In Defense of a Democrat

Posted on December 4, 2011 by Steve Maley

In its never-ending quest to stop the peril this country faces from natural gas, the New York Times takes on Rep. Dan Boren, the sole Democrat in Oklahoma’s congressional delegation. He co-chairs the House Natural Gas Caucus and serves as a member of the House Natural Resources Committee. As a representative of the #3 gas-producing state, it’s not surprising that his voting record is decidedly pro-industry, and specifically, pro-fracking. (Boren, one of the more conservative Democrats in the House, has announced that he will not be seeking reelection in 2012.)

Of course, the Times tries to portray the Congressman’s voting record as corrupt, since he has income from a (silent) interest in a family enterprise (on the order of $100K/year). Added to that, his father, former U.S. Sen. David Boren (D-OK) receives compensation for his service on the board of a successful oil company. (David Boren, as the Times chooses not to report, is president of the University of Oklahoma since 1994, and a member of several corporate boards.)

The congressman’s income has jumped in the last six years, thanks to two family businesses he partly owns that have signed more than 300 mineral leases, worth hundreds of thousands of dollars. Many of those deals are with Chesapeake Energy, a top donor to his campaigns. …

House ethics rules do not prohibit lawmakers from taking steps to aid industries in which they have a financial stake. But some ethics experts say such actions are still inadvisable. [Emphasis added.]

“Some experts say…” It wouldn’t be a Times article without that chestnut.

“Even if it is legal, if every member of Congress pushed for industries that they have financial ties to, there would be an outcry from the public,” said Robert M. Stern, a California lawyer who has helped draft state ethics and campaign finance laws.

You gotta be kidding me, chief. Continue reading →

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What Peak Oilers Won’t Tell You About Peak Oil

Posted on November 26, 2011 by Steve Maley

M. King Hubbert is the father of Peak Oil theory. In a 1956, he paper correctly called the timing of the peak in U.S. crude oil production in the early 1970s.

Neo-Malthusians and Progressives make sure you know about Hubbert’s pessimistic outlook for conventional crude oil. They made Hubbert a household name, the only oil technologist whose name they use without adding “sellout” or “whore”.

But here’s what they never tell you about what Hubbert’s wrote… Continue reading →

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Quote of the Day, Calvin Coolidge Edition #rsrh

Posted on November 23, 2011 by Steve Maley

From The American Spectator:

I am opposed to extremely high [tax] rates, because they produce little or no revenue, because they are bad for the country, and finally, because they are wrong.

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It’s Not Easy Going Green, Part V: Niet in mijn achtertuin.

Posted on November 22, 2011 by Steve Maley

I know a little about the costs of construction and maintenance of oil and gas platforms in a marine environment. I always wondered why it would be cheaper to install and maintain a windmill offshore.

Now I have my answer: it isn’t. Surprise, surprise.

Dutch fall out of love with windmills

Arguments over the high cost and maintenance of sea-based turbines, as well as complaints from residents about unsightly land-based models, have brought the Dutch to an impasse.

Offshore wind farms produce more electricity than onshore ones but it costs twice as much as onshore wind power due to the higher cost of materials, more expensive drilling methods, and more complex maintenance.

Wind turbines in the sea need to be more robust to withstand strong winds and salt water; their maintenance some miles away from the coast requires special equipment and transportation.

Sweet irony: the land of milk chocolate, wooden shoes and tulips has had it up to *here* with windmills.

Oh, well, at least they love the onshore windmills… Continue reading →

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A Tale of Two Pipelines

Posted on November 15, 2011 by Steve Maley

One of the reasons we’re supposed to be wary of the Keystone XL Pipeline is its alleged threat to the Ogallala Aquifer, the water source for much of the Great Plains. From Wikipedia:

The depth of the water below the surface of the land ranges from almost 400 feet (122 m) in parts of the north [e.g., Nebraska – Ed.] to between 100 to 200 feet (30 to 61 m) throughout much of the south. Present-day recharge of the aquifer with fresh water occurs at an exceedingly slow rate suggesting that much of the water in its pore spaces is paleowater, dating back to the last ice age and probably earlier. Withdrawals from the Ogallala are in essence mining ancient water. [Emphasis added.]

The pipeline would be separated by almost 400 vertical feet from the aquifer, which is not actively recharged. That makes it extremely unlikely that even a large pipeline leak would contaminate water supplies.

In an attempt to mollify environmental concerns,

The builders of the controversial Keystone XL tar sands pipeline agreed Monday to reroute it around Nebraska’s ecologically fragile Sandhills in the hope the move would shorten any delay in the project, which has posed political complications for the Obama administration.

President Obama is caught between key constituencies. Labor unions want the jobs the pipeline would bring. Environmentalists are opposed to any large scale project, especially one that promotes fossil fuel development.

So he took the bold, decisive approach. He postponed any pipeline decision until after the 2012 election.

All of which recalls another era, and another pipeline in an environmentally sensitive area. Continue reading →

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The North Korean Human Rights Int’l Film Festival. Really. #rsrh

Posted on November 13, 2011 by Steve Maley

“Hello. My name is Park So Yeon and I am the ambassador for the North Korean Human Rights International Film Festival. We would like to ask you to show a lot of interest in the film festival and hope to see many of you there. Even if everybody takes just a small amount of interest in the situation in North Korea, that in itself will become a source of enormous strength. Please think of the precious children of North Korea.”

