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Author Topic: Fossil Fuels: Degraded Democracy and Profit Over Planet Pollution  (Read 30333 times)

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AGelbert

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February 15, 2018

EPA Admin Scott Pruitt’s  First Class Security Blanket Putting Pruitt in Hot Seat 

There are lots of great reasons to want Scott Pruitt out of the EPA, and his obvious prioritization of industry over public health is right at the top of the list.

But of course, the big Pruitt story this week is his tens of thousands of dollars of first class travel expenses. After the initial Washington Post report Sunday, CBS ran their own segment yesterday and revealed Pruitt took a first-class Arab Emirates flight in May (and got Republican Senator John Kennedy on the record criticising the waste). Politico ran another follow-up story yesterday featuring several other Republican senators questioning the first class flights. In hindsight, Pruitt’s tweets about making pasta and eating prosciutto in Italy don’t exactly convey a seriousness of purpose for his $43,000 trip.

The EPA’s defense is that because of security concerns, Pruitt has a “blanket waiver” to always fly first class to avoid terrible threats like the one from a woman who got drunk while watching Rachel Maddow and fired off an angry tweet. But why the concern for air travel? While we know there’s a curtain keeping us peasants out of first class, we’d have to agree with Senator Chuck Grassley (R-IA), who told ABC “If you're on an airplane, you don't have any more problems than anybody else has."

Just what sort of mid-air attack is Pruitt worried about anyway? Someone throwing a tiny tube of toothpaste at him? Is this an attempt by his security detail to protect his feelings by insulating him from the general public with this blanket waiver for first class flight? Like some sort of... security blanket? 

More seriously, where did this supposed blanket waiver come from, and who signed to approve? After Politico’s Emily Holden asked the EPA, the agency said she should file a FOIA to find out. Thing is, Politico already filed one--seven and a half months ago. Despite the one-month statutory deadline, the EPA still hasn’t responded. And apparently federal ethics officials weren’t the ones to grant it, either.

While the first class travel may be enjoyable for Pruitt in the short-term, his first class security blanket (waiver) is worsening a long-term problem for his image as the costs rise. Spending scandals like these only serve to make taxpayers more and more hot under the collar. With even the conservative-leaning Washington Examiner calling for Trump to “drain the swamp” of Pruitt because of his waste, efforts to oust Pruitt are really starting to heat up.

Sure, Pruitt has plenty of practice ignoring such things, but with even conservatives turning against him, it’s going to be hard for Pruitt to pretend he’s not feeling how his security blanket is increasing the heat of this political climate.

He that loveth father or mother more than me is not worthy of me: and he that loveth son or daughter more than me is not worthy of me. Matt 10:37

AGelbert

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Chris Hedges (Jan 31, 2018) - interviews Noam Chomsky, The Best Speech Of All Time


15,150 views

Felix Eastham

Published on Jan 30, 2018

He that loveth father or mother more than me is not worthy of me: and he that loveth son or daughter more than me is not worthy of me. Matt 10:37

AGelbert

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Trump 🦀    Administration Sets March Date for Largest Oil and Gas Lease Auction 🐉🦕 🦖 in U.S. History

February 16, 2018 by Reuters

SNIPPET:

The Interior Department  said it would offer 77.3 million acres (31.3 mln hectares) offshore Texas, Louisiana, Mississippi, Alabama and Florida for oil and gas development, an auction that includes all available unleased areas in the Gulf of Mexico. The blocks are from 3 to 231 miles (5 to 372 km) offshore and in waters 9 to 11,115 feet (3 to 3,390 meters) deep.

Full BARFICLE:

http://gcaptain.com/trump-administration-sets-march-date-largest-oil-gas-lease-auction-us-history/





He that loveth father or mother more than me is not worthy of me: and he that loveth son or daughter more than me is not worthy of me. Matt 10:37

AGelbert

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February 23, 2018


Big Energy Spends Billion To Avoid Climate Responsibility

A new report released yesterday by the 50/50 Climate Project looks at how 21 of the US’s largest utilities 🐉 and energy companies 🦕 🦖 are preparing for a future where low-carbon energy and fossil fuel regulations are the norm. The report finds that instead of managing these climate risks to protect shareholder value, companies are instead spending hundreds of millions on influencing elections and regulations.

Despite the existential threat posed by climate change and regulations to address it, these companies have done next to nothing to adapt their fossil-fueled business model. For example, 20 of the 21 companies highlighted in the report don’t even mention climate change in corporate governance documents. Six of them, including Scott Pruitt’s friends at Devon Energy, don’t even have a board-level environmental risk management function.


What’s more is that these companies are actively fighting against public protections. They’ve spent over $50 million to fight citizen initiatives for clean energy and greenhouse gas reductions, the report finds, putting them in direct opposition with voter-led ballot measures.

But this spending pales in comparison to the $673 million spent over the last six years on influencing policy and supporting candidates that are friendly to their dirty energy. The report finds that ExxonMobil, the company claiming in court that its actions are consistent with climate science, spent the most on political activity and lobbying with $96.9 million spent--beating out both Chevron ($95.1 million) and Southern ($88.6 million). Exxon also spent the most on PACs, so while the company is no climate champ, it’s definitely a leader in something...

And all that spending doesn’t even count the “dark money” given to groups like ALEC, the National Association of Manufacturers and the American Petroleum Institute (all three of which count ExxonMobil as a member.)

The report’s focus is on protecting shareholders by revealing information that these companies should be disclosing. After all, these companies operate with shareholder’s money--doesn’t that mean they should let them know what they’re doing with the funds? More importantly, shouldn’t companies disclose how planning to continue to provide profit for their shareholders in a carbon-constrained future?

