A right-wing think-tank condemns some northern towns as beyond help. Merrill Lynch, a Wall Street investment bank, channels billions of dollars worth of credit-crunch losses through London and, as a consequence, may be able to operate in the UK perfectly legally for several decades without having to pay corporation tax. They seem like disparate pieces of information, but they are intimately linked.

Economists from the Policy Exchange argued in an inflammatory paper that people who live in places like Sunderland, Bradford, and my birthplace of Middlesbrough, should give up on their home towns and move to the south east, because no amount of regeneration aid can salvage these backward northern pits. Yet foreign banks like Merrill Lynch can in effect scoop up a huge state subsidy, since they are allowed to offset credit-crunch losses against their tax bills for a limitless number of years into the future.

No matter if these losses were run up outside the UK. No matter that the bankers brought their troubles on themselves, while the inhabitants of struggling northern towns did not. No matter that US banks, non-doms and private equity partners are great believers in tooth-and-claw capitalism - until it comes to tax breaks or taxpayer-funded bailouts for themselves.

The City-centric cultural climate has spawned both the tycoons who argue with straight faces that they need to be cossetted by the tax system, and the economists who propose that tracts of the north should be abandoned as desolate ghost towns.

Warsaw - They live in a historically battered region between West and East, the Rhine and the Volga, Berlin and Moscow. Now, as Russian tanks rumble in Georgia, the states of "new Europe" are urging the West to rethink its relationship with Russia and are pushing for new security and strong measures against an aggressive Moscow they say they know all too well.

From Poland to Ukraine, the Czech Republic to Bulgaria, Russia's invasion of Georgia with tanks, troops, and planes is described as a test of Western resolve. The former Soviet states are vowing to thwart Russian aims - in deals with the European Union, in a missile-defense pact with the US, and in trade and diplomacy.

Polish and Baltic officials, most of whom grew up under Soviet occupation, have long chafed at being described in Western Europe as too "Russia-phobic" in their oft-repeated warnings about Moscow's intentions. But now in this gritty capital, the refrain is, "We told you so."

The French authorities are formally investigating an Algerian official in connection with the killing of a leading Algerian opposition figure.

Ali Mecili was assassinated at his home in Paris in 1987.

He had been working as a senior aide to Hocine Ait Ahmed, leader of the Algeria's Socialist Forces Front.

The man being investigated is Mohammed Ziane Hassani, now in charge of protocol at Algeria's foreign ministry. He was arrested on Friday.

Mr Hassani was detained at Marseille airport shortly after arriving from Algiers.

BBC NEWS | UK | Flooded underpass to be examined

An investigation has been ordered by the roads minister into how a multi-million pound underpass was submerged under 20 ft of flood water.

Conor Murphy visited the Broadway underpass in Belfast following the weekend's torrential rain.

It is thought a pumping station beside the road was overwhelmed when a nearby river overflowed.

"I have asked Roads Service to carry out a full investigation into the underpass' flooding," he said.

A section of the central barrier of the adjoining Westlink had to be cut with angle-grinders to allow motorists to flee flood waters.

It is thought to up to half a dozen cars may be submerged in the underpass, having been abandoned by their owners as the water rose.

Leading industrialised nations have fired a stinging broadside at Britain over its failure to tackle corporate bribery overseas, at a time when other countries are pursuing big-name multinationals.

The anti-bribery working group of the Organisation for Economic Co-operation and Development attacked London's performance in a letter delivered to the government in June, the Financial Times has learned.

The letter - sent before the House of Lords backed the scrapping of an investigation into BAE Systems' Saudi arms deals - is a sign of how Britain's failure to bring cases against its multinationals is alienating European and US allies who are pursuing their companies.

The message suggests London can expect a tough time at the next meeting of the OECD anti-bribery group in October, where members could take the embarrassing and unprecedented step of pushing for Britain to be suspended.

The letter attacked Britain over its failure to bring a single overseas bribery case or to deliver on a years-old pledge to update its anti-corruption laws. It also raised concerns that the Serious Fraud Office (SFO) would downgrade its commitment to tackling corporate foreign bribery, because of plans for it to focus more on public education and consumer crimes such as share scams.

Two small bombs attributed to the Basque separatist group ETA exploded at tourist resorts in southern Spain on Sunday, the authorities said. No injuries were reported, but more than 10,000 people were evacuated from a harbor area.

