Tag: Oil Industry

Are They That Stupid?

A few days ago the Obama Admin dropped its approval of the Keystone XL pipeline…..as he finished his speech the Repubs were dashing for the microphones, even tripping over each other to get their political message out there of how Obama was betraying the American people….apparently, they do NOT realize how pathetic they look in these mad dashes to get the political message out there……the GOP of course, had to rile against the crushing of millions of jobs and the dependency on foreign oil and the whole Obama agenda…..

Findings about the pipeline from Politicsusa…….

Republicans attached the pipeline approval condition to enrich the oil industry and not for job creation regardless of their lies to the contrary. The only people who will benefit from the Keystone XL pipeline is the oil industry that is on its way to earn $130 billion in 2011.

One tactic used to destroy a country from within is dissemination of misinformation and outright lies to convince a population that certain policies are beneficial when in reality; they are not in the public’s best interest. Republicans have used misinformation for thirty years to convince imbeciles that giving the rich more wealth is good for job creation, the economy, and America even though the trickle-down economic theory has proven fallacious since its inception. The payroll tax cut extension dispute has brought another set of Republican lies and misinformation that a pipeline from Canada to Texas will create tens-of-thousands of jobs as well as give Americans more oil. Since Republicans are not known for veracity in their statements, any arguments promoting the Keystone XL pipeline project as creating jobs and helping America’s energy independence must be judged as what they are; blatant lies.

Republicans have claimed the Keystone XL pipeline is going to create anywhere from tens-of-thousands to hundreds-of-thousands of jobs depending on which GOP liar is speaking. The payroll tax cut President Obama brokered in December 2010 certainly created jobs because as families had more cash on hand, they spent more at private sector businesses and they in turned hired more employees. Surveys and polls of private sector business owners revealed they hire more workers when consumers have more income to spend. The Republicans have made numerous attempts to kill jobs, and it is one reason they oppose the payroll tax cut extension. Republicans attached the pipeline approval condition to enrich the oil industry and not for job creation regardless of their lies to the contrary. The only people who will benefit from the Keystone XL pipeline is the oil industry that is on its way to earn $130 billion in 2011.

It is important to understand how Republicans came up with the tens-of-thousands of jobs created fallacy; the pipeline’s owners revealed their tactics that inflated potential job numbers.  TransCanada chief executive Russ Girling said Friday that 13,000 jobs would be created to build the pipeline. According to Girling, the figure was “one person, one year,” which means if the construction jobs lasted two years, the number of people employed in each of the two years would be 6,500. The 6,500 figure is in line with State Department projections that estimate the pipeline will create between 5,000 and 6,000 construction jobs. Another independent study by the Cornell Labor Institute found there were less jobs than the State Department estimates and they said the pipeline will “actually create ‘no more than’ 2,500-4,650 temporary direct construction jobs for two years.”Anything that creates jobs should be considered worth looking at, but compared to a full year’s extension of the payroll tax cut, the pipeline is sorely lacking.

All that is well and good, but let us look at the other part of the argument of the pipeline…..it would lessen our dependence on foreign oil, right?  Now ask yourself what is Canada?  By foreign meaning anything other than the USA…..Canada is a foreign country.  Now make oil cheaper…….if OPEC sets the oil prices at $100 a barrel then Canada will charge that….it is about profit…not making the US feel better about the amount of oil they use……and if you think gas prices will decline because of the pipeline then you are just smoking CRACK!

Let us be real for a moment….the real function of the pipeline is to make more profits for the oil industry and has very little to do with a job for hungry Americans…..or our dependency of the black goo!

With all that said…..all you supporters of the pipeline and the lies of thousands of jobs…..never fear….it is NOT over and will be back after the 2012 election……so pat yourself on the back for it will happen….just not right now!

The Keystone(XL) Cops

If you are an old fart like me you will remember the humor that was the Keystone Cops……and today we have another Keystone humor if it were not so sad!

A good friend of mine, a person who truly believes that drilling will break our dependency on oil, ask me why I had not written much about the environment lately…..and I had no good answer other than the silliness of politics is all consuming…..this is a person who in the past has called me an eco-commie….so to make him happy I will now write about the Keystone XL Pipeline……

A little background…..this pipeline will run through the middle of America from Canada’s oil fields to the Gulf of Mexico in Texas…..there are those that protest the pipeline and those that see it as a good thing (especially the oil industry)……of course the con side of the issue is that it would be a polluting problem waiting to happen…then there are those that think this is a good idea because it will create thousands of jobs, relieve our oil dependency are the two big pro side arguments…..

