Bloodthirsty Liberal

I’ll take mine in 30-weight, please? Light crude, and a shot of espresso:

The Green River Formation, a largely vacant area of mostly federal land that covers the territory where Colorado, Utah and Wyoming come together, contains about as much recoverable oil as all the rest the world’s proven reserves combined, an auditor from the Government Accountability Office told Congress on Thursday.

The GAO testimony said that the federal government was in “a unique position to influence the development of oil shale” because the Green River deposits were mostly beneath federal land.

…

“The Green River Formation–an assemblage of over 1,000 feet of sedimentary rocks that lie beneath parts of Colorado, Utah, and Wyoming–contains the world’s largest deposits of oil shale,”Anu K. Mittal, the GAO’s director of natural resources and environment said in written testimony submitted to the House Science Subcommittee on Energy and Environment.

“USGS estimates that the Green River Formation contains about 3 trillion barrels of oil, and about half of this may be recoverable, depending on available technology and economic conditions,” Mittal testified.

“The Rand Corporation, a nonprofit research organization, estimates that 30 to 60 percent of the oil shale in the Green River Formation can be recovered,” Mittal told the subcommittee. “At the midpoint of this estimate, almost half of the 3 trillion barrels of oil would be recoverable. This is an amount about equal to the entire world’s proven oil reserves.”

What’s the difference between the US and Saudi Arabia—besides the racist ideology, institutionalized misogyny, and pre-medieval world view, that is? Well, SA is our b*tch when it comes to proven oil reserves, for one. I suppose I could think of others if I had enough time.

Oh yeah, they drill their oil! We mothball ours, and tell Brazil we hope to be their biggest customer.

PS: Any other mention of this in the news? Hello…?

PPS: Give me by [bleeping] oil!

PPPS: NOW!!

PPPPS: Heh:

Israel has decided to search for oil on the Golan Heights after 20 years of delay due to objections from Syria…

What you call your unintended consequences:

Usually at night the air closer to the ground becomes colder when the sun goes down and the earth cools.

But on huge wind farms the motion of the turbines mixes the air higher in the atmosphere that is warmer, pushing up the overall temperature.

Satellite data over a large area in Texas, that is now covered by four of the world’s largest wind farms, found that over a decade the local temperature went up by almost 1C as more turbines are built.

This could have long term effects on wildlife living in the immediate areas of larger wind farms.

It could also affect regional weather patterns as warmer areas affect the formation of cloud and even wind speeds.

I’m thinking of writing a screenplay called The Chinook Syndrome, in which the earth faces imminent destruction by the meddling of lame-brained environmentalists. I’m going to name the protagonist Bill McKibben, and we’re going to know he’s a bad dude because when he checks his badger traps in the first scene, he finds he’s caught one and grins to himself disturbingly. Then he throws it, trapped badger and all, in a deep pond, chuckling to himself all the while. The badger will be named Al Gore.

I don’t want to be insensitive toward others feelings, but if you aren’t reading stories like this with tears and snot of laughter streaming down your face, you are a cold-hearted bastard. In my opinion.

Pure genius.

- Aggie

* Except for the necessity of “rare earth” minerals, the harm to migratory birds, the visual clutter, and noise pollution.

** Except when the wind doesn’t blow—this being a case where the Left doesn’t believe in Climate Change.

*** Not now; probably not ever:

Boston utility NStar has agreed to pay a starting price for power from the Cape Wind project that is substantially above the cost of conventional energy and will slightly increase the average customer’s monthly bill beginning the first year the offshore wind farm generates electricity, according to a 15-year contract filed with state regulators Friday.

The price, 18.7 cents per kilowatt hour, is the same as what National Grid agreed to pay when it signed a contract in 2010 to purchase half the power generated by Cape Wind. NStar’s deal is to purchase 27.5 percent of the wind farm’s total output. Since the Cape Wind power represents only about 2 percent of the energy distributed by NStar, it is expected to have a moderate impact on the average customer’s bill, $1.08 a month. Customers in the Boston area pay about $86 a month.

…

The utilities currently pay about 8 cents per kilowatt hour for electricity, and NStar originally balked at becoming a Cape Wind customer, arguing the wind farm’s cost was too high. That position changed last month, when, after nearly a year of negotiations, state energy officials agreed to endorse a proposed merger between NStar and Connecticut-based Northeast Utilities if NStar made several concessions, including buying power from Cape Wind.

“We know that it will take a diversified approach using all available renewable resources to meet the state’s climate change goals,’’ NStar spokeswoman Caroline Pretyman said. “We recognize that renewable energy has a cost associated with it but we see this as an investment in our state’s clean energy future.’’

The agreement left little room for NStar to negotiate the price it would pay for the energy, dictating, according to regulatory filings, that the utility’s purchase price “shall be substantially the same’’ as the price National Grid agreed to pay. NStar also committed to purchasing a comparable amount of power from another project, if Cape Wind has not begun construction by the end of 2015.

