A power outage at the Port of Tacoma early this morning interrupted production equipment at U.S. Oil & Refinery Co., sending a spew of partially refined crude oil out one of the company’s vent stacks.

The surge of fire and black smoke above the stack attracted widespread notice in the Tideflats area, but according to U.S. Oil spokeswoman Marcia Nielson, only a small amount of oil actually escaped and no serious damage was done.

“Power outages are never good for a refinery,” Nielson said. “It interrupted our process, but all the vents and flares and everything did everything they were supposed to do.”

The power outage, caused when a Port straddle lift hit a power line just before 7 a.m., interrupted the flow of cooling water that normally goes up the stack along with the flare, Nielson said.

“We got two hits from the power outage, and the second one caused on the of the relief valves to spray out product,“ she said.

Falling oil coated vehicles parked in the area. As a precaution, a Tacoma Fire Department hazardous materials team sprayed foam in the area to suppress vapors, according to Tacoma Fire’s Lt. David Elmer.

I’ve just about had it with the Belgians. First we bail them out of two world wars, and now, thank you very much, they’ve announced a hostile takeover of Anhaeuser Busch.

Beyond apple pie, baseball and high gas prices, what’s more American than a bottle of Bud? And now some Brussels-based outfit called InBev is filing with U.S. officials, giving notice that the gloves are off.

And what have the Belgians given the world so far - besides Jean-Claude Van Damme, brussels sprouts and the detective Hercule Poirot (pictured below)?

Okay – Belgian waffles. I’ll give you that. But who do they think they are, trying to buy one of America’s most well-consumed brands? The next thing you know, the French are going to try and buy Boeing.

FYI, here’s part of the story from the New York Times this morning:

The Belgian company said Anheuser-Busch had been unwilling to enter into discussions on a takeover. “As such, InBev believes it is time to take action to ensure Anheuser-Busch shareholders are provided the opportunity to have a direct voice in the process and a say in the future direction of the company,” InBev said.
“Our strong preference remains to enter into a constructive dialogue with Anheuser-Busch to achieve a friendly combination that comprehensively addresses the interests of all constituents,” Carlos Brito, the InBev chief executive, said in the statement.
“We believe our firm offer of $65 per share reflects the full and fair value of Anheuser-Busch and is a compelling proposal for shareholders.”
Brito criticized Anheuser-Busch’s restructuring plans, saying the strategy “entails significant execution risks and does little to address the fundamental competitive challenges to the company.”

Most domestic airlines raised their fares over the holiday weekend.

The fare increase attempt was the 15th time of 21 attempts this year in which enough airlines joined the fare increase move to call it successful, said Rick Seaney, CEO of Farecompare.com.

Airlines have become very sophisticated in raising fares, carefully avoiding markets with significant competition from low fare carriers but raising fares in city pairs where they have little or no non-stop competition.

Fuel prices are driving the relentless march upward.

New on-time statistics for June released this week by Portland's Flightstats.com show Alaska Air Group's two airlines, Horizon Air and Alaska, maintaining the good on-time records they won in May.

Horizon's 84.45 percent on-time record put it second only to Hawaiian Airlines in FlightStats' ranking of the nation's 39 major and minor air carriers.

Alaska ranked 11th, but was second among the major legacy airlines, second only to Southwest.

Alaska flights arrived within 15 minutes of their scheduled times 77.7 percent of the time in June.

Here's how the majors ranked and their on-time records for June:

Southwest 78.10%
Alaska 77.7%
US Airways 75.98%
Delta 71.13%
Northwest 69.34%
Continental 66.30%
United 60.96%
Amercan 58.32%

Boeing warns that airliner orders will be down this year from the record-setting pace of 1,400 orders last year, but in most years the influx of orders in a little more than six months this year would be considered extremely healthy.

Last week, that 2008 order total hit 475.

Boeing reported new orders for three new 777s from Air France and 13 737s from unidentified buyers.

That raises the 737 total to 354. The 787 Dreamliner has sold 79 this year, and the 777 has received 40 new orders.

The 747 has just two orders this year, and the 767 has none.