Thursday - January 31, 2013
Taking Off Like A Rocket
At the local El-Cheapo no brand gas station down the street, the cash price for a gallon of low grade 87 octane gasoline today is $3.42. Last night it was $3.35. Yesterday morning it was $3.29. The day before that it was $3.27. Before that it had rested at $3.25 for 3 or 4 days, after jumping up from $3.19, which was the lowest price it had sold for in many months. This latest increase - 23¢ in under a week - is going gangbusters. 2% a day it seems ... at that rate, it will be over $4 by next weekend. Horry clap. And that’s the cheap station; the other two stations in town are already at $3.50 or higher. And NJ has just about the cheapest gas prices in the country. Help us Lord Obama, help us!
Gasoline and heating-oil futures were higher on the New York Mercantile Exchange on indications of stronger demand. The robust rally in reformulated gasoline blendstock futures continued for a 10th day as data from the Energy Information Administration showed gasoline stockpiles in the mid-Atlantic region remain near 15% below their five-year average level for this time of year.
Crude-oil futures bounced on either side of unchanged, sticking close to their highest level since mid-September.
Nymex light, sweet crude oil for March delivery was 16 cents higher at $97.73 a barrel, after trading in an intraday span of $97.32 to $98.24 a barrel. The contract settled Tuesday at the highest price since Sept. 14. ICE March North Sea Brent was 55 cents higher at $114.91 a barrel, after settling a day earlier at the highest level since mid-October.
The EIA reported that U.S. crude-oil stocks climbed by 5.947 million barrels in the week ended Jan. 25, helped by a modest rise in imports. The stockbuild exceeded the 2.7-million-barrel rise expected by analysts surveyed by Dow Jones Newswire and topped the nearly 4.2-million-barrel gain reported late Tuesday by the American Petroleum Institute, a trade group.
The large stockbuild came even as refiners boosted crude-oil process rates last week. The EIA said refiners operated at 85% of capacity, while analysts expected the level to hold at a 10-month low of 83.6% of capacity.
Gasoline stocks dropped nationwide by 956,000 barrels, compared with analysts’ expectations of a slim, 200,000-barrel rise. Nationwide stocks are 2.2% above a year ago despite low levels in the mid-Atlantic states. Distillate stocks (diesel/heating oil) fell 2.315 million barrels, more than the forecast of a 900,000-barrel drop.
Implied gasoline demand inched up to the highest level in a month, while distillate demand was the highest since mid-December.
So the prices are up because the “implied” demand is up, but the demand is up because supplies are lower. Meanwhile, crude oil on hand is at record levels, but the distilleries are just puttering along to keep the supply low. And the analysts don’t know jack. In other words, we’re being gamed. Played by the oil companies. Squeezed hard yet again. Thanks for nothing. Hosers.
Meanwhile, the economy is actually shrinking, down 0.1% for this most recent quarter after several months of modest 3-4% growth. And wouldn’t you know it, the weekly jobless claims are once again ... say it with me ... “unexpectedly higher”.
The number of Americans filing new claims for unemployment benefits bounced off five-year lows last week, pulling them back to levels consistent with modest job growth.
Initial claims for state unemployment benefits increased 38,000 to a seasonally adjusted 368,000, the Labor Department said on Thursday. The prior week’s claims figure was unrevised.
Economists polled by Reuters had expected claims to increase to 350,000.
So, flat economy, more than expected unemployment ... all point towards lowered gasoline demand. The prices ought to be falling at the pumps, not spiking up. Rat bastards.
Posted by Drew458
on 01/31/2013 at 01:02 PM
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Permalink • Sunday - December 09, 2012
so then, has the usa been missed by the bullet or are we joining the greens and urope?
I heard on the radio that the US didn’t sign on to this. Hope that’s all there is to it but, being somewhat cynical and not having much faith in the word of politicians and especially this administration, I really don’t know. In other words, I should say little as I clearly would not know what the hell I was talking about when it comes to the deeply scientific stuff. Mostly I hear from the folks who want to ban cars from downtown and make all sorts of claims with regard to planet poisoning and of course, saving the children of the next generation from choking to death on carbon fumes. Locally, they may be small in number but they make far more noise than they deserve. And they are very quick to shout down opposition cos we all know folks on the other side of this argument are Nazis and anti social types and money ppl who are not interested in anything but profit.
So anyway, I caught this article and wondered if by chance America has missed being hit by this left wing bullet. But reading further I found this disquieting quote.
vital step towards a new global pact meant to be agreed in 2015 and enter force five years later, which will for the first time set legally-binding targets for every nation, including China, India and the US.
AND the USA?
So, we’ve joined or on the brink of joining the EU? OK not that and yeah, that is meant with extreme unpleasantness and in a snide manner.
Britain poised to sign costly climate deal that could tie us into stringent new emissions targets
By Nick McDermott
Britain is set to sign a new international climate treaty which could require us to meet stringent — and expensive — new emission targets.
After a fortnight of fraught negotiations between 194 nations at the UN climate talks, which are expected to conclude in the early hours of today, a deal to replace the historic Kyoto Protocol is almost on the table.
Under the deal, Europe is committed to cutting its emissions by a fifth by 2020, with each member state set an individual target. But Liberal Democrat Energy Secretary Ed Davey is supporting a bid to raise that pledge even further later this decade, which would force Britain’s to reduce greenhouse gases by up to a quarter more than the current ambitious level of 34 per cent.
The UK has already pledged £2.9 billion to support windfarms in Africa and greener agriculture in Colombia, known as climate aid, over a four-year period ending in 2015.
And only last month, the Government announced a green energy strategy which will treble the costs levied on power bills from £2.35billion a year to £7.6billion. So any further environmental pledges would likely prove unpopular at home.
Peter Bone, Conservative MP for Wellingborough, said: ‘We need to expand our economy and focus on growth, and we won’t do that by increasing the cost of power and signing up to increased targets.
Can it get any dumber? Can it get any more crazy? What’s with this govt.? Windfarms where? And is that figure right? Almost $4 BILLION. And “climate aid” for who? They are cutting services left and right and falsely claiming that, “We are all in this together.” Oh come on. There isn’t one single solitary person anywhere in the UK who actually believes that BS. Not even the left are that stupid and self delusional. As usual, the bureaucrats are telling lies.
Sure thing England. Tighten your belts some more so that the govt. can grab the cash to make friends in Africa and Columbia. What utter tosh. Rubbish.
‘A lot of carbon targets could be met in the future with new technologies, so by signing this deal we are just handicapping ourselves and hard-working families.’