A bomb squad later defused a third device found next to a bridge linking the busy port city of Malaga with its international airport, the police said.

A caller who said he spoke in the name of ETA warned the fire department in the beach resort of Benalmadena that three bombs would explode, the ministry said.

The caller said bombs had been placed in Guadalmar, Benalmadena and on a highway linking Malaga with its international airport, a ministry spokeswoman said. She spoke on condition of anonymity, in keeping with ministry rules.

Russia: For the record. Russian authorities announced they planned to equip Black Sea Fleet ships with nuclear warheads for their missiles.  The US called this threat and the threat to place Polish cities on the Russian nuclear missile target list as "empty rhetoric."  Hmmm ...

Note for new analysts: When a nation makes a threat and is known to have the capabilities to execute the threat as stated, it is not empty rhetoric or a bluff.  When confirmed capabilities match the rhetoric, the rhetoric must not be dismissed as bluff.  The analogy is to criminal behavior. When a criminal points a loaded gun at a victim, the victim is almost certain to die, if the victim thinks and acts as if the gun holder is bluffing. Loaded guns do not bluff. They do not necessarily shoot, but a bluff is a threat that is NOT backed by capability. A victim's response to a loaded gun cannot be the same as to empty rhetoric.

Daily Kos: Spanish wind looks sexy, but California efficiency is really hot

You might be surprised to find out that despite being the number three wind producer in the world, Spain is dead last among developed countries in meeting its Kyoto targets.  In this diary we'll take a look at how that happened and why Spain (and the rest of the United States) needs a dose of Californication.

According to the 1997 Kyoto Protocol, the European Union is to cut its emissions of greenhouse gases by 8% relative to 1990 levels by the period 2008-2012. Because at the time the agreement was signed, Spain was considered one of the less developed economies (it currently ranks 5th) among the then 15 European Union members (there are currently 27), its emissions target was set at a 15% rise over 1990 levels. (Greece, Ireland and Portugal were also allowed to grow their emissions.)

However, as of 2007, Spain is 52.3% above its Kyoto target and despite optimistic government promises that it can still meet the target it seems extremely unlikely that the Spanish will be able to reduce emissions by 35% relative to 1990 levels in only 4 years.

johnny, how come you don't post this one here, like you do sometimes?

i bet it gets more than 22 comments...

it won't need rescuing, i can guarantee you that!

Peace is not the absence of war -- peace is the absence of fear. Ursula Franklin

Aug. 17 (Bloomberg) -- Russia's future in global institutions such as the World Trade Organization depends on its compliance with an agreement to immediately withdraw troops from Georgia, two top U.S. officials said.

Secretary of State Condoleezza Rice urged Russian President Dmitry Medvedev to ``keep his word'' on pulling troops back from Georgian territory, saying he has failed to comply so far. Defense Secretary Robert Gates cited a ``menu'' of measures Russia might face should it violate the terms of a cease fire.

While it's too early to discuss specifics such as Russia's aspirations to join the WTO, ``there's clearly a menu available to the West'' of consequences that can be imposed, Gates said today on ABC's ``This Week'' program. ``We now have time to consider carefully with our allies what actions we want to take.''

European leaders warned Russia today to withdraw forces rapidly from Georgia or face unspecified "consequences", as Moscow stalled on its pledges to honour a ceasefire and pull back thousands of troops from the Caucasus republic.

With the US and European governments due to meet on Tuesday to consider their options for the first time since the crisis erupted, the French president, Nicolas Sarkozy, threatened the Kremlin with an ultimatum for the first time, warning that more delays to a pullout "would have serious consequences on relations between Russia and the European Union".

The French warning echoed similar statements from the Americans in recent days, none of which appear to have rattled the Russians, whose forces remain in firm control of large tracts of Georgia well beyond the two separatist enclaves of South Ossetia and Abkhazia.

RENO, Nev. -- Sen. Barack Obama talked energy this morning with T. Boone Pickens, the Texas oil and gas billionaire who helped finance the Swiftboat attacks on Sen. John Kerry in 2004.
 
Pickens requested the meeting, which was held in a conference room at a Reno casino. The two discussed the Pickens Plan, which aims to replace foreign oil supplies with alternative domestic sources, including a wind corridor that would stretch from Texas to the Canadian border.