Corporations may not really be people, but when they’re shielding information from their own shareholders, it’s hard not to think that they’re ashamed of their secretive and anti-democratic spending.

Imagine instead of lobbying to stave off regulations, energy giants used those millions of dollars to study the impacts of their products and then invested heavily in renewables. At a minimum, Exxon wouldn’t have to worry about #ExxonKnew, and maybe we’d instead be talking about how #ExxonGrew...


He that loveth father or mother more than me is not worthy of me: and he that loveth son or daughter more than me is not worthy of me. Matt 10:37

AGelbert

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I’m a climate scientist. And I’m not letting trickle-down ignorance 🦖 win.

How to fight ⚡ the Trump 🦀 administration's darkness

By Ben Santer July 5, 2017

Ben Santer is a climate scientist and a member of the National Academy of Sciences.

SNIPPET 1:

I’ve been a mountaineer for most of my life. Mountains are in my blood. In my early 20s, while climbing in France, I fell into a crevasse on the Milieu Glacier, at the start of the normal route on the Aiguille d’Argentiere. Remarkably, I was unhurt. From the grip of the banded ice, I saw a thin slit of blue sky 120 feet above me. The math was simple: Climb 120 feet. If I reached that slit of blue sky, I would live. If I didn’t, I’d freeze to death in the cold and dark.

Now, more than 40 years later, it feels like I’m in a different kind of darkness — the darkness of the Trump administration’s scientific ignorance. This is just as real as the darkness of the Milieu Glacier’s interior and just as life-threatening. This time, I’m not alone. The consequences of this ignorance affect every person on the planet.

Imagine, if you will, that you spend your entire professional life trying to do one thing to the best of your ability. In my case, that one thing is to study the nature and causes of climate change. You put in a long apprenticeship. You spend years learning about the climate system, computer models of climate and climate observations. You start filling a tool kit with the statistical and mathematical methods you’ll need for analyzing complex data sets. You are taught how electrical engineers detect signals embedded in noisy data. You apply those engineering insights to the detection of a human-caused warming signal buried in the natural “noise” of Earth’s climate. Eventually, you learn that human activities are warming Earth’s surface, and you publish this finding in peer-reviewed literature.


SNIPPET 2:

You encounter valid scientific criticism. You also encounter nonscientific criticism from powerful forces of unreason🦖, who harbor no personal animus toward you but don’t like what you’ve learned and published — it’s bad for their 🦖 business 🦀.


SNIPPET 3:

Over time, the evidence for a discernible human influence on global climate becomes overwhelming. The evidence is internally and physically consistent. It’s in climate measurements made from the ground, from weather balloons and from space — measurements of dozens of different climate variables made by hundreds of different research groups around the world. You write more papers, examine more uncertainties and participate in more scientific assessments. You tell others what you’ve done, what you’ve learned and what the climatic “shape of things to come” might look like if we do nothing to reduce emissions of heat-trapping greenhouse gases. You speak not only to your scientific peers but also to a wide variety of audiences, some of which are skeptical about you and everything you do. You enter the public arena and make yourself accountable.

After decades of seeking to advance scientific understanding, reality suddenly shifts, and you are back in the cold darkness of ignorance. The ignorance starts at the top, with President Trump 🦀. It starts with untruths and alternative facts. The untruth that climate change is a “hoax” engineered by the Chinese. The alternative fact that “nobody really knows” whether climate change is real. These untruths and alternative facts are repeated again and again. They serve as talking points for other members of the administration. From the Environmental Protection Agency administrator, who has spent his career fighting climate change science, we learn the alternative fact that satellite data shows “a leveling off of warming ” over the past two decades. The energy secretary tells us the fairy tale that climate change is primarily due to “ocean waters and this environment that we live in.” Ignorance trickles down from the president to members of his administration, eventually filtering into the public’s consciousness.

Getting out of this metaphorical darkness is going to be tough.

Full article: 


https://www.washingtonpost.com/news/posteverything/wp/2017/07/05/im-a-climate-scientist-and-im-not-letting-trickle-down-ignorance-win/
He that loveth father or mother more than me is not worthy of me: and he that loveth son or daughter more than me is not worthy of me. Matt 10:37

AGelbert

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Agelbert NOTE: Just for the Hell of it, HERE are some recent Fossil Fuel BOOM (AND WORLDWIDE ECONOMY BOOM) EVIDENCE articles Palloy, and all those who labor under the PATHETIC belief that a 'collapse of civilization from LACK of fossil fuels will save us from the horrendously deleterious existential threat of Catastrophic Climate Change' , DON'T READ. 


Supertankers Sailing from U.S. to Cut Time, Money and Traders

February 26, 2018 by Bloomberg

SNIPPET:

The first fully laden supertanker sailed from America earlier this month, leaving for China from LOOP’s deep-water facility — the only one in the U.S. capable of filling some of the industry’s biggest tankers. In the wake of an end to a four decade-ban on exports and as OPEC curbed output to clear a glut, a stream of shipments from the Gulf Coast headed east as major buyers such as India and South Korea looked farther for supplies.

Full article:

http://gcaptain.com/supertankers-sailing-from-u-s-to-cut-time-money-and-traders/


How Shell Hid a ‘Whale’ Well Before Placing Mexican Oil Bet

March 2, 2018 by Reuters

SNIPPET for the brain impaired true believers  in 'peak oil':

The company, like many of its peers, was forced to dramatically slash spending in recent years because of weak oil prices, with its exploration budgets hit particularly hard. Now that prices have recovered to a near three-year high of around $65 a barrel, firms feel more confident to once again invest in expensive offshore developments.

Shell owns a 60 percent stake in the Whale discovery with the remaining 40 percent held by Chevron, which is mainly shale-focused.

