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Page added on April 29, 2015

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Venezuela rations power

Venezuela’s socialist government on Tuesday announced a nationwide electricity rationing plan to tackle a surge in demand caused by rising temperatures in recent weeks.

The measures include cutting the workday for public officials to six hours, asking private companies to boost energy efficiency and inspecting malls and factories to ensure they meet reduced power consumption targets.

“Within a week, power demand has risen 1,500 megawatts,” Electricity Minister Jesse Chacon said on state TV. With demand at 18,000 megawatts, he said, “the system begins to have stability problems.”

Peak temperatures in recent weeks have risen to 34 degrees Celsius (93 degrees Fahrenheit) in Caracas, the capital, and have hit 37 degrees Celsius (99 degrees Fahrenheit) in the sweltering western city of Maracaibo.

The country’s average annual consumption per household is 5,878 kilowatt-hours, double the average of the region due largely to sizable subsidies that allow consumers to run air conditioners with little regard to cost.

Power outages are common in the oil-rich country, which depends on hydroelectric dams for 64 percent of its generation.

President Nicolas Maduro’s critics say the problems are the result of under-investment in the sector since late socialist leader Hugo Chavez nationalized much of the electrical system in 2007.

A drought in 2010 forced Chavez to institute a broad rationing plan that was widely unpopular, helping push his popularity to the lowest of his 14-year-rule and crippling the country’s state-run mining industries.

On Monday, local media reported blackouts in at least 10 of the country’s 24 states, pressuring an economy struggling with recession, high inflation and shortages of basic goods.

Maduro has blamed some blackouts on “sabotage.”

yahoo



43 Comments on "Venezuela rations power"

  1. GregT on Wed, 29th Apr 2015 8:16 am 

    Much easier to lay the blame on “socialism”, then to look at human technology and limits to growth.

    I wonder what people have done for tens of thousands of years without air-conditioning?

  2. buddavis on Wed, 29th Apr 2015 8:51 am 

    I don’t think you can blame anything other than socialism. Venezuela is a failed state, And it is a failed state with plenty of resources so that it should not be. This is 100% policy driven.

  3. shortonoil on Wed, 29th Apr 2015 9:30 am 

    I don’t think you can blame anything other than socialism. Venezuela is a failed state, And it is a failed state with plenty of resources so that it should not be. This is 100% policy driven.

    Venezuela is a state with a lot of natural resources that it can not afford to take out of the ground. They can not extract their heavy oil at $56/barrel. What is being seeing there is what is coming for the entire oil producing world. The world’s oil producers are now caught between rising production costs, and declining affordability. Venezuela may be the first failed oil state, but it wouldn’t be the last!

    http://www.thehillsgroup.org

  4. Lawfish1964 on Wed, 29th Apr 2015 9:44 am 

    “Power outages are common in the oil-rich country, which depends on hydroelectric dams for 64 percent of its generation.” This points up a coming confluence of predicaments. Not only does the SHTF when fresh water runs out (as in California and Sao Paolo), but the “hydro” component of hydroelectric power suddenly stops producing power too.

    Think of Las Vegas and California which draw so much of their electricity from the dams on Lake Mead and Lake Powell, which are at historic lows. When that water runs out, no more crops and no more power either. A double whammy!

  5. Plantagenet on Wed, 29th Apr 2015 10:29 am 

    Socialist mismanagement in Venezuela affects every part of the economy there. You can hardly blame “limits to human technology” for the unavailability of toilet paper there.

  6. joe on Wed, 29th Apr 2015 10:47 am 

    Isms are not to ‘blame’. Seems fairly clear that far from being failed states these south American nations which choose to run their economies on their own without US help suffer economic attack. By using mainly hydro and selling all their oil they don’t have to consume oil and therefore have an income to pay for government. The motto should be ‘LIVE FREE AND SWEAT’.

  7. Plantagenet on Wed, 29th Apr 2015 11:24 am 

    Socialism is clearly to blame. Other countries have toilet paper. People need toilet paper. Only in Venezuela is there no toilet paper in the stores. In fact there isn’t much of anything in the stores in Venezuela thanks to socialist mismanagement.

