Free Republic

As you read this, around 10,420 giants are heaving their way across the world’s oceans Engineers believe it is possible to use the vast hull of oil tankers to create floating power stations that can convert the ocean swell into electricity. This is the ambitious plan to create the world’s first “waveships”. “It works like a giant piston,” says Florent Trarieux, a renewable energy engineer who led tests on the waveship concept in scale models at Cranfield University. “We would put a turbine at the top of the chamber that is driven by the air as it is pulled back...

Two oil tankers collided off the coast of Egypt spilling 9,000 barrels of crude into the Mediterranean Sea, one of the ship's operators said Saturday. The Singapore-registered M.T. Trijata lost 3,000 barrels of oil through a gash five meters (16 feet) above the water line, said GBLT Ship Management spokeswoman Allison Lim. The other tanker, US-based Genmar Kestrel, lost 6,000 barrels of crude oil, Lim said. The spill from the M.T. Trijata had been contained, but Lim couldn't confirm that the Genmar Kestrel's leak was under control. A salvage crew would start clean up operations once permission is obtained from...

Just two years ago, the Hayman Fire roared through the Rockies, blackening 138,000 acres and destroying more than 130 homes. It cost roughly $240 million to fight. Did that fire have to grow to that size? Did that many homes have to burn? 7NEWS Investigator Tony Kovaleski has exposed a troubling trail of conflict and red tape inside the U.S. Forest Service. Earlier this month, after years of problems, the Forest Service grounded its fleet of air tankers. 7NEWS asks: has the government wasted taxpayer money on outdated, dangerous and underperforming aircraft while ignoring bigger, faster and newer technology? Twenty-three...

WASHINGTON (AP) - Just as the 2004 wildfire season is opening, the government on Monday grounded an aging fleet of 33 former military tankers that had been among the biggest weapons in its arsenal for fighting the blazes. The Forest Service and the Interior Department terminated contracts with private companies for use of the planes after the National Transportation Safety Board determined their airworthiness could be not assured. Three such planes crashed between 1994 and 2002, killing seven crew members. Forest Service Chief Dale Bosworth said that, in the wake of the NTSB report, continuing to use the tankers posed...

Jumbo Boeing 747 Reworked to Fight Fires ASSOCIATED PRESS McMINNVILLE, Ore. (AP) - The first jumbo jet converted for use as a tanker in fighting forest fires could be ready for service by July, an aviation company said. The Boeing 747 could carry 20,000 gallons of water or fire retardant, 10 times as much as a conventional propeller tanker, Evergreen International Aviation said Thursday. The jet was converted over the past year and has made about 50 test flights in Arizona, the McMinnville, Ore.-based company said. The jet still needs approval from the Federal Aviation Administration. "It represents one of...