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Author Topic: Fossil Fuels: Degraded Democracy and Profit Over Planet Pollution  (Read 30330 times)

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AGelbert

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Wolf Richter has an article up about the numbers here.  We're already at 100 BKs of major companies halfway through the year, set to surpass the record of 180 in 2009.  More to come after that in 2017.

RE


Well, the important thing to understand about fossil fuel corporations in general, and oil and gas majors in particular, is that they LIE to EVERYBODY, even the bankruptcy courts that BABY them back to life when there is NO REASON to allow them to restructure. MOST of the bankruptcies in Texas that have been allowed to limp along on chapter 11 were based on $65 a barrel or MORE prices materializing in 2016. It HASN'T happened.

Now imagine if a solar panel, wind turbine or EV corporation was bleeding the same way. Renewable energy providers would NOT be given a snowball's chance in hell by bankruptcy courts or Wall Street of obtaining a Chapter 11 restructuring.

I turn blue in the face just thinking about how much THEFT is going on 24/7 by these oil and gas bastards. For example, that giant loss that Exxon just posted is probably about HALF what they ACTUALLY are bleeding.

IOW, what we are seeing is MUCH WORSE than the reality. AND it has BEEN GOING ON FOR OVER TWO YEARS!

What we find out is about two years behind and thoroughly watered down. 

The incredible accounting jabberwoky the fossil fuel pigs make up as they go along involves 24/7 TOTAL MENS REA.

They need to be destroyed for the good of humanity.


 
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 incredible accounting jabberwoky the fossil fuel pigs make up as they go along involves 24/7 TOTAL MENS REA.

They need to be destroyed for the good of humanity.


In the end, the REAL MATH cannot be falsified by accounting gimmicks.  They're at the wall now AG. Consumers cannot afford to retire the debts they accumulate.  Banks will take the losses, their losses absorbed by Central Banks, then finally they will go **** Up.  Unless the Ferengi arrive with Starship Freighters loaded with Gold Pressed Latinum and Dilithium Crystals, there is nobody left after the CBs to pick up the tab.  PAHHTY IS OVAH, the band stops playing and the beer has run out.


Down goes the Titanic.

Have a little patience.  It's coming.

RE


From your lips to God's ears. 
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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RE,  The model has oil going to $20 per barrel by 2019 with a well defined curve, if you really knew that you would buy any dips below min sell before median.  Then reverse positions and short sell any significant dips above median.  You'd lose some but if your model held you'd win more.

This explanation excludes the pertinent fact that when you SHORT a commodity, the upside is limited and the down side is unlimited. The 'market jitters' are far more applicable than supply and demand in dealing with the price of crude BECAUSE market manipulation speculation and war scares have a FAR greater effect on the price rigging of this polluting fossil fuel crap.

Consequently, shorting oil is NOT a sure winner, even if the demand destruction going on could be accurately predicted to destroy the oil and gas producing pigs.

Quote
... I certainly haven't gone into a cocoon and become a peak oil denier, ... 

Peak oil is irrelevant; demand Destruction of fossil fuels is. The USGS just found a giant gas deposit near India. There is a multi-billion barrel crude oil find off of the Falklands that has barely begun to be tapped, Another fairly large find was made near Norway. AND, GDP is rising in industrialized countries while energy demand is stable or dropping, putting the lie to the old talking point from Gail Tverberg and fossil fuel friends that GDP is a function of energy use.

Quote
... , nor am I looking to pick a bullshit internet napalm war.

I disagree. Your expressed umbrage at having your views challenged is the basic ingredient of an internet food fight.

Your basic view of the future of fossil fuels is flawed due to your lack of objectivity in regard to their actual costs to society.



The following method of obtaining CH4 has far more future than anything the oil and gas industry polluters 'R' US puts out.
 
Heartland biogas digester makes CH4 from rejected produce and cow poop

"Hitting peak oil will come faster than any of us think. But don't blame dwindling supply — it's all about disappearing demand" Amory Lovins
« Last Edit: August 01, 2016, 05:59:15 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: Please observe the brave activists hanging from the bridge.

WATCH: Shell Icebreaker Threads Bridge Hanger’s Barricade

July 31, 2015 by Reuters

Reuters By Shelby Sebens

PORTLAND, Ore., July 30 (Reuters) – An icebreaking vessel key to Royal Dutch Shell’s plans to drill for oil in the Arctic departed Portland, Oregon, late on Thursday, navigating between a narrow gap of environmental activists dangling from a bridge after a two-day human blockade.

Several Greenpeace activists appeared to bow to orders from police to lower themselves into watercraft in the Willamette River after spending more than 40 hours suspended from a bridge as temperatures soared over 100 F (30 C).

The Fennica threaded a narrow gap under St. John’s bridge just before 6 p.m. local time (0100 GMT) while several of 13 original activists remained dangling in air, backed by dozens of kayaks in the river and onlookers in a nearby park who cheered their cause.