  8. Davy on Wed, 29th Apr 2015 11:47 am 

    Take a good look at what is coming to all of you sooner than you would like to think. Venezuela is a borderline failed state. There is actually not a whole lot of difference between what they are doing and the rest of the world is doing. It is just a matter of the degree of corruption, manipulation, and system issues. Venezuela may be one of the first relatively rich countries with stable population to collapse to a lower economic and social dimension.

    The MADuro propaganda of US complicity in everything is going to look lame as the people start to see the reality of what is happening. That is gross mismanagement of the government and careless waste by the people, and a bucking of BAU as needed by Chavez in the past. Now no foreign company really wants to be there other than the Chinese scavengers that will go anywhere and suck the remaining blood dry. You can be sure the US has involvement in some of these problems along with the Venezuelan opposition. Yet, the problems go much deeper than foreign meddling.

    The key point of my comment is prepare for this:
    Article says “Within a week, power demand has risen 1,500 megawatts,” Electricity Minister Jesse Chacon said on state TV. With demand at 18,000 megawatts, he said, “the system begins to have stability problems.” Yeap grid insecurity folks. Expect widespread grid instability as the world enters liquid fuel shortages and food insecurity. Once the grid destabilizes it is downhill from there.

    Things quit working efficiently without a stable grid and the global JIT production and distribution system destabilizes along with the grid. The global financial system will likewise destabilize from lack of confidence and liquidity. This of course will effect oil supply and demand causing negative feedbacks destroying supply and demand in a vicious cycle down the road of descent.

    You say this is just a fantasy prediction and you may be right but in any case study Venezuela and Greece for what happens when a bumpy descent starts.

  9. BobInget on Wed, 29th Apr 2015 12:21 pm 

    Every political and economic system is going to have major problems dealing with climate changes.
    Iran, in the news for nuclear issues is also running out of water:

    http://www.al-monitor.com/pulse/originals/2015/04/iran-water-crisis-mass-migration.html?utm_source=Al-Monitor+Newsletter+%5BEnglish%5D&utm_campaign=111b019c45-April_29_2015&utm_medium=email&utm_term=0_28264b27a0-111b019c45-102439653

    Google ‘countries in sever drought’.

  10. BobInget on Wed, 29th Apr 2015 12:41 pm 

    Ironically scarce, expensive, FF’s will play major roles mitigating climate changes.

    Food production and transportation, for starters. The next few years developed nations will throw food to the hungry and displaced, just to keep ‘lumpen proletariat’
    “The Masses” at bay.

    Finally, convinced there’s a problem, massive construction projects will use so much
    oil and natural gas, ‘free’ food exports will be forced to stop. This often happens with ‘rough rice’ an Asian staple.

    How water deprived nuclear armed nations like Pakistan react is predictable.
    The world has seen all this before.
    Today however most of us are in the same canoe, up the same dry creek, with only
    useless weapons.

  11. apneaman on Wed, 29th Apr 2015 1:51 pm 

    I thought America was a failed state. Ok a fallen degenerate culture? No way! Capitalism is wonderful and it has created so many wonderful economic opportunities, especially for young women. You can see it anytime you want simply go to any porn site and start looking at the millions of American women being afforded the opportunity to make a few bucks by taking it in the ass and receiving the money shot. It’s time consuming so simply look at the endless stream of thumb nail pictures it just goes on and on and on every fucking day after day after day until a million individual young woman’s faces become a blur Oh yes boys and girls are you not blessed by the lord to live in the capitalist utopia? Now bend over.

  12. apneaman on Wed, 29th Apr 2015 1:54 pm 

    Failed state? How about a failed species. Rapacious Apes not even remotely in control of themselves. Fucking yeast.

  13. apneaman on Wed, 29th Apr 2015 2:06 pm 

    The universe does not give a shit about tiny human made ideologies and wishes. It has no beliefs-just law

    http://www.mukto-mona.com/Articles/kevin_carter/sudan_child.htm

  14. Nony on Wed, 29th Apr 2015 2:07 pm 

    God bless the USA.

