Current and former candidates for the Republican nomination for the Office of President of the United States fall into two distinct groups. See if you can guess what distinguishes Column A candidates from those in Column B. Column A Mitt Romney Newt Gingrich Rick Perry Rick Santorum Michele Bachmann Herman Cain Mitch Daniels Tim Pawlenty Thad McCotter Mike Huckabee Column B Ron Paul Gary Johnson | Read More »
On Wednesday of the week just past, the Department of the Interior conducted the first sale of oil and gas leases in the Gulf of Mexico since BP’s Macondo oil spill. Measured by the statistics touted in Interior’s press release, the sale would appear to be a rousing success: NEW ORLEANS – The Department of the Interior’s Bureau of Ocean Energy Management announced that its | Read More »
Another day, another distorted and fear-mongering attack from the Old Grey Lady on America’s natural gas industry. Headline: Add Quakes to Rumblings Over Gas Rush (originally published under the headline “Some Blame Hydraulic Fracturing For Earthquake Epidemic”; link may require subscription/signup) Nine quakes in eight months in a seismically inactive area is unusual. But Ohio seismologists found another surprise when they plotted the quakes’ epicenters: | Read More »
On Monday, Canada’s Environment Minister Peter Kent announced that his country would exercise its legal option to end its participation in the Kyoto Protocols. The Protocols were a United Nations initiative, adopted in 1997 with a goal of rolling carbon dioxide emissions back to 1990 levels in an effort to stop Global Warming. Failure to meet those goals would incur stiff monetary penalties. Canada will | Read More »
Iron Eyes Cody cried at the sight of polluted waters and skies in a famous public service announcement, first aired in 1971. Old Iron Eyes may have been a faux-Indian, but his message resonated with people. The Crying Indian PSA was one of the most successful ever. It resonated because it was true. In the early ’70s, the environment was a mess. Urban skies were | Read More »
On Tuesday, the Institute for Energy Research issued its North American Energy Inventory (.pdf link), a report which documents the government’s own estimates of oil, natural gas and coal resources for the U.S., Canada and Mexico. (The IER is a non-profit, non-partisan 501(c)3 organization that is dedicated to advancing America’s supply using free market principles.) In a nutshell, North America contains a vast bounty of | Read More »
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 | Read More »
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”. | Read More »
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 | Read More »
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 | Read More »
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, | Read More »
Last week, we heard about the Fisker Karma, the new electric vehicle being built in Finland using a $529 million loan from U.S. taxpayers. Beneficiaries of this deal include one Albert Gore, partner in the “green” venture capital firm Kleiner Perkins Caufield & Byers. Now Forbes contributor Warren Meyer weighs in with an analysis of the Karma’s true energy efficiency, rate in miles-per-gallon equivalent according | Read More »
The New York Times descends even deeper into self-parody with its ongoing crusade against natural gas development. Thursday’s installment: Rush to Drill for Natural Gas Creates Conflicts With Mortgages It seems that some mortgage lenders are beginning to balk at lending money secured by real estate if said real estate is under development for natural gas. A credit union in upstate New York has started | Read More »
The giant Bird Cuisinarts are at it again. Only this time they’re killing bats. Well, a bat, but an endangered bat. Windmills stopped at night after bat death Thirty-five windmills at a western Pennsylvania wind farm have been silenced at night since a bat that belongs to an endangered species was found dead under one of the turbines. The Tribune-Democrat of Johnstown is reporting the | Read More »
Maybe I’m all alone here, but I’m thrilled with the way the Republican field of candidates is shaping up for 2012. Of course they all have faults. But there is one trait common to the three who have risen to the top: proven managerial competence. I have my favorite, but I think we can agree that each can boast of considerable achievement. Among these guys, | Read More »
The New York Times reports on another Department of Energy green energy loan going bad. This one involves Nevada Geothermal Power, which generates electrical power using near-surface geothermal heat. After $79 million in loans and $66 million in outright grants, the company’s auditor has concluded that there is significant doubts about its ability to continue as a going concern. In this case, Nevada Geothermal was | Read More »
Unlike most of his peers, Harold Hamm didn’t get his start in the oil field with degree in geology or engineering. Hamm drove a truck. Maybe the lack of a college degree made it easier for Hamm to imagine the possible and focus on making it happen. “Imagining the possible” allowed Hamm to build the nation’s 14th-largest oil company, Continental Resources, based in Enid, OK. | Read More »
In 1956, Shell geologist M. King Hubbert correctly predicted that oil production in the United States would reach a peak around 1970. Since his Peak Oil theory fits so well with the Malthusian worldview of “Progressives”, anti-capitalists and anarchists, Hubbert has become a posthumous hero to the Left, an unusual role for a scientist polluted by the filthy lucre of the oil industry. Peak Oil’s | Read More »
While it’s been the subject of rumor, gossip and misinformation for the last several years, this time it’s real: drilling off the north shore of Cuba is scheduled to begin November 1. Six wells are planned to be drilled with this rig by the various international companies who own exploration rights off the north shore of the island. …Spanish energy company Repsol and its partners | Read More »
Huey Long must be turning over in his grave. Qualifying closed today for Louisiana’s Fall 2011 statewide elections, and the once super-dominant Democratic Party has failed to field a single credible candidate for statewide office. Not a single one. Louisiana’s citizens have common sense. They understand that the policies favored by Washington Dems (on energy in particular) seem expressly designed to cripple Louisiana’s economy and | Read More »
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