This article at Bloomberg caught my eye:
China is pushing the price of diesel fuel higher by stockpiling it ahead of both the Summer Olympics and the need to rebuild Sichuan province after last week’s earthquake, the Wall Street Journal reported.
The country is hoarding the fuel in the event that its power grid fails and it needs to use backup generators, the Journal said.
Now, I don’t think anyone could fault a country for stepping up fuel acquisition in the wake of a disaster. However, the article makes it sound like Chinese authorities are uncertain of their power grid’s ability to support the demands that the Olympics will make on local power resources.
Shouldn’t availability of power, preferably without need of falling back to more-polluting, backup sources, be a key criterion in site selection?
Also, aren’t the Olympics supposed to be a celebration of peaceful competition and cooperation, rather than a drag on the rest of the world?