  15. Go Speed Racer. on Wed, 29th Apr 2015 5:51 pm 

    If enough is good, then more is better, and too much, is just right.

    We spend money we don’t have, on things we don’t need, to impress people we don’t like.

  16. Perk Earl on Wed, 29th Apr 2015 5:58 pm 

    “Now no foreign company really wants to be there other than the Chinese scavengers that will go anywhere and suck the remaining blood dry.”

    Working the dark imagery huh, Davy?

  17. justeunperdant on Wed, 29th Apr 2015 6:45 pm 

    Thanks for the link apneaman. I read the whole thing about carter. Yes the universe does not give about tiny humans.

    Canada could be the next oil failed state. A lot of layoff around here, no manufacturing jobs, importing a lot of food especially during winter, importing almost all living necessities like clothing, boots, shoes form China.

    Canada has no real economy left except a big housing bubble that can blow any time now.

  18. pana_burda on Wed, 29th Apr 2015 7:07 pm 

    Socialism is not the propper tag to label the vzlan crash. Castro-communism needs total collapse of all structures in order to properly flourish and develop deeply its strategies. And this bunch of crooks at the steering wheel of the politics just did the dirty work for them for its successful implant.

  19. Davy on Wed, 29th Apr 2015 7:32 pm 

    Perk, you know I have to get a Chinese jab in whenever possible. The statement is true though the Chinese exploit opportunity. There are no countries in the world the Chinese won’t go into seeking a deal. You know they are not there for reasons other than making money. The Chinese do very little aid work.

    The Chinese will take a hit in Venezuela when the country shuts its doors. China will have allot of bad debt in the years ahead. They have been lucky thus far but as BAU decays all those deals the Chinese made will either be bad deals in a deflating world or bad debt from countries going broke.

  20. GregT on Wed, 29th Apr 2015 8:06 pm 

    Hey Davy,

    Totally off topic question for you.

    What kind of internet connection do you have?

  21. BobInget on Wed, 29th Apr 2015 8:17 pm 

    At the end of the day (or decade) the left will blame AGW advances on right wing selfishness. The Right will say, quite rightly,
    most progressives only talked about climate
    changes over white wine spritzers and went about their business.

    It’s time for everyone to take a stand. This should include political candidates from city councils to Presidents and Prime Ministers.
    Let the people vote.

  22. Davy on Wed, 29th Apr 2015 8:32 pm 

    Greg, I use a hot spot. I may get satellite eventually so I have resilience when the collapse comes. I am hoping one or the other will work if I have both.

    It amazed me that I cannot get a land line anymore. The line comes to the edge of the farm and ends.

  23. GregT on Wed, 29th Apr 2015 8:47 pm 

    Is your hotspot cellular? Or landlined?

    We have satellite already, and cellular works but is intermittent. Land line telephone to the house, but no high speed connection. Dial up only.

    Just curious as to what others are doing. Sounds like satellite is as good as it gets.

  24. Davy on Wed, 29th Apr 2015 8:57 pm 

    My Iphone cellular hotspot is great and works like a charm. Landline around here is not very good so I am not upset I can’t get it. I may get satellite because I would like to have a full time WIFI. Currently there is only WIFI when I turn the hotspot on.

  25. Perk Earl on Wed, 29th Apr 2015 10:32 pm 

    “Just curious as to what others are doing.”

    GregT, we have an AT&T modem that goes out at least twice a day, sometimes as much as 6 times a day. No kidding. I use to call AT&T and they would have all these stupid steps to take, i.e. until an AT&T repairman said just disconnect the power from the back of the modem for 10 seconds and plug it back in. It’s goes through a bootup and works again, for a while…

    We use to use Mediacomm cable but it went out at one time for two weeks. Try running a business with no email for that long.

    I’m always on the look out for something better here. One neighbor has satellite and swears by it but my wife won’t go that way because blah, blah, blah. I can’t hear anything after ‘no’, lol.

    So maybe satellite is the best way to go.

