U.N. probe, flight delay, hurricane report, biodiesel

The pessimist sees difficulty in every opportunity. The optimist sees the opportunity in every difficulty.

-- Winston Churchill

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Should Kofi Annan be Replaced? A sprawling report into the United Nations' scandal-tarred oil-for-food program derided the world body's management of the program as corrupt and inefficient.

The 800-page report from the independent panel headed by former Federal Reserve chairman Paul Volcker ... said the mismanagement and outright criminality allowed ousted Iraqi leader Saddam Hussein easily to exploit the humanitarian program for financial gain, with his cash-strapped regime wringing $10.2 billion out of the system through a combination of smuggling and illicit kickbacks and surcharges.

"Obviously there was corruption, and obviously there was mismanagement," said Mr. Volcker in an interview. "If the U.N. has a special responsibility in a corrupt world to provide an example by maintaining ethical standards, they fell far short." It cleared Mr. Annan of the more serious accusation of improperly exerting influence on the company's behalf, but sharply criticized him for failing to take firmer action to correct the oil-for-food program's failings or address the conflict of interest that arose from his son's work for the company, Cotecna Inspection Services SA.

Mr. Volcker declined to say whether he thought Mr. Annan should resign, but stressed that the secretary general's "behavior has not been exonerated by any stretch of the imagination." Mr. Annan's management of the world body during the program's tenure was "a litany of deficiencies," he said.

-- Excerpt of column by Yochi Dreazen in The Wall Street Journal

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Wendy and I had an unusual experience recently when flying back to Cape Girardeau from son Rex's marriage to Sherry Johnson in Maui, Hawaii, in a lovely sunset ceremony on the beach. (Rex wore a dark suit, and Sherry was in a beautiful wedding gown, and both were barefoot.)

After an all-night flight from Maui to Los Angeles and shortly after our takeoff from Los Angeles for St. Louis, our pilot announced that the crew was unable to raise the nose landing gear, and since the fuel load made the airplane too heavy to land immediately we would circle to burn off fuel before returning to land at Los Angeles.

One hour and 15 minutes of circling later, the pilot announced we were returning to land.

He expressed complete confidence that the mechanical malfunction would pose no problems but that we would prepare for a crash landing and review the procedures.

The flight attendants selected two brawny younger men to move closer to the front exit to help her with the doors and chutes in case they got damaged during a crash landing.

We all read the safety instructions with more interest, and the stewardesses reviewed the passenger crash-landing positions with all of us. They told us to not to be alarmed when immediately before touchdown they would yell out, "Heads down, heads down, heads down" -- which they did.

The landing proved to be uneventful, although the fire truck's rotating beacons and ambulances parked alongside the runway reminded us of what might have been.

The airplane stayed on the runway while maintenance workers put a pin in the nose wheel landing gear before taxiing into the gate. No passenger cried or got excited. That proved to be the easy part. Trying to find another flight to St. Louis while all flights were basically booked solid added another 12 hours to our return trip.

There's no place like home. Especially when it's Southeast Missouri.

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It is difficult to make our material condition better by the best law, but it is easy enough to ruin it by bad laws.

-- Theodore Roosevelt

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One of our associates here at the Southeast Missourian received information, from a cousin who has evacuated from New Orleans, that undamaged homes in Baton Rouge are selling for 20 to 40 percent more than they were last month, and there are few left for sale as the demand for livable homes exceeds the supply.

Fortunately, the cousin's home survived the hurricane and the family escaped the flooding even though they live about half a block from the Mississippi River. He reports that the river went to the top of the levee and deposited two large barges on top of the levee at the end of their street. One of the riverboat ferries they have used for the last 21-plus years is also on top of the levee, and the other is near the top.

There was an 80,000-gallon spill of crude oil in Chalmette, and one of their friends now has 3 1/2 feet of crude oil in his house. About three weeks ago they had completed their remodeling of the house.

As with the tornadoes that hit our area, there is no rhyme nor reason for the way hurricanes destroy. Your house can be unscathed while your neighbor's is wiped out. Mother Nature is a fearsome force.

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Diesel Do It: In "Ethanol, Meet Biodiesel" (June 6, Forbes) you note a study which claims that biodiesel, our nation's fastest-growing alternative fuel, takes more energy to produce than it yields. The study was conducted by David Pimentel, an entomologist, and Tad Patzek, a researcher who directs the University of California Oil Consortium. Their findings wildly contradict the majority of scientific biodiesel studies. Biodiesel, a renewable fuel made from soybeans and other fats and vegetable oils, actually yields three times the energy it takes to produce it. The U.S. departments of energy and agriculture conducted the premier peer-reviewed biodiesel energy balance study, which found that for every one unit of fossil energy it takes to make biodiesel 3.2 units of energy are gained.

The Pimentel/Pazek study has also been criticized for ignoring scientific protocol, the laws of thermodynamics and simple math. It counts calories consumed by farmers as fossil fuel inputs (as if they wouldn't eat anyway).

The researchers neglect to mention that there is a 17 percent energy loss to turn crude oil into diesel fuel, an important comparison. Biodiesel is better for the environment, contributes to our economy and helps wean us from our dangerous addiction to foreign oil. -- Joe Jobe, Chief Executive, National Biodiesel Board, Jefferson City, Mo.

-- Letter to Forbes Magazine

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Sen. Talent Urges EPA to Act Quickly to Implement New Standard for Ethanol and Biodiesel: U.S. Sen. Jim Talent (R-Mo.), co-chair of the Senate Biofuels Caucus, is asking the Environmental Protection Agency to move quickly to implement the new national standard for renewable fuels such as ethanol and biodiesel. In a letter to EPA administrator Steve Johnson, Talent, together with Sen. Byron Dorgan (D-N.D.), Sen. John Thune (R-S.D.) and Sen. Tim Johnson (D-S.D.), said time is of the essence, as the Renewable Fuels Standard will take effect next year.

"Given today's record oil and gasoline prices, the need to diversify our energy supplies by expanding the use of renewable fuels is clear," the senators wrote. "The Renewable Fuels Standard will provide for the use of 4 billion gallons of renewable fuel next year, growing to 7.5 billion gallons in 2012.

The program is a necessary and important part of our nation's new energy policy." The comprehensive Energy bill signed into law last month implements the nation's first-ever Renewable Fuels Standard. Talent, Dorgan and Johnson, all members of the Energy Committee, were the architects of the Renewable Fuels Standard, which they added to the energy bill in committee on a bipartisan basis and the Congress approved.

The renewable fuels provisions are scheduled to take effect at the beginning of next year and the EPA is responsible for establishing the regulations for the new standard. If the agency fails to promulgate those regulations by January, the law provides that 2.78 percent of the nation's fuel supply (more than 4 billion gallons) of renewable fuels such as ethanol and biodiesel be used next year.

-- Press release

Gary Rust is chairman of Rust Communications.