The reservoir is located in the Perdido area, which has become a heartland of Shell’s deepwater activities in the U.S. Gulf of Mexico.

Full article:

http://gcaptain.com/how-shell-hid-a-whale-well-before-placing-mexican-oil-bet/


Tanker Operator, Master Plead Guilty to Oil and Garbage Dumping Crimes in U.S.

February 27, 2018 by gCaptain

http://gcaptain.com/tanker-operator-master-plead-guilty-to-oil-and-garbage-dumping-crimes-in-u-s/


DP World May Develop $1.2 Billion Port at Banana on Congo Coast

March 2, 2018 by Bloomberg

http://gcaptain.com/dp-world-may-develop-1-2-billion-port-at-banana-on-congo-coast/

Trump Administration Sets March Date for Largest Oil and Gas Lease Auction in U.S. History

February 16, 2018 by Reuters

SNIPPET:

The Interior Department said it would offer 77.3 million acres (31.3 mln hectares) offshore Texas, Louisiana, Mississippi, Alabama and Florida for oil and gas development, an auction that includes all available unleased areas in the Gulf of Mexico. The blocks are from 3 to 231 miles (5 to 372 km) offshore and in waters 9 to 11,115 feet (3 to 3,390 meters) deep.

full article:

http://gcaptain.com/trump-administration-sets-march-date-largest-oil-gas-lease-auction-us-history/


NGO Shipbreaking Platform: 80% of Tonnage Sold for Scrap in 2017 Ended Up on South Asia’s Beaches

February 22, 2018 by Mike Schuler

http://gcaptain.com/ngo-shipbreaking-platform-80-of-tonnage-sold-for-scrap-in-2017-ended-up-on-south-asias-beaches/


U.S. drillers boost oil rig count to highest nearly three years: Baker Hughes

COMMODITIES FEBRUARY 9, 2018 / 1:23 PM

https://www.reuters.com/article/us-usa-rigs-baker-hughes/u-s-drillers-boost-oil-rig-count-to-highest-nearly-three-years-baker-hughes-idUSKBN1FT2MC



PHOTOS: Teekay’s New Icebreaker LNG Carrier ‘Eduard Toll’

November 10, 2017 by Mike Schuler

SNIPPET for Palloy (and anyone else who shares his fantasy filled world view) who claims "you can't say Russia is outputting more FF because because, uh, Russia does not publish their Fossil Fuel production levels".   

Construction of the Eduard Toll began in early 2016 at the DSME shipyard in South Korea.

The vessel is the first of Teekay LNG Partners’ six 172,000 cubic meter ARC7 LNG carrier newbuildings to be constructed for the Yamal LNG project in the Russian Arctic.

Yamal is expected to produce 16.5 million metric tons of LNG annually by 2019, which will require a total of 15 ARC7 icebreaker LNG carriers. The first shipment from the project is planned for this month, with the receiver rumored to be China.


full article:

http://gcaptain.com/photos-teekays-new-icebreaker-lng-carrier-eduard-toll/

Gulf Coast Shipping Boom: U.S. Oil Exports Pour Into Worldwide Markets

February 8, 2018 by Reuters

SNIPPET for those poor wishful thinking fools who think less fossil fuels are being produced because, uh, we are 'running out' (any day now, yep, sure, right...):

Between 2010 and 2017, U.S. oil production rose from 5.5 million barrels a day to 10 million bpd – approaching a record set in 1970 – as shale fields in west Texas and North Dakota lured massive new drilling investments. That brings national production in line with Saudi Arabia and close to top-producer Russia’s 10.9 million barrels a day.

Saudi Arabia cut output last year as part of OPEC’s 2016 deal to reduce supply – after losing a price war with U.S. shale producers that created a global glut.

Most forecasts show U.S. crude output growing about 500,000 to 600,000 barrels per day through the end of 2018, said David Fyfe, chief economist at global commodity trading firm Gunvor Group in Geneva, Switzerland. The U.S. Energy Department is even more optimistic, now expecting growth to rise by 1.2 million bpd – hitting 11 million bpd by year-end.

full article:

http://gcaptain.com/gulf-coast-shipping-boom-us-oil-exports-pour-into-worldwide-markets/

Agelbert NOTE: What does all the above have to do with the claim I have made SEVERAL TIMES (Reality is WORSE than the WORSE CASE BAU RCP-8.5 IPCC scenario! ) , that Palloy always tries to hair split his way around? 

It's all about Radiative Forcing, folks. That "8.5" number on the Representative Concentration Pathway (RCP) stands for approximately 8.5 watts per square meter.  We are NOW getting MORE THAN THAT. We will NOT get LESS than that for over TWO HUNDRED YEARS, even if we stopped burning fossil fuels TODAY.

Palloy cannot accept that scientifically predicted HARD REALITY. The reason he cannot accept that is because, if he did, he would realize that a civilizational collapse from 'lack of fossil fuels' (LOL!) is not going to do a God Damned THING to slow down the Sixth Great Extinction we are now in. So, he makes happy talk stuff up about the IPCC models that simply DO NOT NOW, and never have, accounted for in order to keep pushing his 'collapse will save us' happy talk. This Happy Talk is nothing but an unprincipled and heinous back door defense of the fossil fuel profit over planet polluting 🦖 status quo , PERIOD.


IPCC RCP 8.5 business as usual scenario is too conservative. ALL the climate models low ball global warming (see below).


Agelbert NOTE: The problem humanity has is NOT lack of hydrocarbons; it is the adamant and totally unreasonable refusal to accept the FACT that we have ALREADY exceeded the "carbon budget" for a FOUR DEGREE C rise in average global temperature, never mind a TWO DEGREE C "target".

