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by the University of Michigan

ANN ARBOR, Michigan.— As Congress and the White House explore ways to encourage Americans to conserve energy, a new study by the University of Michigan shows that the average individual energy demand for heating and cooling has decreased over the past 50 years.

The reason? The country’s population shift to the more moderate and warm climates of the American West and Southwest, says Michael Sivak, a research professor at the U-M Transportation Research Institute.

The study, published in Cities: The International Journal of Urban Policy and Planning, found that the U.S. population shift has resulted in an 11 percent reduction in combined energy demand per person for heating and cooling since 1960.

“The relative increases in population in more moderate climates and, at the same time, in warmer climates imply a reduction in the combined energy per person—the shift to more moderate climates because of narrower ranges between winter and summer temperatures, and the shift to warmer climates because it is more energy-efficient to cool than to heat,” Sivak said.

Sivak performed three analyses based on 1960 and 2006 population data for the 50 largest metropolitan areas in the United States, which account for 54 percent of the U.S. population.

ALMAcool buildings [one heating (cooling) degree day occurs for each degree the average daily outdoor temperature is below (above) 65 degrees Fahrenheit]; 2) effective energy demand, based on heating and cooling degree days and incorporates the energy efficiencies of heatingThe three approaches included: 1) nominal energy demand, based only on “heating and cooling degree days”—units that relate to the amount of energy needed to heat and and cooling appliances; and 3) practical energy demand, based on degree days and appliance efficiencies, as well as the efficiencies of power-generating plants.

Based on climatological considerations only, Sivak found that while the energy demand for cooling (air conditioning) increased by 23 percent from 1960 to 2006, the demand for heating (which dominates the combined demand) decreased by 14 percent.

Overall, the nominal energy demand for both heating and cooling dropped 6 percent.

Using the effective energy demand approach, which accounts for energy used by furnaces, boilers, electric heaters and air conditioners, Sivak found a 12 percent reduction in energy demand since 1960.

The most comprehensive practical energy demand measure, which also incorporates the energy used by power plants, yielded the 11 percent figure reported above.

For more information on Sivak, visit ­www.umtri.umich.edu/people.php?personID=40.

by El Reportero’s news services

A socialist health care system is what many consider is the Obama plan, and that was the theme of the most recent march against it in Washington. (photo by Wire services)

Protesters are angry at what they say is reckless public spending Tens of thousands of people have marched from the White House to Capitol Hill in Washington to protest against Barack Obama’s healthcare reforms.

The demonstrations came as the US president sought to boost support for his plans ­during a Minneapolis rally.

Addressing a crowd of 15,000, Mr Obama said he refused to accept no change on his top domestic priority.

He said he would not allow special interests to “use the same old tactics to keep things the way they are”.

“I will not accept the status quo. Not this time. Not now,” Mr Obama said in the democratic-leaning state, which has one of the country’s smallest numbers of uninsured residents.

‘Taxed to death’ But in Washington protesters attacked Mr Obama’s administration for what it called out-of-control spending – on healthcare, the stimulus packages and the bailout of the banking and car industries.

Mr Obama said he will not allow special interests to dominate the debate Healthcare in the US costs $2.2tn a year, or 16% of the country’s GDP – nearly double the OECD average.

The protestors insist that spending tax dollars on a government-run health insurance option will increase infl ation and lead the country to economic ruin.

“Born free, taxed to death,” one protester’s sign read while another, held up by an immigrant from Ukraine, said: “I had enough of socialism in the ­USSR.”

The march – co-ordinated by the conservative grouping Freedomworks, a grassroots movement calling for lower taxes and smaller government – brought together protesters from across different states.

‘Door open’ Days after urging Democrats and Republicans in Congress to work together, Mr Obama said his plan was open to ideas from across the political spectrum.

HEALTHCARE IN THE US

46 million uninsured, 25 million under-insured Healthcare costs represent 16% of GDP, almost twice OECD average Reform plans would require all Americans to get insurance Some propose public insurance option to compete with private insurers “If you come to me with a serious set of proposals, I will be there to listen. My door is always open,” he said. He warned, though, that he would not waste time with those who believe: “it’s better politics to kill this plan than improve it”.

It is estimated that some 46 million Americans do not have health insurance, and a further 25 million are thought to have inadequate insurance.

The healthcare plans currently being considered in Congress are all attempting to expand coverage, while also reforming the system to prevent spiralling costs. The bill would expand coverage to 97% of Americans, at a cost of some $600bn. (BBC New contributed to this report).

by the El Reportero

Michelle Bachelet

Chile’s President Michelle Bachelet sent a bill to congress this week calling time on an entrenched feature inherited from the Pinochet dictatorship: the appropriation for the military of 10 percent of copper export earnings.

The timing of the move is astute. It serves a dual purpose. On the domestic front, it should boost Eduardo Frei, the presidential candidate for the ruling Concertación, who is lagging in the polls with just three months until general elections.

This is because the opposition is split. Frei’s rival Sebastián Piñera favours annulling the law but the right-wing Unión Demócrata Independiente (UDI) has misgivings. On the regional front, improving the transparency of military spending is a clear gesture to the nascent defence council of the Union of South American Nations (Unasur), and a response to Peru.