The new pact has already come under fire for lacking any real ambition as it is only expected to cover a mere sixth of the world’s polluters — Europe, Australia, Norway, Switzerland, Ukraine and tiny Lichtenstein — but does not require action from the biggest emitters, the US and China.
To fulfil Europe’s commitment to reduce emissions by a fifth by 2020 compared to 1990, the UK must produce 34 per cent less carbon dioxide. This is the same figure set out under British domestic law.
A clause within the new agreement will allow signatories to set tougher legally-binding targets for 2020 later this decade.
If Europe raises its ambition to a 30 per cent reduction — a pledge supported by Mr Davey — Britain would face much tougher and more expensive green commitments, with estimated emission cuts of 42 per cent needed.A DECC spokesperson said: ‘This is speculation as the final text of the agreement has not yet been decided.
‘If this scenario does occur, it would commit all parties in the second commitment period of the Kyoto Protocol to review their level of ambition by a set date. This date has not yet been finalised.’
Speaking yesterday between negotiations, Mr Davey said: ‘That money has actually helped change the dynamics of these negotiations. Our early pledging of that money has catalysed others.’
The new deal is seen as a vital step towards a new global pact meant to be agreed in 2015 and enter force five years later, which will for the first time set legally-binding targets for every nation, including China, India and the US.
The goal of the UN talks in Doha, Qatar, is to keep temperatures from rising more than 2C, compared with pre-industrial times — the level scientists say is needed to prevent dangerous climate change.
I found this photo caption amusing.
Qatar has come in for criticism as it has so far failed to set clear targets for reducing its own emissions, despite having the world’s highest per capita carbon footprint
Right. Go after those Arabs you gween activists.
On the other side of things there was this. I’ve done a lot of editing for space so see link for all. Pretty interesting stuff.
Thought we were running out of fossil fuels? New technology means Britain and the U.S. could tap undreamed reserves of gas and oil
By Nigel LawsonBlackpool is sitting on one of the biggest shale gas fields in the world with a reserve of 200 trillion cubic feet lying under the Lancastrian countryside.
sections of U.S. manufacturing are even repatriating their activities from China.
Sadly, however, Europe’s leaders have wholly failed to face up to this energy revolution and many European policy-makers are blocking shale gas developments.
There are a mere two dozen test drills around Europe, compared with an estimated 35,000 fracturing sites in the U.S.
As a result, instead of benefiting from cheap shale gas, new industries and hundreds of thousands of new jobs, Europe is constraining itself with self-imposed green limits to growth.
This is despite the fact that gas-fired power stations emit roughly half the carbon dioxide that coal-fired power stations do, which is why the U.S. is the only country to have significantly reduced its CO2 emissions in recent years.
By going for those green energy targets, countries such as France and Germany are making their energy-intensive industries increasingly uncompetitive. Germany’s largest companies have warned that they are already losing out against their U.S. competitors thanks to rising energy costs.
Posted by peiper
on 12/09/2012 at 07:13 AM
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Permalink • Friday - September 21, 2012
Oh Noes!!!!
Enviro-wienies at CNN:
(CNN)—The Three Mile Island nuclear power plant shut down unexpectedly Thursday when a reactor coolant pump failed, federal regulators said.
“This appears to be a fairly straightforward shutdown,” said Neil Sheehan, a spokesman for the Nuclear Regulatory Commission. “Every indication we’re getting is the reactor safety systems are performing the way they are designed.”
The Unit 1 reactor shut off automatically about 2:20 p.m., the plant’s owner, Exelon Corporation, reported. There is no danger to the public, but the release of steam in the process created “a loud noise heard by nearby residents,” the company said.
Sheehan said one of the four reactor coolant pumps appears to have stopped working. Though three others remain, the system shuts down when an anomaly is detected, he said.
Thursday marked the second time in a month that the reactor has been shut down, following an August 22 leak in a heating system used to pressurize water. The unit was replaced, inspectors found no signs of a problem in two other units and the reactor returned to service on September 5, according NRC records.
The 825-megawatt pressurized water reactor at Three Mile Island, about 10 miles outside Harrisburg, Pennsylvania, has been in service since 1974 and can power about 800,000 homes. There was no loss of electrical service after Thursday’s shutdown, Exelon said.
The Unit 2 reactor has been shut down since a partial meltdown in 1979. There were no injuries and little release of radiation from that incident, which remains the worst commercial nuclear accident in U.S. history.
And not a single new reactor built since then. Not one. Regardless that Unit 2 worked perfectly even when things went wrong, and regardless that the safety steps and system redundancy has increased orders of magnitude since then. But let’s live in fear forever and forgo the one and only alternate energy solution that actually works, because the WORST NUCLEAR ACCIDENT IN US HISTORY was a fucking joke that killed, hurt, wounded, or sickened exactly NOBODY.
Posted by Drew458
on 09/21/2012 at 08:19 AM
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Permalink • Monday - September 17, 2012
Gas Pains
Well that about says it all I think, but I’ll give you some quotes and links. We’re being screwed over, and our nation continues to not have an energy plan in our own best interests. Gee, that’s news.
The Federal Reserve’s announcement last week to move forward with more stimulus measures in an effort to spur economic growth caused oil prices to jump. In addition, the escalated violence in the Mideast and North Africa has led to concerns of supply disruptions. This comes at a time when Iran’s output is down because of sanctions against the country. In 2011, the Middle East and North Africa were responsible for approximately 36 percent of global oil production.
“With the stimulus announcement and increased tensions overseas, it’s surprising oil prices are not above $100 a barrel,” said Jessica Brady, AAA spokeswoman, The Auto Club Group. “However, it’s very likely the cost of a barrel of oil will surpass $100 this week, as concerns of a supply disruption in the Middle East intensify.
“Unfortunately, it doesn’t look like motorists will see much of a decrease, if any, at the pump, as initially expected this time of year. Instead, gas prices are likely to increase.”
The national average price of regular unleaded gasoline is $3.86, 3 cents more than last week. Florida’s average of $3.81 and Tennessee’s average of $3.67 both increased 2 cents from a week ago today, while Georgia’s average of $3.77 fell 4 cents from last week, respectively.
Gas prices in August on average rose to $3.78 per gallon in Ohio and $3.80 in the region, the highest average prices ever recorded for the month, and the first monthly increases since March, according to a Hamilton JournalNews/Middletown [Ohio] Journal analysis.
Last month, the average price of a gallon of regular gasoline in Ohio was 12 cents higher than it has ever been in August, and it was 13 cents higher than any previous August in the Cincinnati-Middletown region, according to data from the AAA Fuel Gauge Report.