  26. SilentRunning on Wed, 29th Apr 2015 10:37 pm 

    When the water runs low enough in Lake Meade, then Las Vegas is going to have power rationing too. It isn’t just socialist countries that are going to feel the pinch of The Limits to Growth and An Inconvenient Truth.

  27. buddavis on Thu, 30th Apr 2015 7:24 am 

    Silent

    When Vegas runs out of Toilet paper, call me.

  28. Davy on Thu, 30th Apr 2015 7:58 am 

    Right Bud, they can dig holes in the ground instead of toilets using water but it is damn hard to replace Charmin! Around the here years ago the hillbillies once used corn cobs when available.

  29. Kenz300 on Thu, 30th Apr 2015 8:26 am 

    Any economy that is not diversified is asking for trouble……

    They should have diversified when the economy was doing better.

  30. joe on Thu, 30th Apr 2015 3:15 pm 

    Just as a point of interest (toilet paper aside), what people think a ‘state’ is. Are we just talking about law and order? Or something more? Will America simply shoot the next MLK when that person emerges from the masses of black faces now boiling with rage about how the ‘freedom’ loving America treats them. How close is the US to failure, what would that failure look like, and how would that fit people’s concept of a failed state? ISIS is able to deliver peaceful streets, they have toilet paper, is it a successful state?

  31. apneaman on Thu, 30th Apr 2015 3:38 pm 

    Lake Mead Drops Below 1,080 Feet For First Time in 78 Years; Las Vegas Set To Tap ‘Third Straw’

    http://www.weather.com/science/environment/news/lake-mead-record-low-water-level-third-straw-construction

  32. Davy on Thu, 30th Apr 2015 3:53 pm 

    Joe, the U.S. Is a continent size nation. Collapse American style will be variable and dispersed.

    The Blacks boiling with rage should ask themselves how they contributed to the mess. I agree the system is rigged against them in many cases but explain the other ethnic groups that are doing ok if not well. Obviously blacks have deeper issues than just fairness. They are their own worst enemies. Successful black leave black areas. Walking means more than talking.

  33. apneaman on Thu, 30th Apr 2015 5:27 pm 

    Davy, people who are 4th and 5th generation to grow up in the hood do not have the luxury of rich white boy philosophy time. The next meal and not getting shot by a gangsta or the police on the way home are what they think about. You could not be more out of your league on this matter. Your a privileged white boy and you should be grateful for it. If you were born black, the only farm you would see is the kind where they make you wear orange. Research structural racism with half the effort you put into overshoot and it becomes plain that those folks are set up to fail.

    The Alarming Spread of the
    Criminalization of Poverty

    T H E
    POOR
    G E T
    PRISON

    http://www.ips-dc.org/wp-content/uploads/2015/03/IPS-The-Poor-Get-Prison-Final.pdf

  34. joe on Thu, 30th Apr 2015 6:19 pm 

    It’s just that the idea of dismissing this or that country as ‘failed’ without even having a commonly accepted idea of ‘successful’ (instead of the racist/unfair/militarist/curfewed). Venezuela finds itself in its current position because Hugo Chavez kicked out big oil and the bankers from ‘freedom’ loving US and Europe. It’s cut off from easy/cheap money. The result is that internally corruption is rife and crime is high due to poverty. IMHO a state is that idea which is common to a group of people who can come together and make laws. In the multicultural West, we all agree on greed, selfishness and fear. As a result we agree that we should earn more and pay less, that ‘socialism’ is evil and we have lots of guns to fight or threaten our neighbours and (in theory) the government. Laws have by and large been developed to reflect these ideas. Central banks have been deciding the fate of society’s for hundreds of years now. We are facing an end of a paradigm of growth that has persisted since the new deal. The warnings are there, the dot com bubble, the bailouts and a ‘great recession’. The current equity bubble is about to go and the fed set to raise rates despite anemic growth since 2008, we haven’t seen anything yet. When it does then let’s talk about what states are and what failure is.