You have to admire the government’s logic: they feel they can compel a utility to pay about 133% over the market rate for electricity because the “deluxe” electricity they’re being forced to buy amounts to only two percent of the supply. I think I heard Tony Soprano make such an argument once.

The strict stipulations on prices and terms led critics to question the state’s role in bringing about the deal.

“The ‘negotiation’ around this contract was a complete sham,’’ said Robert Rio, a spokesman for the Associated Industries of Massachusetts, a trade group that has long opposed the high price tag for Cape Wind’s power. “We’ll never know what the final [price] could have been because NStar was hamstrung in the negotiation process.’’

Renewable energy proponents, however, see the deal as a coup for Governor Deval Patrick, who insisted that NStar’s $17.5 billion merger to Northeast Utilities should promote cleaner sources of energy.

That explains it: Don Deval decreed it.

But what I don’t get is how this thing is supposed to save money:

Despite the high price of Cape Wind’s power, supporters have argued that the project will help lower New England energy prices in the long run.

…

That’s because Cape Wind’s costs will be paid for by fixed contracts with the utilities. With no fuel costs when the turbines are rotating, it will displace power on the grid from energy sources with higher fuel costs, according to the study.

“Cape Wind would have a substantial impact in reducing spot market prices,’’ said Mark Rodgers, a Cape Wind spokesman. “That ultimately filters back to all of us electricity consumers in New England.’’

Rio, meanwhile, said he thinks that any such savings would actually be “incredibly minuscule.’’

“I don’t know if you’ll ever be able to make money on this thing,’’ he said. “It’s real fuzzy math.’’

That also sound like The Sopranos.

How can something that costs twice the market rate (and is scheduled to cost more every year, throughout the contract) ever be cheaper than the traditional sources? Unless the price of the traditional sources is artificially inflated by manufactured shortages? (Right Capo Obama?)

PS: Cape Wind is not popular among the resident of Cape Cod and Martha’s Vineyard; it was built over Ted Kennedy’s dead body—literally. Exactly how do the wind freaks ever see this not-so-clean, not-so-reliable, not-so-cheap resource expanding?

Fill ‘er up!

A majority of Americans disapprove of the way President Barack Obama is handling the economy — with a record number who “disapprove strongly” — amid soaring gas prices and an uncertain fiscal future, a new Washington Post-ABC News survey out Monday found.
The poll found that 50 percent of those surveyed strongly disapprove of Obama’s economic performance — the highest in the poll’s history. A total of 59 percent gave the president negative marks on the economy.

With rising gas prices hitting Americans at the pump, 65 percent said they found Obama’s handling of the issue unsatisfactory. Of that number, 52 percent were said to “disapprove strongly” and only 14 percent “approve strongly” of Obama’s performance on gas prices.

Maybe if he cleaned the windshield, we wouldn’t resent the prices so much.

Let me be clear, pump. I do think at some point you’ve
made enough money per gallon.

Remember his energy policy!

Ever seen Alfred Hitchcock’s Foreign Correspondent? Fun film. My beloved Robert Benchley has a small role.

Before I go on, if you haven’t seen it, this is a spoiler alert. The clip below is a key scene in the movie. Skip this whole post if you don’t want the surprise given away.

Joel McCrae notices something fishy with one of the windmills. Little did he know, they’re all that way:

Wait a minute, you say: what’s this nonsense about wind providing roughly zero percent of the world’s energy? What about all the mills and turbines in Europe, Asia, America… how can they add up to zero?

Like this:

Wind makes up about 0.3% of the world’s energy, which, rounded to the nearest whole number, is zero.

But the biggest embarrassment, it seems to me, is solar photovoltaic at 0.04%. After how much money Obama has shoveled into it and all we get is 0.04%? That’s a whole lot closer to zero than wind—in fact, it’s pretty damn close to this:

Which brings me to this, and then I’m done:

Fat, drunk, and stupid may be no way to go through life, but if they get me through the next months of this abysmal administration, I’m going to stick with them.

Let’s give solar a break for a change. The sun is clearly upset at getting such a bad rap.

Besides, wind power blows:

Wind farms in the Pacific Northwest — built with government subsidies and maintained with tax credits for every megawatt produced — are now getting paid to shut down as the federal agency charged with managing the region’s electricity grid says there’s an oversupply of renewable power at certain times of the year.

The problem arose during the late spring and early summer last year. Rapid snow melt filled the Columbia River Basin. The water rushed through the 31 dams run by the Bonneville Power Administration, a federal agency based in Portland, Ore., allowing for peak hydropower generation. At the very same time, the wind howled, leading to maximum wind power production.

Demand could not keep up with supply, so BPA shut down the wind farms for nearly 200 hours over 38 days.

