By Robert L. Candiotti

United States Senator Harry Reid of Nevada has been adept and adroit guiding the future of renewable energy in Nevada and in the nation.

His intellectual and enjoyable energy summits in Las Vegas in 2007, 2008 and 2009, as well as his impressive speech at the 2008 Democratic National Convention, are, in my mind, historical milestones for the supported development of sustainable energy in the U.S.

On the other hand, though, I find Reid's stance on the futuristic 300 mph maglev (magnetically levitated) train between Nevada and California to be baffling and annoying.

In a December 22, 2008, article in the Las Vegas Sun by David McGrath Schwartz titled "Governors agree to back fast train," Jon Summers, a spokesman for Reid, says that the Senator "supports any project that moves people quickly and safely between Nevada and California."

Any project that offers speed and safety, according to Summers.

Plus, in the same article, it is stated that Reid "helped pass a bill that freed up $45 million for an environmental study of the route" for the maglev.

Then, just six months later, in June, 2009, it was printed in many publications that Reid is dropping all support for the maglev and is now completely in favor of a fast train on a conventional track between Las Vegas and Victorville.

Victorville? In actuality, this is a poorly located terminus for a Las Vegas to California fast train because Victorville is east of the mountainous Cajon Pass highway that climbs and descends dozens of miles before getting anywhere close to the major western destinations in Southern California.

By contrast, the maglev will go almost all the way to the Pacific Ocean at attractive Orange County - with significant stops in between, including, according to American Magline Group publicity, Victorville. 

The conventional train on steel wheels that terminates in Victorville is called the DesertXpress. Reid said he had to get behind the DesertXpress because the maglev plan has been too stagnant. "I've been working on this [the maglev] for 30 years," Reid said. "We've gotten nowhere."

But then, earlier this month, also in several publications, it was announced that $45 million in federal funds were about to be released for analysis and planning for the Las Vegas to Anaheim maglev.

However, Reid, who apparently helped create the $45 million scenario for development of the maglev, is described in a September 24 story by Lisa Mascaro in the Las Vegas Sun as "working behind the scenes to divert the funding to state road and highway projects."

Redirect the maglev money to Nevada roads and highways? When the long-term future of Southern Nevada is on the line? Come on. What is going on here? This is what is meant by Senator Reid being "annoying."

Reid had said that he lost interest in the maglev because the project has "gotten nowhere."

Recent news seems to be negating that position, though. It is widely reported the $45 million will be freed up to study the concept, and possibly implement a plan, for the maglev.

Is Senator Reid actually trying to stand in the way of the $45 million, which is in a bill that he himself helped to pass?

Things are apparently finally happening with the funding of the maglev. Yet, now it can be interpreted that Reid is actually trying to sabotage any hope for an exhilarating and rejuvenating NV-CA maglev ground transportation development that can (literally) carry people very far into the 21st Century.

Baffling and annoying.

 

By Robert L. Candiotti

Give Me A Fulcrum
And A Place To Stand
And I Will Move The Earth
              Archimedes
                     c. 287 BC - c. 212 BC


It was only one month ago, on August 21, 2009, that an article by Benjamin Spillman in the Las Vegas Review-Journal had the headline, "Poll suggests Gibbons a guaranteed election loser."

Nevada Gov. Gibbons, a Republican - who was rated in a recent professional Review-Journal survey of hundreds of state voters - trails every possible Democrat or Republican candidate in the upcoming 2010 election. No question, his approval ratings have been quite low. He has been on a slippery slope trying to get his footing.

But hold on.

Out of the blue it was announced three days ago that the Federal Railroad Administration is going to release $45 million for development of a plan to build a short maglev (300 mph magnetically levitated train) segment from Las Vegas to Primm, about 40 miles to the south at the Nevada-California border.

So, all of a sudden, Gibbons is saying things regarding the maglev that will position him as a creator of jobs and stimulator of the economy. He is an energized supporter of the maglev, which could eventually run from Las Vegas all the way to Anaheim, California.

Last June, Nevada U.S. Senator Harry Reid, a Democrat, shocked many by saying his long-enduring support of the futuristic maglev was gone, and he has become a full-fledged advocate of the proposed DesertXpress train, a 150 mph conventional train with metal wheels that rub against the same kind of tracks that trains were using 150 years ago.

It was talked about for weeks that the DesertXpress - designed to bounce along between Las Vegas and "beautiful downtown" Victorville - is being fronted by Sig Rogich, a former Republican supporter of Jim Gibbons who now proclaims he is a power player solidly behind Reid, as Reid gears up for a 2010 re-election campaign.