Here’s some video from the scene (warning: language  ):


aims to return to the Arctic for the first time since 2012, when it experienced a series of mishaps including the grounding of an oil rig.

It is not allowed to start drilling without the Fennica, which is carrying emergency equipment that would cap any blown-out well, and the drilling season ends in October, when sea ice forms.

Greenpeace says Arctic drilling could be damaging to populations of whales, polar bears and walrus in the event of an oil spill.

Earlier this month, Shell crew on the Fennica icebreaker found a 39-inch (1 meter) gash in the hull, possibly caused by an uncharted shoal, and sent it to Portland for repairs.

The icebreaker’s departure on Thursday triggered a chaotic waterborne tussle between law enforcement boats and obstinate activist kayakers who took to the river again after originally being moved to the side by police using loudspeakers.

Police boats made waves that tossed some kayakers overboard and police dragged them into boats.

At least two activists were arrested, Multnomah County Sheriff’s Office spokesman Steve Alexander said. Earlier, two activists were issued police citations, Greenpeace said.

The activists are the latest group to stage demonstrations over the past three months, seeking to disrupt Shell ships from heading north from Pacific Northwest port areas.

On Thursday morning, they successfully forced the Fennica to return to a dry dock. 


The icebreaker stalled ;D when it neared the bridge on the Willamette, which leads to the Pacific Ocean, met by protesters waving large red and yellow banners, at times chanting
  No.”
“When that ship turned, that was history     ,” kayaker Michael Foster told Reuters.

Shell spokesman Curtis Smith said the company respects the rights of individuals to protest but added “the staging of protesters in Portland was not safe nor was it lawful.” 

As the protests stretched into the afternoon, a U.S. judge   in Alaska held Greenpeace in contempt and ordered it to pay fines of $2,500 per hour if the protest continued, with fines increasing daily to a rolling $10,000 per hour after Aug. 2.

It was not immediately known how much Greenpeace would have to pay in fines, nor if its members planned new protests.

“While we respect the courts, we also respect the increasingly urgent science that tells us Arctic oil needs to stay underground,” Greenpeace USA Executive Director Annie Leonard said in a statement. (Additional reporting by Timothy Gardner in Washington and Eric M. Johnson in Seattle; Editing by Eric M. Johnson, Sandra Maler and Ken Wills)

(c) Copyright Thomson Reuters 2015.

http://gcaptain.com/watch-shell-icebreaker-breaks-through-bridge-hangers-barricade/
« Last Edit: August 05, 2016, 03:36:44 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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MORE oil discovered!     

Agelbert NOTE::Ocean Valiant (WHERE do they get these names? - are all fossil fuelers victims of illusions of grandeur? ???) Oil Drilling Facility shown above finds 2 Billion barrels and promptly plugs the well for OBVIOUS market price reasons.

But don't think these biosphere math challenged oil and gas pigs aren't planning to access that crap later on. They simply cannot wrap their heads around the well established scientific consensus that there are a LOT of fossil fuels that cannot be burned without catastrophic consequences. The following graphic is beyond their cognitive grasp:
WHY can't they get the above through their thick heads? ???

BECAUSE THEY ARE BIOSPHERE MATH CHALLENGED, GREED WORSHIPPING CRAZIES.

Forget Peal Oil; Peak DEMAND for Oil is now in the rear view mirror BECAUSE the oil and gas pigs have better technology to find fossil fuels coupled with the accelerating demand destruction due to Renewable Energy infrastructure, increased efficiency AND cratering world economies. Amory Lovins predicted all this several years ago.   
Quote
"Hitting peak oil will come faster than any of us think. But don't blame dwindling supply — it's all about disappearing demand" Amory Lovins

Premier Finds Oil in Bagpuss Well  :P

Published at 08:12AM - 05/08/16

Premier Oil announced today it has found oil in the Bagpuss prospect, located in the UK sector of the North Sea.

According to the company, the discovery proved “a significant volume of oil in place”.

“We will now work with our partners to carry out a full analysis of the hydrocarbons and reservoir encountered to ascertain whether commerciality can be explained,” Premier Oil Director of Exploration and North Sea, Robin Allan, said.

The 13/25-1 well targeting the Bagpuss prospect on the Halibut Horst in the Outer Moray Firth reached a total depth of 1,532 feet in granite basement, Premier explained in a statement.

Overall, the well encountered 41 feet of hydrocarbon-bearing sands within a 68 feet hydrocarbon column, which is in line with pre-drill estimates, Premier added.

The sands have between 25% and 33% porosity and indications are that the oil is heavy. The well is now being plugged and abandoned.

According to a previous report by North Sea Energy, Bagpuss operations started on July 14th and the well was spud on July 18th.


Bagpuss and Blofeld Could Contain 2bn Oil Barrels


The well was drilled by Diamond Offshore’s Ocean Valiant drilling facility, which had previously worked on the Solan development, located west of Shetland.