But those jobs created will be temp jobs…..how will it end our dependency on foreign oil….it will be pumped out of Canada.  The last time I checked Canada was not part of the US (you can thank a disastrous attempt in 1812 to invade Canada)…it is still NOT American oil!  And then the one thing that few have mentioned is….national security.  A continuous pipeline that runs for that many miles is a perfect target for a terrorist attack…..any spill will effect a large segment of the water table and water is not something we need to put in jeopardy (kinda like the absurd idea of frakking)……

And then there is the most transparent use of the fear card….T. Boone Pickins was interviewed on the pipeline and being an oil man he is all for it….but his argument is if it is not built all that oil will go to China….would that be one of his companies that sells it to China?

Obama has step forward to oppose tying the pipeline to tax cuts extension…but that is a game.  He and his cronies have postponed the decision on the pipeline to after the 2012 election….go figure!  Obama does not want this to be an issue that would alienate the environmentalist until after the election…….and you could almost wager that it will be a done deal in some form after he is re-elected……so his opposition is half-hearted at best.

To me, the only people that would actually benefit from this pipeline is the oil industry.  PERIOD!  It is a bad idea on so many levels.

Never Ask What Could Be Worse

I live on the Gulf Coast…a lovely place if you are in a coma…..but enough of that….in 2005 Hurricane Katrina kicked our ass…in case you are not aware Katrina hit the Mississippi Gulf Coast, NOT New Orleans…..NO was a man made disaster…the levies could not hold….the after math of the storm was a complete breakdown in the community and an environmental nightmare….

And just when things were getting a bit better…BP gave us a real cool piece of news….yet another environmental disaster was heading our way……the seafood and fishing industries were one of the major employment blocks  in the are…..hopefully, everyone will remember just how really great that disaster was for about a 100 days before BP put a cork in the leak…..

The fix, the cork as it were has worked well for a time now….but just when we thought things would start to return to a chaotic norm we have this bit of news……

An offshore petroleum platform exploded and was burning Thursday in the Gulf of Mexico about 80 miles off the Louisiana coast, west of the site where BP’s undersea well spilled after a rig explosion.The Coast Guard says no one was killed in the blast, which was reported by a commercial helicopter flying over the area Thursday morning. All 13 people aboard the rig have been accounted for, with one injury. The extent of the injury was not known.

Seven Coast Guard helicopters, two airplanes and three cutters were dispatched to the scene from New Orleans, Houston and Mobile, Ala., Ben-Iesau said. She said authorities do not know whether oil was leaking from the site.  (Thanx to AP for the story)

While writing this post it is being reported that the Coast Guard has found a small oil sheen 100 feet wide and about a mile long……the Gulf Coast may have dodged a bullet on this rig explosion….but it is still early and as we know a lot can go wrong….

I will update this post as needed……

Stop The Brit Bashing!

Daily Agitator

There has been a lot of blame thrown around over the oil spill that BP made…..and across the pond we are being warned……

This from the Evening Standard in the UK……

Senior Tories today warned Barack Obama to back off as billions of pounds were wiped off BP shares in the row over the Gulf of Mexico oil spill.

Mayor Boris Johnson demanded an end to “anti-British rhetoric, buck-passing and name-calling” after days of scathing criticism directed at BP by the President and other US politicians.

Former Conservative Party chairman Lord Tebbit branded Mr Obama’s conduct “despicable”. And with the dispute threatening to escalate into a diplomatic row, Mr Johnson also appeared to suggest that David Cameron should step in to defend BP.

There seems to be a bit of a disconnect here…….politicians in the UK are up in arms about the US bashing the country……I hate to piss on their parade but NO one here is blaming the country of Great Britain for the oil spill….however we are pretty pissed at a company called British Petroleum (BP)…..but I do not believe that anyone here thinks that they are one in the same entities……as I have said in the past, Americans are not the brightest bulbs in the pack, but I do NOT believe that anyone is stupid enough to blame a country for what a corporation has done.  Unless of course, the corporation is running the country……

I mean, on come, even the CEO of BP has stated for the record that it is the responsibility of the company to make good on the losses that they have created….

Apparently the news coverage across the pond is not being accurate and are trying to lather the people up for NO good reason……maybe it is just political spin for some reason…kinda the way some are blaming Obama for the spill….whatever the case it is f*cking wrong to do so.

This news does NOT pass the sniff test……Sorry my friends but NO one is blame the UK!

Surprise–You Pay!

Daily Agitator

From the VOMITORIUM

The BIG news for the last month is the raging oil leak a mile beneath the Gulf of Mexico…..BP, the responsible party, has tried several different methods of capping this massive flow out of a broken drill hole.  Their next attempt will be to pump drilling mud and concrete into the hole to try and seal it up and stop the killing of the environment.

