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Author Topic: Fossil Fuels: Degraded Democracy and Profit Over Planet Pollution  (Read 30312 times)

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AGelbert

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March 26, 2018

Mike Pompeo 🦀: A Koch Brothers 🦕 🦖 Ally Just Became a Global Threat

If the Senate confirms longtime climate denier Mike Pompeo as secretary of state, it would put a Koch Brothers proxy in one of the most powerful positions in the U.S. government. Pompeo's "history of business subservience" doesn't bode well for climate policy, says Greenpeace researcher Connor Gibson


http://therealnews.com/t2/index.php?option=com_content&task=view&id=31&Itemid=74&jumival=21417
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 30, 2018

Big Oil and Climate Science on Trial

Climate change science is basis of San Francisco and Oakland's legal case against Big Oil companies, to make them pay billions for rising public cost of rising sea level due to global warming. In a surprise move, Chevron admits humans are causing climate change but says the company is not liable


http://therealnews.com/t2/index.php?option=com_content&task=view&id=31&Itemid=74&jumival=21481%27%20style=%27color:#000;



« Last Edit: November 19, 2021, 05:45:59 pm by AGelbert »
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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April 6, 2018



For the EPA, Denier Science is A-OK to Roll Back Clean Car Standards

The EPA has the authority to decide whether the Obama era Corporate Average Fuel Economy (CAFE) standards are appropriate. Suprising few who have been following Trump’s denier-filled swamp, on Monday, the agency officially declared “no.”

We’ve known for some time that the EPA would challenge the current CAFE standards, which call for passenger cars for model years 2022-25 to meet a fleet average of 54.5 miles per gallon by 2025. Less of a given were the reasons the EPA would cite for the rollback.

The EPA expressed concern this week for consumer cost, choice, and safety, but the agency’s decision comes after months of lobbying on the part of the Auto Alliance. Since Trump took office, the Auto Alliance — which represents 12 major automakers and 70% of all car and light truck sales in the U.S. — has been pestering the administration to rollback current CAFE standards.

A month into the Trump 🦀 administration, the CEO of the Auto Alliance, Mitch Bainwol, filed a request with Administrator Pruitt to let the EPA know the Alliance’s strong preference that the CAFE standards be deemed inappropriate at the midterm evaluation, which is what transpired this past Monday.

In February 2018, the Alliance submitted a report — written by industry shills with ties to the Heartland Institute and General Motors — to the National Highway Traffic Safety Administration (NHTSA), which is responsible for proposing new CAFE rules. The report called into question the impacts of climate change and tailpipe pollutants in an effort to undercut the need for fuel economy regulation.

The Union of Concerned Scientists has a great summary of the strategy the Alliance report used to mislead on the science. Some highlights:

֍ The papers cited to support weakening environmental protections are often paid for by industry and/or published in journals with weak peer-review standards and disclosure policies.

֍ Two authors cited by the Alliance (Stanley Young and Tony Cox) are now in advisory roles for the EPA as part of the administration’s move toward soliciting their advice from industry-funded scientists.

֍ The report cherry-picks studies to weaken the case for acting on climate and reducing emissions from vehicles, either by selecting outliers or misconstruing the findings of the research.

This week, in response to EPA’s CAFE standard decision, prominent news outlets devoted editorial space to some of the same industry shills promoting automakers interests.

Marlo Lewis 👹 of the Competitive Enterprise institute 😈has an op-ed in the San Francisco Chronicle arguing that “cutting tailpipe emission [is] not that effective against global warming.”

Sam Kazman  of CEI and Heartland 😈has an op-ed in the Wall Street Journal where he tries to make the case, scientifically, that “bigger, heavier vehicles are safer.” Ironically, the op-ed cited language from a 1992 court case, Competitive Enterprise Institute v. NHTSA, to claim that bad science was used by NHTSA to create strict fuel efficiency standards. What the op-ed failed to mention, of course, was that the courts ruled in favor of NHTSA, saying that the agency had "sufficient support" to uphold its stricter standards.