Rising fuel costs are tied to limited supplies resulting from refinery shutdowns and producers switching over to winter blend gasoline, experts said. The pain at the pump that intensified in August has not receded, and gas prices in the Cincinnati region and Ohio are on track to set a new record for the month of September.
“It was the most expensive August for gas prices ever in the state of Ohio,” said Patrick DeHaan, senior petroleum analyst with GasBuddy.com. “It’s going to be really close, but September could be a record-setting month.”
Between July and August, the average price of unleaded gasoline in the state and the Cincinnati-Middletown region increased by about 34 cents, the largest spike in prices during that time frame, according to AAA records that go back to 2000.
The price hike occurred largely because refineries were operating at reduced capacities as a result of Hurricane Isaac, DeHaan said. Some Midwest oil refineries also had production problems, including a ruptured pipeline in a Wisconsin field.
“There have just been a lot of supply constraints,” he said.
RISING GAS PRICES
The average gas prices in August rose to $3.78 per gallon in Ohio and $3.80 in the region, the highest average prices ever recorded for the month.
Cincinnati/Middletown region
Year Sept. Aug.
2012 $3.88 $3.80
2011 $3.53 $3.59
2010 $2.71 $2.67
2009 $2.44 $2.53
2008 $3.77 $3.67
It blew me away the other day when the Shell station, always the greedy pigs in the neighborhood, suddenly raised their price to $3.89 the other day, while “Apu” up the street here at the no-name station was pushing his swill for $3.71. The next day his price was $3.73, then $3.80, and today it’s $.389. Meanwhile the Shell station has jacked it to $3.93. And that’s cash price, for the anemic 87 octane goat piss 10% ethanol blended crap that passes as regular these days. Um, no, Regular is 89 octane, no alcohol. Economy is 87, no alcohol. Regular Gasahol may be 87/10, but let’s call it that clearly, and constantly remind everyone that just about all cars 7 years old or older will get about 10% lower MPG on that thinned out mix than they would on straight up gasoline.
Oh, and I distinctly remember the vertical drop in gas prices at the end of the summer in 2008. Gas dropped to under $2 a gallon here in NJ for a couple of days. It was sweet. And I’m pretty sure I blogged about filling up my tank for just a twenty.
CORRECTION: MY ERROR. IN DECEMBER 2009 GAS COST UNDER $1.50 PER GALLON IN NJ and here is the post: linky link. And in the comments there we have news of $1.37 in Missouri and $1.29 in Kansas City, even $1.79 in Florida ... so $2.44 is Ohio seems like a FUDGED PRICE to me. Try $1.43 media boy, you lying sucker of Obama’s limp noodle. Try admitting to a 300% gas price increase under Obama if the current spike goes up another quarter dollar. We’re already at 270% using the numbers from the stations right down the street from me.
Gas prices getting out of hand
People can’t afford even higher pump costsThere’s a lot of talk about getting the U.S. economy going. That’s a difficult task when gasoline prices are so high.
According to reports last week, the price at the pump is hurting consumer spending habits and slowing the already-weak economic picture. Based on the price spikes that have occurred locally in recent days, escalating gas prices will do more damage has we head into winter. The formula is simple: If gas prices go up, consumers will have less money to spend elsewhere.
Normally, gas goes down a bit in the days following Labor Day. But consumers were having to pay more at the pump through the weekend, as gas prices hit an unusual mid-September spike. Figures released by AAA on Friday show the national average jumped 5 cents this week, raising prices to $3.87 for a gallon of regular gasoline. This is just 7 cents short of the year’s highest price — $3.94 set on April 5.
...
Gas prices have risen more than 50 cents per gallon in the past two months.
Higher gas prices are eating up a bigger share of Americans’ incomes. Spending at the pump accounts for 8.2 percent of the typical family’s household income — just below last year’s 8.3 percent. Those represent the biggest slice of household income spent on gas since 1981. The typical household spends about $342 per month on gas. Before prices began rising in 2004, households spent less than $200 per month.
But it’s for your own good!! And after all, wasn’t this one of Obama’s campaign promises? Something about energy prices “necessarily going to skyrocket”?? Well, you voted for it, so make room in the hen house for another chicken coming home to roost.
Posted by Drew458
on 09/17/2012 at 07:02 AM
Filed Under: • Oil, Alternative Energy, and Gas Prices •
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Permalink • Monday - August 06, 2012
the night watchman
I do not recall ever seeing this before.
H/T Doc Jeff yet again.
NIGHT WATCHMAN
Once upon a time the government had a vast scrap yard in the middle of a desert.
Congress said, “Someone may steal from it at night.”
So they created a night watchman position and hired a person for the job.
Then Congress said, “How does the watchman do his job without instruction?”
So they created a planning department and hired two people, one person to write the instructions, and one person to do time studies.
Then Congress said, “How will we know the night watchman is doing the tasks correctly?”
So they created a Quality Control department and hired two people. One was to do the studies and one was to write the reports.
Then Congress said, “How are these people going to get paid?”
So they created two positions: a time keeper and a payroll officer then hired two people.
Then Congress said, “Who will be accountable for all of these people?”
So they created an administrative section and hired three people, an Administrative Officer, Assistant Administrative Officer, and a Legal Secretary.
Then Congress said, “We have had this command in operation for one year and we are $918,000 over budget, we must cut back.”
So they laid-off the night watchman.
NOW slowly, let it sink in.
Quietly, we go like sheep to slaughter. Does anybody remember the reason given for the establishment of the DEPARTMENT OF ENERGY during the Carter administration?
Anybody? Anything? No? Didn’t think so!
Bottom line is, we’ve spent several hundred billion dollars in support of an agency, the reason for which very few people who read this can remember! Ready?
It was very simple; and at the time, everybody thought it very
appropriate.
The Department of Energy was instituted on 8/04/1977, TO LESSEN OUR DEPENDENCE ON FOREIGN OIL.
Hey, pretty efficient, huh?
AND NOW IT’S 2012—35 YEARS LATER—AND THE BUDGET FOR THIS “NECESSARY” DEPARTMENT IS AT $24.2 BILLION A YEAR. IT HAS 16,000 FEDERAL EMPLOYEES AND APPROXIMATELY 100,000 CONTRACT EMPLOYEES; AND LOOK AT THE JOB IT HAS DONE!
(THIS IS WHERE YOU SLAP YOUR FOREHEAD AND SAY, “WHAT WERE THEY THINKING?")
34 years ago 30% of our oil consumption was foreign imports. Today 70% of our oil consumption is foreign imports.
Ah, yes—good old Federal bureaucracy.
NOW, WE HAVE TURNED OVER THE BANKING SYSTEM, HEALTH CARE, AND THE AUTO INDUSTRY TO THE SAME GOVERNMENT?