The worse case scenario the IPCC came up with (BAU RCP-8.5) is too conservative a projection of the heat increase (it is MUCH, MUCH WORSE!).
Climate Dynamics:
Facing the Harsh Realities of Now

Climate Sensitivity, Target Temperature & the Carbon Budget
Guidelines for Strategic Action

Apollo-Gaia Project

Director: David Wasdell

It is with the utmost concern that we draw your attention to the fundamental methodological flaw in the determination of the value of Climate Sensitivity that is embedded in the Summary for Policymakers of the Scientific Workgroup of the 5th Assessment Report of the IPCC. The error was replicated in the Reports of Workgroups 2 and 3 and carried forward into the Synthesis Report. It has been used as the given basis for every subsequent publication. Our radical analysis of Climate Dynamics has generated a new and robust value of "Earth System Sensitivity" which has profound implications for:

֍ The relationship between temperature change and cumulative carbon emissions.

֍ The calculation of "available carbon budget".

֍ The evaluation of the INDCs.

֍ The terms of reference of COP21 in Paris (30 November - 11 December 2015).

֍ The future global strategy for climate stabilisation.
 
Our analysis is published in dual media (triple-screen video and fully illustrated PDF). These can be used separately or in combination.


Video of the above and Table of Contents at link below.

Agelbert NOTE: If you care about humanity, you will watch it and pass it on to friends and family. If, because you have been paid or propagandized to think the continued burning of fossil fuels is "good for mankind", you either don't watch it, or do watch it so you can to claim "it is global warming hoax" propaganda (or if if you are more "sophisticated", like certain pseudo-scientists who claim IPCC scenarios "have taken all the possible warming feedback loops into consideration in the models and we can keep burning fossil fuels for a few more decades"), you doom yourself and future generations (i.e. you are willfully stupid).

Don't be stupid. The fossil fuel industry murdering crooks and liars do not own you.

http://www.apollo-gaia.org/harsh-realities-of-now.html



Anyone telling you that fossil fuels are "running out" needs to read the published figures from the oil and gas producing nations of this planet. The emissions are INCREASING, NOT "leveling off or decreasing". PLUS, tropical rain forests AND permafrost melt are now ADDING to the carbon emissions! GHG is GHG. no matter where it is coming from! You are NOT going to turn this heat engine off easily. Several heat adding feedbacks we have triggered by burning too much fossil fuels are NOT in our control, PERIOD.

Where in God's good earth these fossil fueler wishful thinking FOOLS think that we are somehow going to get a handle on this massive heating NOW IN THE Global Warming radiative forcing INERTIA pipeline, even if we stopped all hydrocarbon burning today (rather than the present tragic reality of increased burning), is a mystery to me. They certainly DO NOT get this idea from empirical evidence or sound science.

This stubborn clinging to a happy talk myth about some "quick recovery from fossil fuel burning caused globle warming" is a testament to the extremes people in denial of an extinction threat reality will go to. 

And for the propagandist liars that know the truth and push the happy talk for money, I can only say that they are greater fools than those naive folks that believe the fossil fuel fascist funded happy talk lies and distortions. These bought and paid for propagandists are behaving as STUPIDLY as any person possibly can. You STUPID, MONEY LOVING BASTARDS deserve the Darwin Evolutionary Dead End Award.



ENJOY THE OIL AND GAS BOOM, SUCKERS

The Fossil Fuelers 🦖 DID THE Clean Energy  Inventions suppressing, Climate Trashing, human health depleting CRIME,   but since they have ALWAYS BEEN liars and conscience free crooks 🦀, they are trying to AVOID   DOING THE TIME or     PAYING THE FINE!     Don't let them get away with it! Pass it on!   


He that loveth father or mother more than me is not worthy of me: and he that loveth son or daughter more than me is not worthy of me. Matt 10:37

AGelbert

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Agelbert NOTE: The story of a 7.5 billion dollar hole in the ground with a lot of liars on top.  >:(

How Lies, Greed, & Mismanagement Blew Up The “Clean Coal” Myth

March 5th, 2018 by Steve Hanley

SNIPPET:

Clean coal. It was supposed to be the alchemist’s dream, the real world equivalent of spinning straw into gold. Or making a silk purse from a sow’s ear, if you are a Linda Ronstadt fan. What clean coal is all about is taking lignite, the lowest grade of coal, often called brown coal, and putting it into a pressurized chamber, then heating it to 1800 degrees Fahrenheit under great pressure. The resulting gas is collected and used to make electricity, sequestering most of the carbon emissions from the lignite at the same time.

Carbon Capture Is The Key
Kemper clean (NOT) coal plant,

Kemper clean coal plant, If it worked, the clean coal and carbon capture process would not only make electricity, it would do so with the lowest carbon footprint of any fossil fuel, including natural gas. It would be a two-fer, a daily double, and a twin killing all rolled into one. The carbon capture piece of the puzzle is what attracted attention from people around the world, including Saudi Arabia, Japan, and Norway.

According to an article in The Guardian, Jukka Uosukainen, the United Nations director for the Climate Technology Center and Network, toured the site of the proposed plant in Kemper County, Mississippi in 2014 and said, “I’m impressed,” before adding, “Maybe using coal in the future is possible.”

Clean Coal Technology Fails — Big Time

The problem is, the clean coal technology, which was helped along by hundreds of millions of dollars in federal grants and research, doesn’t work. The problems started when the first of two high pressure, high temperature gasifier units arrived. During testing, moisture trapped in the concrete liner turned to steam and exploded, ruining the unit. No one had any realistic idea how to fix the problem.