All of these efforts support the reality that automakers 🐉🦕🦖 want weaker standards and fewer environmental protections to protect their profits. By pushing for weaker standards that would increase the many and great risks of climate change, automakers indicate they only care about consumer choice, safety, and cost inasmuch as these affect their bottom line. 
« Last Edit: November 19, 2021, 05:46:22 pm by AGelbert »
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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April 10, 2018

Study denounces German coal & nuclear subsidies / Dirty diesel exports

#Climate & CO2 #Cost & Prices #Policy

Kiel Institute for the World Economy

Study offers critical look at German government energy subsidies

A new report published by the Kiel Institute for the World Economy examines the use and costs of government subsidies in German industry, including controversial areas such as coal production, nuclear waste disposal or industry rebates on energy taxes. The report, written by Claus-Friedrich Laaser and Astrid Rosenschon, points out that once introduced, subsidies often burden the state budget for decades.

In 2017, the federal government spent 2.6 billion euros to subsidise hard coal mining despite the fact the government had agreed a decade ago to end unprofitable hard coal production.

While coal subsidies will end this year, the government will continue to pay for the environmental damage caused by coal mining, as well as to support miners, the authors say. Similarly, taxpayers are still funding nuclear power despite the nuclear phase-out.

To date, the disposal of radioactive waste has cost the federal government some 150 million euros a year on average. The researchers also criticise “contradictory” subsidies, such as energy tax exemptions for energy-intensive industries.

These amount to “a subsidy of production procedures that are especially damaging for the environment or use a lot of energy,” meaning that a full tax on these companies could be particularly effective.

The current exemption system “renders the entire energy and environmental policy absurd,” the authors write.

https://www.cleanenergywire.org/news/study-denounces-german-coal-nuclear-subsidies-dirty-diesel-exports

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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Canada’s Prime Minister 🐒: We’ll Offer Aid To Ensure That Kinder Morgan 🦕 Trans Mountain Oil Pipeline Expansion Gets Built

April 16th, 2018 by James Ayre

The Kinder Morgan Canada Trans Mountain oil pipeline expansion project will go ahead even if the federal government has to offer financial aid, despite strong resistance from the government of British Columbia and activists there, according to Canadian Prime Minister Justin Trudeau.

The comments follow comments from Kinder Morgan Canada execs that the firm may end up walking away from the project if greater clarity isn’t provided about the legal path forward — that being a reference to efforts by the government of the province of British Columbia to block the C$7.4 billion project on environmental grounds.

To explain that a bit more, the idea of the Trans Mountain oil pipeline expansion project is to increase the capacity of the pipeline in question (3 times over), and thereby improve its selling position. As it stands, Canada is mostly dependent upon the USA as an oil buyer because of a lack of pipeline capacity to the Pacific coast — and thus sells much of its crude oil at a discount as compared to the benchmark CLc1. (Much of Canada’s oil is extracted in the inland province of Alberta.)

“Construction will go ahead,” stated Trudeau. “I have instructed the minister of finance to initiate formal financial discussions with Kinder Morgan, the result of which will be to remove the uncertainty overhanging the Trans Mountain pipeline expansion project.”

He then referred to the pipeline expansion as “a vital strategic interest to Canada.”

Trudeau also obliquely referenced earlier talk of the federal government taking a stake in the expansion project (in order to support it), by noting that “we are actively pursuing legislative options that will assert and reinforce the government of Canada’s jurisdiction in this matter.”

The above comments were made to reporters following an emergency summit with the premiers of Alberta and British Columbia that Trudeau took part in.

So, why is the Canadian government now seemingly pursuing what could be considered to be a “bailout” for an oil giant? Reportedly due to: worries that already declining foreign investment levels could fall even further if the expansion project doesn’t go through, and strong pressure from the connected business community.

Informally, I’ll also speculate here that officials representing China have told Canada’s federal government to make sure that the expansion happens. Obviously, I can’t prove such speculation, but “foreign investment” when it comes to Canada largely refers to China, and how much autonomy does Canada even have at this point?

The reality is that Canada is pretty much dependent on foreign investment and on its oil industry for the maintenance of its current way of life. Without both, the country is facing a steep decline in its average standard of living.