The joint venture (JV) partners in the prospect are Maersk Oil UK (25%), North Sea Energy (15%), Premier Oil (40.1%, operator), EnCounter Oil (13.27%) and Groliffe (6.63%).

According to a previous statement by North Sea Energy, the cost of drilling the Bagpuss prospect are 100% funded through a farm-in agreement with Maersk and are 50% of North Sea Energy’s costs of a Bagpuss subsequent well, should one be drilled.

An analysis by Premier Oil on previous tests on the discovery suggested that Bagpuss and the nearby Blofeld heavy oil prospects together could contain up to 2 billion barrels of oil in place.

According to analysts at Wood Mackenzie , this could imply the opening of a new play.

http://www.offshorepost.com/premier-finds-oil-bagpuss-well/

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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Got a couple of politically incorrect issues here AG....

1) All this talk of drillin' for oil & then pluggin' the hole ! mmm mmmmmm
This might get some diners a little excited and cause some blow back my good man.

2) That cartoon of Anu the great  big 9ft. white lizard god of the J.W.'s may be offensive.
It's best we watch this type of humor in the future.

Carry on. 



Yep.
   

I would say those are, not just incisive and brilliant, but also 100% accurate observations on your part.   

You and I share a rather unique ability get people's drawers in a bunch. It's a skill that we aquired through frequent contact with non-intelligent, though devilishly clever and hopelessly crooked, life forms normally classified as members of Homo Sapdom.

We straight shooters aren't real popular, but you must admit we have a lot of fun telling it like it IS.   

Agelbert is shown below asking himself a philosophical question:
  :icon_mrgreen:

What is it about reality that bothers crooks and liars so much? ??? 
« Last Edit: August 08, 2016, 09:48:10 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

AGelbert

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There are 3 things in life that are 100% accurate.
1) Death
2) Taxes
3) Chickens always come home to roost. We are gonna' have us a very messy hen house ....

I just heard, I'm not sure if it was on your newz channel or not that BMW will no longer be making fossil fuel car within the next 5 years.

It may have been on the Real Verbz you tube channel. That channel deals with electro magnetic propulsion.

The mans name is Jason Verbelli & he has an amazing channel.

By the time mankind is done with the oil industry & all their chicanery we'll be lucky if they'll be a can of WD-40 on Wal-mart shelves to buy.

Old man Porsche had patents on electric vehicles in like 1901. Are you kidding me ?

This circle jerk has gone on long enuf! What a waste of time & money. Who gives a rats ass about variable valve timing.

You can put a used washing machine motor in an old V Dub Beetle, power it with nickle iron batteries & be down the road for less than 5 g's.



Yes, Germany (and Daimler - BMW too) is going to ban the manufacture of internal combustion powered cars after 2020 or 2025, depending on how much blowback from the auto manufacturers they get.

Of course the fossil fuel lobby is fighting this tooth and nail. Let us hope that common sense prevails over polluter stupidity.

And yeah, electrics were a big deal in New York in the year 1900. Rockefeller took advantage of the low level of battery technology back then. 

NOW, battery technology makes gasoline guzzlers look totally stupid and inefficient for general transportation on the roads, on the farms and even on ships.

Aircraft will take a little longer, but they can be powered, as a certain 15 year old giant drone now is, by hydrogen. Also, jet engine biofuel from algae is now being used by some airliners.

The gaming of all things energy by the oil and gas crooks has been going on for over a century. From the 19th century post-Civil War tax on alcohol that gave Rockefeller his start, BEFORE cars, to Prohibition that destroyed the ethanol competition, DESPITE it being a superior fuel, followed by wave after wave of TOTALLY unjustified "subsidies" and land lease giveaways, we-the-people have been robbed blind.

 

It's TIME that we-the-people listened to other species in the biosphere and told the fossil fueler crooks what they can DO with their polluting CRAP.
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: Perhaps this Transocean Rig was given an inappropriate name. Hubris has a way of catching up on people with illusions of grandeur. 

Transocean Rig Runs Aground
Published at 11:53AM - 08/08/16

Attention all rig crewmembers: I think we just found England. 

The Transocean-owned semi-submersible drilling rig Transocean Winner  has reportedly run aground in the UK after being struck by a severe storm.

According to the BBC, the 17,000 tonne rig was blown ashore on the Western Isles while under tow west of Lewis.

“Transocean and ALP Marine have established their emergency response rooms, SMIT salvage has been mobilised to deal with the incident,” the UK Maritime and Coastguard Agency (MCA) was quoted as saying.

Transocean Rig Runs Aground

The rig detached from its tug boat overnight before running aground at the beach of Dalmore, Carloway.

The rig had remained in contact with the tug Alp Forward, but was unable to make headway with the tow.

Earlier today, the master of the tug reported the tow line had parted and was unable to reconnect due to severe weather.

In the meantime, the MCA deployed emergency vessels from Orkney on Sunday to assist.

“The MCA’s counter pollution branch and Secretary Of State’s Representative for Salvage and Intervention (SOSREP) are monitoring the situation. Local authority and Marine Scotland have been notified,” the MCA was quoted as saying.

