Salazar to comply with court’s ordered timing on drlg permits, but may appeal the Judge’s ruling. #rsrh http://amplify.com/u/bshc2

Link: Salazar to comply with court’s ordered timing on drlg permits, but may appeal the Judge’s ruling. #rsrh

N.Dakota record 113 M barrels oil in 2010, currently 169 rigs drlg, 3% unemployment. #rsrh http://amplify.com/u/bs99v

Could ethanol-driven food price increases be at the root of recent unrest in Egypt and the greater Middle East? An article by Robert Bryce in the Energy Tribune explores the connection between the Iowa Presidential Caucuses, ethanol subsidies, and the rising tide of discontent:

This year, the US corn ethanol sector will consume 40 percent of all US corn – that’s about 15 percent of global corn production or 5 percent of all global grain – in order to produce a volume of motor fuel with the energy equivalent of about 0.6 percent of global oil needs. …

The quantity of grain to be consumed this year for US ethanol production – 4.9 billion bushels – boggles the mind. That’s more than twice as much as all the corn produced in Brazil and more than six times as much as is grown in India. Put another way, that’s more corn than the output of the European Union, Mexico, Argentina, and India combined.

Observation: Some people believe that a 0.2% increase in atmospheric carbon dioxide can disrupt global climate. I’m skeptical about that. But it’s altogether believable that diverting 15% of global corn production might disrupt the global economy and lead to mass unrest in the developing world, enough to topple governments.

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Link: BOEMRE awards first (sort of) deepwater drilling permit since BP spill. See previous tweet. #rsrh

It’s not a brand-new well, it’s a “bypass”, but what the hell; both sides want to show some progress at this point.

The Academy of Motion Picture Arts and Sciences (COMINTERN) (AMPAS) are a bunch of suckers when it comes to Leftist propaganda films featuring outrageous, junk-science based, anti-capitalist claptrap. Just ask Al Gore, who won an Oscar a few years back for An Inconvenient Truth.

One of this year’s nominees in the Documentary Feature category is a film by Josh Fox and Trish Adlesic called Gasland. Too bad there’s no category for Documentary Fiction.

Here’s Gasland’s famous image of flammable tap water, from a Mr. Markham’s Colorado water well:

Gasland aims to educate the public about the supposed danger of hydraulic fracturing, a process commonly used in preparing low permeability but gas-bearing rocks for production in wells once they are drilled. In reality, the process takes place thousands of feet underground, separated from underground water sources by a mile or more of rock. In the last 60 years or so, a million wells or more have been fracked, with no documented instances of groundwater contamination.

You’d expect industry to step up and object. But even public officials have been moved to denounce Gasland’s fast and loose treatment of the facts.

Colorado Oil & Gas Conservation Commission, Correcting Gasland:

Gasland incorrectly attributes several cases of water well contamination in Colorado to oil and gas development when our investigations determined that the wells in question contained biogenic [naturally-occurring] methane that is not attributable to such development.

From John Hanger, Secretary of the Pennsylvania Department of Environmental Protection:

Gasland is “fundamentally dishonest” and “a deliberately false presentation for dramatic effect.”

Gasland talks about Dunkard Creek [a massive fish kill] – an environmental disaster – but everything we know about Dunkard Creek at this point indicates the primary source of the problem was a coal mine in West Virginia.

America’s Natural Gas Alliance (ANGA) has produced a video further debunking Gasland’s claims: The Truth About Gasland (via NatGasNow)

I have few doubts that Gasland will win its Oscar. It’s inflammatory (no pun intended) theme and predictable hysteria will attract Academy voters like flies to a cowflop. It’s not so much that the Left-coasters are anti-energy, they’re just hostile to forms of energy that actually work.

[Disclaimer: My employer is not an ANGA member company. It’s likely that we would benefit economically from greater restrictions on hydraulic fracturing. The success of the process in the shale plays of PA, OK, LA, TX and elsewhere have resulted in a huge supply of natural gas on the market, so that the current price differential between gas and oil ($4 per mcf gas vs nearly $100 per barrel oil) prices a gas BTU at about a quarter of the cost of an oil BTU.]

Cross-posted at Redstate.com.

Well, that’s one way to stop Global Warming. #rsrh http://amplify.com/u/brvee

Mistrial in Jefferson-clan case; Jury deadlocked 11-1 to convict Gill-Pratt for 4 days. #rsrh http://amplify.com/u/brrvq

Whistling in the Dark: Obama, Geithner say US will “ride out” Libya oil situation. #rsrh http://amplify.com/u/brr4z

Link: Whistling in the Dark: Obama, Geithner say US will “ride out” Libya oil situation. #rsrh