Reuters provides a bit more on the immediate situation: “Although Trudeau’s Liberal government could invoke emergency powers to ensure the project goes ahead, that would most likely anger voters in British Columbia and cost the Liberals support in a federal election in October 2019.

“Alberta Premier Rachel Notley, who also attended the talks in Ottawa, said she was convinced the expansion would be built if the financial assistance deal could be worked out. … British Columbia Premier John Horgan said after the meeting he had not changed his position that the risks of a spill from the pipeline were too great.

“Horgan wants Ottawa to refer the matter to the Supreme Court but the Liberals are not interested, saying it is already clear the federal government has jurisdiction over the project. Horgan also said he would ask the courts in British Columbia to make clear how much powers the province had to protect the provincial environment. Federal officials complain this is a time-wasting tactic.”

On that note, some 200+ protestors have been arrested by police at Trans Mountain facilities in British Columbia over the last few months, despite official opposition to the expansion project. That, taken together with the current stalemate between the provincial government and the federal one, brings to clear contrast just how large the cultural differences are between the west and east coasts of Canada.

As a reminder here, atmospheric greenhouse gas concentrations are continuing to rise at a rapid clip — due to the fact that fossil fuel usage remains right around all-time highs. If anthropogenic climate weirding and warming is to be limited to any real degree, then oil use will have to fall drastically within just the next few years.



https://cleantechnica.com/2018/04/16/canadas-prime-minister-well-offer-aid-to-ensure-that-kinder-morgan-trans-mountain-oil-pipeline-expansion-gets-built/

Agelbert COMMMENT:
Kinder Morgan is being welfare queened by the Trudeau fossil fuel industry puppet.  👎👎👎

This is the corrupt legacy of fossil fuel profit over planet for the last century. 

The Catastrophic climate change bill is coming due. We will all pay for the suicidal fossil fuel welfare queening stupidiity.



Quote
eveee  > Agelbert • 10 minutes ago

This needs to be stopped. Protest now. Really. When else? After? You'll be waiting the rest of your life. Its now or never.

Fossil Fuel Welfare Queening Stupidity.
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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Canada’s Prime Minister 🐒: We’ll Offer Aid To Ensure That Kinder Morgan 🦕 Trans Mountain Oil Pipeline Expansion Gets Built

April 16th, 2018 by James Ayre

https://cleantechnica.com/2018/04/16/canadas-prime-minister-well-offer-aid-to-ensure-that-kinder-morgan-trans-mountain-oil-pipeline-expansion-gets-built/

🐒

Quote
eveee • 29 minutes ago
Wipe that smile off Trudeau. You are a turncoat and a slimy weasel.


•Reply•Share ›
Avatar
Steve_Ohr >  eveee • 26 minutes ago
I'm disappointed as well, but restricting supply is largely irrelevant.

Reducing demand is the real fight, and Trudeau leads on that.

The carbon tax is vastly more important.


•Reply•Share ›
Avatar
eveee >  Steve_Ohr • 11 minutes ago
Yes, but I can't stand political weasels. He has not loyalty to anything, not his own words, and I don't believe he has only real loyalty to the environment.

Coal, oil pipelines, those are our biggest problems. He's not helping.

I doubt it will have any effect on oil prices. Meanwhile, GW dries the forest and the fires burned the oil sands region. Whats it going to take?


•Reply•Share ›

Avatar
agelbert > Steve_Ohr • 8 minutes ago
The problem is Catastrophic Climate Change. Corrupt bought and paid for puppets like Trudeau are just one symptom. As long as the cost of fossil fuels is kept artificially low with welfare queen subsidies and other forms of corrupt profit over planet practices, the demand destruction that a carbon tax theoretically is supposed to obtain, will not materialize. A carbon tax is an empty gesture unless it is coupled with a policy to use all the subsidy money, hitherto given to the fossil fuel industry, totally to fund Renewable Energy Technologies.