Transocean Winner Hit by Storm 


According to the Stornoway Coastguard, there were no personnel on board and no risk to life. However, access to the beach has been blocked.

The semi-submersible was being towed from Norway to Malta and had recently ended a contract with Marathon Oil in the Norwegian North Sea.

The incident follows weather warnings put in place for much of the north of the UK as the country was hit by winds of up to 70 miles per hour.

Transocean Winner is a GVA 4000-design rig built in 1983 in Gothenburg, Sweden, and upgraded in 2006.

The facility was contracted early this year to work in the Norwegian North Sea for Det norske, at the Volund oil and gas field.

http://www.offshorepost.com/transocean-rig-runs-aground/

A pictorial metaphor: The future of the fossil fuel industry. 

 
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 REAL World of POLLUTION & CORRUPTION Since Spindletop in Images & Numbers
 

 














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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Massachusetts AG defends climate investigation against Exxon
   
By Timothy Cama - 08/08/16 05:25 PM EDT

Massachusetts’s attorney general is fighting Exxon Mobil Corp.’s attempts to have a Texas court block its climate change investigation into the oil giant.

Maura Healey (D), the state’s top lawyer, filed a pair of briefs late Monday in the Texas federal court where Exxon sued to stop Healey’s wide-ranging demand for documents related to its stance on climate change going back to the 1970s.

Healey believes Exxon might have violated state law and committed fraud by understating the company’s research into global warming and trying to sow public doubt about the role of fossil fuels in climate change. She sent her civil investigative demand — similar to a subpoena — earlier this year.

Now Healey is accusing Exxon of “forum-shopping,” or trying to get a Texas court to intervene in a matter that should be handled in Massachusetts.

“This court should reject Exxon’s transparent attempt at forum-shopping and dismiss this case,” Douglas Cawley, who is representing Healey’s office, wrote in a brief with the federal District Court for the Northern District of Texas.

“Exxon has challenged the validity of the [demand] in Massachusetts state court and will have a full and fair opportunity to press its claims there,” he said. “Notwithstanding that fact, Exxon also elected to file a nearly identical suit in this court and asks the court to exercise personal jurisdiction over Attorney General Healey — despite the fact that all relevant events alleged in the complaint occurred in Massachusetts or New York and no relevant events occurred in Texas.”

Healey also filed a brief opposing Exxon’s attempt in the Texas court to get a preliminary injunction against the investigative demand while the litigation is ongoing.

The court, Cawley wrote in the brief, “need not reach Exxon’s preliminary injunction motion because it should dismiss Exxon’s suit for lack of personal jurisdiction over Attorney General Healey, as well as on the other grounds set forth in her motion to dismiss.”

Healey and her colleagues in New York, California and the Virgin Islands have launched investigations into Exxon’s stance on climate.

Healey agreed last month to hold off on enforcing her investigative demand while Texas challenges it in court, a standard practice in similar cases.

http://thehill.com/policy/energy-environment/290790-massachusetts-ag-defends-climate-investigation-against-exxon



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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Deepwater Mexico: Exxon, Chevron & Hess Bid To Drill Oil

August 18, 2016 by Bloomberg
 
A general view of the Tonal sea platform oil rig for Mexican oil company PEMEX, located 65 miles northeast of Ciudad del Carmen, Campeche in the Gulf of Mexico, on Thursday, Oct. 7, 2010. Pemex is Latin AmericaÕs biggest oil producer. Photographer: Susana Gonzalez/Bloomberg

by Adam Williams (Bloomberg) Exxon Mobil Corp., Chevron Corp. and Hess Corp. have agreed to bid together for rights to drill for crude in Mexico’s deepwater oil areas, according to a person with direct knowledge of the plans.

The three U.S.-based producers have reached a Joint Operating Agreement   , which allows the consortium  to bid to produce oil in the 10 areas up for auction on Dec. 5, according to the person, who asked not to be identified because the information isn’t public. A Joint Operating Agreement is a contract  ;) that establishes the role and obligation of each company in the accord, and designates the party that will act as the operator of a production area should it be awarded in the auction.

Mexico hopes to raise $44 billion in its first-ever sale of deepwater drilling rights in the Gulf of Mexico, located in the Perdido area near the maritime border with the U.S. and in the southern Gulf’s Cuenca Salina. Seventy-six percent of the country’s prospective oil resources are located offshore in deep waters, according to Energy Minister Pedro Joaquin Coldwell.


PEMEX Offshore Platforms DOING what the DO

The country approved final legislation in 2014 to allow foreign crude producers to operate in Mexico for the first time since 1938, in an effort to reverse an 11-year decline in production. The Dec. 5 auction has been lauded by the government as the most likely to attract large foreign oil operators that possess the expertise and capital to produce crude miles below the surface of the Gulf, which Pemex has been unable to exploit because it lacks the technology to do so.