<...> "Everybody knows that if we keep on going on the same track that we're going, that we are giving our wealth away, we're funding both sides in the war on terror," Obama said. "We're going to be - over the long term - putting enormous pressure on ordinary families here in America who just aren't going to be able to afford skyrocketing gasoline prices and home heating prices, so this is one of those issues that I think should unify the country. That's what we're going to be talking about."

As Zimbabwe's government and opposition continue to hold power-sharing talks, the BBC's Africa correspondent Orla Guerin reports undercover from inside Zimbabwe - where BBC journalists are banned - on opposition worries at whether promises will be fulfilled.

Many MDC supporters say they have been beaten by pro-Mugabe activists

After months of state-sponsored violence and intimidation, and a sham election run-off, it is easy to see why Zimbabwe's opposition MDC (the Movement for Democratic Change) has a problem with trust.

Many MDC supporters and officials we have spoken to here in Zimbabwe believe that the President Robert Mugabe has no intention of ceding any real authority to their leader Morgan Tsvangirai.

Unexpected partnerships are forming among nations vying to extend their Arctic undersea territories as they join to counter Russia's aggressive Arctic claims.

A United States coastguard icebreaker left port in Alaska last week to join a Canadian icebreaker to conduct a seismic survey of the Beaufort seabed north of the Yukon-Alaska border.

Both countries are gathering research to support their claim to Arctic territories that may hold vast natural resources and potential new shipping routes.

Earlier this month, Canadian and Danish scientists jointly claimed the Lomonosov Ridge under the North Pole was connected to the North American and Greenland plates.

Moscow first claimed the Lomonosov Ridge in 2001 and reasserted that last year when a Russian submarine planted a Russian flag in the seabed under the North Pole.

The US position on the Arctic is tricky because Congress has not ratified the UN Convention on the Law of the Sea, which will ultimately govern the claims.

17 August 2008, 09:19 More than 1000 shacks burnt down at the Denver hostel squatter camp in southern Johannesburg late on Saturday night, according to Johannesburg Emergency Management services.

Spokesperson Percy Morokane said about 3000 people were homeless after the fire started in the settlement at the junction of Main Reef Road and Plantasie Street just after midnight.

Morokane said Turffontein, Rosebank, Fairview and Kibler Park fire crews battled the blaze until after midnight.

The penny has dropped in London and New York that banks are not reliable sources of tax revenues. Losses from the credit crisis means that some investment banks may not pay taxes, as Michael Bloomberg, mayor of New York, gloomily phrases it, "for years".

The most spectacular example is Merrill Lynch, which has booked $29bn of losses from its rash involvement in trading collateralised debt obligations, in London. Although many of the deals in question were struck by bankers in New York, Merrill booked them to its London subsidiary.

For Merrill and for the UK, this is an unintended consequence of the low rate of corporate taxation. The UK corporation tax rate of 28 per cent meant it made sense for Merrill to book the deals in London rather than the US, where the federal rate is 35 per cent and state taxes add a few percentage points.

Low taxation has now become zero taxation, which will further add to the incentive for Merrill to do (or to book) business in London. That has some benefits for the City of London in terms of employment but is unlikely to warm the hearts of the tax-paying British, or other UK-based businesses.

More broadly, it could prompt a reassessment of the benefits to cities such as New York, London, Dubai, Frankfurt and Hong Kong of competing to become international financial hubs. If a country gains some skyscrapers and local jobs, but few fiscal benefits, it will become a less pliant host.

Tax dodgers are transferring money from Liechtenstein to Panama, Singapore and other secretive offshore centres, intelligence from foreign tax authorities shows.

One official said the switch had been prompted by the greater focus on evasion after the theft of client details from LGT and Liechtensteinische Landesbank .

One beneficiary could be Panama. The Sovereign Society, a US publisher specialising in offshore planning, says the country has "iron-clad financial privacy laws" and describes it as "an ideal 21st century offshore haven in a world where few remain".

Singapore, the world's fastest-growing private banking centre, expected to gain from Liechtenstein's troubles, Daniel Truchi, global head of Société Générale's private banking business, told the FT in March. "Because of what happened in Liechtenstein, we will see a higher flow of funds into Singapore. The momentum is accelerating."

President Pervez Musharraf of Pakistan showed continued defiance to threats of impeachment Sunday, saying through aides that he wanted to see the formal charges before making any decision on leaving office.