Back in the day, the Exxon Valdez run a ground with a drunk captain at the wheel and was the responsible one and after years of litigation, the Supreme Court let Exxon off the hook for only about half of what they owed.  The environment in Alaska that was effected by the oil spill, still has not recovered some twenty years later…..and the Gulf spill has all the earmarks as a much bigger spill with  more devastation than Alaska.

Sorry to be a downer, but there are some things that the people need to know.  There is a proposal before Congress as we speak…….

The House “oil spill response” measure, included among others in a larger bill, proposes that the tax be increased from its current rate of 8 cents a barrel to 32 cents. This is projected to raise nearly $10 billion over the next 10 years for the Oil Spill Liability Trust Fund.

A good idea, right?  They want to replenish a quickly disappearing clean up fund and also to try and expand the fund.  I hear the yell, “make them pay!”….if this passes it will do nothing to the company as a xconsequence of bad drilling procedures….it will be passed on to us, the American people…..

“We’re not talking a big impact here; we are talking about adding less than a penny to the cost of the fuel,” said Tom Kloza, chief oil analyst for the Oil Price Information Service, referring to the impact that the increase would have on the price of gasoline.

According to Kloza’s calculations, the 8-cent tax on a barrel of oil works out to 0.19 cents per gallon of gas. He said that an increase to 32 cents on a barrel of oil would equal 0.76 cents per gallon of gas.

Now you have something to yell about……you WILL be paying more and the oil companies will be making more…..YOU will be paying the oil company’s “irresponsibility” tax for them……once again the American people will be bent over and no lube…….Ain’t capitalism great?

2010 Anal-Ocity #20

We have all heard Rand Paul and his waffling on the Civil Rights gaff that he made the day after his electoral victory, right?  And NO…that is not what he is being taken to task over here on Info Ink.

We look for the most anal statements that people can make, and Mr. Paul has made a couple so far and he is NOT even elected to office yet….but the best anal thing was when on the ABC Sunday News Show when he took Obama to task over the oil spill in the Gulf…….

“What I don’t like from the president’s administration is this sort of, ‘I’ll put my boot heel on the throat of BP,'” he told George Stephanopoulos. “I think that sounds really un-American in his criticism of business.”

Un-American?  Would he be so pro BP if he made his living on the Gulf and not in some swank office?  With comments like that, he is a perfect fit for the radical right and the teabaggers.  This guy needs to shut the Hell ,up and stick to Kentucky politics….every time he opens his mouth he shoves a foot into it……

Where Are The “Drill Baby Drill” People?

Daily Agitator

Think back to the 2008 election….there was one party that jumped all over the issue of domestic oil production…..saying that we need to break our dependency on foreign oil…..the mantra of these people was “Drill baby drill”……justifying their position by saying that there had NOT been a major pollution problem from off shore drilling since Santa Barbara back in the 60’s and that the industry had made significant progress in technology that prevents such a problem from ever occurring ……..they even went so far as saying that it was un-American to oppose such a move…..

Now skip forward to today:

The oil well spewing crude into the Gulf of Mexico didn’t have a remote-control shut-off switch used in two other major oil-producing nations as last-resort protection against underwater spills.

The lack of the device, called an acoustic switch, could amplify concerns over the environmental impact of offshore drilling after the explosion and sinking of the Deepwater Horizon rig last week.

The accident has led to one of the largest ever oil spills in U.S. water and the loss of 11 lives. On Wednesday federal investigators said the disaster is now releasing 5,000 barrels of oil a day into the Gulf, up from original estimates of 1,000 barrels a day.

The U.S. considered requiring a remote-controlled shut-off mechanism several years ago, but drilling companies questioned its cost and effectiveness, according to the agency overseeing offshore drilling. The agency, the Interior Department’s Minerals Management Service, says it decided the remote device wasn’t needed because rigs had other back-up plans to cut off a well.

Now my question is….where are all the “drill baby drill” people now that their calls have been proven to be a pile of crap!?  Come on, you blowhards….you wanted it you got it!  Welcome to the future!

Let us be real……there is a bout 3-5% of the world’s oil reserves off the US and the US uses about 25% of the world’s supply….explain how we would break our dependency by domestic drilling?  The technology that they were so proud of……it seems that might have be a bit of misinformation…….

Thanx to the domestic oil industry there may well be a horrible seafood year for the Gulf Coast……do you like shrimp?  Good, then you will pay through the ass for them this year….you may take the time to thank the domestic oil industry for you lack of Gulf Seafood……

Is There An Energy Crisis Brewing?

I am sorry everyone remembers the oil at $150 a barrel or that gas was over $5 a gallon and what are the chances that it will come again?

