Bill
01-25-2008, 06:09 PM
I wonder where Frank's tourists and tourism workers will be going, when most of Iraq is now plauged with worse shortages of electricity and fuel?
I wonder if Frank's feelgood tourism claims were a bunch of lies?
Who to believe, who to believe? Tourism in Iraq? Or a freezing baghdad without electricity or heating fuel?
We have already spent OVER $40 BILLION on "reconstruction", but still the Iraqi people have to go to the black market for kerosene and gasoline.
http://www.upi.com/International_Security/Energy/Analysis/2008/01/22/analysis_iraqis_without_fuel_power/5131/
WASHINGTON, Jan. 22 (UPI) -- You can't have one without the other, but with many of Iraq's power plants shut and refineries stopped, Iraqis have neither fuel nor electricity.
Iraq's Electricity Ministry is blaming the Oil Ministry for cutting fuel supplies and Turkey for ending electricity imports.
The Oil Ministry says continuous power to its refineries will lead to continuous supplies of fuel.
"We hear a lot of promises but we see nothing," Baghdad resident Amjad Kazim told Gulf News. Blackouts and long lines at the fuel stations are increasing as subsidized, state-controlled supplies run dry and the black market boosts prices.
In Baghdad's neighborhoods, black market auto fuel prices have jumped by nearly 20 percent in the past week, according to IraqSlogger.com.
Various U.S. government reports show fuel supplies are half the target and the ministries are unable to make the needed capital investment.
Iraq suffered from extensive power outages last summer, but reports showed steadily increasing capacity and delivery of electricity through the end of the year. Now there are widespread reports of two hours of power a day through much of the country.
"We have not had electricity for a week now and it took me about four hours to buy fuel for my car," east Baghdad resident Jaafar Dhia Ali said in a U.N. Office for the Coordination of Humanitarian Affairs report. Winter has set in reaching below zero temperatures in Baghdad alone.
"There are 20 of us living in this house as I'm hosting my two displaced brothers' families," Ali said, adding the kerosene heaters are running close to empty but black market prices -- $1 per liter -- are too high.
Electricity demand is up and supply down from Jan. 9-15, according to the State Department's Iraq Weekly Status Report. "The average weekly supply was the lowest since January 2005 and the percentage of demand met was the lowest since at least December 2003."
And more on this, and other problems...
http://iraqoilreport.com/2008/01/22/iraqis-are-left-without-fuel-or-electricity-%E2%80%A6/
I wonder if Frank's feelgood tourism claims were a bunch of lies?
Who to believe, who to believe? Tourism in Iraq? Or a freezing baghdad without electricity or heating fuel?
We have already spent OVER $40 BILLION on "reconstruction", but still the Iraqi people have to go to the black market for kerosene and gasoline.
http://www.upi.com/International_Security/Energy/Analysis/2008/01/22/analysis_iraqis_without_fuel_power/5131/
WASHINGTON, Jan. 22 (UPI) -- You can't have one without the other, but with many of Iraq's power plants shut and refineries stopped, Iraqis have neither fuel nor electricity.
Iraq's Electricity Ministry is blaming the Oil Ministry for cutting fuel supplies and Turkey for ending electricity imports.
The Oil Ministry says continuous power to its refineries will lead to continuous supplies of fuel.
"We hear a lot of promises but we see nothing," Baghdad resident Amjad Kazim told Gulf News. Blackouts and long lines at the fuel stations are increasing as subsidized, state-controlled supplies run dry and the black market boosts prices.
In Baghdad's neighborhoods, black market auto fuel prices have jumped by nearly 20 percent in the past week, according to IraqSlogger.com.
Various U.S. government reports show fuel supplies are half the target and the ministries are unable to make the needed capital investment.
Iraq suffered from extensive power outages last summer, but reports showed steadily increasing capacity and delivery of electricity through the end of the year. Now there are widespread reports of two hours of power a day through much of the country.
"We have not had electricity for a week now and it took me about four hours to buy fuel for my car," east Baghdad resident Jaafar Dhia Ali said in a U.N. Office for the Coordination of Humanitarian Affairs report. Winter has set in reaching below zero temperatures in Baghdad alone.
"There are 20 of us living in this house as I'm hosting my two displaced brothers' families," Ali said, adding the kerosene heaters are running close to empty but black market prices -- $1 per liter -- are too high.
Electricity demand is up and supply down from Jan. 9-15, according to the State Department's Iraq Weekly Status Report. "The average weekly supply was the lowest since January 2005 and the percentage of demand met was the lowest since at least December 2003."
And more on this, and other problems...
http://iraqoilreport.com/2008/01/22/iraqis-are-left-without-fuel-or-electricity-%E2%80%A6/