Friday Foolery

A Spicier Deal

Da!

Warren Buffet and his holding company, Berkshire Hathaway Inc., along with a Brazilian partner, have bought Heinz Ketchup for a sweet $23 billion.

Nyet!

I suppose the Heinz deal was much spicier fare than diving in and buying the Roanoke Times or The Virginian-Pilot, both owned by Landmark Media Enterprise, following Buffet’s purchase of Landmark’s Greensboro News and Record earlier this month.

The Road Less Traveled

Transportation isn’t the problem. How we use (or misuse) land is the problem.

Transportation bottlenecks and traffic congestion are symptoms of land use, living patterns and work centers.

Whether more money is raised for building and fixing more roads will not fix the problem. It will only exacerbate a problem for future generations.

Humanity's Reality Check - Land Use Solution

Which leads me to “Reality Check,” the one day affair conducted at the Ted Constant Center last May when 300 hundred people got to move Lego’s around a map of the region, indicating where growth in the region should occur.

I have been told something (I wasn’t told what) would happen this spring on the same scale and of the same caliber.

But let’s put some of these ideas into practice. Let’s stop dithering with ideas and playing with Lego’s.

An excellent idea never executed is worthless. A mediocre idea executed is brilliant.

Up in the Air

Let’s face. Every time there’s an airline merger, flights are cut, our airports suffer and travelers are even more outraged by the number of airports they have to hop between Norfolk and their destination.

Don’t doubt that the US Airways-American Airlines merger will be any different.

 Norfolk International Airport isn’t a hub. It isn’t an international airport with flights from Europe landing on the tarmac.

We are a backwater to the airlines. If not for the military presence here, I wonder if any airline would deign to drop their wings here.

If you’ve forgotten or don’t know, the Virginia Department of Aviation conducted a study, analyzing the future needs of our airport system.

The study, called the Eastern Virginia Airport System Study, was conducted and published in the early years of the last decade.

Essentially, the study prompted a movement for a major regional airport, to be situated in Isle of Wight County.

The initiative failed due to the balkanized politics of the region. So we have two airports within spitting distance of each other and yet neither one is a hub.

Wind Wrecked

I support alternative forms of energy. 

But let’s get real. Economics is a big factor and if the economics aren’t right no amount of subsidies will launch a field of turbines off the coast of Virginia.

Natural gas prices are the lowest they’ve been in a decade and many utility companies are converting some of their coal fired plants to natural gas.

Moreover, our electricity is still generated primarily by fossil fuels, coal and natural gas, and if and when those prices skyrocket to the point where it’s more economically feasible to switch to wind, utility companies will do it.

Until then, let’s focus on the practical.

If you can’t sleep, I suggest you read the latest minutes of the Virginia Offshore Wind Development Authority, which was created in 2010.

It reads like a technical manual.