Chávez ends ‘rogue states’ tour in Moscow Venezuela’s President Hugo Chávez arrived in Moscow, Russia on Sept. 9 on the second last leg of a two-week foreign trip that took him to Libya, Algeria, Syria, Iran, Turkmenistan and Belarus – with a quick detour to Venice, Italy for a red carpet moment with the US fi lm director Oliver Stone – before a fi nal stop in Madrid, Spain, tomorrow (11 September).The tour has raised eyebrows; however much of it was noise.

The US, nonetheless, has ­watched warily as Chávez has strengthened political, economic and security ties with Iran and Russia in particular.

D’Escoto, Obama to talk Cuban Five Case General Assembly President Miguel D’Escoto will hold talks with U.S. President Barack Obama on the case of the fi ve Cuban antiterrorists imprisoned in the U.S.

The Nicaraguan diplomat will carry two letters signed by the relatives of the Cuban Five whose rights the U.S. overrides.

One letter protests the visas denied to Adriana Pérez and Olga Salanueva, the wives of Gerardo Hernández and René González, while the other will not be disclosed for the moment.

Guerrero’s mother Mirta González said the English copy sent to Obama “Letters of Love and Hope” shows the most humane side of the Five and hopes the gesture will help Obama become acquainted with the case.

by Antonio González

President Obama is headed for a headache as hopes for a democratic resolution of the crisis in Honduras fade. If deposed President Manuel Zelaya, who was democratically elected in 2005, is not soon restored to power in this U.S.-dependent Central American country, a popular rebellion is inevitable. Civil war may ensue.

Latin American analysts fear more coups will be attempted by extremist forces in Guatemala, Ecuador and Bolivia, given Washington’s appearance of tacit acceptance of the coup.

The initial positive reaction by President Obama gathered by denouncing the coup has withered away as the coup government thumbs its nose at the world, closes down media outlets, and violently represses protesters.

However reluctantly, Washington, D.C., is at the center of this dilemma because of this country’s decades-old intimate ties with Honduras’s elite. At the recent summit between Mexico, the United States and Canada, Obama decried critics who advocate a more aggressive U.S. policy to restore President Zelaya to power. Obama stated, “…the same forces that decry U.S. intervention in Latin America now want us to intervene in Honduras.

They can’t have it both ways.

But classifying calls for this country to honor its own policies as intervention is wrong. No one wants U.S. troops or proxyforces to march in. The president’s critics are accurate in that he has only partially/belatedly enforced laws that mandate cutting off aid to countries that overthrow elected governments.

Laughably, our State Department still hasn’t declared that a coup occurred, leaving us isolated in the world with a ~half-coup” policy. The Organization of American States, the UN and European Union among others have taken clearer and tougher positions toward the two-month-old political-military dictatorship.

In practice, the soft Obama policy of backing Costa Rica President Oscar Arias’s feeble brokering efforts has given the coupist government breathing space to outlast Zelaya’s backers. Indeed, the de facto effect of Obama’s policy enables the coupist-government to play out the clock until November, when a blatant cooked “demonstration~ election will keep a rump government in power.

Already Brazil, Mexico Conand Colombia have stated they will not support any Honduran “government” that results from the ~demonstration” elections.

There are several implications if the situation continues to deteriorate. Fraying relations between the U.S. and Latin America will accelerate downward, even more so if coups are attempted in other countries.

The Honduran “street” is radicalizing. Before the coup, President Zelaya had low approval ratings. Today he is the hero of a growing movement that recently mobilized 300,000 protesters. If the coup continues, armed rebellion will begin. Dictatorship lead to massive refugee flows. Already there are reports of rebel training camps along the Honduras-Nicaragua border.

President Obama can ill afford another disappointment among U.S. Latinos now that he has postponed immigration reform till next year.

What explains President Obama’s misplay?

First, he was occupied with the domestic economic crisis and the Middle East.

Second, his initial, mostly-correct attitude towards the coup was soon modified by a State Department lukewarm toward President Zelaya.

In essence, U.S. reluctance to squeeze out the Honduran “coupists” reflects concerns over revolutionary trends in Latin America that deposed Zelaya agreed with.

This is a serious strategic mistake that will haunt Mr. Obama if not corrected soon. No matter what one thinks of the civic revolutions in places like Venezuela, Bolivia, Ecuador and until recently Honduras, they are democratically elected, non-violent and popular, representing long-held yearnings for change.

Obama should engage with Latin America’s efforts to develop itself through home-grown, alternative models. No serious analysis can defend U.S.-inspired western economic policies that have so clearly failed to provide progress for Latin America’s 400 million strong population over the last generation.

independienteand together with close allies (Canada, Colombia, Mexico, Panama, Peru) issueHow can Obama right his course? Simple, He should receive President Zelaya publicly—something he has yet to do, State should declare a coup has occurred and immediately cut off all aid to the de-facto government, seize its U.S. assets, a public deadline to the coupists to step down from power now and receive amnesty.

If not, announce that sooner or later its conspirators will be tried for crimes for which they are patently guilty.

The coupists will turn tail in weeks, Hondurans and Latin Americans will breathe a sigh of relief and President Obama will be lauded for leading the pursuit of democracy and justice. Hispanic Link.

(Antonio Gonzalez is president of the William C. Velasquez Institute in Los Angeles.. Email: ­media@wcvi.org).