Hello! Anybody Home?
Signed, The Night Watchman
Posted by peiper
on 08/06/2012 at 02:01 PM
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Permalink • Sunday - April 08, 2012
The Other Approach
America is swimming on a sea of natural gas. We have so much of it we don’t know what to do with it. The gas companies are running out of places to store it, and shutting down exploration and drilling rigs all over the place. The price of natural gas is dropping like a rock, and may fall below $1/Mcf. Why in heaven’s name don’t we run our vehicles on this stuff? It burns clean too; far cleaner than gasoline or diesel even with the best catalytic converters and scrubbers we can design.
The U.S. natural gas market is bursting at the seams. So much natural gas is being produced that soon there may be nowhere left to put the country’s swelling surplus. After years of explosive growth, natural gas producers are retrenching.
The underground salt caverns, depleted oil fields and aquifers that store natural gas are rapidly filling up after a balmy winter depressed demand for home heating.
The glut has benefited businesses and homeowners that use natural gas. But with natural gas prices at a 10-year low — and falling — companies that produce the fuel are becoming victims of their drilling successes. Their stock prices are falling in anticipation of declining profits and scaled-back growth plans.
Some of the nation’s biggest natural gas producers, including Chesapeake Energy, ConocoPhillips and Encana Corp., have announced plans to slow down.
“They’ve gotten way ahead of themselves, and winter got way ahead of them too,” says Jen Snyder, head of North American gas for the research firm Wood Mackenzie. “There hasn’t been enough demand to use up all the supply being pushed into the market.”
So far, efforts to limit production have barely made a dent. Unless the pace of production declines sharply or demand picks up significantly this summer, analysts say the nation’s storage facilities could reach their limits by fall.
That would cause the price of natural gas, which has been halved over the past year, to nosedive. Citigroup commodities analyst Anthony Yuen says the price of natural gas — now $2.08 per 1,000 cubic feet — could briefly fall below $1.
Natural gas burns much cleaner than either gasoline or diesel, and produces far less CO2. So why not use it to power our cars and personal trucks? Any number of cities now use NG powered buses. Why not cars too?
Did you know that there is only one natural gas powered car for sale in the USA? Honda makes it. Of course. It’s the Honda Civic GX. It sells for several thousand dollars more than a regular Civic, and at full tank pressure it has a range of about 250 miles. It also has a trunk so small that it’s volume is only envied by Corvettes and Miatas; you’ve got room for a couple bags of groceries and a briefcase, and that’s about it. And given an equal engine size, it only makes about 2/3 the power of a gasoline engine.
That’s the problem - or one of the problems - with natural gas powered vehicles. Gasoline and diesel are pretty energetic mediums. Natural gas only has 65% of the energy of gasoline, 58% that of diesel. And it’s a gas, not a liquid. At maximum pressure, 3600psi, which only a few of the rather rare natural gas filling stations can provide, natural gas is just under 4 times the volume of liquid gasoline (3.92:1). So to get a vehicle with the range of 15 gallons of whatever gas powered car you’re driving, you would need a tank that could hold the same volume as 60 gallons of gasoline. And built tough as a scuba tank as well. And to match the power, you’d need an engine about 25-35% larger. So your 2.5L 4 cylinder would have to become a 3.2L V6. So for the tiny little cars our masters in government want us to drive, it just doesn’t make much sense, unless you NEVER take a drive more than 100 miles round trip. For mid-size vans, SUVs, and pickup trucks though, natural gas could work. These vehicles are larger to begin with, often sit higher off the ground, and usually have pretty big gas tanks. Some of them come from the factory with two gas tanks. And most of them are already available with a selection of larger engines. So they could be built to run on natural gas, with a tank big enough to give them a reasonable range. People would have to stop thinking in terms of miles per gallon, and start thinking in terms of dollars per mile. Or 100 miles. Whatever. It’s an apples and oranges thing, but the bottom line is that while gasoline seems to cost more every day, natural gas gets cheaper by the hour. And you could fill up you NG pickup for about half the cost you’re now paying for diesel ($4.15/g down the street here). And you’d be making any rational hippies smile (forgive me that oxymoron), creating far less pollution than even one of those PZEV cars you see zipping around.
All you need is a place to fill them up. Or invest several thousand in a home compressor to use the natural gas your house runs on (assuming that gas is clean enough for your state’s CARB equivalent). Too bad Obama did all his alternate energy investments in unicorn circle jerk companies, and not in the one field that we actually have a major advantage and a tremendous abundance in.
GM, Chrysler to Launch Natural Gas-Powered Pickups
As gasoline prices continue to climb, automotive manufacturers GM and Chrysler are transitioning to natural gas-fueled heavy duty pickups. Among the top U.S. compressed natural gas (CNG) companies, Clean Energy Fuels (NYSE: CLNE) supplies its customers with CNG equal to a gallon of gasoline for $2.59, while the current national average of gasoline is $3.79 a gallon. Americans haven’t seen gas prices even close to $2.59 since late 2009.
Honda is currently the only manufacturer of a CNG fueled car, selling roughly 2,000 of its Civic GX natural gas models last year in a limited number of states. Honda is expanding this year to offer the Civic GX in 50 states, expecting to double sales nationwide.
But with soaring gas prices and heightened interest in clean-burning, domestically produced natural gas, Detroit automakers join Honda in recognizing the potential gains in manufacturing CNG fueled vehicles.
At the 2012 Work Truck Show in Indianapolis, General Motors disclosed its plan to produce its Chevy Silverado and GMC Sierra bi-fuel pickups later this year.
Chrysler followed suit with the launch of its Ram 2500 heavy duty pickup that can run on both CNG and regular gasoline. The bi-fuel Ram 2500 costs roughly $12,000 more than a gasoline-powered pickup, Chrysler assures buyers that the initial higher payout costs of a natural gas powered pickup will create “significant cost savings over the life of the truck”.
While GM and Chrysler’s success in expediting the shift toward making natural gas fueled vehicles a mainstream reality is a significant step in the right direction, further progress is crippled by environmental concerns about natural gas extraction methods and limited access to refueling stations.
I would want some decent engineers to take a look at a variation on this approach. Natural gas may not be the best thing for reciprocating engines; gasoline and diesel are petroleum products, so in addition to burning they also provide a bit of lubrication to the upper cylinder area. You don’t get any of that with natural gas. Perhaps the best approach is for a steady RPM gas turbine that drives a generator that powers electric motors that drive the vehicle. Kind of like turboprop aircraft, which are extremely efficient as long as you don’t want to fly too fast, too high, or too far. Run the generated electricity across just a couple of smaller batteries, so you’d have some cranking power around to start the vehicle in the morning, and the ability to limp home a dozen or so miles if you ran out of fumes. Could it work? Try it and see. Even Paris Hilton knows that the best approach is all approaches. Well, assuming those are genuine approaches, and not phony money laundering payback schemes for your big money bundlers.