Musharraf, a former general, is known as a fighter by instinct, and colleagues said that, as his career seemed poised to end in indignity, he was determined not to bend to politicians whom he has long viewed with disdain.

Behind the scenes, negotiations between representatives of Musharraf and the governing coalition on an exit strategy that would satisfy both sides proceeded over the weekend.

At the core of the talks is a demand by Musharraf for immunity from prosecution if he leaves office before the impeachment proceedings begin.

U.S. prosecutors have sent letters to six Blackwater security guards involved in a Baghdad shooting last year in an action that could lead to criminal indictments, The Washington Post reported  Sunday.

Bodyguards from the U.S. security firm Blackwater Worldwide opened fire in a traffic jam last September, killing 17 Iraqi civilians while escorting a convoy of U.S. diplomats through the capital under a contract with the State Department.

The Post said the "target letters" sent to the Blackwater employees offered them a chance to contest evidence and present their own versions of the incident. Such letters often are a step taken before indictments are issued.

The Post sources, who requested anonymity because of the sensitive nature of the case, said a final decision on indictments might not be made until October.

The question of where and how the contractors can be tried has yet to be publicly resolved, and the incident set off debate in Washington on the use of contractors in war.

The Post, citing three sources close to the case, said prosecutors were still considering evidence after a 10-month FBI investigation of the shooting. The sources said any charges against Blackwater employees probably would come under the Military Extraterritorial Jurisdiction Act. The Post did not identify the six security guards by name.

That law has been used to prosecute civilian contractors for crimes committed while accompanying U.S. armed forces, but some legal experts question whether it can be used to prosecute State Department contractors operating separately from the military

Torrential rains and overflowing rivers have brought some of the worst flooding in decades to Vietnam and its neighbors, flooding cities and farmlands in five nations.

At least 130 people were killed, dozens were missing and thousands were driven from their homes in northern Vietnam and hundreds of tourists were evacuated near the hill tribe resort area of Sapa.

Flooding has also hit parts of Thailand, Cambodia and Laos as well as Myanmar, where waters rose in the Irrawaddy Delta, which is still recovering from a cyclone that left 38,000 people dead or missing in May.

According to the official press in Myanmar, the floods affected much of the country, including the main city, Yangon, as well as Mandalay in the center and the Karen and Mon states in the southeast.

In Vientiane, the capital of Laos, officials said the Mekong River had brought the worst flooding in memory, rising to nearly 14 meters, or 45 feet, above its lowest level in the dry season. The high water in Vientiane broke a record set in 1966 and overflowed a levee that was built after that flood.

The International Monetary Fund has recommended that Saudi Arabia consider alternative exchange regimes to its 22-year currency peg to the US dollar if inflation persists and the creation of a Gulf monetary union is delayed.

The weakness of the US dollar caused a huge amount of speculation that the Saudi authorities would either remove the peg or revalue the riyal, particularly last year.

However, in spite of soaring inflation, which has reached double digits and caused mounting concern in the Kingdom, officials have insisted that they would not alter their monetary policy.

Saudi Arabia is also keen to see the formation of a monetary union for the six countries of the Gulf Co-operation Council, which also includes Kuwait, Qatar, the United Arab Emirates, Bahrain and Oman. But most observers believe it is high unlikely that the union will meet its 2010 deadline.

PG&E agrees to buy solar power from two plants proposed for Carrizo Plain
By David Sneed      Posted on Thu, Aug. 14, 2008

Pacific Gas and Electric today announced that it has entered into agreements to purchase 800 megawatts of power from two solar plants to be built on the Carrizo Plain.

The agreements will make the northern Carrizo Plain around California Valley one of the state's major producers of solar electricity. Three solar projects have now been proposed for the area, each with agreements to sell their power to PG&E.

Senior executives with PG&E are calling the agreements a landmark in renewable energy production in California. With them, the utility now has more than enough renewable energy sources to fulfill its share of the requirement that 20 percent of the state's energy comes from renewable sources that also include wind, biomass and geothermal.

The larger of the two new solar farms is called Topaz Solar Farms which will produce 550 megawatts of photovoltaic power on a site covering 9.5 square miles north of Highway 58, mostly east of Bitterwater Road.

The facility is proposed by OptiSolar Inc. of Hayward. The company applied with the county for the permit to build the plant in July.