As the article above stated, " As a reminder here, atmospheric greenhouse gas concentrations are continuing to rise at a rapid clip — due to the fact that fossil fuel usage remains right around all-time highs. If anthropogenic climate weirding and warming is to be limited to any real degree, then oil use will have to fall drastically within just the next few years."

We are basically out of time for half measures. There is no way whatsoever that we can match the reduction required by the Paris Agreement any more (see below).

[/size]
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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🐭Hey humans! Sorry about talking with a mouthfull, but all decent field mice would be grateful to you if read the following article. 🐭


Agelbert NOTE: In order for us to have the correct, real world perspective in regard to the real human cost of burning fossil fuels, it is absolutely imperative that we compare Renewable Energy technologies (i.e. solar, wind, biomass, tidal, hydro, storage, etc.) with polluting energy tecnologies.

View the following graphics to get an idea of how continuing to use polluting energy technologies is uneconomical, unhealthy, and downright stupid. 





Please do your part to continue sending the Trump 🦀 Fossil Fuel Industry 🐉🦕🦖 TOOL the message that he is WRONG to welfare queen baby the polluters and undermine Clean Renewable Energy (see below).


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!   




« Last Edit: November 19, 2021, 05:48:51 pm by AGelbert »
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Trump Administration 🦀 Moving to Relax Some Offshore Drilling Rules Put in Place After Deepwater Horizon 🤬

April 27, 2018 by Bloomberg

The Discoverer Enterprise and the Q4000 work to plug the Macondo well in the Gulf of Mexico more than two months after the Deepwater Horizon exploded and sank, killing 11 people. Photo taken June 26, 2010. Photo credit: U.S. Coast Guard

By Jennifer A. Dlouhy (Bloomberg)

SNIPPET:

Environmentalists argued the changes were not necessary and could jeopardize safety improvements. Oil companies didn’t lose control of any offshore wells in U.S. waters last year — down from eight such episodes in 2013, said Lois Epstein, an engineer with The Wilderness Society.

“The rule works and is vital to safer offshore operations,” Epstein said in an emailed statement. “Weakening it would not only increase the risk of environmental disaster, it could cost lives.”

Representative Raul Grijalva  , a Democrat from Arizona, cast the effort as part of “this administration’s obsession with more drilling and fewer regulations — whatever the cost” and said that was “the same attitude that produced Deepwater Horizon in the first place.”

Full Article:


http://gcaptain.com/trump-administration-moving-to-relax-offshore-drilling-rules-put-in-place-after-deepwater-horizon/
« Last Edit: November 19, 2021, 05:49:32 pm by AGelbert »
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May 1, 2018



What’re the Kochs 🦕 🦖 Up To Lately? Ruining the Planet, As Per Usual.

With all the fireworks around Pruitt’s neverending scandalrama, and the other uproars over all “the best people” in the Trump administration, the Koch brothers are enjoying a moment of relative obscurity.

But a group of six senators are aiming to change that. The lawmakers sent letters last week the White House and eight regulatory bodies soliciting information about how the Koch network has infiltrated the Trump administration.

Their concerns are certainly well-founded, and they’ve documented multiple employees whose CVs brag about their Koch network gigs, like Doug Domenech. But we’re surprised it’s taken this long to become a concern worthy of a letter...

After all, we raised this flag back in November 2016, pointing to Pence, Pompeo, and Domenech’s Kochnecctions. Then nearly a year later in October ‘17, there was the Jane Mayer profile of Pence’s career as a Koch crony. Then in December ‘17 Public Citizen’s Koch Government report detailed the 44 Kochs in 45’s cabinet, and of course replacing Tillerson with Pompeo was another chance to call out the Kochs.

All the while, the Koch operatives who haven’t (yet) been invited into Trump’s cabinet of puppets continue trying to subvert democracy for their funders profit. Case in point: a collection of Koch groups submitted a lengthy public comment on the proposed repeal of the Clean Power Plan last week. And the Koch-funded Daily Caller was, of course, all too happy to do PR for them, eschewing any funding information and instead calling them “free market groups.” 