Later, the 174-foot tall concrete sphere where the coal would be stored began to crack almost as soon as it was completed. Soon, there was a hole in the dome a large as small house. The entire structure had to be torn down and rebuilt. The original budget of around $2.5 billion arrived at a decade ago ballooned over time to more than $7.5 billion before the Southern Company called a halt to the project last year.

Lies And Deception Abound

But that’s not the real story. Not all new technologies are able to make the leap from the laboratory to the real world. What is really at issue here is the lies, double dealing, deliberate misrepresentations, and obfuscations carried out at the highest levels of the Southern Company with the aid of Mississippi officials. In America today, nuns protesting insane immigration policies get arrested and charged with crimes.  Officials involved in covering up a massive scandal that bilked stockholders and utility customers out of billions are allowed to retire quietly to their oceanside mansions. The United States has a legal system. What it lacks is any semblance of a justice system.

As the first concrete dome was being torn down and before it was rebuilt, Tom Fanning, CEO of Southern Company, was telling a bald faced lie to investors. During an April 24, 2013 earnings call he told them that “tremendous progress” was being made at the construction site and that “the scheduled in-service date” was feasible. He added that most of the key components for the facility — including the dome — were already “in place.” They were not.

Bureaucracy Fails

The Mississippi Public Service Commission was part of the problem as well. On March 15, 2012, the Mississippi supreme court ruled in favor of a petition by The Sierra Club to shut the project down. Shortly thereafter, the PSC renewed the company’s permission to build the plant, effectively bypassing the supreme court ruling. But it insisted on an absolutely final, no wiggle room, hard cap on the cost of the project of $2.8 billion. The company was way beyond that limit at the time. The next few years were taken up as much with cooking the books to keep the PSC in the dark as continuing construction on the Kemper plant.

The Guardian reviewed more than 5,000 pages of documents and e-mails in order to put its story together and we encourage you to read its entire exposé if  you want all the gory details. They also interviewed several current and former engineers who worked on the Kemper program. The story that unfolds details in exquisite detail the pressure put on those people to fudge the numbers to keep the state authorities from pulling the plug.

Lying From The Start

One of the key components to the clean coal plant — which would feature more than 900,000 feet of piping — was the availability rate, the percentage of the time it could be expected to be up and running versus down for maintenance and repairs. The Kemper facility needed to have an availability rate of 80% in order to be financially successful.

An independent audit requested and paid for by Southern Company just as construction was getting underway found the actual availability rate would be more in the range of 30% to 45% during the first 3 to 5 years of operation with the 80% figure not likely until at least 10 years out — if ever. Later, an internal review came to much the same conclusion. None of that information was shared with federal or state officials or investors. Instead, Southern Company employees were pressured to alter key documents to make it appear as thought things were moving along as planned.

Incentivizing Greed

A large part of the Kemper clean coal debacle involved the way utility companies earn their living. In many parts of the country, they are able to attract investors because they are guaranteed a designated rate of return on the investments they make in power generation facilities and infrastructure. Want to make more money? Spend more money. It’s easy. The law guarantees a fixed rate of return whether your investments are wise or not. Great for utility company executives and their generous compensation plans. Not so great for the members of the public who see their rates increase to cover the costs of those expansionist policies.

Mississippi and several of its neighboring states have only themselves to blame. Like giving free money to compulsive gamblers, they passed laws in the early years of this century that allowed utility companies to start earning their financial rewards before projects were even completed. This “I will gladly pay you Tuesday for a hamburger today” philosophy ratcheted up the incentives to spend big by Southern Company and other utilities.

Full article:

https://cleantechnica.com/2018/03/05/lies-greed-mismanagement-blew-clean-coal-myth/

Agelbert COMMENT:  These scam artists never stop doing what they do. Samuel Clemens (Mark Twain) once noted their mens rea modus operandi in regard to gold mines.
Quote
"A gold mine is a hole in the ground with a liar on top."

The "Carbon Capture" Technology is, and always will be, baloney. When they tell you a nuclear submarine can keep the atmosphere below 350 PPM of carbon dioxide, THEN, and ONLY then, can it be said that mankind has the carbon capture technology to keep us from becoming crispy critters from Catastrophic Climate Change.

At present, nuclear submarine CO2 scrubbing technology can achieve around 8,000 PPM of CO2 levels, and that for about six months, at which time they are forced to surface to keep the CO2 levels from harming the crew.

When the fossil fuelers tell you that carbon capture and sequestration is doable with present technology, please show them the following meter reading:


As if that wasn't enough to warrant a crash program to get back to 350 PPM of CO2, the methane bomb is orders of magnitude worse.

Eminent Russian Scientist Dr. Natalia Shakhova (International Arctic Research Center)
He that loveth father or mother more than me is not worthy of me: and he that loveth son or daughter more than me is not worthy of me. Matt 10:37

AGelbert

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Short Video where Robert F. Kennedy Jr. 🕊 Exposes Nathan Thurm Fossil Fueler 🦖 Crook

He that loveth father or mother more than me is not worthy of me: and he that loveth son or daughter more than me is not worthy of me. Matt 10:37

AGelbert

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The Fossil Fuel Mania Insanity Spreads


In the 03/07/2018 edition:

U.S. Navy Releases Proposal Request for Coast Guard’s New Heavy Polar Icebreaker

Dominican Republic to Join Caribbean Energy Exploration Rush

Pemex 😈 Invites Partners Offshore

Does Galveston Need A $14 Billion Storm Barrier? Agelbert NOTE: I increased the font on this one because it is TYPICAL Fossil Fuel Fascist 🐉🦕🦖 socializing the costs  of Climate change while pocketing the heavily subsidized by we-the-people welfare queen profits 💵 from the very same crap that is causing those Climate change costs!

