The Peak Oil Transition

(via Syd O) The Oil Drum has a really good article giving 3 (actually 4) hypothesis of how nations will react, cope, and transition from peak oil. Nations could react like North Korea, Cuba, Japan, or the American South after the civil war. Really interesting account of how cultural memes of individualism, community, and militarism may account for how a nation reacts.

Rejected Fortune "500" Cover

(via Snead 303)

Here's how Gawker reports it:

Fortune commissioned a cover from comic-book artist Chris Ware. He used the opportunity to question some of the foibles of modern capitalism, depicting a "Stocks and Bonds Casino" among other satirical places. So the magazine apparently shelved his work.

The cover, apparently for an upcoming issue, would have been tough for any ardent capitalists to swallow. It depicts the Fortune 500 towering over a map featuring places like 'Cash Loans on House Titles' and 'Toxic Asset Acres'. According to one blogger who attended panel discussion for Pantheon books at Chicago pop culture convention C2E2 earlier this week, Ware:

...showed a cover he did for Fortune magazine which was supposed to be on the Fortune 500 issue. He accepted the job because it would be like doing the 1929 issue of the magazine, and he filled the image with tons of satirical imagery, like the U.S. Treasuring being raided by Wall Street, China dumping money into the ocean, homes being flooded, homes being foreclosed, and CEOs dancing a jig while society devolves into chaos. The cover... needless to say, was rejected.

Fortune and Ware did not immediately return calls for comment.

UPDATE: A spokesperson for Fortune responded thus-ly:

As we often do, Fortune commissioned multiple artists to submit cover concepts for our iconic Fortune 500 issue. Being huge fans of Chris Ware's work, we asked him to participate, but in the end we chose a design submitted illustrator Daniel Pelavin.

BP Exempted from EIS Study

WaPo reports that the EPA exempted the, now gushing, Deepwater Horizon from NEPA and and EIS:

The decision by the department's Minerals Management Service (MMS) to give BP's lease at Deepwater Horizon a "categorical exclusion" from the National Environmental Policy Act (NEPA) on April 6, 2009 -- and BP's lobbying efforts just 11 days before the explosion to expand those exemptions -- show that neither federal regulators nor the company anticipated an accident of the scale of the one unfolding in the gulf.

No Big Government Unless You Have an Oil Slick

(via Armando) Dana Milbank has a great article on the hypocrisy of "small-government" Republicans from the Gulf states who suddenly have a profound interest in federal assistance.

"We're here to send the message that we're going to do everything we can from a federal level to mitigate this," Sessions said after the flight, "to protect the people and make sure when people are damaged that they're made whole."

Sessions, probably the Senate's most ardent supporter of tort reform, found himself extolling the virtues of litigation -- against BP. "They're not limited in liability on damage, so if you've suffered a damage, they are the responsible party," said Sessions, sounding very much like the trial lawyers he usually maligns.