Fortunately, the constellation of Koch groups are up against a formidable foe. Beyond the reality of climate change and the Endangerment Finding, last week a group of 27 states, counties and cities announced their support for the CPP and opposition to Pruitt’s “error-filled” attempts to justify the repeal.

And a second coalition of 15 local governments submitted a comment alleging that Pruitt’s repeated criticisms of the CPP, and promises to repeal it, constitute a “lack of due process and fairness” that renders the public comment period moot because Pruitt’s already made up his mind to repeal. They assert that Pruitt’s “involvement has irreparably tainted the current administrative process, and as a result, EPA must withdraw the proposed CPP repeal.”

If Pruitt’s still EPA Administrator, playing in the big league so to speak, by the time the CPP repeal goes through, he’ll be facing some stiff courtroom opposition. As Kamala Harris once pointed out, Pruitt’s record in suing the EPA was… not good, “Baseball fan Pruitt lost 6 of 7 lawsuits against the EPA,” Harris Tweeted last year. “That would be a mediocre .142 batting average.”

Now that Pruitt would be defending the EPA instead of suing it, we’re wondering if he will get sent back down to the Koch’s (coal and oil-) miner league.
« Last Edit: November 19, 2021, 05:51:24 pm by AGelbert »
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:  🤬 Another 29,000 ft deep MASSIVE pollution accident waiting to happen along with MORE OIL production , not less.   



Shell Makes Large Deepwater Discovery in U.S. Gulf of Mexico

May 25, 2018 by gCaptain

deepwater poseidon drillship

Royal Dutch Shell has announced a large deepwater discovery in the U.S. Gulf of Mexico approximately 170 miles off the coast of Louisiana.

Shell Offshore Inc. said Thursday the exploration discovery was made in the Norphlet geologic play at the 100 percent Shell-controlled Dover well.

The well was drilled in Mississippi Canyon Block 612, located approximately 170 miles (273 kilometers) offshore southeast of New Orleans, in a water depth of 7,500 feet (2,280 meters) to a total vertical drilling depth of 29,000 feet (8,839 meters) measured depth. The discovery was more than 800 net feet of pay (244 meters), Shell said.

The Dover discovery is Shell’s sixth in the Norphlet.

Shell says the discovery is located approximately 13 miles from the Appomattox host platform, making it an attractive potential tieback.


“Dover showcases our expertise in discovering new, commercial resources in a heartland helping deliver our deep water growth priority,” said Andy Brown, Upstream Director for Royal Dutch Shell. “By focusing on near-field exploration opportunities in the Norphlet, we are adding to our resource base in a prolific basin that will be anchored by the Appomattox development.”

Shell’s semi-submersible Appomattox host platform has now arrived on location in the U.S. Gulf of Mexico and is expected to start production before the end of 2019.

“Shell’s major, deep-water hubs are well positioned for production expansion through near-field exploration and additional subsea tiebacks,” the company says. “The company expects its global, deep-water production to exceed 900,000 barrels of oil equivalent per day by 2020, from already discovered, established areas.     

The Appomattox host platform is owned by Shell 🦖 (79%)  and Nexen Petroleum Offshore USA Inc. 🦕 (21%) .

http://gcaptain.com/shell-makes-large-deepwater-discovery-in-u-s-gulf-of-mexico/

« Last Edit: November 19, 2021, 05:52:47 pm by AGelbert »
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June 4, 2018



Hungry Hungry Hypocrites: Trump 🦀 and Perry’s😈 Coal Bailouts and Pruitt’s 😈 Pricey Pens

Last week, Scott Pruitt went on a conservative media blitz hitting up friendly outlets for softball interviews. In a chat with former Trump aide Boris Epshteyn, of Trump-friendly Sinclair, Pruitt claims he cares “so much about taxpayer money.” Given Pruitt’s first class travel on the taxpayer dime and new reports that he spent $1,560 on a dozen personalized pens, it doesn’t take too keen an eye to see some hypocrisy. But in so much as Pruitt cares about the money because he likes to spend it, he might not be lying. (On the other hand, if he said he cared about taxpayer’s health…)

On the same note, it doesn’t take a sharp eye to spot the hypocrisy of Trump’s decision to invoke national security powers to bail out coal and nuclear plants. Dictating the operations of the electricity grid is a classic example of liberal “command and control” policy--an odd decision from the party ostensibly for personal responsibility, small government and the free market.

