Politics!  At least somebody is now looking at the USPS (US Postal Service) issues – but probably…

Politics!  At least somebody is now looking at the USPS (US Postal Service) issues – but probably with the wrong lens.  What is missing is  how the USPS will chart a path to profits.  USPS is completely upside down.  In previous weeks, I have detailed the USPS’s plight and the claimed need for investing over $200 per man, woman, and child in the U.S. to right the ship.  I suspect nothing more will come other than “service must increase, and don’t worry about the losses.”

   

More postal thinking.  Phillips 66 plans to transform a San Francisco-area oil refinery into a plant that produces bio-diesel.  Renewable (bio)-diesel generally isn’t economical to produce without government incentives, and demand is small.  But losing refinery capacity, especially on the West Coast, is not good for trucking.  Less capacity hurts when there is a disruption at another facility.  Just as we see the closure of fossil-fuel electric plants in favor of solar and wind causing the current power cuts in California, the push to “green” diesel fuel will likely hurt diesel supplies in tough times.