Wind Powered Bulldozers?

Morning Miners!

It is 5:52 AM and the ole Colonel is writing about something potentially troubling for rural communities in the future. Eric linked me to an article in the online Construction Equipment magazine last night. I've added this link to Miner's Corner to your right; here's the article:


Now Is Not Too Soon to Retire Tier 0 Diesels


Apparently, older diesel-powered equipment (tier 0 and tier 1) is in the sights of the government to ensure compliance with newly evolving emission standards. This includes off-road machines and that covers a lot of territory in our community. The standards are toughest in California but the old saying, "As California goes, so goes the nation", is never truer when it comes to emissions regulation:

"The writing on the wall says your Tier 0 diesels have to go. Same thing goes for most Tier 1 machines. Owners have some control over when, but by 2013 or 2014 in California, few firms will be able to afford to keep pre-1998 off-road diesel engines. You won’t want them and, here’s the kicker, neither will anybody else.
Regardless of whether or not your state adopts California’s In-Use Off-Road Diesel Vehicle rule, in the next five years most major metro areas in the United States are going to force by regulation or lure by incentive heavy equipment owners to retire or replace Tier 0 and Tier 1 diesel engines and upgrade Tier 2 and Tier 3 engines to the cleanest possible exhaust emissions standard." (Construction Equipment, 5/1/09)

Don't let the term "metro areas" fool you buckaroos, there might be a G-Man looking at your old D-8 dozer before you know it!

On a brighter note, commodities and miners are happy campers today as silver returns to $14 pasture.

Enough clean air, let's walk the walk:

Oil is up $0.74 at $60.84 (July contract). Gold is up $1.7 to $928.4 (June contract); Silver is nicely breaks $14 at $14.230; Copper is up 0.0275 to $2.0970 (July contract); Molybdenum holds at $10.25.

The DOW is up 98 points to 8573.69; the S&P 500, up 14.3 points to 922.44. The Miners are hot today:

Barrick (ABX) $35.49 up 4.41%
Newmont (NEM) $44.91 down 3.08%
General Moly (Eureka Moly, LLC) (GMO) $1.77 up 4.73%
Freeport McMoran (FCX) $51.90 up 4.81% (a bellwether mining stock spanning gold, copper & molybdenum)

Steel stocks are mostly ripping (a "tell" for General Moly):

Nucor (NUE) $43.06 up 2.90% - domestic steel manufacturing
ArcelorMittal (MT) $30.77 up 5.92% - global steel producer
POSCO (PKX) $86.10 down 0.09%- South Korean integrated steel producer

The Eureka Miner's Grubstake Portfolio is up 2.95%

Cheers,

Colonel Possum