The other solar plant would be called High Plains Ranch II and produce 250 megawatts of photovoltaic power. Proposed by SunPower Corp. of San Jose, the facility would cover 3.5 square miles and would be located south of Highway 58 east of California Valley.

California ain't afraid of mandates.  A commercial project that provides solar power for a regulated utility at a scale of 800 megawatts should help the solar industry in the USA.

If sanity be culturally normative, then by the norms of this culture I claim insanity.

Iran says it has successfully launched a rocket capable of carrying its first domestically built satellite.

Officials said only the rocket had been fired, correcting state media reports that the communications satellite itself had been sent into orbit.

The White House voiced concern, saying the technology could also be used for launching weapons.

Tehran has pursued a space programme for years, despite international concern over its nuclear plans.

In February it sent a probe into space as part of preparations for the launch of the satellite.

NEWS ANALYSIS
Georgia-Russia conflict a blow to Bush foreign policy

The president's reliance on diplomacy based on personal relations with leaders such as Putin and his push to establish democracies from the top down has proved not so viable.

By Julian E. Barnes, Los Angeles Times Staff Writer
3:52 PM PDT, August 17, 2008

WASHINGTON -- In the last week, two major pillars of President Bush's approach to foreign policy have crumbled, jeopardizing eight years of work and sending the administration scrambling for new strategies in the waning months of its term.

From the earliest days of his presidency, Bush had said spreading democracy was a centerpiece of his foreign policy. At the same time, he sought to develop a more productive relationship with Russia, seeking Moscow's cooperation on issues such as terrorism, Iran's nuclear program and expansion of global energy supplies.

And in pursuing both these major goals, Bush relied heavily on developing what he saw as strong personal relationships with foreign leaders.

The recent setbacks to the president's approach were all the more unsettling because Georgia had appeared to be one of the few success stories in the administration's effort to nurture new democracies that could advance U.S. interests.

Efforts to create multiethnic, democratic regimes in Iraq and Afghanistan have run into repeated difficulties. And the American push for Palestinian elections in the West Bank and the Gaza Strip ended in victory for the radical group Hamas, complicating an already formidable task of reaching a Middle East peace accord.

Since the Georgia conflict erupted, Bush has repeatedly cited it progress toward democracy as he promised American support. "The people of Georgia have cast their lot with the free world, and we will not cast them aside," he said.

-Skip-

"What freedom strategy?" asked David L. Phillips, a senior fellow at the Atlantic Council and author of a report on Georgia. "It is scorned worldwide. Afghanistan is backsliding. The bar has been set low in Iraq. Georgia is in ruins."

The damage may not be confined to Georgia, many analysts believe.

-Skip-

"This action is a real challenge to the idea of building a Europe whole, free and at peace," said Stephen Flanagan of the Center for Strategic and International Studies.

And Moscow's violent intervention in Georgia may put democratic movements in Ukraine and other nearby countries at risk, in the view of Leslie H. Gelb, former president of the Council on Foreign Relations.

The Bush administration should not "jeopardize these nascent democracies by letting them think that they can put themselves in this kind of situation and survive," Gelb said. "You are not just putting democracy on the line in Georgia, you are putting all of these places in that neighborhood on the line."

Although U.S. officials say they repeatedly warned Georgia not to give Russia an excuse to attack, many observers believe the warm embrace that the administration gave President Mikheil Saakashvili gave him a false sense of support and a mistaken view that his friendship with the U.S. would deter a large-scale Russian invasion.

James J. Townsend Jr., a former Pentagon official now with the Atlantic Council, said emerging democracies and democratic movements often assume the U.S. can or will do more to back them. But the realities of international affairs mean American cheerleading may be simply that.

"I have seen it over and over again be misconstrued by nations not used to dealing with us," Townsend said. "I think they misunderstand our eagerness and enthusiasm and think we are going to be behind them for anything.

"That is what happened in Hungary in 1956 and in Czechoslovakia in 1968," he added, referring to Soviet invasions of those two nations to crush uprisings.

The U.S. was not wrong to encourage democratic movements in Georgia and other nations, experts argue. But along the fringes of the former Soviet Union the task is sensitive, especially since the Bush administration coupled support for democracy with efforts to forge new security alliances there.

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"Every president has to stand for democracy," Gelb said. "But the notion of force-feeding democracy into societies that have never practiced it is a mistake. And in most cases we pay some price for trying to do it."