Posted by Drew458
on 04/08/2012 at 05:02 PM
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Permalink • Monday - April 02, 2012
Govt Caused Panic In Britain
Petrol retailers: Government intent on creating fuel crisis
The Government was accused of creating a fuel crisis due to its advice over how to prepare for a potential tanker driver strike.Representatives of petrol station operators said that the Government action could see forecourts run dry within days.
Petrol sales soared by 45 per cent yesterday, after the Government suggested people should stock up on fuel as a “precaution” against a possible strike by tanker workers over the Easter weekend.
Francis Maude, the Cabinet Secretary, today told drivers they should make sure they have enough fuel in their vehicles and “maybe a little bit in their garage as well in a jerry can”.
However, both the AA and firefighters have now called on him to withdraw the advice, because of the risk of explosions in garages.
There were secenes of long queues at petrol pumps in Liverpool, Preston and Kent, while pumps ran dry in Wilmslow, Cheshire, and Llandudno Junction in North Wales.
And the news was immediately full of stories of sick people dying because the ambulances couldn’t fuel up, and other stories of foolish people getting horribly burned by trying to decant gas from one container to another in their kitchens, by candlelight, while smoking. This lead to ‘Elf & Safety and their fellow do-gooders on the fire squad warning people not to store gas in their houses, on top of their furnaces, inside their fireplaces and so forth ... because your typical Englishman is just too stupid to understand that gasoline burns really well. And the press is chock full of pictures of people topping off, and filling up their plastic jerry cans (in the UK gas jerries are green) along with jam jars, oil bottles, and every other kind of improper container. Plus the requisite photos of endless lines at the pumps, and the “no petrol” signs up at the forecourts (gas stations are called forecourts over there). And there is no strike, and there is no actual shortage of fuel.
The Government’s emergency plans to deal with a national petrol shortage are not “fit for purpose” because forecourt staff have not been trained and have no idea how the plans should work, petrol retailers have warned ministers.
The ‘National Emergency Plan - Fuel’ will be enacted by the Government if there is an official petrol shortage. It will see up to 700 of the UK’s 8,500 forecourts designated as ‘official’ stations with instructions to prioritise sales to the emergency services.
However RMI Petrol, the trade body that represents independent petrol forecourts, has today written to Energy Minister Ed Davey warning him that the Plan is inadequte and full of “flaws”.
Petrol retailers argue that the Plan is so secretive that they will not know if they are a designated station until an emergency is actually called. They say that staff have not been trained, the plan has not been rehearsed, and they have not been told who to prioritise petrol to.
Retailers also argue that having only having two or three ‘official’ outlets in each city will lead to far longer queues at forecourts as motorists scramble for the available petrol. The retailers argue that any available fuel should be shared equally between all stations.
Earlier stories told of the Army being called up to drive the tanker trucks - “petrol lorries”. The problem is, that the government came up with this whiz-bang plan, but didn’t bother to tell anyone about it. So now we have the guys at the pumps - who I am sure are catching hell from the motorists - crying that they weren’t properly trained or let in on the plan. “Nobody told me nuttin” as some of might say over here. I wonder if the thousand or so soldiers on the call-up list knew they were on it, or if they even know how to drive one of those rigs or pump the fuel?
I’ve been following this situation for a couple of days now. I think the correct term is “a right proper cock up”. I have not seen anything that says that it is all just a test run of their emergency preparedness plan, but it’s obvious that the government is getting a huge windfall in taxes. Taxes probably account for 70% or more of the fuel prices in the UK. So, was this all just a mistake? “Loose lips sink ships”? Or was it a planned move to a) outrage the public fully against the driver’s union a few weeks ahead of any rumored strike; and/or b) a quick way to bring in mountains of cash to refill the nearly empty tax coffers?
It’s a fair question. I have also not heard anything about the minister who made the original announcement getting the sack. I would think “causing needless public panic” would be a firing offense even for their government, wouldn’t you?
The other rumor is that next week the fire brigades will go around to everyone’s sheds and garages and start handing out fines for improperly stored petrol and fuel hoarding. Sweet.
So let’s all have a chuckle at the Daily Stupid in the UK. But stop and think for a minute. Their leader and our leader seem awfully chummy, and we’ve seen so many times before that what happens over there happens over here, and vice versa. Their unhinged left isn’t much different than ours. And the petrol crisis, deliberately or accidentally manufactured, is still a crisis. A bit of a National Emergency. The kind which gives governments all sorts of “temporary” yet extraordinary powers if they feel like it. And last week’s news here was that Teh Won just did another one of his end-run Executive Orders that give him and the rest of the government even more emergency powers. Makes me wonder if this whole thing is a trans-Atlantic Beta Test.
Posted by Drew458
on 04/02/2012 at 12:35 PM
Filed Under: • Oil, Alternative Energy, and Gas Prices •
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Permalink • Tuesday - March 27, 2012
Coal For The Win
Federal Courts Smack EPA Again
Just a quickie post to help spread the goodness. US District Court has ruled that the EPA can’t (danger, non-PC term ahead!!) be an indian giver and arbitrarily rescind coal mining Clean Water Act permits once they’ve been issued.
h/t to Soylent Green, who gets to use his Dalek GTFO graphic again for the smackdown. Details are at Global Warming.
It’s high time the EPA got some heat. The place is run by rabid greenies and they are utterly out of control, even worse than the ATF or the MTA. A few thousand more beatings like this and perhaps they’ll learn their place.
Judge Jackson: “Based upon a consideration of the provision in question, the language and structure of the entire statutory scheme, and the legislative history, the Court concludes that the statute does not give EPA the power to render a permit invalid once it has been issued by the Corps. EPA’s view of its authority is inconsistent with clear provisions in the statute, which deem compliance with a permit to be compliance with the Act, and with the legislative history of section 404.”
Here’s hoping that Obama’s 2008 campaign promise to bankrupt the coal industry continues to be thwarted at every turn. Jackwad.
Posted by Drew458
on 03/27/2012 at 10:22 AM
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Permalink • Friday - March 23, 2012
He’s Not a Slow President, He’s Not a Fast President
President Barack Obama will send a memo to federal agencies on Thursday directing them to prioritize permitting for TransCanada’s southern leg of the Keystone oil pipeline, a senior White House official said on Wednesday.
