Bad news: The asteroid that just missed Earth is coming back. And…

NASA estimates the flyby asteroid was the largest to approach this close in more than a century.

On Earth it would weigh about 130,000 metric tons. That’s even larger than one that tore through the atmosphere in 1908. It too preferred Russia. That meteorite explosion leveled 825 square miles, or 528,000 acres of Siberian forest.

However, Friday’s uneventful visit was not without effects. The pull of Earth’s gravity altered 2012 AD 14’s orbit around the Sun, shortening its annual solar rotation from 366 Earth days to 317.

Based on current information, NASA scientists calculate the orbits of each known near-earth object out for the rest of this century.

For instance, 2012 AD 14’s orbit will not bring it back to our neighborhood again until 2046, when Americans will still be paying for Barack Obama’s recent borrowing.

Now, about that other bad news. According to the same computer calculations, in 2080 the orbit of 2012 AD 14, if unaltered in these next 67 years by some super-natural force like Bruce Willis, will slam into Earth at almost 18,000 miles an hour.

That explosive encounter, NASA says, will release about 2.5 megatons of energy into the atmosphere, causing “regional devastation.”

Hopefully, that will occur over a desolate area like Siberia. Or Detroit.

Fantasy Fuels and Higher Gas Prices…Especially on the East Coast.

Rationality in Washington is scarcer than green gas

The problem began in 2007, when Congress decreed oil companies must start producing hundreds of millions of gallons of a mythical product known as cellulosic biofuel

Writing for the three-judge panel, Senior Circuit Judge Steven F. Williams granted the EPA some strategic face-saving: “Certainly EPA must provide a reasoned explanation for its actions, but rationality does not always imply a high degree of quantitative specificity.” Given the difference between 8.65 million gallons of biofuels the EPA required and zero gallons actually produced, the court could have contended that rationality does not always imply a sense of reality. Americans can draw their own verdict: Rationality is running on empty in Washington.
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What a Waste! The EPA’s Biofuel Boondoggle

[Excerpt]

Today I will go on record and predict that actual qualifying production of cellulosic biofuels this year will be less than a quarter of the EPA’s 14 million gallon projection. In fact, I expect it to be less than one-tenth of its projection, but I do expect some cellulosic fuel will be made. It will be very expensive to produce, and every gallon will be produced at a loss. The production volumes will ultimately depend on the amount of investor and tax dollars these companies can continue to pull in.

Some will argue that this is to be expected with new technology. However, most people don’t realize that cellulosic ethanol isn’t new technology. The Germans first commercialized cellulosic ethanol from wood in 1898. Commercialization first took place in the US in 1910. The Standard Alcohol Company built a cellulosic ethanol plant in South Carolina to process waste wood from a lumber mill. Standard Alcohol later built a second plant in Louisiana. Each plant produced 5,000 to 7,000 gallons of ethanol per day from wood waste, and both were in production for several years before they were shut down due to poor economics. Since then, there have been many attempts around the world to commercialize cellulosic ethanol, and all have failed for straightforward reasons of physics and chemistry.

So we have the US government mandating a technology that has already proven to be a commercial failure. Congress attempted to mandate an industry into existence. Of course, any time the government is handing out “free money” there will be those who attempt to tell a convincing story of how they can succeed so they can get their hands on that money. And that has taken place over the past half dozen years. Lots of money has been lost by fast-talking promoters, but almost zero fuel has been produced.

Mass Exodus US Oil Refineries.

The Closure Of The U.S. Oil Refinery Industry In The Past 2 Years:

In 2010, there were 149 operable U.S. refineries with a combined capacity of 17.6 million barrels (2,800,000 m3) per day. Something odd started happening in late 2010-early 2011. The US oil refinery industry quietly announced the closure of numerous US oil refineries. Many are completely unaware the US ships oil overseas to be processed. We do so as we do not have enough refineries to process the vast amounts here, and we are barred from building anymore refineries. All refineries perform three basic steps: separation, conversion, and treatment. Pretty simple. Continue reading →