Suddenly, Gibbons has a place to stand. That place is as a concerned state governor who sees the maglev as a huge project that will help Nevada economically in many different ways. It is reported that the first construction can begin within 18 months.

In a September 18, 2009, story by Adrienne Packer in the Review-Journal, Gibbons' spokesman, Daniel Burns, is quoted as saying the maglev "creates jobs and brings in tourists. Those are the two things the governor is focusing on right now."

So, there is the firm place to stand for Gibbons. He can stand there and take the position as an advocate for new jobs and expanded tourism.

"Washington, DC, is behind the maglev, and so am I," Gibbons can tell Nevadans with eyes right in the camera. "But why isn't Harry Reid? Does he really think the steel-wheeled DesertXpress to Victorville will be better?," he can ask.

And the fulcrum is the maglev train itself. It is dizzyingly modern, and unbelievably fast. It is exciting and can stimulate not only the economy, but also people's imaginations. If Las Vegas to Primm works out, the maglev will run 270 miles between Las Vegas and Orange County. It will be able to do it in 81 minutes. And, while flying along, the Train of the 21st Century never even touches the ground.

Gibbons can feel comfortable and confident as a supporter of the maglev: It is something new, something transformational, and is a rich project that appears can leave an impressive trail of money as it makes its way from Las Vegas to Primm, and then beyond.

Gibbons surely is still the dark horse in the next governor's race in Nevada. But, with the surprising news about the Federal Railroad Administration's support for the maglev, he has a place to stand, and he has a fulcrum.

Can he move Nevada?   

By Robert L. Candiotti

I have just read a big story by Steve Green published by the Las Vegas Sun on September 10, 2009.

The headline of the story is "Herbst's bankruptcy plan draws ire of creditors, lenders."

Herbst Gaming Inc. - owner of the three hotel/casinos in Primm, Nevada - wants to emerge from bankruptcy that was filed on March 22, 2009. In the process, though, Herbst wants to cancel all unsecured debts, which add up to about $362 million.

However, says Green, unsecured creditors are claiming Herbst unreasonably took on too much debt in 2007 when it acquired the three hotel/casinos in Primm from MGM Mirage for $400 million, and four Sands Regent hotel/casino properties in Northern Nevada for $153 million in the same year.

The Sun story by Green says these purchases caused Herbst's debts to increase to $1.145 billion, and, in order to be able to emerge from bankruptcy, the Herbst plan offers nothing to unsecured creditors.

Says Green, the junior lenders and unsecured creditors claim that Herbst conducted ill-conceived and fraudulent business activities leading up to the bankruptcy.

Herbst Gaming, on the other hand, says the company had no way to anticipate "the economic downturn in the entire United States, and in particular, Southern California and Nevada."

I am not a financial expert. I have no idea how this bankruptcy will end up.

For more than four years, I have worked in Primm's Fashion Outlets Mall which is attached to the tiny town's Primm Valley hotel/casino, one of Herbst's properties in Primm (the other two are Whiskey Pete's and Buffalo Bill's).

It is not hard to see that the mall helps feed the Primm casinos with patrons, and the casinos add very importantly to the number of mall shoppers.

Being right on Interstate Highway 15 at the Southern California-Southern Nevada border, Primm customers are largely California and Nevada automobile visitors. With the weak economy, and high price of gas, Primm business has been weakened for a few years now.

The current Herbst Gaming bankruptcy battle does not help.

I have confidence that the long-term prospects for Primm are good. Of course, if the proposed Ivanpah Valley Airport gets a green light when the FAA/BLM Environmental Impact Statement is completed, Ivanpah Valley, which includes Primm, will get a huge shot of adrenaline that will energize the entire region.

Ironically, as I am writing this blog, I have learned, in today's Las Vegas Sun story by J. Patrick Coolican, that the Federal Railroad Administration may be about to approve $45 million to begin work on the formal study of an introductory Las Vegas to Primm maglev leg to establish the magnetically levitated train's viability as a possible 300 mph, 270 miles long, system between Las Vegas and Anaheim, California.  

If the $45 million maglev approval is true, this will definitely be super-huge news for Primm, Nevada.

For now, though, it will be deeply interesting to see how the bankruptcy court rules on Herbst Gaming's bankruptcy filing.

By Robert L. Candiotti

I was at the National Clean Energy Summit 2.0 at the University of Nevada, Las Vegas, on August 10, 2009.

Organized by the Center for American Progress Action Fund, U.S. Senator Harry Reid and UNLV, there were many respectable speakers at the event. Al Gore - former U.S. Vice President, sustainable environment activist and Nobel Peace Prize winner - was one of the most interesting.