http://gcaptain.com/galveston-need-14-billion-storm-barrier/

U.S. Navy Releases Proposal Request for Coast Guard’s New Heavy Polar Icebreaker

By gCaptain on Mar 06, 2018 07:08 pm

uscgc polar starThe U.S. Navy, in collaboration with the U.S. Coast Guard, has released a request for proposal for the advance procurement and detail design work for the USCG’s first new heavy polar icebreaker in more than 40 years. The RFP, which was issued March 2, also includes options for the detail design and construction (DD&C) of […]

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Read in browser » http://gcaptain.com/u-s-navy-releases-proposal-request-for-coast-guards-new-heavy-polar-icebreaker/


Dominican Republic to Join Caribbean Energy 🦖 Exploration Rush

By Bloomberg on Mar 06, 2018 04:11 pm

Photo: By Brian McDonald / Shutterstock

SNIPPET:

By Ezra Fieser (Bloomberg) — The Dominican Republic expects to draw interest from energy titans BP Plc and Exxon Mobil Corp. when it opens the country to natural gas and oil exploration for the first time later this month, joining a push by governments across the Caribbean to develop energy production.

The government plans to open two land blocks for oil exploration and two offshore blocks for natural gas exploratory drilling by the end of March, said Energy and Mining Minister Isa Conde in an interview in Santo Domingo. An Exxon spokeswoman said in an email that the company does not comment on future business plans. BP did not respond to an email seeking comment.

“This is completely virgin territory for us,” Conde said. “But we would not be going forward if we had not received assurances from international companies 🦖 and investors 🦀 that there was substantial interest.’’

Full article:  :(

http://gcaptain.com/dominican-republic-join-caribbean-energy-exploration-rush/

Pemex ☠️ Invites Partners 🦀 Offshore

March 6, 2018 by Reuters

Photo by curraheeshutter, Shutterstock

SNIPPET:

by Marianna Parraga (Reuters) – Mexico’s state-run Pemex [PEMX.UL] might bring partners into two heavy crude oilfields in the Gulf’s shallow waters, the company’s chief said on Tuesday, move that could help ease a lack of heavy barrels in the Atlantic basin.

After nine bidding rounds in just three years and a presidential election scheduled in July, Mexico’s oil regulator has started a campaign to convince Pemex and foreign investors that this is the moment to develop much needed extra-heavy oil reserves.

“We are looking to increase production, including heavy crude, so we might put on the table some farmouts mainly for those fields that need secondary recovery strategies,” Pemex’s CEO Carlos Trevino said during a news conference during the CERAWeek energy conference in Houston.

On Monday, Trevino said Pemex was looking for partners for its deepwater Nobilis-Maximino and Ayin-Batsil projects.

Full farticle: 🤬


http://gcaptain.com/pemex-invites-partners-offshore/

😨 🔫 
He that loveth father or mother more than me is not worthy of me: and he that loveth son or daughter more than me is not worthy of me. Matt 10:37

AGelbert

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God's Reps 🕊 Are Not Into Offshore Drilling

Brian Kahn

March 8, 2018 5:04pm Filed to: ANSWERING TO A HIGHER POWER   

First Florida Governor Rick Scott asked for a waiver. Then other governors jumped on board. Now the good Lord has weighed in through earthly representatives to register opposition to the Interior Department’s plans to drill large swaths of the oceans around the U.S.

On Thursday, a group of more than 300 priests, nuns, reverends, and other men and women of the cloth sent a letter to Zinke and his boss Donald Trump. In it, they said they couldn’t support a plan that “brings unacceptable risks to God’s oceans and coastal communities.”

Currently, 94 percent of U.S. coastal waters are closed to drilling. The Zinke 😈 plan would radically alter that math, opening almost every corner U.S. oceans and the Gulf of Mexico to oil and gas exploration ☠️.

There are political, economic, and environmental reasons for opposing the plan. The letter touches on some of those and couches them in a religious context. Its signatories are members of the National Religious Partnership for the Environment, a group of religious leaders from various faiths who see the planet as a resource to be cherished rather than ravished. They explained why drilling in the oceans is a terrible idea and why the administration should be focusing its energy efforts on renewables instead:

Quote
God created the oceans with an abundance of life and, as stewards of God’s earth, we should work to preserve and protect God’s marine creation. As people of faith, we also uphold our duty to love our neighbors. Oceans provide food sources and livelihoods for millions in the U.S. and globally.

We urge the Trump Administration to focus on investments in renewable sources of energy such as wind and solar, as well as maximize our energy efficiency, instead of looking to expand fossil fuel exploration in God’s ocean. God entrusts us to be good stewards of God’s oceans and coasts. We should honor this sacred duty and position our country as a global leader in energy stewardship.

We ask you to join us as God’s steward of the oceans and to respect the local residents, businesses, and millions of Americans who have already made clear their support for preserving, not drilling off our nation’s beaches.

This isn’t the first time religious leaders have waded into the politics around resource extraction. Late last year, a dozen nuns from the Sisters of Mercy sent a letter to Congress asking representatives and senators to not open the Arctic National Wildlife Refuge to drilling. And then there’s Pope Francis himself who has shared a consistently pro-environmental protection message with his billion-plus followers.

The nuns lost that battle, but the fight over offshore drilling has some powerful constituencies pushing back against the plan from both sides of the aisle. In addition to the bipartisan group of governors asking for waivers, 200 bipartisan state representatives sent a letter registering their displeasure with the plan as well.

The only constituency that seems on board with this plan is the oil and gas industry 🦖, which is the only group the Trump 🦀 administration consistently  🦖 thinks about. But clergy members are trying to remind them there’s a higher power they might just have to answer to.

https://earther.com/gods-reps-are-not-into-offshore-drilling-1823625382

He that loveth father or mother more than me is not worthy of me: and he that loveth son or daughter more than me is not worthy of me. Matt 10:37

AGelbert

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You know what the number one destroyer of net worth is?