Facing a barrage of Republican criticism over high gasoline prices during the election year, Obama will visit Cushing, Oklahoma, on Thursday to promote his energy policies, which include support for the southern leg of the pipeline.
The pipeline would drain a glut of crude in Cushing, the storage hub for U.S. crude oil traded on the futures market, easing deliveries to refineries along the Gulf Coast.
“More oil is flowing into Cushing than can flow out, creating a bottleneck that takes away the incentive for additional production, while also preventing oil from reaching refineries along the Gulf coast,” the senior official told reporters in a conference call.
And naturally, once the lower part of the pipeline is built and the glut is drained, then the pipes sit empty and this becomes another huge government boondoggle. Awesome plan Barry. Awesome.
PS - his “help” on this is close to non-existent anyway: no approval from His Oneness is needed, although a “get it done” memo from the boss tells you more than you want to know about bureaucratic heel dragging.
An oil-state Republican says when President Barack Obama stands in Cushing, Okla. on Thursday to announce that he is expediting the permit process for the southern section of the Keystone XL pipeline, he’ll pulling a fast one on Americans:
“The problem is, we don’t need any presidential approval for that (the southern section of pipeline),” said Rep. John Sullivan (R-Okla.). “It doesn’t cross any international lines,” Sullivan told Fox & Friends on Thursday.
The Oklahoma-to-Texas section of the pipeline requires permits from the states, the Army Corps of Engineers, and the U.S. Fish and Wildlife Service, Sullivan said – “and it’s going to happen in spite of the president,” he added.
“And I think this is nothing more than a con job. Oklahomans don’t appreciate very much this photo opportunity that he’s doing. And I don’t believe the American people are going to believe in this con job, either.”
Maybe the best energy investment the government could make would be to take a couple billion from his crony’s phony green start-ups and build a new, large, generic oil refinery. Perhaps in Cushing OK. Run it with spare experts from all the oil companies, and use it as a training center for new petro-engineer graduates, and supply generic diesel / heating oil / jet fuel (they’re all very similar mixes) all year long. Sell that to the oil companies at cost, perhaps with some 20 year buy-in plan so that in a generation the refinery becomes a shared privatized endeavor. Whatever. But it would take a whole lot of pressure off the other refineries, and bring down the cost of industrial energy (trains, planes, ships, heating factories and homes) significantly. And as part of the big picture, an increased national refining capacity would mitigate seasonal price spikes. Well, that assumes that the other refineries we have actually stay open. That is not always the case:
2/27/12: The U.S. Energy Department on Monday said fuel markets in the Northeast “could be significantly impacted” if Sunoco closes its Philadelphia refinery in June, leading to tight supplies and price spikes is some areas. The report by the U.S. Energy Information Administration said that supplies of ultra-low sulfur diesel would be most affected by refinery shutdowns and transportation constraints.
“If the Sunoco Philadelphia refinery closes, price impacts are highly uncertain,” said the report. “If areas cannot be adequately supplied in the short term, prices can spike.”
...
Markets have been able to accommodate the closure of the ConocoPhillips refinery in Trainer closed in September and Sunoco’s Marcus Hook refinery shut down in December, the Energy Department said, partly offset by the startup of a Delaware City refinery in October after a two-year hiatus during a change of ownership. But the potential loss of the Sunoco Philadelphia refinery “presents a complex supply challenge, and no single solution has been identified by industry participants that will address all of the logistical hurdles that must be overcome.”Pittsburgh and western New York state, which now are supplied through pipelines from the Philadelphia refineries, would most likely suffer dearly if supplies of diesel and heating oil were constrained. Sunoco, which has its headquarters in Philadelphia, announced last year that it would shut down its 335,000-barrel per day refinery in the city if it is unable to find a buyer by June. The plant along the Schuylkill River represents 24 percent of the refining capacity in the Northeast.
...
Sunoco said it has lost nearly $1 billion in three years on refining and is committed to exiting manufacturing and focusing its business on retail marketing and logistics. If the Sunoco Philadelphia refinery shuts down in July, suppliers may need to find 240,000 barrels a day of gasoline and 180,000 barrels of ultra-low sulfur diesel by 2013.
...
ultra-low sulfur diesel, which is increasingly in demand to meet environmental regulations, presents a greater challenge because little is produced overseas. Local marketers would need to transport the fuel from Gulf Coast refineries. But pipeline capacity from the Gulf Coast is limited, as is the supply of U.S.-flagged vessels that would be needed to carry the fuel between U.S. ports.
...
The supply issue would be further complicated because New York state is requiring that heating oil - essentially the same thing as diesel - meet ultra-low sulfur levels in July. The Energy Department said New York’s heating oil requirement will effectively increase ultra-low diesel demand by 70,000 barrels a day. Maine, Massachusetts, New Jersey, and Vermont are scheduled to adopt ultra-low sulfur heating oil standards through 2018.Refineries in the Northeast have supplied about 40 percent of the region’s gasoline, 60 percent of ultra-low sulfur diesel and 45 percent of the heating oil. Imports and deliveries from the Gulf Coast make up the rest.
With U.S. demand for fuel in decline, U.S. refiners say that they are losing money because of an oversupply of refining capacity and rushing to shut down unprofitable facilities. In addition to the three refineries near Philadelphia that are currently on the market, Sunoco shut down its Eagle Point refinery in 2010. Sunoco is currently converting the Gloucester County plant to a fuel terminal. A huge refinery in the U.S. Virgin Islands, jointly owned by Hess Corp. and Petroleos de Venezuela, is also closing this month.
And that’s not all. Refineries in the islands and even down South America way are shutting down, idling, or running at partial capacity and taking a loss. Gosh, you’d think all that hopey-changey recovery would have brought demand back up by now. Nope.
Another Caribbean refinery able to run heavy, sour crude oil will cease operation.
Citing “unfavorable refinery economics and the outlook for continued unfavorable refinery economics,” Valero Energy Corp. said it will halt crude runs at month’s end of its 235,000 b/d facility in Aruba.
Valero’s move follows by 2 months the announcement by Hovensa LLC, a joint venture of Hess Corp. and Petroleos de Venezuela SA, of closure of the 350,000 b/d refinery at St. Croix, VI (OGJ Online, Jan. 18, 2012). Hovensa will operate the facility, capacity of which had been reduced from 500,000 b/d, as a terminal.
Now I am totally confused again. Gas prices are high because there is high oil demand, yet oil refineries are closing because there is low gas demand. An oil glut at the tank farm in Oklahoma is slowing down oil refining and thus kicking up the prices, but refining is slowing down anyway because prices are too high and nobody is driving or heating their homes (ie, demand is off). Huh? This reads like some chicken-egg-thing death spiral. Is it even remotely possible that Maxine Waters was right, and that energy should be nationalized? Perish the thought.