…

Now, Bonneville is offering to compensate wind companies for half their lost revenue. The bill could reach up to $50 million a year.

The extra payout means energy users will eventually have to pay more.

In the real world, excess supply lowers costs. But not in Governmentia.

But the Northwest has it good compared to California:

For years, the wind energy industry has had a license to kill golden eagles and lots of other migratory birds. It’s not an official license, mind you.

But as the bird carcasses pile up—two more dead golden eagles were recently found at the Pine Tree wind project in Southern California’s Kern County, bringing the number of eagle carcasses at that site to eight—the wind industry’s unofficial license to kill wildlife is finally getting some serious scrutiny.

Some 77 organizations—led by the American Bird Conservancy, Cornell Laboratory of Ornithology, Endangered Species Coalition and numerous chapters of the Audubon Society—are petitioning the U.S. Fish and Wildlife Service to toughen the rules for the siting, permitting and operation of large-scale wind projects.

It’s about time. Over the past two decades, the federal government has prosecuted hundreds of cases against oil and gas producers and electricity producers for violating some of America’s oldest wildlife-protection laws: the Migratory Bird Treaty Act and Eagle Protection Act.

But the Obama administration—like the Bush administration before it—has never prosecuted the wind industry despite myriad examples of widespread, unpermitted bird kills by turbines. A violation of either law can result in a fine of up to $250,000 and imprisonment for two years.

Maybe we should pay them not to kill golden eagles.

We cause starvation in Africa by putting corn in our gas tank, bankruptcies, job losses, and crony capitalism by underwriting solar power, price rises in the Northwest by paying windmills not to turn, and dead eagles in California by paying them to turn.

Seriously, is oil so bad?

Hey, whaddya know! He really is scum!

President Barack Obama said Thursday his Republican critics promising immediate lower gas prices are either uninformed or dishonest, and he pledged in a speech to University of Miami students to continue pushing for alternative energy sources.

Framing the issue as “one of the major challenges of your generation,” Obama said developing a broad-based energy policy incorporating all sources — oil, gas, nuclear, solar, wind and alternatives such as algae — would take years but was essential for the nation’s future economic well-being.

His speech came as gas prices soared around the nation, rising 3.3 cents nationwide overnight to $3.61 a gallon, according to AAA.

Soaring gas prices, seething Moslems—it’s like Bush never left!

But of course, he has:

‘The American people aren’t stupid,” thundered President Obama yesterday in Miami, ridiculing Republicans who are blaming him for rising gasoline prices. Let’s hope he’s right, because not even Forrest Gump could believe the logic of what Mr. Obama is trying to sell.

To wit, that a) gasoline prices are beyond his control, but b) to the extent oil and gas production is rising in America, his energy policies deserve all the credit, and c) higher prices are one more reason to raise taxes on oil and gas drillers while handing even more subsidies to his friends in green energy. Where to begin?

What is it Aggie always says? “Elections have consequences.” What do reelections have?

Both lead to premature death:

A Chinese study found electric vehicles in China are creating a bigger dent in the environment than gas-burning vehicles.

While electric car sales now outnumber those of conventional gas vehicles two-to-one in China, fine-particle pollution has increased as the “green” cars’ popularity has increased.

Researchers found that generating the electricity used to power an electric car releases more pollution into the atmosphere than burning gasoline to drive. Particulate matter is a fossil-fuel byproduct that includes acids, dust, soil, organic chemicals and metals. The impact an electric car has on the environment is similar to that of a diesel bus, according to the study.

University professor Chris Cherry, the study’s lead research, told England’s Daily Mail newspaper that his study tested “an implicit assumption … that air quality and health impacts are lower for electric vehicles than for conventional vehicles.”

More than 85 percent of electricity in China is produced from fossil fuels and coal.

Cherry and his graduate student tested the air in 34 Chinese cities. They found that air pollution in an urban areas with a higher concentration of electric cars is more harmful to human health.

Of course, that wouldn’t happen here. We generate electricity from wind, the sun, and pixie dust.

Well, at least pixie dust:

Well, you had to know this day was coming.

Gov. Deval Patrick yesterday announced that NStar [NST] — as part of its bid to merge with Connecticut-based Northeast Utilities — has agreed to buy 27.5 percent of the electricity that will be generated by the yet-to-be-built Cape Wind project.

And by “agreed” we really mean “succumbed to unprecedented pressure from Patrick’s team, designed to ensure that the offshore wind project may some day, with enough government coaxing, actually break ground.”

“Break ground”, so to speak:

Break the bank is more accurate:

Nstar ratepayers could see their electricity bills balloon by as much as $382 million over 15 years under a merger deal with the state that forces the utility to buy energy from Cape Wind — a power premium that dwarfs a one-time $21 million customer credit touted yesterday by the Patrick administration.