The Daily NK met actress and ambassador for the North Korea Human Rights International Film Festival Park So Yeon at a café outside Deoksu Palace in Seoul a few days ago as she was preparing for the start of the event this Thursday, to talk about the festival and her role as a starving woman in one of the main films of the event, Winter Butterfly.

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Dem Senators Talk Tough to Cuban Drillers #rsrh

Posted on November 11, 2011 by Steve Maley

Never mind the fact that Cuba is a sovereign nation…

Senators float plan to thwart Cuban oil drilling

Two Senate Democrats critical of Cuban offshore oil drilling plans are floating legislation that would hold companies liable under a major U.S. pollution law for spills that originate in foreign waters.

Sens. Bill Nelson (D-Fla.) and Robert Menendez (D-N.J.), both critics of the Cuban government, fear that a spill from drilling operations around 90 miles from the Florida Keys could harm the U.S. coast.

The plan is aimed at discouraging oil companies from working with the Cuban government to begin offshore oil exploration there. It comes amid broader Capitol Hill criticism of Spanish oil giant Repsol’s plan to begin drilling off Cuba’s northern coast.

…

Nelson said the U.S. “needs to carry a big stick” because a spill could have a devastating impact on Florida’s environment, tourism and fishing industries.

The Interior Department is working with Repsol in an effort to ensure safe drilling, and plans to inspect Repsol’s rig before it enters Cuban waters.

The company, according to Interior, is pledging to meet U.S. safety standards, which have been beefed up since the BP oil spill. But Interior officials lack regulatory authority over drilling in Cuban waters.

Repsol is also a lessee in U.S. waters in the Gulf of Mexico. That gives Interior the leverage to shove them around a little. But what happens in Cuban waters is Cuba’s business; there’s not a whole lot a couple of blowhards in the Senate can do about it.

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Quote of the Day, Dick Cheney Edition #rsrh

Posted on November 10, 2011 by Steve Maley

From Aram Bakshian, Jr.’s review of In My Time: A Personal and Political Memoir, by Dick Cheney with Liz Cheney:

And let’s not forget Dick Cheney’s masterful election debate performances in 2000 and 2004. They helped keep two prime liberal goofs (Al Gore and John Kerry) and one dirty, rotten scoundrel (John Edwards) at a safe distance from the White House. In the end, that alone should earn Dick Cheney a place of honor in the conservative pantheon.

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Julia Louis-Dreyfus and the Big, Bad Pipeline

Posted on November 5, 2011 by Steve Maley

The habitual self-loathing of the American Left is perhaps its most endearing quality.

Most of us remember actress Julia Louis-Dreyfus from her lead role in the late, lamented CBS sitcom Watching Ellie.

Now she’s an expert on energy, international economy, and the environment. Here’s a video in which she expresses her opposition to the Keystone XL Pipeline:

“Who can stop this mega-stupid mega-pipeline? You can, Mr. President.” Well, no not really. President Obama can stop this “brutally stupid money grab” from coming to the U.S., and he’s getting a lot of pressure from the Environmental Left to do just that. But he can’t stop the Canadians from building a pipeline to Vancouver and selling the stuff to the Chinese. If that happens, the Chinese will be exporting Canadian oil in tankers, while the U.S. will have to replace the oil with tanker imports. And tankers are a lot more environmentally threatening than pipelines.

To make sure Obama gets the message, thousands of protesters are going to join hands around the White House tomorrow, November 6, to remind him of their steadfast electoral support. A subtle hint, Mr. President.

But what makes Julia’s opposition to the pipeline and “Big Oil” so ironic is her very name, Louis-Dreyfus. Continue reading →

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Mexico to Scrap Plans for 10 New Nuke Plants in Favor of Natural Gas #rsrh

Posted on November 2, 2011 by Steve Maley

Nov. 2 (Bloomberg) — Mexico, one of three Latin American nations that uses nuclear power, is abandoning plans to build as many as 10 new reactors and will focus on natural gas-fired electricity plants after boosting discoveries of the fuel.

The country, which found evidence of trillions of cubic feet of gas in the past year, is “changing all its decisions, amid the very abundant existence of natural-gas deposits,” Energy Minister Jordy Herrera said yesterday in an interview. Mexico will seek private investment of about $10 billion during five years to expand its natural gas pipeline network, he said.

Mexico, Latin America’s second-largest economy, is boosting estimated gas reserves after Petroleos Mexicanos discovered new deposits in deep waters of the Gulf of Mexico and shale gas in the border state of Coahuila. The country was considering nuclear power as part of plans to boost capacity by almost three-quarters to 86 gigawatts within 15 years, from about 50 gigawatts, and now prefers gas for cost reasons, he said.

…

“The country has very high potential to develop renewable energy,” Herrera said. “But the renewable energy world is hurt by the cheap gas prices. And the government has to consider how much it can spend to promote alternative energy sources.”

Do tell.

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