Canadian economist Jeff Rubin has a somewhat oracular reputation. Since 2000, he has predicted a massive oil-price spike, and he was among the first in 2007 to prophesy that oil would soar over $100 per barrel (a few months later, he said $150 a barrel and was basically proved right again). Now, even though oil has dropped considerably from its peak, Rubin warns that it’s bound to skyrocket once more and cause another, even greater economic crisis. In his new book, Why Your World Is About to Get a Whole Lot Smaller, he lays out how this energy crunch will occur—and why it will spell the end of globalization.

The scenario goes something like this: the ongoing depletion of the world’s oil resources, coupled with soaring demand from emerging economies like India and China, will send the price of crude through the roof, Rubin says. This will seriously escalate transportation costs, which in turn will cripple international trade, reverse commercial interdependence and disable the global economy. The resulting age will be one in which nations are isolated, technological progress is sluggish and travel is infrequent. The Middle East will be less relevant than it is today, and food scarcity will emerge as the foremost international problem. Countries with a shortage of arable land will scramble and compete to buy agricultural real estate from other nations (for example, as Saudi Arabia is already now doing in Sudan) to alleviate their ever-worsening food crises.

Rubin’s future isn’t all bad. To offset the effects of the energy crisis, governments will have to invest heavily in national infrastructure (especially public-transportation systems); national industries once hurt by outsourcing and foreign competition will thrive; and the environment will become cleaner as people are forced to use less fossil fuel and as cars disappear from the streets. But Rubin warns that governments can do only so much—successful adaptation to an energy-starved world will largely depend on individuals altering their energy-consumption norms. Still, he is willing to bet that people will make the right choices. All in all, he says, “don’t be surprised if the new, smaller world that emerges isn’t a lot more liveable and enjoyable than the one we are about to leave behind.”

There will always be a boom or bust cycle in the oil industry.  I do not know if I agree with Rubin on the statement that the people will make the right choice in the long run.  Especially in the US, if they do make the right choice then the oil crisis, the energy crisis, would have been avoided in the 70’s.  It is possible that the people could make a good choice, however the government and industry does not give them the chance to do so.

IMO, I do not see oil companies allowing anything that would harm their profits or their stranglehold on the economy.

Invest Or Not: Shell Under Attack

Royal Dutch Shell PLC warned Friday that oil-facility attacks in Nigeria this past week have substantially reduced its oil and natural-gas production in the West African country and will hurt earnings.

Shell said militants this past week had killed a second person, an employee of the Shell-operated consortium in Nigeria. The company said earlier in the week that a guard had been killed and reiterated Friday that it was evacuating some staff from production facilities.

The Anglo-Dutch oil company said it was concerned about the damage to the facilities but didn’t provide an estimate on the total amount of oil and natural-gas output shut down as a result, or how long the production closures might last. Nigerian oil officials put Shell’s production losses this past week at about 100,000 barrels a day.

The company said the damage will hurt earnings. “This will ultimately add up to increased equipment downtime, repair and remediation costs and deferred earnings for Nigeria and the joint-venture partners,” Shell said.

Clashes between Nigeria’s main militant group — the Movement for the Emancipation of the Niger Delta — and the military helped precipitate the latest attacks on oil infrastructure, coming less than a month after Nigerian President Umaru Yar’Adua shuffled his military leaders.

Some political analysts say Mr. Yar’Adua may be taking a more forceful approach to MEND, which comprises various factions, and other criminal groups that have had a free hand the past few years, bombing pipelines and crude-gathering stations and kidnapping foreign oil workers for ransom.

A tougher line could worsen tensions and problems for the government, foreign energy companies and the region’s people.

So Nigeria is Shell’s only source of oil?  NOT!  Stop!  They are lying so they can either keep their profits or to make stock more appealing when it comes in over expectation.

A Question: Info Ink Commentary

Who is responsible for the last couple of gas shortages and high prices?  The media and oil industry economists say it is YOU, the consumer.  Why?  Because YOU are demanding more and more product.  Now, do you agree with this?  If you do you are an idiot!

For over a decade the oil giants spent millions upon millions buying and renting scientists and researchers to debunk the whole global warming theory.  That did not work as they intended, or did it?  Butr now they are selling the consumer a bill of goods on just how hard they are working on finding solutions to our energy addiction.

The leadership of the oil companies knew years ago what was coming yet they decided to help it along by showing just how kookie those concerned with the health of the environment were.  Instead of putting mush needed money into alt research.  These guys WILL not ever find a solution that they cannot charge for.  So we are left with ethanol and other such additives.

Yes, the American people are gluttons where oil and gas are concerned, but that sin could have been eliminated in the 70’s, but the industry saw fit to just help feed the addiction.  So, who is to blame?  The people for being stupid and the oil industry for worsening our addiction.

Now, is there a solution?  Of course, but not one that the oil industry will provide.