I took notes:

"China is moving very rapidly," stated Gore.

He talked about how China is moving out in many directions at once to ensure its supplies of energy.

He mentioned that China is preparing to develop its own national electric transmission smart grid. And he said that China has made well over $100 billion in oil and gas deals - with countries such as Russia, Saudi Arabia, Kenya, Iran and Sudan - to guarantee constant reservoirs of both.

Since the Clean Energy Summit, I have continued with my own reading.

China is making sure that there is petroleum for its 23 million privately owned automobiles. This is more than twice as many cars there as three years ago. China, while actually exporting oil until the early 1990s, is now the world's second largest oil consumer after the U.S.

China is expecting to continue to grow rapidly. It is projected China will have 120 million cars by 2030. The magnitude of China's population is mind boggling.

Two days ago, I read some new stories that conveyed more amazing information.

First Solar, an American producer of photovoltaic modules, based in Tempe, Arizona, announced it has completed a deal with Chinese authorities to build a 2,000 megawatt solar power plant in the desert of Inner Mongolia. It will eventually cover 25 square miles.

The solar power plant, at two gigawatts - or two billion watts - will reportedly be able to illuminate three million homes. The project will be completed in ten years.

Mike Ahearn, First Solar chief executive, is quoted as saying, "If you have two gigawatts, it could change the image of solar power from niche to nuclear-plant-size installations."

Gore's statement at the National Clean Energy Summit 2.0 that "China is moving very rapidly" is impossible to refute.

China's plan is, as a nation, to reach at least a 15 percent - and possibly a 20 percent - renewable portfolio standard (renewable energy supplies) by 2020.

This fall, the U.S. Congress will face pending renewable energy legislation. How rapidly is this country willing to move? It wil be nice to be able to say "America is moving very rapidly."  

By Robert L. Candiotti

"There are a billion new middle class people in the world."

This statement was made on September 8, 2009, by Dr. William J. Antholis, Managing Director of Brookings Institution, at the announcement of the Brookings/University of Nevada, Las Vegas, long-term Brookings Mountain West Initiative.

This was said at Antholis' inaugural lecture of the Mountain West Initiative on the UNLV campus. He referred to the percentage of the global population that today lives on less than $1 per day. Since the 1980s, this percentage has dropped tremendously. According to a chart that Antholis showed, 41.4 percent of the world population lived on less than $1 daily in 1981. Today, that percentage is 16.1 percent.

Also, the chart showed that armed conflicts in the world have been declining over the past two decades. So, apparently the world is both a safer and more prosperous place.

And, according to the Brookings Institution, this prosperity will grow even more. In an article by Moises Naim in the March/April 2008 issue of Foreign Policy, it is said that Homi Kharas, a researcher at Brookings Institution, estimates that "by 2020 the world's middle class will grow to include a staggering 52 percent of the global population, up from 30 percent now."

It is commonly known that the two countries with the fastest growing middle class segments are China and India.

It is no secret that people all around the world are fascinated with Las Vegas. In another lecture at the inauguration of the Brookings/UNLV Mountain West Initiative, Mark Miro of Brookings Institution said, "Las Vegas has world space. Las Vegas has a world-wide signature."

Inevitably, millions of newly economically comfortable people in distant lands will want to come to Las Vegas. However, in my view, there is a developing weakness in Las Vegas' connectivity. It has to do with the inability of Las Vegas' excellent McCarran International Airport to ever accommodate the Airbus A380 aircraft.

The Airbus A380 is a long-haul, huge, double-deck, four engine jet that has only been flying for a few years.  So far, only 19 Airbus A380 aircraft have been delivered - to Singapore Airlines, Emirates Airline and Qantas.

However, 200 of these airplanes have been ordered by 16 different airlines.

To be properly globally connected via air transportation, Las Vegas is going to need an airport that can handle the A380. This, it appears, can only be the proposed Ivanpah Valley Airport - to be built about 30 miles south of Las Vegas - that is currently undergoing the Environmental Impact Statement process.

The March/April 2008 Foreign Policy article states, "By 2025, China will have the world's largest middle class, while India's will be 10 times larger than it is today." It seems to me that it should be as easy and convenient as possible for these potential travelers, and others, of the future to get to Las Vegas. With 200 Airbus A380 aircraft on order, within five years they will probably be flying all over the world.

Will the Airbus A380 ever be able to land at Las Vegas? The answer is south of Las Vegas at Ivanpah Valley.