In terms of climate, “command and control” hasn’t really been a liberal policy preference for years. Instead, democrats have supported conservative-friendly free market-based policies like cap and trade, a price on carbon, and subsidies for renewables. But if Trump can demand the free market buy coal, why can’t liberals demand the opposite?

Coincidently, that’s more or less the subject of a new open access paper in Climatic Change, which looks at the sort of supply side policies that could tackle fossil fuel use. David Roberts at Vox breaks down the paper, which looks at the differences between supply- and demand-side policies.

Traditionally, climate policy has focused on the demand side of things: the free market friendly policies that seek out ways to reduce the demand for fossil fuels. But supply side remedies, like the opposite of Trump’s “buy uneconomical coal” policy, potentially offer stronger solutions. Whether it’s just putting an end to fossil fuel subsidies or straight up banning their use, or direct subsidies for renewable infrastructure or requiring their use (like California’s solar rooftop mandate) the simplicity and directness of these policies offer a certainty not found in cap and trade. And now that Trump’s given lie to the “we shouldn’t pick winners and losers” rhetoric that’s never really been true, there’s no reason for Democrats not to embrace a command and control, supply-side approach.

After all, Trump’s exercising his authority to nationalize private industry under a pair of national security laws. And there is a compelling argument that a World War II-scale mobilization is what’s needed to truly tackle climate change. Now that Trump’s invoked a grand national security move in the name of outdated energy sources, conservatives who aren’t staunchly and publicly registering their opposition to this policy can no longer argue in good faith that government shouldn’t tinker with the free market.

At this point in the Trump presidency, of course, we have only faint hope for a modicum of intellectual honesty and consistency. We’re sure Trump, Perry and Pruitt will continue prattling on with the obvious lie about not picking winners and losers.

To be fair, that’s half right. By focusing on the failing industries who can’t cut it in the free market and not caring “so much about taxpayer money” that gets wasted supporting them, Pruitt, Trump and Perry aren’t picking winners and losers.

They’re just picking losers.
« Last Edit: November 19, 2021, 05:53:09 pm by AGelbert »
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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June 8, 2018

Murray's Ideas to Bail Out His Industry Look Very Familiar

Coal magnate Bob Murray sent six sample executive orders to bail out the industry to Energy Secretary Rick Perry and EPA chief Scott Pruitt that contain concepts closely mirroring actions taken by the administration, according to new documents obtained by E&E News.

One of the draft orders, sent days before a meeting between Murray and Perry last March facilitated by now-EPA Deputy Administrator Andrew Wheeler, instructs President Trump to exit the Paris Agreement, while another orders the DOE to "issue an emergency directive" to study grid resiliency and halt power plant shutdowns for the duration of the two-year study.

Emails obtained by E&E also show efforts from utility FirstEnergy, which asked the administration in March to use emergency powers to bail out its struggling plants, to set up a meeting between Perry and its CEO last year.

https://www.usatoday.com/story/news/politics/2018/06/06/coal-industry-documents-show-extent-effort-influence-trump/679728002/
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If Venezuela continues to lose production, and price reacts as expected, US shale producers are just going to make a killing. They figured out how to continue to increase oil production at $50/bbl, goodness only knows what happens if they begin getting $100 or $150.

I sincerely hope Oil prices go above $100 or $150/bbl, but given the current situation in the Gulf fo Mexico ( Shell just opened a well they claim they can get gas from at SUPER cheap cost), the rapidly expanding Russian and other areas (excluding Venezuela , which is cratering) of fossil fuel production AND the cheap power from Wind and solar, that ain't gonna happen. The competition is just too fierce.

Shell Starts Production at Kaikias at $30 Break-Even Price 👀

June 1, 2018 by gCaptain

SNIPPET:

Shell Offshore, a subsidiary of Royal Dutch Shell, announced Thursday the early start of production at the first phase of Kaikias, which has an estimated peak production of 40,000 barrels of oil equivalent per day (boe/d), around one-year ahead of schedule.

