Superficially, it would seem that the nation is successfully pursuing the Obama Administration’s stated energy goals of “increasing domestic oil production” and “reducing our dependence on foreign oil.” Domestic oil production has increased, but in spite of and not because of Administration policies. And while our overall oil import demand has declined, our imports from the Persian Gulf states, and Saudi Arabia in particular, have | Read More »
At this writing, Shell Oil is awaiting final permits from the Department of the Interior and EPA for drill two of five wells in the Arctic Ocean offshore Alaska that were originally planned for 2012. Later than normal breakup of pack ice also caused Shell some delays. According to Human Events: The company is now counting on operations beginning in early August, which gives them | Read More »
It seems harmless enough when an airline offers their customers “green indulgences” in the form of carbon credits when buying a ticket. The credits are intended to resolve the guilt the customer is supposed to feel for his wanton use of fossil fuels. In practice, the credits have become a perverse incentive for practices that are exactly opposite what the U.N. intended when it created | Read More »
A parody video that answers the question “How’s all that hopey-changey stuff workin’ out for ya?” A CO-PRODUCTION OF: http://www.republicanpartyanimals.org and http://houseofsunny.tv Nice work. Open thread.
Rep. Ed Markey of Massachusetts, ranking member of the House Natural Resources Committee, has a major obsession. Markey’s Great White Whale is called the Deepwater Royalty Relief Act of 1995 (details below the fold). In Markey’s mind, several deepwater Gulf of Mexico operators have gotten over on the government to the tune of several billion dollars in oil and gas royalties. The operators counter that | Read More »
No, of course he didn’t say that. But what if he had? And why is it any less appropriate to tell a sports hero that than a small business owner? Imagine for a moment an alternate universe where the President talked smack to the Giants … “..Look, if you’ve been successful, you didn’t get there on your own. You didn’t get there on your own.” | Read More »
I sat down this morning to write about teachers and bridges, about motivation and inspiration. Upon rereading the President’s Roanoke remarks, however, my focus shifted away from my planned topic of entrepreneurial outrage (“You didn’t build that!”). Reading deeper, a more alarming theme emerged: Now, we don’t need more top-down economics. I’ve got a different view. I believe that the way you grow the economy | Read More »
Will government ever learn? Every time they try to fool the market with some cockamamie attempt at central planning, they create a discontinuity in the market. These discontinuities can often be exploited for gain. That’s when the jackals rush in. The EPA runs a program that is supposed to ensure 36 billion gallons of biofuels are blended into the gasoline supply by 2022. Every gallon | Read More »
Don’t be silly. Mitt Romney’s not a superhero (not mine, anyway). But when it comes to the economy, the presumptive Republican nominee is the Man of Steel compared to the Democratic incumbent. So far, the Obama Administration has been a 3-1/2 year experiment to reconfirm that Keynesian Economics is deserving of history’s dustbin. To the weavers of a narrative, invulnerability is a real problem. Ask | Read More »
Arthur C. Brooks of the American Enterprise Institute penned a July 7 New York Times op-ed, “Why Conservatives Are Happier Than Liberals”. Many conservatives favor an explanation focusing on lifestyle differences, such as marriage and faith. They note that most conservatives are married; most liberals are not. (The percentages are 53 percent to 33 percent, according to my calculations using data from the 2004 General | Read More »
Christmas comes in June for energy geeks and graph junkies. Every year, the Energy Information Administration of the Department of Energy releases its Annual Energy Outlook (AEO), a compendium of 30-tear forecasts and analyses of energy sources and uses. The 212 page .pdf file contains tables, bar charts and area graphs galore, enough to provide blog fodder at least until Christmas (the December one). This | Read More »
An editorial from Sen. Lisa Murkowski (R-AK) expounds upon the economic and strategic importance of the Trans-Alaska Pipeline System (TAPS) on the occasion of its 35th anniversary: 35th anniversary of TAPS, June 20, 2012 Since oil first flowed down the 800-mile pipeline on June 20, 1977, TAPS has delivered more than 16.6 billion barrels of oil. For Alaskans, that translates into more than $171 billion | Read More »
Oscar®-nominated filmmaker Josh Fox, he of the burning water tap, loves to scare people with the provocative word “fracking” and misleading images and claims of its potential to damage the environment, specifically groundwater. To wit, this screenshot of a cute little animated .gif at Fox’s website gaslandthemovie.com. It clearly depicts fractures from a horizontal gas well invading a freshwater aquifer. Scary! Now, consider the detail | Read More »
Quick quiz: What is a Progressive Politician’s favorite form of energy? A. Cold Fusion B. Pixie Dust C. Unicorn Farts D. Cellulosic Biofuel E. All of the Above Careful. It’s kind of a trick question. Answer below the fold.
There are some 3,800 fixed platforms in the Gulf of Mexico, many of them past their useful lives. By law, operators are required to remove any structures at the end of the productive life of a lease. But as it turns out, to marine flora and fauna, a platform is an artificial reef. Divers and sport fishermen well know the richness and diversity of marine | Read More »
Compare and contrast these maps. First, the “undervote” by county in the recent Pennsylvania Democratic Presidential primary. The numbers in each county represent the proportion of voters in a Democratic primary who selected “no candidate” rather than vote for the incumbent, Barack Obama. Now, the distribution map of the Marcellus Shale:
James Lovelock, now 92 years of age, is the father of Gaia theory, the idea that Mother Earth is a sort of sentient, self-regulating organism. So it was noteworthy a few weeks back when he walked back some of his predictions of our planet’s impending doom from Global Warming. In an interview with the Guardian, Lovelock embraces fracking for natural gas, scorns renewables and castigates | Read More »
Josh Fox’s Oscar®-nominated documentary “GasLand” introduced us to scary images of burning water taps, supposedly the result of gas well fracking gone bad. It was such a successful piece of anti-development propaganda that HBO greenlighted a sequel, “GasLand 2″, due out this fall. A new documentary, “TruthLand“, is an attempt to counter Josh Fox’s distortions. It is the tale of Shelly, a teacher, dairy farmer and | Read More »
The Left claims that the GOP stole the Wisconsin election because they outspent the Dems by eleventy bazillion dollars. That’s how the union bosses, the Occupiers and the party leadership rationalize Tuesday’s failure. They don’t dare accept the notion that it was their ideas, their ideology and their tactics that were rejected at the polls. They chose the battlefield, the weapons and the timing. They | Read More »
In a move that they’ll surely regret, the Obama campaign has called attention to a “green energy” loan to Konarka Power Plastic of Lowell, MA while Mitt Romney was governor. They have accused Romney of hypocrisy in his criticism of the Obama Administration’s DOE loan guarantee to Solyndra and other “green energy” firms. Here’s how the two loans panned out: Obama Romney Failed Green Company | Read More »
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