All of the 26 companies that qualified to bid in the auction, including Royal Dutch Shell Plc, Statoil ASA, and BP Plc, are expected to sign similar agreements because the government’s capital requirements for bidding are considered too large for individual producers to do so alone. Petroleos Mexicanos, the country’s state-owned oil company, announced in May that they were in talks with Exxon, Chevron and Total SA to sign agreements of mutual interest to consider the possibility of bidding together in the deepwater round.

A Joint Operating Agreement can be dissolved if one of the companies withdraws its intention to participate in the contract, and the companies may opt not to bid even if the consortium is still in place.

Quote
A Chevron spokesperson said that the company could not comment on “speculation.” Hess spokesmen didn’t immediately respond to calls and e-mails after normal business hours. Exxon would not comment on the proceedings, according to a press official at the company’s Mexico offices.

©2016 Bloomberg News

https://gcaptain.com/deepwater-mexico-exxon-chevron-hess-bid-to-drill/

Agelbert NOTE: As usual, the price of oil goes up, as it has done in the last three or for days, NOT because of supply and demand, but because of SPECULATION by traders that count on their pals in fossil fuel corrupted governments to give them a profit over people and planet HAND OUT.

In addition to the totally RIGGED bidding for oil drilling rights in the Gulf of Mexico, speculation is being fueled by a tanker swarm headed for the USA to "take advantage of" some MORE WELFARE QUEEN CRAP on behalf of the fossil fuel industry corrupt and unsustainable "business model".

Oil Traders Rush To Dispatch Tankers To U.S. Ports

By Reuters on Aug 18, 2016 02:12 pm

SNIPPET:

By Catherine Ngai (Reuters) A rare opening of an export window for crude moving from the U.S. Gulf to Western Europe has caused a flurry of interest among oil traders, with at least two securing vessels.

On Tuesday, global marker Brent’s premium traded to as much as $2.50 a barrel over U.S. crude futures, the most since late February.  ;)

https://gcaptain.com/oil-traders-rush-to-dispatch-tankers-to-u-s-ports/

"Supply and Demand", MY ASS!   



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: I am posting a link to this article, but not because of the minor environmental damage caused by a fossil fuel corporation, while the State Government does everything it can to exonerate them.

I am posting a link to this article because the comments clearly show that responsible, intelligent, caring people are not fooled by this pretense of governmental environmental defense.

Of course, in addition to the responsible voices, perfidious cheerleaders for the polluting energy "real world" always weigh in using cherry picked hyperbole to try to link the environmental damage to Renewable Energy infrastructure or downplay the (SEE: "tempest in a teapot"  and "get over it" typical fossil fueler type mocking) the danger to society of this 24/7 corruption of Government by Oil & Gas corporations. The people that peddle this propaganda are a danger to themselves and future generations. They pretend to care, but they don't care about anything but the money in their bank account.

   

State: Vermont Gas likely won’t face fines for killing flowers

Aug. 23, 2016, 8:43 pm by Mike Polhamus 5 Comments

SNIPPET:
The company’s contractors destroyed 77 of what are called harsh sunflowers while cutting other vegetation July 18. Contractors had considered moving the plants but tried instead to drill horizontally beneath them for the pipeline. The flowers died during preparations for the drilling.

http://vtdigger.org/2016/08/23/state-vermont-gas-likely-wont-face-fines-killing-flowers/

UP votes left of DOWN votes

Annette Smith  
This is what Shumlin’s government does about bats killed by wind turbines, too. Sure, let ’em die, and from the ANR perspective it appears that the more killed the better because for every bat killed, the wind developers have to pay into a fund that deals with bats in people’s homes. This administration can’t be out of office soon enough, our state’s democracy and environment are a shambles thanks to the blind support for build build build.
7 | -1 

Rich Lachapelle 
They will grow back… The demise of a few plants, endangered or not is part of the price we all pay for an energy distribution infrastructure that benefits thousands of people. Municipalities host sewage treatment facilities for the public good and occasionally these facilities allow raw sewage to enter public waterways. How many times does this scenario result in fines? In the scheme of things, with Vermont’s junkie apocalypse, our world war with radical islam, and the climate armageddon, a few dead flowers is but a tempest in a teapot. Get over it.
0 | -1 

Barbie Alsop
Given that Vermont Gas is also willy-nilly insistent on going through wetlands that house an endangered bird in Geprags Park in Hinesburg, I suggest this behavior is the norm, not a singular mistake, and the Vermont Gas thinks that if it owns up after the damage is done, it will avoid penalties. As the saying goes, it’s always easier to ask for forgiveness than permission, and this is the modus operandi of VG in this ill-advised pipeline. It was required to have all its permits in place before starting to build out, an it did so by misleading the regulators about the protected land and birds in Geprags. But the state’s regulators just casually allow it to continue, rather than penalizing a corporation that has no interest in doing anything other than make money before we finally see the light, and ban fossil fuels.
12 | -2 