Posted by Drew458
on 03/23/2012 at 07:14 AM
Filed Under: • Obama, The One • Oil, Alternative Energy, and Gas Prices •
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Permalink • Monday - March 19, 2012
Gas Prices Spike Again
I thought we were going to catch a little break when local gasoline prices dropped 3¢ last week to $3.51.9, but they’re right back up again today to $3.57.9. And that’s at the no-brand station down the road. Gas costs more at the big name stations. And yes, I know, you’ve got it worse; New Jersey doesn’t put much state tax on gas, so it’s worse in almost all the other states, which do.
But we’ve got it easy. Gas is going up in the UK too, and yet another tax hit this coming summer will make it even worse.
Record fuel hike ‘will force drivers off road’
Fears are growing that an increasing number of motorists will be priced off the road if fuel prices continue their relentless rise.
Petrol and diesel now cost more in the UK than ever before — with a further 3p VAT rise planned in August prompting panic among drivers.
New figures from March’s AA Fuel Price Report reveal that Northern Ireland consumers are forking out an average 139.2p a litre for unleaded and 145.9p for diesel.
That’s more expensive than anywhere else in the UK, where around 68% of the pump price is actually attributable to duty and VAT.
Before tax, the UK has one of the cheapest fuels in Europe but, once it is added, local diesel prices are the highest in the EU, while local petrol is among the dearest.
Let’s see, there are 3.785 liters in a US gallon, so with the upcoming VAT added in, this amounts to 526.87p per gallon. But with 100 pence per pound, that’s £5.2687. A pound is currently worth $1.58.376, so that works out to $8.34.5 per gallon. Which means it costs about $125 over there to fill up the tank on a mid-size car or small pickup. That’s about 2 1/2 day’s wages over here after taxes if you have a minimum wage job. On the other hand, if you take away all the taxes on UK gas, it’s only $2.67 a gallon. Add back in the 18.4¢/gal federal gas tax we pay and your state’s taxes and fees and you’ll see that the actual cost of the gasoline itself is quite a bit less expensive over there. $2.67 + NJ’s $0.32.9 combined tax adds up to $2.98.9, a price I will gladly pay right now if I could find it.
Funny thing, that. Remember the whole economies of scale lecture in Economics 101? Strange how the UK, which uses not a tenth of the gas that the USA does, manages to get it to the pumps for such a lesser price. Perhaps they have more refinery capacity available per unit gallon, imported & domestic, and thus have a bit of competition regulating the free market. Perhaps they have just one or two blends nationwide. Perhaps they don’t do the silly E10 gasohol sleight of hand with the ethanol, a price relationship that I can’t understand. And I’m pretty sure that the stupid ethanol subsidy is finally over, although I don’t remember hearing anything about that on the news.
Just now I learned that cellulosic ethanol is a total flop, coming in at 100 million gallons shy of its 2010 federally mandated production goal of 100 million gallons, 250 million gallons shy of its 2011 mandated goal of 250 millions gallons, and almost certainly 500 million gallons shy of its 2012 mandated goal of 500 million gallons. In other words, not one damn drop. And it’s the heart and soul of the Renewable Fuel Standard that demands the blending and sourcing of ethanol. Hey, imagine that. A government program put into law based on a circle jerk dream of technological advancements that don’t even exist. Government: We Know Better Than You. Go on, look it up. And the oil companies are forced to purchase waivers from the government for not using this alcohol, because it doesn’t exist. Guess who pays for the waivers, eventually? And I’m not seeing Congress toss this nonsense legislation, or even hit the Pause button on it. We’re totally screwed.
All I know is that gas is costing me more than it EVER has before, and I’m getting 2-3mpg less with this 10% mix crap that is the only stuff for sale, compared to real gasoline. And I’m NOT blaming Bush for it either. I’m blaming the guy in charge and his 535 moronic minions down the street.
Posted by Drew458
on 03/19/2012 at 12:10 PM
Filed Under: • Oil, Alternative Energy, and Gas Prices •
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Permalink • Friday - March 16, 2012
yeah, there’s that
Smith School of Business professor Peter Morici hits the nail on the head with his essay on high gas prices and the search for oil. And blames the whole damn mess on Obama and his running dog Chu. Their failed policies. Not Bush’s or anyone else’s. Theirs.
Gasoline prices are zooming past $4 a gallon and the United States is hardly freer from the grip of imported oil or closer to robust economic recovery. With his approval ratings dropping precipitously, U.S. President Barack Obama is blaming speculators and investigating fraud and at the pump when this mess is the direct result of failed federal energy policies.
By word and deed, the Obama administration has sought to limit off-shore oil exploration and development and hasten the commercial viability of solar, wind and alternative vehicle technologies.
The annual trade deficit on petroleum is about $300 billion. Raising U.S. oil production to its sustainable potential of 10 million barrels a day would cut import costs in half, directly create 1.5 million jobs. Applying Obama administration models for assessing the consequences of stimulus spending, it would indirectly create another 1 million jobs.
Overall, attaining U.S. oil production potential would boost gross domestic product about $250 billion. Not bad, considering that it could be accomplished by reducing dependence on foreign oil, increasing federal royalty and tax revenues and cutting the federal deficit.
If there was no other reason to increase domestic oil supply and refinery capacity, this alone is more than sufficient. Keep the money in the USA and it builds jobs. Send the money to sandland and it funds terrorists. Good enough for me.
Posted by Drew458
on 03/16/2012 at 02:01 PM
Filed Under: • Economics • Oil, Alternative Energy, and Gas Prices •
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Permalink • Thursday - March 08, 2012
Oh for the love of …
Just in case you weren’t 110% certain that the Obama Regime not only has its head up its ass when it comes to a national energy policy, but is actively working against our better interests ...
Wind farms in the Pacific Northwest—built with government subsidies and maintained with tax credits for every megawatt produced—are now getting paid to shut down as the federal agency charged with managing the region’s electricity grid says there’s an oversupply of renewable power at certain times of the year.
The problem arose during the late spring and early summer last year. Rapid snow melt filled the Columbia River Basin. The water rushed through the 31 dams run by the Bonneville Power Administration, a federal agency based in Portland, Ore., allowing for peak hydropower generation. At the very same time, the wind howled, leading to maximum wind power production.
Demand could not keep up with supply, so BPA shut down the wind farms for nearly 200 hours over 38 days.
