nice fat fee, of course. And of course, they were filled by the very same people who helped develop these regulations, including an ex-US Senator who was there (Senator Tydings of Maryland) They estimated that it would take “at least two years” to navigate through this maze. They must have used the word “stakeholders” 400 times. Leeches!!!! Parasites!!!! Why don’t you do an honest day’s worth of work, for once.
So, the reason that everyone was at this conference is they were faced with a predicament. Given these constraints, the possibly cheap wind power would now be super-expensive, more expensive than current rates. What to do?? NOOOOO PROBLEM. – the leeches have another answer: use stimulus money to build these things!! The geniuses in expensive suits thought that they were so clever.
Oh wait, though, there is a problem. When you use stimulus money, it’s supposed to create “good American Jobs”. All of the hardware for wind mills comes from overseas companies. They come from one Japanese company (the one I work for) and three European companies. So, the leeches invite representatives from these companies to attend, in the hopes that we will agree to set up some manufacturing operations here.
MEMO to the leeches: keep dreaming!!! After the presentations, I got together with the other manufacturing reps, and we were almost delerious with laughter at this nonsense. These expensive suits wouldn’t know how to execute an engineering project if their life depended on it.
What the hell happened to the big dreamers in NY and areas like it? At one time, we could build the Empire State building in 13 months, and here we have leeches talking about a two year permit process. Robert Moses built the entire Riverside Park and henry Hudson Parkway in three years.
One final comment. At the very end of the conference, a guy got up to talk who made my day. He looked like the stereotypical sourthern highway patrol man. Tall and heavy, spoke with a drawl and wore a cheap suit. He was the president of an engineering company in Texas. He announced that he was already building wind farms off the coast of Texas. They were close enough in to fall into Texas waters, and the permit process was already done. I, and the other manufacturers’ reps., gave him my card and told him that we would be pleased to do business with him.
“Rob,
Denton is bit off. Manhattan bridge is quicker route.
I’m an expert.”
Sorry Pete. Facts are:
Brooklyn Bridge: 5989 feet long
Manhattan Bridge: 6855 feet long.
Maybe not a 5 min diff, but no way MB is faster than BB. Been doing that walk for over twenty five years almost daily. Unless you’re including a tourist factor on the BB.
Biff, I remember that one! THL posted it at the one year anniversary of the thread mark. NOW THAT WAS HILARIOUS!
DH, bail? WTF did you or your friend got yourselves into?