Kate Porter
“Vermont Gas appears not to have profited off the plants’ destruction, Porter said.”
How absurd. They’re profitting off of the whole enterprise. That’s why they’re there. That’s what they do. That’s the name of the game. Make them pay, they can, they should, and it will give them some incentive to be more responsible in the future. Don’t go belly up, they’re big boys, they can handle it.
9 | -2

Kate Porter

Many don’t realize it but all of life on this planet is in crisis due to epic species extinction. How epic? Oh, about 65 Million years worth of epic, that was earth’s last big extinction event. We are losing species at a rate of a minimum of 1000 times the natural rate of extinction. Why is this important? Life requires ecosystems, ecosystems only stay stable when they are in balance, when one thing goes out of whack it affects other things. We are changing the balance, sooner or later are going to feel it. Things will change. In the meantime we make all other life pay for our blunders and our insatiable desire for more of everything including energy. All of life deserves our utmost respect. We are horribly arrogant, and cruisin for a bruisin.
10 | -4 
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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Water Is Life, Oil Is Death: The People vs. the Bakken Pipeline in Iowa and the Dakotas

Posted on Aug 22, 2016

By Paul Street
 
People opposing the Dakota Access pipeline project, also known as the Bakken pipeline, rally in Des Moines, Iowa. (Barbara Rodriguez / AP)

The American version of democracy focuses on elections and candidates. As the venerable left intellectual Noam Chomsky observed in June, “Citizenship means every four years you put a mark somewhere and you go home and let other guys run the world. It’s a very destructive ideology … a way of making people passive, submissive objects.” Chomsky added that we “ought to teach kids that elections take place, but that’s not [all of] politics.” There’s also the more urgent and serious politics of popular social movements and direct action beneath and beyond the election cycle.

We might refine Chomsky’s maxim to read “and let rich guys run the world into the ground” or “let rich guys ruin the world.” With anthropogenic (really “capitalogenic”) global warming, the nation and world’s corporate and financial oligarchs are bringing the planet to the brink of an epic ecosystem collapse.

We might also put some meat on the bones of Chomsky’s pedagogical advice by “teach[ing] kids” about the people’s politics being practiced in the upper Midwest and northern Great Plains by citizen activists fighting to help avert ecological calamity by blocking construction of what North Dakota Sioux leader David Archambault II calls “a black snake” of “greed.” The snake in question is the planet-baking Dakota Access/Bakken pipeline, what Iowa activists call “The Next Keystone XL.”

While Iowa Berned, Dakota Access Worked Behind the Scenes       

As progressives flocked to presidential candidate Bernie Sanders’ impressive rallies in Iowa over the past year, the Texas-based company Dakota Access LLC, a division of the ecocidal corporation Energy Transfer Partners LP, moved methodically ahead with its plan to build the Bakken pipeline. This $3.8 billion, 1,134-mile project would carry 540,000 barrels of primarily fracked crude oil from North Dakota’s “Bakken oil patch” daily on a diagonal course through sacred North Dakota Sioux tribal sites and burial grounds, South Dakota, Iowa, the Missouri and Mississippi rivers and many other major waterways, to Patoka, Ill. It would link with another pipeline that will transport the black gold to terminals and refineries along the Gulf of Mexico for export to the global market.

In March, five weeks after Sanders essentially tied Hillary Clinton in the Iowa caucus, the corporate-captive Iowa Utilities Board (IUB) approved the giant Iowa portion of the project, granting Dakota Access eminent domain across the entire route through 18 counties—the last major administrative hurdle for the project. The “regulatory” boards in the other three states had already signed off. There was still some slim hope that the Army Corps of Engineers could be persuaded to block the project. That hope was dashed July 25. 

Dakota Access construction crews have begun moving dirt and tearing up farmers’ crops along the pipeline’s projected path. Pipeline workers with out-of-state license plates are showing up in hotels, motels and camps—and on dating sites like “Plenty of Fish”—along the route. Construction began in South Dakota, North Dakota and Illinois in May. Pipe has been laid in Lee County in Iowa’s southeast corner and Lyon County in the northwest. Last week, a pipeline trench crossed the popular Chichaqua Valley Trail in central Iowa. A young woman from central Iowa reports that a local dating website is “swarming” with out-of-state pipeline workers staying in campsites and elsewhere.

Dakota Access first applied to the IUB for a pipeline permit in the fall of 2014, just before Sanders’ first visit to Iowa. Slowly but surely, as media-driven popular excitement over the largely Iowa-focused presidential contest built last year, the company quietly pressed ahead with a public relations offensive (with a strong emphasis on “jobs for Iowans”) against the opposition of environmentalists and concerned citizens. There was only one formal IUB public hearing, and it lasted just one day. The opponents of the pipeline represented a cross-section of Iowans. The proponents were almost entirely from construction unions, many from out of state. Opponents who attended multiple “informational meetings” staged by Dakota Access reported numerous blatant inconsistencies, contradictions and lies in the “facts” presented by the company. While the state dived further into the quadrennial caucus commotion, Dakota Access moved the pipeline through the required administrative and public relations hoops under the media-politics radar.