“It’s the one system in the world where in real time, moment to moment, you have to produce as much energy as is being consumed,” BPA spokesman Doug Johnson said of the renewable energy.
Now, Bonneville is offering to compensate wind companies for half their lost revenue. The bill could reach up to $50 million a year.
The extra payout means energy users will eventually have to pay more.
“We require taxpayers to subsidize the production of renewable energy, and now we want ratepayers to pay renewable energy companies when they lose money?” asked Todd Myers, director of the Center for the Environment of the Washington Policy Center and author of “Eco-Fads: How the Rise of Trendy Environmentalism is Harming the Environment.”
“That’s a ridiculous system that keeps piling more and more money into a system that’s unsustainable,” Myers said.
Green energy advocates also oppose BPA’s oversupply solution.
If even the greenies agree that this plan is asinine, it has to be stupid beyond imagination. Hey Obama, I don’t have oil beneath my house, so how about sending me a couple of million bucks for not drilling for what isn’t there? What the hell, it’s only somebody else’s money anyway!
Of course, the ultimate in Stoopid Policy was to build the windmills in the first place, without massive capacity increases to the power grid and a battery farm the size of Delaware. So now the power companies, which couldn’t afford to build the things in the first place and got huge bucks to do so, are being paid to not use them when they actually can work. Naturally the windmill geniuses blame the evil hydro-power folks, all of whom probably work for Halliburton and are out to Kill All The Fish™, for maliciously continuing to generate electricity when water is flowing in the rivers. The audacity of that defies belief! Why, with that kind of attitude, you’d expect the windmill folks to generate electricity with their Whack-a-Bird™ toys when the wind blows. The nerve!
Posted by Drew458
on 03/08/2012 at 12:39 PM
Filed Under: • Government • Oil, Alternative Energy, and Gas Prices • Stoopid-People •
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Permalink • Monday - January 23, 2012
Let The Cheating Begin
Is it just old cynical me, or was your very first thought “here comes another Oil for Food scandal”?
BRUSSELS – The European Union formally adopted an oil embargo Monday against Iran and a freeze of the assets of the country’s central bank, part of sanctions meant to pressure the country to resume talks on its nuclear program.
Diplomats said the measures, which were adopted in Brussels by the EU’s 27 foreign ministers, include an immediate embargo on new contracts for crude oil and petroleum products, while existing contracts will be allowed to run until July.
EU diplomats are calling the measure part of a twin track approach toward Iran: increase sanctions to discourage what they suspect is Iran’s pursuit of nuclear weapons but emphasize at the same time the international community’s willingness to talk. Iran says its nuclear program is exclusively for peaceful purposes.
British Foreign Secretary William Hague called the embargo part of “an unprecedented set of sanctions.”
“I think this shows the resolve of the European Union on this issue,” Hague said.
Rrrriiiight. Sure, I believe it. Embargo. Uh huh. Big noise now, but it won’t even start until July. So this is just a lot of noise right now.
Except they cut a deal where poor little Greece, who lives for cheap Iranian oil, can do an end run, right? No? Wanna bet? Wanna watch Greece suddenly become a next exporter of oil when the embargo starts?
To protect Europe’s economy, struggling with a two-year-old debt crisis, foreign ministers agreed to delay full implementation of the oil embargo until July 1, an EU diplomat said.
That will give countries such as Greece, which rely heavily on Iranian oil, to find alternative sources.
Alternative sources, like old Hugo down in Venezuela, who isn’t part of the embargo and will probably act as front man for the mullahs? Or China, who, despite assurances from the Saudis that they would match production, isn’t part of the embargo?
Oh, and of course the price of oil just jumped $12 a barrel, to $111, on top of the 30¢ price jack you’ve seen at the pump over the past couple of weeks. Here we go again, $4-5 gas coming soon.
Thank God Obama killed the pipeline. As politics shuts down one international source after another (Nigeria will tip soon), it’s so reassuring to know that our Fearless Reader has done whatever he can to stop our supply from any and all other sources. Not.
The only way to make an embargo real is to do it at the point of a gun. Genuine old school naval blockade at sea, and armies along the borders. And let them do what they do best. Anything less is just an exercise in bullshit.
Posted by Drew458
on 01/23/2012 at 09:28 AM
Filed Under: • Economics • EUro-peons • Oil, Alternative Energy, and Gas Prices • War On Terror •
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Permalink • Thursday - January 19, 2012
Jackwad
Like you didn’t know this was coming, right? Now Canada will put in a 90 degree elbow and turn the pipeline west, and sell all their oil to the damn ChiComs. Dipshit.
President Obama announced Wednesday that he will deny a permit for the Keystone XL pipeline, blaming Republicans for imposing a “rushed and arbitrary deadline” which he said did not give officials enough time.
Will no one rid us of this turbulent priest president? November 5 can’t come fast enough.
GOP lawmakers immediately excoriated the president for the decision. House Speaker John Boehner said Obama is “selling out American jobs for politics,” and said Republicans in Congress would continue to push for the pipeline.
The decision does not necessarily kill the project. The State Department said the denial “does not preclude any subsequent permit application”—and within hours pipeline company TransCanada announced that it would reapply for a permit.
But the decision at least delays the project, one that unions and GOP lawmakers alike said would be a boon for job creation as well as energy security.
“Until this pipeline is constructed, the U.S. will continue to import millions of barrels of conflict oil from the Middle East and Venezuela and other foreign countries,” TransCanada said in a statement Wednesday, saying it is “disappointed” by the administration’s call. “Thousands of jobs continue to hang in the balance if this project does not go forward.”
I never knew Manchuria was part of Kenya, but with this candidate I’m certain of it. This is not incompetence. This is a deliberate and never ending effort to weaken and destroy the nation. The evil red puppet has to go.
“This political decision offers hard evidence that creating jobs is not a high priority for this administration,” said US Chamber of Commerce Pres. Thomas J. Donohue. “By placing politics over policy, the Obama administration is sacrificing tens of thousands of good-paying American jobs in the short term, and many more than that in the long term.”
Under an attachment to a bill extending a payroll tax holiday, Obama had until Feb. 21 to act on the 1,600-mile pipeline, which would carry heavy oil from Alberta to the Texas Gulf Coast. His administration earlier had deferred a decision on the project until 2013, but congressional Republicans hoped to force him to choose between labor union supporters, who back Keystone XL, and environmental groups, which oppose it.
Let’s see ... if I were President and our nice neighbors to the north wanted to build a pipeline to ship us endless barrels of oil, how long would it take me to decide if that was a good thing? DONE. Far less time than it took me to type D O N E. Subversive bastard.
Posted by Drew458
on 01/19/2012 at 11:17 AM
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