“The merger has some good things in the early years, but once the Cape Wind contract kicks in, it will erase any savings that ratepayers will have gotten,” said Robert Rio of Associated Industries of Massachusetts, a group that represents some 7,000 employers.

Could be worse. We could live in China.

My local discount place is at $3.60 today, and something tells me I should go fill up before the clock next strikes:

>> some troubling news. gas prices are back on the rise and some analysts say it could get even worse just in time for the summer driving season. nbc’s john yang is in chicago with the details on this. good morning to you.

>> reporter: good morning, matt. we’re all used to gas prices going up in springtime when the driving season is about to approach, but this year the increase is happening sooner and it is going up more than before. experts say a combination of things — tensions in the middle east , big refineries on the east coast shutting down, big demand for gas in asia sent gas prices up 13 cents in the last month alone. national average for a gallon of unleaded, $3.51.

…

>> reporter: analysts say prices are only headed higher. gas buddy.com predicts the national average of $3.95 by memorial day . higher in big cities . in atlanta, $4.60. $4.70 in los angeles . in chicago , $4.95, the highest in the continental united states . are we headed for record territory this summer, do you think?

>> we could get there. we’re already about 35 cents ahead of where we were last year when prices peaked at $3.98.

>> reporter: so the sticker shock at the pump may get worse… fasten your seat belts. forecasters say $5 a gallon by summer is not out of the question.

Remember the howls of outrage in the media when gas peaked last time? Whole industries were threatened with bankruptcy, people claimed they couldn’t afford to drive. Of course, that was when Bush was president. Today, no such hyperventilation. Why, this is probably good for us! Get us out of our cars, get our cars off the roads.

Bush eventually popped the gas price bubble by just indicating he was open to more drilling and production. Obama has done the opposite: he rejected the Keystone pipeline, and has discouraged drilling in and around our territorial waters. Canada’s oil will go to China, and we will be a “customer” for Brazil’s.

Happy driving walking!

And the Lebanese will claim ownership in three… two… one:

Noble Energy and the Delek Group announced on Sunday another significant discovery of a natural gas field off the coast of Haifa.

The field, located in the Mediterranean waters 120 kilometers (74.5 miles) northwest of Israel’s northern port city, reportedly totals about 1.2 to 1.3 trillion cubic feet.

And people had put the nasty stench down to the passage of the Fleabitten Flotilla through the area! Just goes to show that not everything that smells like rancid meat is!

Mazel tov, Israel!

Hahahahahaha!!!! Hohohohohoho!!!! Heeheeheehee!!!

Too funny:

Five years after NStar became the first Massachusetts utility to allow customers to buy electricity supplied by a wind farm, its Green program has failed to catch on. Less than 1 percent of the company’s nearly 900,000 customers have enrolled.

The dismal response resembles lackluster participation in similar renewable energy programs offered by other utilities, worrying state officials as they push toward a goal of generating 20 percent of electricity from renewable energy by 2020.

The NStar program has faltered because of the recession and falling fossil fuel prices, which resulted in a greater surcharge for wind energy. Environmental activists are frustrated and question whether utilities have done enough to publicize the programs.

Just take the first two utilities, which are the overwhelming majority of customers. Barely 0.6% use “green” energy (so-called because it costs more). And it’s not for want of trying:

Ed Loechler, an activist from Brookline, knows first-hand the challenge of trying to persuade people to put their money where their environmental ideals might be.

For several years, the Boston University biology professor has been going door to door in his neighborhood to plug the NStar program. When a door opened one night last week, he urged a young man to sign up. “This is the single, simplest way you could cut a lot of carbon dioxide from your household,’’ Loechler said.

But after he explained that enrolling would add between 15 percent and 30 percent to his neighbor’s electric bill, the 22-year-old thanked him for promoting what sounded like a good idea. “But it’s probably too much,’’ the man said.

But I thought renewable energy was cheap, free, plentiful, and freshened breath! No?

See the Milton Friedman clip below. The 22-year-old was no dummy (which is rare for someone of that age!). When offered the choice to save the planet or save even a few bucks, he told Gaia to go [bleep] herself. Odds are that he was an Obama supporter, looking forward to those lower tides The One promised. But just in case, he opted for the coal/oil/nuclear axis over the airy promises of wind power.

The market will not be fooled.

PS: Don’t get me wrong: I would love to get all the energy we need from wind, solar, etc. I’m just not naive enough to think we can wish it into being. I was in France last year, and the legendary countryside was littered with hundred of turbines. Thousands, even. We’re about to build a whole “wind farm” in Nantucket Sound, ruining a seascape as beautiful as any. All to produce a few paltry kilowatts to make ourselves feel better, at prices people don’t want to pay. The only redeeming feature of Cape Wind is that the view of the Kennedy compound and a few other liberal weenies on Martha’s Vineyard will be destroyed. That’s almost enough, believe me.