Odds and ends, 6/18/07

Has anyone else noticed that the paint on the pink bridge is starting to peel?

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I got to work today and was told the air conditioning was out until evening. I wonder how many other people work in buildings that were hermetically sealed because of the energy crisis in the 1970s, and now we don't have a window to open when the AC is on the blink. It was so bad at one point that I went outside and stood in the sun to cool off.

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The cost of clean-coal technology, from a press release provided by American Electric Power:

A proposed Integrated Gasification Combined Cycle (IGCC) clean-coal power plant in New Haven, W.Va., could be completed in mid-2012 at the earliest at a cost of approximately $2.23 billion if appropriate regulatory approvals are obtained in West Virginia and Virginia without delays, according to testimony filed with the Public Service Commission of West Virginia (PSC) today by Appalachian Power, an operating subsidiary of American Electric Power (NYSE: AEP). ...

To recover anticipated costs of the IGCC plant, Appalachian Power estimates that it will need to increase West Virginia rates by approximately 12 percent by 2012 when the plant goes into service.

I didn't get all that excited when West Virginia American Water Co. filed for a 24.9 percent rate increase a couple of weeks ago. Usually, they ask for 25 and settle for something a lot smaller. Likewise, I have to wonder about how much AEP really thinks it needs to pay for its proposed IPCC plant.

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I've been reading some pieces on various blogs scattered about where they talk about how kids don't get out and roam as much as they used to. I had been thinking about it, and it appears other people have the same concerns I do. When I was 13, as my oldest son is now, I thought nothing of walking to my sister's house 3.5 miles away. And I thought nothing of getting on my bike and riding several miles along state roads and back roads. But today we have predators and other dangers -- real or imagined -- out there. Plus I rarely see kids I don't know walking or riding past my house. In protecting our kids, I tend to think we've done them a great deal of harm.

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I know I dated this 6/18/07 in the title line. Maybe I should do like some magazines do and forward-date it to something like 7/1/07.