Well….an interesting thing happened over the past week that went mostly unnoticed by everyone…but, I read a little article that didn’t really surprise me given the rapidly changing energy market. You know how the idiot trump has been pushing for more and more fossil fuel use…lying to the people in coal country that he will bring coal jobs back and approving the building of the Keystone XL pipeline that would move tar sands oil through the US to be exported for use in the rest of the world. Just the other day, though, the proposed builders of the pipeline, Trans Canada, said that due to the changes happening to the energy market around the world, where the sharply lowering price of solar, wind and natural gas has made the tar sands oil uneconomical, will probably prevent them from building the pipeline. This is the problem with confusing economics with ideology, trump and his minions are mired in the past…well…maybe not mired in the past but mired in the kleptocracy where the oil and coal companies pushed the cost of their pollution off on the taxpayers while they screwed everyone…and they are setting the US up to be a second class energy country by ceding leadership of new energy technologies to China and the rest of the world while we continue to burn and pollute. But, with this decision by Trans Canada, we can see that economics can trump the idiot and his minions…they can’t stop solar or wind…no company is going to pay more for their electricity just to keep trump and the oil companies happy…and there is not a damn thing the idiot can do about it…Impeach….
Tag Archives: Keystone pipeline
Politics has started…
Well….today’s the day that politics restart in DC and I have been waiting a long time to get some topics to write about…I know there are plenty of other things I could do…sports, science, and space to name three but there is just nothing like politics to highlight the absurdity of where the country is right now….so this one is going to be just a preview of things to come….I found it funny that the first thing on the repubs agenda is passing of the supposed “jobs” legislation that would authorize the Keystone pipeline…even though it will mean a total of about 35 permanent jobs if that many…but the thing I find even funnier is that the WH has promised to veto any pipeline bill…I wonder how many times they will pass this one and have it vetoed before they learn that it’s never going to happen unless Obama decides to approve it? The second bit that I am really looking forward to is the Obamacare repeal legislation that the repubs say is second on the agenda…okay, repubs…go ahead, try to take healthcare away from 20 million Americans with nothing to replace it with….another veto certainty and the political ads will write themselves…we need the dems to be dems in the next election…. not repub lite…let’s go back to FDR for the principles for our side….they are still salient after all these years…stand for something, not just against the other side….geez…
Keystone XL…again…
Well…with the votes that are going on in the congress this week on trying to force Obama to approve the Keystone XL pipeline, I find it just delicious that the head of the Canadian company that wants to build the pipeline to bring dirty, dirty tar sands oil to the US has exploded the biggest repub argument for it….if you have listened to any of these morons on the right, you will have heard that the pipeline will bring anywhere from 5,000 to 50,000 permanent jobs to the US…but, there is one little problem, the person that really knows has said just today that there will be a maximum of 50 permanent jobs from the pipeline…yep, all that pollution, all the price increases that will hit the midwest (estimated to be upwards to 50 cents a gallon for gasoline) is all for 50 jobs…now if you’ll let me do a little bit of crude math with some assumptions in it…say a billion gallons of gas times a 50 cent per gallon increase is 500 million dollars that you and I will be paying out of our pockets to buy these 50 jobs….a cost of 10 million dollars per job…in anyone’s book, that is just stupid…I don’t mind paying more for gas if it fixes the roads here, but to just raise costs so the Koch brothers can make billions more is just frickin crazy…I hope Obama vetoes this ugly bill and gets back to the environmentalism he espoused on the campaign trail…we just don’t need this pipeline and the pollution that will come from it…geez…
As if another reason was needed to stop Keystone XL…
Well…as if another reason was needed to stop the Keystone XL pipeline, well…other than the pollution the thing will increase across the country with the piles of pet coke toxic waste that comes from refining the tar sands…and which is piling up across the country making some neighborhoods in south Chicago almost uninhabitable when the wind blows…we have a new study out that finds that the Koch brothers stand to make…wait for it….100 billion dollars if the pipeline is built…yep, the same Koch brothers who unleashed the tea party on the US and have already spent over 50 million dollars bribing repubs to take up the fight in congress. These folks are the last people that should be given another 100 billion dollars to try to wreck our democracy and put people like Ted Cruz into office….that should be enough to stop this nonsense…especially when those of us in the midwest will see our gas prices rise astronomically if the damn thing is built….geez…
More on the Keystone XL….
