Odds and ends, 6/20/07

From The Associated Press:

CHARLESTON, W.Va. (AP) — If western and southwestern counties continue to inch toward a drought, West Virginia could see the worst fall wildfire season in six years, the state Division of Forestry said.

“We’ll spend the rest of the summer doing training and preparations, making sure we are ready. You have to be ready just in case,” assistant state Forester Dan Kincaid said Tuesday.
“Hopefully we’ll spend a lot of time getting ready and it won’t be a bad season. But we can’t take that chance.”

This year, 466 fires burned a total of 3,727 acres through May, Kincaid said.While that number is considered average or even below average for West Virginia, he said, the situation could worsen in late summer or fall when the leaves start falling from the trees.

I seem to remember back in the early 1980s, when I was living in Ohio, that the fires in eastern Kentucky were so bad that smoke from then drifted across Wayne and Cabell counties into Lawrence and Gallia counties in Ohio. You could stand outside in Ohio, miles from Kentucky, and smell smoke from fires there.

I have a pile of brush that I need to burn, but I don't dare until we get some rain -- a good, light, steady, two-day rain.

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If I read the astronomical tables right and if I did the correct conversion of Universal Time to Eastern Daylight Time, the summer solstice occurs at 2:06 p.m. on Wednesday, June 21. As noted earlier, I think summer got here a long time ago.

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A story in this morning's paper, Mike Bartrum, who played on Marshall University's first NCAA Division I-AA national championship team, officially retired from the National Football League on Tuesday.

I don't know if that has anything to do with this, but it does give you pause when you see what happens on the football field, especially at the NFL level where players are so big, strong and fast.

Cracking knees are one thing. Long-term effects of concussions are another.

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And more on "hot gas":

KANSAS CITY, Mo. (AP) — A federal court in Kansas will oversee dozens of lawsuits filed across the country claiming oil companies have knowingly overcharged customers when gas station fuel temperatures rise.

The Judicial Panel on Multidistrict Litigation this week ruled the so-called “hot fuel” cases would be centralized in the U.S. District Court in Kansas City, Kan., rather than tried in separate courts. Centralizing cases is considered a way to make the process more efficient for both sides and avoids district courts duplicating and possibly contradicting each other’s actions.

It also would streamline the process of deciding whether to certify the cases as class-action lawsuits, which could demand billions of dollars in damages or key changes in how gas retailers operate.

In its ruling Monday, the panel said it looked for a judge who had the time and experience to deal with what could turn out to be a mammoth case involving hundreds of plaintiffs and scores of oil company defendants. ...

The lawsuits center around the oil industry’s century-old practice of pricing gasoline on a standard of 60 degrees. As temperatures rise during warmer months, the gasoline expands, meaning customers get less energy per gallon.

Because few gas pumps adjust the dispensing of fuel according to temperature, gas is an average of about 5 degrees warmer than the federal standard, according to a study analyzed by Dick Suiter of the National Institute of Standards and Technology.

The U.S. House Subcommittee on Domestic Policy, which has held hearings on the issue, estimates temperature changes could cost consumers $1.5 billion at the pump during the summer and is considering legislation that would force oil companies to install pumps that adjust for temperature changes.

Gas retailers have asked Congress to wait for additional studies, claiming that forcing them to install new pumps would be too expensive.

Trial lawyers have jumped on the issue, filing dozens of federal lawsuits claiming retailers are using temperature changes to rip off consumers. ...

This is talk about "hot fuel." I wonder what happens to E85 or E10 ethanol fuels when the weather gets really hot. Or diesel or biodiesel.