BP’s Sr. VP of Drilling Opns quit months before blowout over safety concerns: lawsuit. #rsrh

Link: BP’s Sr. VP of Drilling Opns quit months before blowout over safety concerns: lawsuit. #rsrh

Have we cast thousands into unemployment, derailed an entire industry, and put American energy security at risk over the failings of a single mismanaged company?

Gee, I’d love to interview Kevin Lacy.

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Aaaaand…. One more LA Dem jumps ship. #rsrh http://amp

Aaaaand…. One more LA Dem jumps ship. #rsrh http://amplify.com/u/apzui

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It’s Chap. 11 for Seahawk Drilling; now only 1 contractor in its shallow water niche. #rsrh

It’s Chap. 11 for Seahawk Drilling; now only 1 contractor in its shallow water niche. #rsrh http://amplify.com/u/aq0ae

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It’s Chap. 11 for Seahawk Drilling; now only 1 contractor in its shallow water niche. #rsrh

Link: It’s Chap. 11 for Seahawk Drilling; now only 1 contractor in its shallow water niche. #rsrh

Seahawk’s specialty was shallow water ‘mat’ jack up rigs. Now Hercules will be able to name their price.

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Face it, Sen. Landrieu: you’re the only Dem who gets it.

Link: Face it, Sen. Landrieu: you’re the only Dem who gets it.

The bankruptcy of Seahawk Drilling, and the purchase of their rigs by Hercules leaves Hercules as the sole owner of shallow-water ‘mat’ type drilling rigs.

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Aaaaand…. One more LA Dem jumps ship. #rsrh

Link: Aaaaand…. One more LA Dem jumps ship. #rsrh

Republicans control House 53-47-4, with one vacancy.

“Democrat”, as a brand name, now carries the same allure in LA as “Edsel”.

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The diarrhoeic countertenor smattered aspergillum on his pedaloes. (Desperately trying to improve

The diarrhoeic countertenor smattered aspergillum on his pedaloes. (Desperately trying to improve my status as a word nerd.)

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Key figure in Jefferson Family criminal enterprise on trial in N.O. #rsrh

Key figure in Jefferson Family criminal enterprise on trial in N.O. #rsrh http://amplify.com/u/appwr

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Central Planning vs. Market Economy

Compare and contrast two of today’s news stories. The first tells the tale of Range Fuels’ foray into cellulosic ethanol. Even with government assitance with financing and with a Congressional mandate requiring customers to use their inferior fuel, the project is a bust, to the tune of $250 million.

The Range Fuels Fiasco

As taxpayer tragedies go, Broomfield, Colorado-based Range Fuels has all the plot elements—splashy headlines, subsidies and opportunistic venture capitalists. Range got its start in 2006 when George W. Bush used a State of the Union address to extol wood chips as a source for cellulosic ethanol that would break America’s “addiction to oil.” Mr. Bush pledged that with government funding cellulosic ethanol would be “practical and competitive within six years.”

Vinod Khosla stepped in with his hand out. The political venture capitalist founded Range Fuels and in March 2007 it received a $76 million grant from the Department of Energy—one of six cellulosic projects the Bush Administration selected for $385 million in grants. Range said it would build the nation’s first commercial cellulosic plant, near Soperton, Georgia, using wood chips to produce 20 million gallons a year in 2008, with a goal of 100 million gallons. Estimated cost: $150 million.

Fast forward to 2010:

… the EPA said Range would finally produce some fuel in 2010—but only four million gallons, not 100 million, and of methanol, not cellulosic ethanol. So taxpayers have committed $162 million (along with at least that much in private financing) to produce four million gallons of a biofuel that others have been making in quantity for decades. This politically directed investment might have gone to far more useful purposes.

(Click here to access article w/o subscription)

Compare and contrast…

Continue reading

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Key figure in Jefferson Family criminal enterprise on trial in N.O. #rsrh

Link: Key figure in Jefferson Family criminal enterprise on trial in N.O. #rsrh

They almost managed to keep former Rep. William (In His Freezer!) Jefferson’s (D-LA) name out of the article.

Jeez, what scum.

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