  35. Davy on Thu, 30th Apr 2015 6:19 pm 

    Ape Man true enough. If you want to look at it that way. I guess I better not say anything about that ever again.

    Ape would you do me a favor and give me a list concerning the do’s and don’ts of not upsetting a righteous asshole Canadian. Talk about a potty mouth hipocrit who is too good for himself and wants everyone else to know it. Does a white Canadian asshole qualify to comment on a white American asshole commenting on black issues. I think that one cancels out to zero. Guilt is a personal thing and I don’t need a hypocritical asshole telling me I should feel guilty.

    Btw, the riots on South Grand in St. Louis were 4 blocks from where I stay in St. Louis when I go there. I am with these people. My kids play in the park by these kids. What is you qualifications? I know an Anti-American Canadian that spends his day bashing and trashing the hated Americans to the south. I know you are qualified because you lived in Atlanta and married an American.

  36. apneaman on Thu, 30th Apr 2015 6:40 pm 

    Rising Police Aggression A Telling Indicator Of Our Societal Decline

    http://www.peakprosperity.com/blog/92427/rising-police-aggression-telling-indicator-our-societal-decline?utm_content=bufferb957b&utm_medium=social&utm_source=twitter.com&utm_campaign=buffer

  37. apneaman on Thu, 30th Apr 2015 6:46 pm 

    Funny how you bash that MSM, except when it confirms your white fears – then you is all in agreement. Maybe your family is heavily invested in private prisons? Times is good for them stock holders. Corporate debtors prison. The next bubble? Full of blacks, Mexicans and white trash.

  38. Davy on Thu, 30th Apr 2015 6:58 pm 

    Ape, I like you but I could give a shit about what you think about me. I could give a shit about your definition of rich white guilt or the ugly American. I am happy with myself that is what matters to me.

    Let’s get back to corn bashing, climate denier bashing, and being assholes in the process.

  39. apneaman on Thu, 30th Apr 2015 6:59 pm 

    fuck the police

    https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=c5fts7bj-so

  40. apneaman on Thu, 30th Apr 2015 7:00 pm 

    The Souths Gonna Do It Again

    https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=McIxMlOXbS0

  41. apneaman on Thu, 30th Apr 2015 7:09 pm 

    OVERSHOOT LOOP:
    Evolution Under The Maximum Power Principle

    by Jay Hanson, 11/12/13, minor revisions 4/6/15

    Here is a synopsis of the behavioral loop described above:

    Step 1. Individuals and groups evolved a bias to maximize fitness by maximizing power, which requires over-reproduction and/or over-consumption of natural resources (overshoot), whenever systemic constraints allow it. Differential power generation and accumulation result in a hierarchical group structure.

    Step 2. Energy is always limited, so overshoot eventually leads to decreasing power available to the group, with lower-ranking members suffering first.

    Step 3. Diminishing power availability creates divisive subgroups within the original group. Low-rank members will form subgroups and coalitions to demand a greater share of power from higher-ranking individuals, who will resist by forming their own coalitions to maintain power.

    Step 4. Violent social strife eventually occurs among subgroups who demand a greater share of the remaining power.

    Step 5. The weakest subgroups (high or low rank) are either forced to disperse to a new territory, are killed, enslaved, or imprisoned.

    Step 6. Go back to step 1.

    Sounds like Jay is bang on. Apply the loop to Venezuela, Yemen, Ukraine or Baltimore. Same as it ever was.

  42. American Idiot on Thu, 30th Apr 2015 7:17 pm 

    America is also a failed state.

    WHY AMERICA FAILED:

    https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=cbvJiEQzUPU

  43. apneaman on Thu, 30th Apr 2015 7:45 pm 

    American Idiot. I have read most of Berman’s stuff. In fact the vast majority of what I have read about American history is written by Americans. Americans who, for whatever reason, have not fallen for the propaganda blitz that starts early.

    Here is one I recently finished about what happened to the population of loyalists after the revolutionary war.

    http://www.nytimes.com/2011/05/01/books/review/book-review-libertys-exiles-by-maya-jasanoff.html

    https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=o8mNtgibFZI


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