Divorce.

People work like crazy, try to get ahead, make some gains, and then more times than not  it all goes up in smoke when they pay attorneys and courts to get them out of the marriage that they just knew was going to last forever. And they then repeat the same mistake a second or a third time.
I find this thread quite extraordinary.  How are the government going to provide everyone with affordable gasoline for another 16 years? How are they going to provide electricity to keep the markets operating, so that you can sell your shares and bonds?  What will be the Collapse that has happened, even though BAU seems to be carrying on as before?  No wonder everyone here is bored with all this collapse talk.  There's no sense of urgency.

This is all fantasyland stuff.  You will be happy enough to barter a 1 oz gold coin for a loaf of bread if you are hungry enough (it only takes a week without food) without worrying about whether you got 3%/year advantage out of it.

16 years !!!

Well, as you know I basically agree with you on this, which is why the plan I propose is weighted heavily toward hard goods.

The folks who talk about "retirement savings" are first off ones who are high income earners, and second they believe in (hope for) a "slow catabolic collapse" of the JMG Mr. Wizard variety.  A slow winding down of the economy but not a complete and immediate collapse of the monetary system.

RE

That's crap. Lots of lower middle class people save for retirement. Not burger flippers, no. But you're wrong on your assumptions that there aren't many with some kind of employer provided retirement plan. Millions of people have the opportunity to participate in those and they do. They just tend to make bad decisions, because they don't understand the game.
I find this thread quite extraordinary.  How are the government going to provide everyone with affordable gasoline for another 16 years? How are they going to provide electricity to keep the markets operating, so that you can sell your shares and bonds?  What will be the Collapse that has happened, even though BAU seems to be carrying on as before?  No wonder everyone here is bored with all this collapse talk.  There's no sense of urgency.

This is all fantasyland stuff.  You will be happy enough to barter a 1 oz gold coin for a loaf of bread if you are hungry enough (it only takes a week without food) without worrying about whether you got 3%/year advantage out of it.

16 years !!!

BAU is relevant to all our lives, including yours, until the day it all seizes up. I wouldn't be surprised if you don't live to see it, even though I know you'd very much like to.

We all understand the problems around oil. There are many reasons a lack of cheap oil can result in a collapse, but the oil itself will not run out in 16 years. What we are witnessing right now appears to be a political will to allow whatever oil is left anywhere to be extracted with a minimum of interference. All environmental concerns are being ignored. Finance reality is being suspended to allow financing of very questionable projects. Next I expect there will be open warfare to claim rights to the fields that are not yet depleted. I think it's very hard to say when it all finally goes off the tracks, and until it does, it's best to consider that it might be longer than you think.

 I think it could easily be a decade or even two before Peak Oil starts to have the kind of effects that would prevent the US government from taking money from some people and giving it to other people.

It's easy for you to think differently. Your future is shorter than people the age of my kids, and you have no one besides yourself to worry about.

You are missing my main point altogether, which is that retirement plans are a tax dodge for working people, one that helps people hold on to their hard-earned money...that happens in the present, not the future.



Eddie, to your last three posts, I can only say the following about every word you posted!


The CEO of Shell just said that by 2050, they will be producing more gas then than oil now. He drives an EV (LOL!). What Palloy cannot wrap his head around is the fact that Climate Change is the ONLY thing that is going to cause a collapse of civilization simply because, as you said, and I have written about for the last year or so, the mania for MORE fossil fuels has been completely freed from any environmental concerns.

He that loveth father or mother more than me is not worthy of me: and he that loveth son or daughter more than me is not worthy of me. Matt 10:37

AGelbert

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COVERAGE OF CERAWEEKMARCH 7, 2018 / 11:34 AM / 2 DAYS AGO


 Shell's gas production could be triple oil by 2050: CEO

SNIPPET:

HOUSTON (Reuters) - Royal Dutch Shell could boost its share of natural gas production to triple that of oil in order to meet self-imposed goals to halve carbon emissions by 2050, Chief Executive Ben van Beurden said on Wednesday.

Full farticle:


https://www.reuters.com/article/us-ceraweek-energy-shell/shells-gas-production-could-be-triple-oil-by-2050-ceo-idUSKCN1GJ2H6

Palloy, you are the one in fantasyland if you think anything but Catastrophic Climate Change caused collapse will stop Shell, Exxon, Chevron, etc. et al from continuing to DO what they DO.
He that loveth father or mother more than me is not worthy of me: and he that loveth son or daughter more than me is not worthy of me. Matt 10:37

AGelbert

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I don't know if peak Oil will make the credit system tank. It could. I do see climate change as the more ultimately dangerous horseman of the apocalyse, because it keeps going after the inputs stop.

Peak Oil might or might not end BAU in the next few years or months. But if we are unlucky and it does not, then that makes it even more likely that climate change will render much if not all the planet uninhabitable. Nobody escapes that.

Palloy is convinced PO will take care of climate change. I am definitely not in that camp. I'd love for him to be right however. It's a lesser problem.

I get it AG.


You and me both hope Palloy is right.

It's just those reality based dots, that I agree you certainly do get, that argue otherwise.
He that loveth father or mother more than me is not worthy of me: and he that loveth son or daughter more than me is not worthy of me. Matt 10:37

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March 14, 2016



Tillerson’s 🦖 Setting, Koch Star Pompeo 🦀 and Kudlow 🐊 On The Rise

Back in October of 2017, the world found out that Department of State head Rex Tillerson called President Donald Trump “a fu ck ing moron” in a July meeting. It apparently took Trump a while to either build up the courage to act, or remember his catchphrase. Yesterday, right after Tillerson criticized Russia, Trump did the decent thing  ;)     and took to twitter to fire Tillerson via tweet, with no warning or explanation. (And when a top State Department appointee and Tillerson aide contradicted the White House’s claim otherwise, he too was fired.)