The stakes are high in the fight against the project. “If the Bakken Pipeline is built,” the progressive lobbying organization Iowa Citizens for Community Improvement (CCI) notes, “it would seriously harm Iowa’s already impaired water quality, threaten the integrity of the fertile farmland of thousands of everyday Iowans, and contribute to our dependence on fossil fuels. This steers us away from developing renewable energy infrastructure and curbing the most catastrophic impacts of climate change.” CCI is part of a broad statewide anti-Bakken group called the Bakken Pipeline Resistance Coalition (BPRC) that includes more than 30 organizations. BPRC is engaged in the difficult work of grass-roots politics and direct action—both legal and extra-legal—beneath and beyond the major-party and candidate-centered presidential election extravaganzas that take early root in Iowa (thanks to its first-in-the-nation caucuses) every four years.

A Fake ‘Public Utility’

The IUB’s decision in March was rich with Orwellian irony. Iowa law forbids the condemning of agricultural land for private development. It is true, as Dakota Access argues, that the law excludes utilities under the jurisdiction of the IUB from the private development limitation. And that includes pipelines if they serve a “public purpose.” But this pipeline would simply transport oil through Iowa and therefore serve no discernible public good for the state and, in fact, promises to do considerable harm to the state’s environmental and financial health. Opponents rightly point out that like all pipelines, it will eventually spill, and Dakota Access LLC will leave Iowa holding the bag for the cleanup.

Like something out of Kafka, the IUB will have no power to enforce any kind of public regulations whatsoever on the operators of the private interstate pipeline they approved as a “public utility.” 

The IUB’s decision was another example among many that Iowa is up for sale to big business under the right-wing administration of Republican Gov. Terry Branstad.

The giant Canadian pipeline company Enbridge and Marathon Petroleum are impressed by Dakota Access’ success in gaining the approval of “regulators.” The two corporations recently put up $2 billion ($1.5 billion from Enbridge and $500,000 from Marathon) to purchase 49 percent of the Bakken pipeline. A likely consequence if the project is completed is that Canadian tar-sands oil will flow through the pipeline—and Iowa—toward the Gulf Coast. That oil is one of the most carbon-rich, planet-cooking fossil fuels on earth. Dire environmental concern about the mining of Canadian tar sands oil was the main reason climate activists like Bill McKibben engaged in high-profile protests of the proposed Keystone XL pipeline—a leading news story a few years ago.

Read the other two pages of this three page article at link below:
 

http://www.truthdig.com/report/item/water_life_oil_death_people_vs_bakken_pipeline_in_iowa_dakotas_20160822

Agelbert NOTE: The concentration of Mens Rea Criminal Corporate Corruption of the Federal and many State Governments in the USA (and the world, for that matter) based in TEXAS is evidence that the Nietzsche style Empathy Deficit Disordered Territorial Imperative is an integral part of the MORALLY BANKRUPT Texan culture and world view. TEXANS, of all people on the planet, are the greatest threat to the biosphere that humanity has ever faced.

One way or the other, the TEXAN Oil & Gas worshipping culture will soon end.

TEXAN has his morning coffee


The Fossil Fuelers in general, and TEXANS IN PARTICULAR,    DID THE 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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Polluting Dogs Have Their Day: Clean Power Plan Arguments Begin
 
 Oral arguments on the legality of the Clean Power Plan (CPP) begin today, kicking off a series of arguments, appeals and apparently, advertisements. And regardless of how these judges (six appointed by Ds, four by Rs) rule in the D.C. District Court, a West Virginia vs EPA Supreme Court showdown is nearly a sure thing. 
 
 So here’s a run-down of preliminary coverage. Two GOP-appointed EPA administrators penned an op-ed for the NY Times that explains Why Obama is right on clean energy. Their main point is that the CPP is in line with 45 years of the federal government’s power to set standards that states find ways to meet. Also at NYT is an explainer about why the clerical error that stipulates that the EPA can’t regulate something twice (think double jeopardy) has bearing on the ruling. But one expert was quoted saying such an interpretation is not likely to be endorsed by the court, as it is “like exempting restaurants from food handling requirements because they are subject to the fire code.”
 
Law professor Alice Kaswan explains in The Hill that aside from the climate benefits, “the rule could prevent 3,600 premature deaths, 90,000 asthma attacks, and 300,000 missed work and school days each year, leading to air quality-related economic benefits of at least $11 to $28 billion by 2030.”


But you wouldn’t hear that from the WSJ, who offered up about a third of yesterday’s opinion page for attacks on the CPP, with an editorial as well as an op-ed by lawyers Rivkin and Grossman. Both pieces clutch their pearls and stick to tired talking points. Even their rhetoric remains the same, as this week’s editorial headline, The ‘Clean Power’ Putsch, echoes one published last year when they dubbed it the Climate-Change Putsch. (They have yet to fully break Godwin’s law and refer in name to Hitler’s failed Beer Hall Putsch, so cheers to that...)
 