Shell says it has reduced costs by around 30% at this deep-water project since taking the investment decision in early 2017, lowering the forward-looking, break-even price to less than $30 per barrel of oil.

“We believe Kaikias is the most competitive subsea development in the Gulf of Mexico and a prime example of the deep-water opportunities we’re able to advance with our technical expertise and capital discipline,” said Andy Brown, Upstream Director, Royal Dutch Shell. “In addition to accelerating production for Kaikias, we reduced costs with a simplified well design and the incorporation of existing subsea and processing equipment.”

Kaikias is located in the prolific Mars-Ursa basin around 130 miles (210 kilometres) from the Louisiana coast and is owned by Shell (80% working interest), as operator, and MOEX North America LLC (20% working interest), a wholly owned subsidiary of Mitsui Oil Exploration Co., Ltd.

full article:

http://gcaptain.com/shell-starts-production-at-kaikias-at-30-break-even-price/

Unfortunately for the environment, (SEE: GUARANTEED Catastrophic climate Change ), there's a LOT more gas where that came from:  :P

Shell Makes Large Deepwater Discovery in U.S. Gulf of Mexico

May 25, 2018 by gCaptain

SNIPPET:

“Shell’s major, deep-water hubs are well positioned for production expansion through near-field exploration and additional subsea tiebacks,” the company says. “The company expects its global, deep-water production to exceed 900,000 barrels of oil equivalent per day by 2020, from already discovered, established areas.”

The Appomattox host platform is owned by Shell (79%) and Nexen Petroleum Offshore USA Inc. (21%).

Full article:

http://gcaptain.com/shell-makes-large-deepwater-discovery-in-u-s-gulf-of-mexico/


Also, THIS threat to all things fossil fuel is NOT going to go away, but will continue to effectively exert downward pressure on oil and gas prices.




June 8, 2018 by Bloomberg

Next Offshore Wind in U.S. Can Compete With Gas, Developer Says

By Jim Efstathiou Jr. (Bloomberg) — Massive offshore wind turbines keep getting bigger, and that’s helping make the power cheaper — to the point where developers say new projects in U.S. waters can compete with natural gas.

The price “is going to be a real eye-opener,” said Bryan Martin, chairman of Deepwater Wind LLC, which won an auction in May to build a 400-megawatt wind farm southeast of Rhode Island.

Deepwater built the only U.S. offshore wind farm, a 30-megawatt project that was completed south of Block Island in 2016. The company’s bid was selected by Rhode Island the same day that Massachusetts picked Vineyard Wind to build an 800-megawatt wind farm in the same area.

Bigger turbines that make more electricity have cut the cost per megawatt by about half, said Tom Harries, a wind analyst at Bloomberg New Energy Finance. That also reduces maintenance expenses and installation time. All of this is helping offshore wind vie with conventional power plants.

See Also: Massachusetts, Rhode Island Award Major Offshore Wind Contracts

“You could not build a thermal gas plant in New England for the price of the wind bids in Massachusetts and Rhode Island,” Martin said Friday at the U.S. Offshore Wind Conference in Boston. “It’s very cost-effective for consumers.”

read more:

http://gcaptain.com/next-offshore-wind-in-u-s-can-compete-with-gas-developer-says/
« Last Edit: June 10, 2018, 03:10:51 pm by AGelbert »
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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June 11, 2018



Major GOP Donor 😈 💵 🎩 Suggested Someone Join EPA Advisory Board. Pruitt 🦖 Made Him Chair.

Over the past year, we’ve kept a close eye on the questionable legality of Pruitt’s industry-driven sabotage of the EPA’s Science Advisory Boards. Now, emails obtained via FOIA by The Sierra Club and covered by Politico Friday reveal that last August, major Republican donor Doug Deason passed Pruitt a list of suggested new board members compiled by the Texas Public Policy Foundation, an industry front group. (By the way, Deason’s on the TPPF board.)

