GM to cut 30000 jobs

news.yahoo.com, reuters.com, abcnews.go.com :

General Motors Corp. said on Monday it will cut about 30,000 jobs or 9 percent of its total work force, close or curtail operations at 12 plants in North America and slash the amount of vehicles it produces by 1 million as it attempts to reduce costs by $7 billion.

GM said it hoped to be able to achieve many of these cuts through attrition and early retirement programs. The troubled automaker also said an agreement with the United Auto Workers union will allow it to cut employee health care costs by about $3 billion annually.

GM has been grappling with high health-care and commodities costs, loss of U.S. market share to foreign rivals, and slumping sales of large sport utility vehicles that used to be its profit centers, but have now lost popularity due to high gasoline prices.

Google Base :
american auto-makers, mass layoffs

(2005-11-21 23:39:25 SGT) [Biz] Permalink

Coal-to-liquids

people.com.cn :

China's largest coal producer Shenhua Group has launched the world's first project of direct coal liquefaction in its Shendong coal field in Inner Mongolia. When completed after two phases of construction, the project will have a capacity of 5 million-ton oil products [36.7 million barrels]. The production line for the first phase has begun to be built and will be put into production in 2007 when the 24.5 billion yuan facility will be able to turn out 3.2 million tons of oil products [23.5 million barrels].

bdtonline.com :

The U.S. Senate has approved a push by U.S. Sen. Robert C. Byrd to spur the development of a national coal-to-liquid fuels production. The legislation also would allow the Department of Defense to examine potential uses for these new fuels within its system. The Department of Defense has previously recognized the important role coal-to-liquids could play and has expressed a strong interest in transforming alternative resources into transportation fuels.

- Two announcements by two major powers on two consecutive days on the same topic : conversion of coal to oil for transportation. Is this a move of genius or a move of desperation? Because the last time this process was attempted on a large scale, it was by Adolf Hitler in an effort to overcome Germany's lack of oil resources during World War 2.

During wartime, I'd suppose one could say, screw the economic constraints and go produce petrol at any cost. But are times becoming that desperate now? Discerning peakoilers will also be asking questions like : What's the cost per barrel? What's the conversion factor (coal tons to oil barrels)? What's the EROEI? What are the GHG emissions?

And the obvious one : when does Peak Coal arrive?

Sanyo speeds up restructuring

upi.com :

Japanese electronics maker Sanyo said it will speed up a massive restructuring, including quicker job cuts, to turn its struggling business around.

Sanyo, which projects a record loss for the year, said it plans to raise $2.5 billion by selling new shares to existing shareholders and accelerating job cuts so 10,000 workers will have been trimmed by the end of January. Earlier, Sanyo said it planned to cut 14,000 employees, 15 percent of its work force, over a three-year period.

news.com :

Japan's Sanyo Electric plans to raise up to 300 billion yen ($2.52 billion) by issuing new shares to Goldman Sachs and other firms, while downsizing its ailing chip and home appliance divisions. Following a management reshuffle in June, Sanyo embarked on a three-year restructuring plan in which it aims to cut 14,000 employees, close or sell the equivalent of 20 percent of its factory floor space in Japan and halve its 1.2 trillion yen ($10 billion) debt.

Long criticized by analysts as overstretched and wasting money on unprofitable businesses, Sanyo said it would transform itself from an electronics conglomerate into a company that focuses on products related to the environment and energy. Among Sanyo's pockets of strength are lithium-ion rechargeable batteries and solar cells.

US Senate on Peak Oil

energybulletin.net :

U.S. Senate Committee on Foreign Relations November 16, 2005
High Cost of Crude: The New Currency of Foreign Policy
Testimony of R. James Woolsey

It's a real pleasure to appear before this Committee today on this issue. I am appearing solely on my own behalf and represent no organization. By way of identification I served as Director of Central Intelligence, 1993-95, one of the four Presidential appointments I have held in two Republican and two Democratic administrations ...

Just over four years ago, on the eve of 9/11, the need to reduce radically our reliance on oil was not clear to many and in any case the path of doing so seemed a long and difficult one. Today both assumptions are being undermined by the risks of the post-9/11 world, by oil prices, and by technological progress in fuel efficiency and alternative fuels.

... it is important that existing technology should be used ... to this end government policies in the United States and other oil-importing countries should: (1) encourage a shift to substantially more fuel-efficient vehicles within the existing transportation infrastructure, including promoting both battery development and a market for existing battery types for plugin hybrid vehicles; and (2) encourage biofuels and other alternative and renewable fuels that can be produced from inexpensive and widely-available feedstocks ...

energybulletin.net :

STATEMENT OF JAMES SCHLESINGER
BEFORE THE COMMITTEE ON FOREIGN RELATIONS
UNITED STATES SENATE
16 NOVEMBER 2005

I thank the Committee for this opportunity to discuss the quest for energy security, the implications of our heavy dependence on imported oil, the rise in oil prices, and their manifold political an economic repercussions for our nation ...

The underlying problem is that for more than three decades, our production has outrun new discoveries. Most of our giant fields were found forty years ago and more. Even today, the bulk of our production comes from these old - and aging - giant fields. More recent discoveries tend to be small with high decline rates - and are soon exhausted ... the upshot is, quite simply, that, as the years roll by, the entire world will face a prospectively growing problem of energy supply. Moreover, we shall inevitably see a growing dependency on the volatile Middle East. We shall have to learn to live with degrees of insecurity - rather than the elusive security we have long sought ...

... in the longer run, unless we take serious steps to prepare for the day that we can no longer increase production of conventional oil, we are faced with the possibility of a major economic shock - and the political unrest that would ensue. The United States has just over four percent of the world's population and uses roughly twenty-five percent of the world's oil production ... that statistic does underscore our potential vulnerability in an era that we may no longer be able to produce additional conventional crude oil worldwide ...