Well…it is getting toward decision time on the Keystone XL pipeline and before that happens, I think we need to understand the latest findings about the process and the effects that building it would have. First, over the past week or so, it has been discovered that the environmental impact study is not being done by any impartial body, but is being done by a company who has ties to Trans Canada…the company who stands to make billions if the pipeline is built so how can anyone believe anything that is in the report? Second, the leading climate scientist, who used to be the head of NASA, has said bluntly that it is “game over” for the climate if the pipeline is approved and all of the carbon that is now locked in the tar sands is exposed…not to mention that there will be no jobs created anywhere except for the Canadian company that will build it. But, the biggest surprise that I have reported here before is the fact that, if the pipeline is built, gas prices will rise by 20 to 40 cents per gallon in the Midwest since the discount that is paid for tar sand oil is now almost 30 dollars a barrel because they can’t move it. Once the pipeline is built, we here in the midwest will pay billions of dollars a year in increased profits to the oil companies and that is what this pipeline is really about… more transfers of wealth from everyone else to the 1% while they push the costs of trashing the environment on the people who don’t get any of that profit. We don’t need the oil and the pollution or the 1% getting richer so let’s just stop this thing now Obama…geez…
A short one on oil leases…
Well…I just wanted to do a short one on the crap about oil and gas leases that ole Mitt tried to hit Obama with last night saying that the number of leases have gone down under Obama…but, he conveniently ignored the fact that the oil companies are sitting on over 7,000 leases right now that they certainly don’t plan on using any time soon…you can issue a million leases but if the oil companies like the supply and price the way it is (which they do), they will never do anything (like bringing more supply to market that will lower prices) to upset that balance that they now possess. The other fact that exists here that ole Mitt conveniently ignores is that any new supply can be sold into the world market to go to China or anywhere else…just like the tar sands oil that will come through the Keystone pipeline and it will have no effect on our energy independence. Unless, of course, ole Mitt would pass a law saying that any new supply must stay in North America…which he would never be allowed to do by his oil company masters…and, if by some miracle he grew a spine and passed such a law, the oil companies would just stop drilling here to maintain low supplies and high prices in their largest market. I know ole Mitt doesn’t show that he understands economics at all…but I learned this stuff in Econ 101 many years ago and still remember it…maybe he could go back to Harvard for some remedial classes? Geez…
A little known fact on Keystone…
Well…just a short one on some little known developments in the Keystone pipeline dustup…with the repubs continuing lies on where the oil coming through the pipeline is going to go; making the statement over and over that it will help reduce our dependence on foreign oil and all of the other nonsense they continue to shout, we had Ron Wyden, the senator from Oregon offer to help get the pipeline approved if the repubs would agree to legislation that would mandate that any oil that comes through the pipeline would be sold in the US. Seems to me to be a reasonable compromise, but the repubs went nuts and started their normal screeds that the government shouldn’t interfere in business, yada, yada, yada…..to any thinking person, what this means is that the repubs are lying again…even the pipeline company has said that most of the oil will be sold into the world market and will be used to “correct” the oversupply in the midwest; resulting in higher prices there. So, anytime you hear the repubs talking about Keystone (or Exxon for that matter in the new ads they have out), they are lying…lying about where the oil is going to go and lying about how many jobs the pipeline will bring….geez…
Let’s kill the Keystone XL nonsense…
Well…in the past couple of weeks, the repubs have latched onto gas prices as being one of the weapons that they are going to use to try to defeat Obama in November and get the Keystone XL pipeline approved. One of the lies they are telling is that the pipeline will have the effect of lowering prices to consumers across the US when they know it’s not true…even the pipeline company has said in sworn testimony that Keystone will not have any effect on gas prices and may even raise them in the midwest since it will allow them to move the glut of oil from Oklahoma to refineries in Texas for export. The noted oil economist, Philip K. Verleger had this to say in today’s Washington Post:
“Overall, the pipeline will have no impact on prices consumers pay. None. The reason is that the products produced from the crude will be sold into the world market — exported — if prices fall below world levels,” he said in an email. “This means that consumers outside the Midwest will get no benefit from the line while consumers in the upper Midwest may pay more.”
This isn’t even the worst of it…in testimony to Congress for approval of the pipeline, Trans-Canada (the company that wants to build the pipeline) admitted that it will use the pipeline to manipulate prices; just giving the oil companies one more tool in their bag to keep prices artificially high and steal more from you and I. So, whenever you hear the repubs lying about the pipeline and it’s effects, just remember who owns a large piece of the republican party, and who will benefit from its building……geez….
Gas prices are the GOP’s silver bullet?
Well…I’m not sure if this one is going to be the good one that I promised this morning but it bears repeating since the repubs seem to be making gas prices a centerpiece of their attacks on Obama…let’s just remind everyone of one thing when the talk starts to move to the Keystone pipeline and drilling in ANWR…consumption of oil and its products continue to decline while production is at a 6year high…but, what the repubs don’t mention is that we have become a net exporter of refined oil products…what does this mean to you and me? It means that any new capacity coming from the tar sands in Canada will never be used in the US…it will all be exported with the risks of spills and environmental degradation absorbed by the US public while the profits will all go to the repubs best friends, the oil companies. The reason that gas prices are rising have nothing to do with supply and demand…in the new global economy where oil is an investment to be flipped…the commodity traders can manipulate to market to ensure that no matter what happens, they will make obscene profits by using the same fear, gloom and doom tactics that the repubs use to win elections….I hope that day is coming to a close….and it can be hastened by applying transaction fees to every trade and raising the margin dollars required to make those trades…something the oil company purchased repubs will never do…
One last thing…where are the jobs plans from the repub controlled House? They have controlled the House for over a year and nothing from them other than the normal nonsense on social issues…the last I heard, limiting contraception for women hasn’t created one job….
More Keystone nonsense…
Well…just saw an ad that attacks Obama for the delay in approving the Keystone pipeline and I needed to comment on this boondoggle again….if you’ve been here before, you’ve read my previous comment that took to task the lies that are used by big oil and the right to get this environmental disaster in waiting approved….and this new ad just adds to these lies with a new one and one that has not gotten much press lately..at least not in the media that I read. That new lie contends that this pipeline will help the US with energy independence when it is just not true…all of the oil that goes to the refineries through this pipeline will be exported to other countries…none of it will be used to lower prices or to meet demand here in the US. So, who benefits from the risk from this pipeline? There is only one group that benefits…the oil companies…and that is the dirty little secret that supporters of this debacle don’t want you to know…geez….