One would think we might have learned that we can't just install the forms of democratic elections in a society to which such ideas are alien and expect all to be well.  Vietnam showed us that.  For all of their diabolical astuteness in manipulating the public in the USA, these clowns are hopeless when they get beyond their own borders.  GWB probably really believes his "democracy" rhetoric, and almost certainly drove off anyone who would have presented reality based arguments.  The Catholic Church had a term for this: "Invincible Ignorance!"

Worse, to be totally blind to the impressions that all of your posturing for domestic US audiences will have on local elites whom you claim to support is pathetic.  Senior level advisers who would have warned them of their impending folly are cited in abundance above.

If sanity be culturally normative, then by the norms of this culture I claim insanity.

DENVER -- When Colorado voters were deciding whether to require that 10 percent of the state's electricity come from renewable fuels, the state's largest utility fought the proposal, warning that any shift from coal and natural gas would be costly, uncertain and unwise.

Then a funny thing happened. The ballot initiative passed, and Xcel Energy met the requirement eight years ahead of schedule. And at the government's urging, its executives quickly agreed to double the target, to 20 percent.

In Colorado -- a state historically known for natural gas and fights over drilling -- wind and solar power are fast becoming prominent parts of the energy mix. Wind capacity has quadrupled in the past 18 months, according to Gov. Bill Ritter (D), and Xcel has become the largest provider of wind power in the nation.

The politics and economics of energy are shifting here in ways that foretell debates across the country as states create renewable-energy mandates and the federal government moves toward limiting carbon emissions. One advocate calls Colorado "ground zero" for the looming battle over energy.

Despite a continuing boom, oil and gas companies here are on the defensive. They are spending heavily as they try to prevent the repeal of as much as $300 million in annual tax breaks that would be shifted to investment in renewables and other projects.

The industry, already facing a rebellion among some longtime supporters angered by its toll on the environment, also finds itself in a fight against new regulations designed to protect wildlife and public health from the vast expansion in drilling. Beyond the merits, the proposals reflect the strengthened hand of environmentalists and their friends who feel that the fossil-fuel companies have held sway too long.

Murqan's second task is to offer relief to a faltering Pakistani economy. The Saudis are offering to establish an oil facility for Pakistan to enable it to meet its monthly imports of Saudi oil, about 110,000 barrels per day. The arrangement has a value of $5-$6 billion. Pakistan is almost completely dependent on Saudi oil, which for many years was provided at concessional rates.  Apparently the oil facility is a bribe to persuade the Gilani government to treat Musharraf gently and agree to his demands.

The News reported on 18 August that a Saudi transport remains on the tarmac at Chaklala Pakistan Air Force Base, near Islamabad. Some reporters have speculated it is on standby to take Musharraf into exile. However, today the Saudis announced they will no longer accept political exiles from Pakistan.  Actually the aircraft probably is on standby to take Prince Murqan home. The status of the negotiations and Saudi intervention is not known. What is known is that the Saudis believe economics are politics.  The aircraft might yet carry Musharraf to Turkey or the UK.

Or USA...?

Multi-billion dollar debt sales from AIG and Citigroup led a sudden wave of US bond deals last week that lifted corporate credit risk premiums across the market - in contrast to an improving picture in Europe.

However, these market moves mask a rapidly worsening picture for European economies and credit markets versus the US, which some analysts see as a bigger trend that will gather pace.

The past couple of weeks have seen a tipping point for sentiment on Europe as the euro and sterling have changed direction against the US dollar and the news on economic growth for the eurozone and UK has turned sharply more bleak.

SAN DIEGO, California (AP) -- Scrapers and bulldozers began Friday filling a deep canyon to make way for a border fence in the southwestern corner of the United States after 12 years of planning, environmental reviews and legal challenges.

The 3½-mile stretch extends from a state park on an oceanfront cliff through a canyon known as Smuggler's Gulch. The gorge was overrun by illegal immigrants until U.S. authorities launched a crackdown in the 1990s that pushed traffic to the remote mountains and deserts of California and Arizona.

At a cost of about $16 million a mile, the fence will be far more expensive than fences the U.S. government is building elsewhere along the nation's 1,952-mile border with Mexico. U.S. Customs and Border Protection said the average cost along the entire border is $2 million to $3 million a mile.