The person who assembled the TPPF list was apparently Kathleen Hartnett-White, who withdrew from her nomination to head up the Council on Environmental Quality after an absolutely disastrous Senate hearing. With this administration, corruption seems to always be paired with incompetence.

One of Hartnett-White’s top recommendations, per Deason’s list, was Michael Honeycutt, who Pruitt ultimately selected last October as chair of the board. Honeycutt, a key player in Pruitt’s War on Air Pollution Science, is a rare breed, doubting not just climate science but also denying the even more rudimentary and well-established link between particulate matters and public health.

Even with a slate of Pruitt-appointed members, when the board (finally) met for the first time since Trump’s election a couple weeks ago, it decided to examine a variety of Pruitt’s efforts. The board members will take a look at Pruitt’s shoddy excuses for repealing the Clean Power Plan, including the social cost of carbon calculations; the oil and gas industry’s methane rules; the fuel efficiency rule and the glider truck rule, as well as the pro-polluter secret science policy. 

We’re hopeful that despite Pruitt’s industry advocates on the board, this will be a thorough review, and that it will provide an indisputable body of evidence detailing the arbitrary and capricious (and therefore illegal) nature of Pruitt’s policies.

First, though, Pruitt has to agree to accept the board’s recommendation to review the policies, then actually provide them with the requested information. Given that Pruitt ignored past invitations to meet with the group, and that he doesn’t exactly seem like the type that’s eager for scientific feedback, whether or not he takes the offer remains to be seen.

And of course it will take some time for the group to study the different issues and come to some sort of agreement as to a recommendation.

This fall, Pruitt will get another chance to appease his industry masters by replacing SAB members whose appointments are expiring with those more amenable to his pro-polluter policies.

But by that point, who knows how many other mattresses and lotions and fast food franchises and weird grifty scandals Scott Fancy Little Snack Boy Pruitt will have seen, and how many of the fake Pruitt headlines will have come true.

Maybe Pruitt will have bigger problems by then, what with the emerging potential for a criminal investigation into his misuse of his position. Or that Trump recently said he thinks Pruitt “is doing a great job within the walls of the EPA,” but ended the thought with an ominous “we’ll see what happens.”

We can’t wait.
« Last Edit: November 19, 2021, 05:54:01 pm by AGelbert »
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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Oil Producers and Their Governments

June 14, 2018

Off the keyboard of Steve Ludlum

While I certainly agree that Oil Producers and the governments they 🐉🦕🦖 have ALWAYS CORRUPTED Their Governments are a pack of profit over planet criminal greedballs doing whatever they can, no matter how environmentally damaging (i.e. STUPID), unprincipled AND ERoEI math challenged, to keep their 😈 UNCOMPETITIVE POLLUTING CRAP PRODUCT in our faces, I have a "renewable energy isn't practical" bone to pick with you. 

Hey Steve, do you STILL think 100% Renewable energy is a "pipe dream", as you tirelessly proclaimed for YEARS on this forum?

It's time for you to APOLOGIZE for pushing the erroneous hypothesis that Renewable Enegy would NEVER be price competitive with fossil fuels.


Or, just pretend I did not post this and have no "basis" for my "groundless" assertion.

Easiest Way To Counterattack Russia — Go Electric

June 14th, 2018 by Zachary Shahan

SNIPPET:


Russia is highly dependent on its oil & gas industry. Its economy is already quite weak and its people suffer under a low quality of life as a result, but it’ll get worse if Russia’s oil & gas business is harmed. And, more importantly for the Russian oligarchs running the show over there, it gets much worse for them if they can’t hoard another billion or 10 from oil & gas sales.


Put your own sanctions on Russia, as well as on the sketchy, corrupt, humanity-threatening work of US oil & gas companies, European oil & gas companies, Saudi Arabia, etc.

Lay a smackdown on these anti-social jacktards to the greatest degree you personally can. Go electric.

2017 Electric ⚡ Vehicles 

Full article:

https://cleantechnica.com/2018/06/14/easiest-way-to-counterattack-russia-go-electric/
« Last Edit: November 19, 2021, 06:00:10 pm by AGelbert »
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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