 The fossil fuel industry’s full court press extends beyond the WSJ. The “clean coal” lobby has taken the unusual (but not unprecedented) approach of running fear-mongering radio ads about how the life and climate-saving CPP will render legislators incapable of protecting their constituents (apparently “constituents” means fossil fuel companies). This hyperbolic ad sounds like a parody of melodramatic movie trailers, made complete by the video version that literally shows the constitution burning. That bit of over-the-top imagery is based on a quote from Peabody Energy’s lawyer Lawrence Tribe, but as PoliticoPro’s coverage explains, the ad flirts with rules prohibiting lawyers communicating with judges outside the courtroom. Using of one of the lawyer’s quotes is, if nothing else, “highly unprofessional,” according to an ethics lawyer from the George W. Bush administration.
 
 Whether or not the judges will be persuaded remains to be seen. Since recent reporting shows most of the states suing over the plan being too burdensome are nevertheless already on track to meet its targets, challengers have an uphill battle. But unfortunately, even if the plan goes ahead, we’ll still need more emission reductions to meet the Paris goals, as evidenced by another new study.
 
 By striking the plan down then, we’d be even further from climate safety. So this courtroom drama is truly courting disaster.

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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For those who labor under the view that the reversal of fortunes for Renewable Energy in the early 1980s was just ignorance, supply and demand and big oil wasn't INSTRUMENTAL in bringing it about.

Oh, and about NON-HYDRO renewable energy being THROTTLED shortly after the technology was proven competitive with fossil fuels. You mean you DIDN"T KNOW there was SIGNIFICANT PROMISING  RENEWABLE ENERGY NON-HYDRO COST COMPETITIVE TECHNOLOGY BEFORE 1980? ???

I understand that the media BURIED the FACT that IT HAPPENED TO WIND TURBINE TECHNOLOGY shortly after 1980 when Carter left office!

 

It was SHELVED -DEEP SIXED - LEFT TO DIE UNTIL RESURRECTED in the mid to late 1990s (BUT NOT BY THE USA!)

The GREATEST PENETRATION OF PURE HYDRO renewable energy in the USA was in 1940.
Quote
Over 1500 hydroelectric facilities produce about one third of the United States' electrical energy.

http://www.usbr.gov/power/edu/history.html

It was ALL DOWN HILL FOR HYDRO AS A PERCENTAGE of electrical energy generated FROM THEN ON.

The NEW CSP, wind turbine and, to a lesser but still important extent PV technologies, were being assiduously developed during the late 1970s.

Power companies closed ranks AGAINST that technology. Even places WITHOUT electricity like a Navajo Reservation in New Mexico triggered angry letters from the utility to NASA to STOP putting solar panels for water pumping there because it COULD "force electrical rates DOWN IN THE FUTURE".  NASA STOPPED but Carter kept pushing until 1980.          GET IT? ???  ;)

NO?

Check THIS out:

 





Westinghouse uprated version, the Mod-0A. Four Mod-0A protototypes were installed (Puerto Rico, New Mexico, Hawaii & Rhode Island).
[/i]

When do you think the above pictures were taken, dear readers? Would you believe THIRTY EIGHT YEARS AGO!!? 
 


Wind Energy Comes of Age

By Paul Gipe

Pag 103

Quote
After the moon landings, the space program began winding down, and with it the space agency.

NASA was scrambling to redefine itself, to find new "missions," when opportunity struck in the form of the oil embargo.

What began as mere tinkering by researchers at the agency's Lewis research center near Sandusky, Ohio quickly evolved into the most costly wind energy R&D program in the world.

NASA began translating all known documents on wind energy worldwide.
They consulted with Hutter and Putnam and studied the operation of Juul's machine at Gedser. In the end they started down a path blazed years before by Putnam. The result, the Mod-0, resembled neither Hutter's lightweight, flexible, downwind design nor Juul's rigid thee bladed upwind design. NASA's Mod-0 incorproated none of the lessons of Europe, while abandoning Putnam's most significant design element, his hinged blades.

Westinghouse, the contractor on the Mod-0, was subsequently hired to build an uprated version, the Mod-0A, for extended field tests. Four Mod-0A prototypes were installed (Puerto Rico, New Mexico, Hawaii & Rhode Island).

All were scraped when none of the host utilities wanted to assume maintenance of the turbines.

http://www.worldbooksonline.info/Wind-Energy-Comes-of-Age-9780471109242

The book goes on to explain, in detail, how various R&D goals of a high MTBF "couldn't seem to be achieved" in order for these machines to be considered "reliable".   

They could build rockets to the moon, supersonic aircraft, high speed jet turbines with micrometer tolerances but making gears, housings and transmissions for a glacially slow giant propeller to generate electricity was just "too hard".


If you believe that, I have time shares in a black hole at the core of the milky way to sell you cheap.


Call 1-800-BIG OIL for your time share reservations.
 
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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