While he was a moderating force on Trump, Tillerson 🐽 will hardly be missed at State. Turns out he ran the Department like he did Exxon: poorly. The question is, will Exxon finish paying for Tillerson’s mistakes before the State Department gets itself back up to speed after Tillerson destroyed it?

Either way, Trump has tapped Mike Pompeo to replace Tillerson, who holds the record for “the all-time biggest recipient of campaign funding from Koch Industries… and their affiliates   .” Prior to being Trump’s CIA director, Pompeo represented Wichita, Kansas, which is also home to Koch Industries, making him both figuratively and literally the Kochs’ congressman. Certainly that had no bearing on his 2012 Politico op-ed whining that everyone should “Stop harassing the Koch brothers.”

In an ideal world, the US diplomatic corps as a force for defending the silenced and marginalized from their corporate and state oppressors. It’s comforting to know this charge will now be led by a man who isn’t afraid of speaking up on behalf of a population as oppressed and under-resourced as the Kochs.

Needless to say, deniers are thrilled with the news that one of theirs is stepping up and an alarmist stepping down. (Remember that Exxon is part of “the discredited and anti-energy global warming movement" even though it’s given millions to denial organizations after it promised to stop.) Myron Ebell, of Koch-funded CEI, told Alex Kaufman of HuffPo that the move is “good news for us,” and that Ebell expects “very good things from him at the State Department.”

In other “replacing disappointingly ineffective, relatively moderate, pro-Paris agreement voices with Koch cranks” news, rumor has it Trump is replacing erstwhile economic advisor Gary Cohn with former Democrat, Reason editor, Reagan advisor and cable news pundit Larry Kudlow. Stephen Moore 🐍  of Koch-funded 🦕 Heritage Foundation is as happy about that possibility as Ebell 🦍 is of Pompeo, telling E&E that Kudlow is his “first choice, for sure.” As E&E points to a number of examples of Kudlow’s anti-climate stance, including praising a Paris pull-out, his preference makes sense. 

If Kudlow’s selected to serve as Trump’s lead economic council, he’ll join plenty of other Koch adherents already staffing the swamp. While Kudlow 🐊 may not be quite as kochzy with the Koch brothers as Pompeo 🦀, he too has bravely offered up a “Defense Of The Vilified-By-The-Left Koch Brothers.” 


With Tillerson and Cohn, Trump was not exactly taking the high road, but with these new Koch cronies, he’s definitely taking Kudlow road. 

He that loveth father or mother more than me is not worthy of me: and he that loveth son or daughter more than me is not worthy of me. Matt 10:37

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March 19, 2018

Trump Administration 🦀 Offers 77 Million Acres in Gulf of Mexico to Oil Industry 🦕🦖

The Trump administration is holding the biggest offshore oil and gas lease auction in U.S. history Wednesday, offering all 77 million acres of unleased, available federal waters in the Gulf of Mexico.

The sale comes as administration officials seek to rescind drilling safety rules approved after the BP Deepwater Horizon disaster, reduce royalties paid by oil companies, and expand offshore drilling into every ocean in the country.

"Trump is selling off our oceans and selling out coastal communities and marine life to the oil industry," said Kristen Monsell, oceans program legal director at the Center for Biological Diversity. "Whales, dolphins and Gulf seafood are already marinating in oil spills and industry wastewater. More drilling and less regulation will make the next Deepwater Horizon disaster only a matter of time."

The Center for Biological Diversity last month sued the Trump administration for failing to evaluate how oil wastewater dumping in the Gulf harms wildlife.

Oil companies have drilled more than 52,000 wells in the Gulf of Mexico and installed more than 7,000 platforms, many of which are inactive and still littering the Gulf. A recent New York Times investigation found dangerous conditions on Gulf platforms and taxpayers being left to cover the costs of cleanups and decommissioning of old drilling infrastructure.

Whales, sea turtles and other imperiled wildlife are being harmed by offshore oil drilling and exploration. A federal study conducted as part of the settlement of a lawsuit involving the Center for Biological Diversity found more than 30 million marine mammals in the Gulf would be harmed by seismic oil and gas exploration.

Oil spills are a routine part of offshore drilling. The Center for Biological Diversity has calculated that drilling the offshore parcels being offered in today's lease could result in about 2,700 oil spills dumping more than 16.7 million gallons of oil into the Gulf over the life of the lease, based on industry data. That doesn't include catastrophic spills such as the 2010 Deepwater Horizon disaster, which killed 11 oil workers and thousands of marine animals, from which the Gulf still hasn't recovered.

The federal government also allows toxic fracking chemicals and other oil wastewater to be dumped into the Gulf without regard for its harm to wildlife. Federal documents show more than 75 billion gallons of oil wastewater were dumped into the Gulf in 2014 alone.

The federal government approved more than 1,500 fracks in offshore oil wells in the Gulf in one recent five-year period. Center for Biological Diversity scientists have found that at least 10 toxic chemicals routinely used in offshore fracking could kill or harm several marine species, including marine mammals and fish.

"Trump is turning over Gulf waters to oil companies with no regard for the devastating consequences," Monsell said. "This is a bad deal for people and the planet."

https://www.ecowatch.com/gulf-of-mexico-oil-leases-2550890044.html

He that loveth father or mother more than me is not worthy of me: and he that loveth son or daughter more than me is not worthy of me. Matt 10:37

 

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