World oil production has been on a plateau for the last several years. Is that a temporary leveling off, a geologically imposed peak before long-term decline, or something called "peak oil lite"? The theory of peak oil lite is that human-based reasons, not geological reasons, are creating at least a temporary peak in oil production.

The thing is, it's pretty hard to tell peak oil lite from geological peak oil. When the world nears or reaches geological peak oil, it unleashes human forces that keep production down.

For example, Iran and Venezuela have both said recently that they think OPEC should commit to reducing output at their meeting on September 9, since oil prices are going down. Yes, they're saying that the price of oil is too low!

Because oil production is so tight elsewhere, OPEC has real power to jack prices back up. OPEC's power to raise oil prices is strongest at the time of regional or world peak oil.

Read and view this book at Amazon.com.

By Jane Dwinell

Ever wonder what it would be like to live in a really small space with just the basics? Ever wonder what it would be like to do this with your sweetheart? Could you stand to be together in such tight quarters, doing all the activities of daily living along with all the fun things you enjoy? Well, if you have a hobby that takes up a lot of space or needs tons of equipment (or you don't want to be that close with your loved one), living in 250 square feet may not be for you. But it is for me.

Sometimes things happen quickly in Vermont! Yesterday I reported on the Health Department apparently violating its own rules when they adjusted the measurement of radiation at the perimeter of Vermont Yankee. Today, the Administrative Rules Committee (see section 817 in the link) met and took up the question on their agenda.

The Rules Committee is made up of four House members and four Senate members, and they have the authority to hold hearings on existing or proposed rules, on their own initiative. I'm told that they decided this morning to schedule a public hearing on the Health Department's rule on radiation from Yankee and how it has evolved. No date for the hearing has been set yet.

It's been reported that the Vermont Health Department just released a consultant's report on 2007 radiation emissions from Vermont Yankee and that they have adopted a new way of counting the dose of radiation. What I don't think has been reported, before today, is that the Health Department is violating its own rules in doing so.

The Vermont Health Department rules say that annual gamma radiation doses at the plant boundary may not exceed 20 millirem per year. A millirem is 0.001 rem, a measure of ionizing radiation's effect on human health.

The Health Department's consultants, Oak Ridge Associated Universities, reported that 8 radiation dosimeters at the edge of Vermont Yankee's boundary measured radiation last year in excess of the 20-millirem limit. However, the consultants also recommended reducing the amount of radiation measured by what critics have called a fudge factor. The new way of measuring radiation reduces the measurements by 40%, and suddenly Vermont Yankee is in compliance with the radiation rules.

The catch is, the Health Department's own rules don't seem to allow the fudge factor. The Health Department has taken the stance that 1 Röntgen now equals 0.6 rem. The Röntgen is the unit measured by the dosimeters. The Health Department's rules say, however, that 1 rem is defined as 1 Röntgen.

One equals one. Simple enough. But the Health Department now says that 1 equals 0.6.

Thomas Weiss broke the news that the Health Department's own regulations rule out changing the dose calculation on WGDR, Plainfield this morning, and I've followed up on it by calling the Health Department for comments.

Bill Irwin, responsible for radiological health at the Vermont Department of Health, disagrees that definition in the rules means what it says it means. He cites another section of the rules, which allows the Department to use "applicable recommendations
contained in the reports of the National Council on Radiation Protection and
Measurements and the National Bureau of Standards handbooks as standards and bases
for calculations."

In other words, when the rules define a rem, it's not a legally binding definition, but rather guidance to the reader. According to Irwin, it just "provides something approximate for the purpose of reading this regulation."

That's not the way I've seen definitions used in law before.

It's possible that the rules are internally inconsistent, but it looks to me as though Vermont Yankee is subject to the definition that 1 rem is 1 Röntgen. If you want to get down in the weeds and judge for yourself, click "Read more."

Seven Days "Fair Game" columnist Shay Totten spells out the Intervale's woes.

So let's get this straight - we've got a community-managed agricultural resource that is a global model for relocalization, and state government is making it as hard as possible for it to survive?

In an interview with Seven Days' Suzanne Podhaizer, Fast Food Nation author Eric Schlosser said this of the Intervale:

So he finds himself on the cusp of another July 4th and all its strange customs: Parades built on the back of cheap petroleum, night skies polluted by the small explosions of fireworks, kegs and coolers brimming with pallid domestic beers, grills stacked high with chickens who never set foot on the soft, brown earth during their short and brutish lives. And somewhere in there, perhaps, for some (and especially after a few PBRs), a swell of patriotism.   

Do you want a quick way to reduce your rapidly increasing weekly food bill by 25 percent?  It’s easy: stop wasting food.  According to a recent article in the New York Times, 25 percent of all food purchased in the U.S. ends up in the trash.  Not only is this a waste of money, but it is bad for our landfills now bursting at their seams with unwanted remnants of our wasteful society.  I do find it hard to believe that frugal Vermonters are near the national average in terms of food waste.