August 2010
30 posts
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Govs Mabus & Barbour plead for a bigger slice of... →
Gulf state governors are arguing for a bigger slice of the pie that the Obama Administration sees as nothing more than an annoyance.
This administration clearly wishes that the offshore oil and gas industry would just curl up and die.
From the article: “I am sure the administration is hearing your voices,” Lewis said. “Now go f*** yourselves.” (OK, maybe I made that last part up....
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Piracy on the high seas: Greenpeace terrrorists... →
Traditionalist that I am, I think walking the plank would be a fitting punishment for these pirates. Feed the whales!
(That goes for the Whale Wars guys, too.)
Wind Energy News Roundup
Wind energy, the crown jewel of President Obama’s green revolution, seems to be encountering a stiff headwind of its own. As we shall see, wind energy is a highly inefficient technology for reliable power generation. The industry which supports it depends entirely on direct tax credits and federally-mandated consumption for its profitability.
This week in wind energy news:
Wind farms...
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If that's the worst #oilspill possible, it sure... →
Not a lot I can add to this opinion piece in the New York Post. A solid majority of Americans still support offshore drilling.
Memories of Katrina and W. Brooks
It was a sunny Friday afternoon just five years ago. My wife was in New Orleans helping her sister move into her new Warehouse District condo. At lunch, they noticed that a storm had moved into the Gulf, and was threatening the central Gulf Coast. It was the “K” storm, already 2005’s eleventh named storm, too many for late August.
It would be a solid week before Gen. Russell...
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Obama's spill commission questions Obama's... →
So a bunch of environmental policy wonks, who were hired to get to the bottom of the Deepwater Horizon disaster, have chosen to focus instead on why Obama didn’t consult with EPA and NOAA before announcing the expansion of drilling in other areas… an expansion that’s not going to happen now, anyway.
So… pass the popcorn.
The Oil, The Bugs, and Climate Change
Scientists have discovered a hitherto-unknown oil-chomping microbes in the cold, briny depths of the Gulf of Mexico. As a result, it’s difficult, if not impossible, to find free oil out in the Gulf, either on the surface or in a subsurface plume, a little more than a month after the flow from the Macondo well was controlled.
If you’re a bacteria, the BP spill was like Thanksgiving and...
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New oil-eating bug thrives at 41F. Resilient... →
Some crudites with your salad dressing?
Court Docs: Moratorium Would Cost 23,000 Jobs
The Obama Administration has filed some 27,000 pages of documents in Federal court which disclose the process by which it decided to forge ahead with a deepwater drilling moratorium in the Gulf of Mexico, in spite of expert advice, public opinion and a Federal judge’s ruling.
The documents also show that the Administration stonewalled a U.S. Senator’s request for information, a point...
'Scientists' claim 80% of BP oil remains in Gulf
A group for researchers from the Georgia Sea Grant grabbed headlines yesterday by challenging NOAA’s claim that 75% of the BP oil is accounted for - that it has been captured, burned, evaporated, degraded, dissipated or munched by microbes. The study by the Georgia group claims that 80% still lurks somewhere in the environment.
Who’s right?
First off, the numbers aren’t...
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More proof that journos are numerically challenged... →
Billion gallons, million barrels … hell, I don’t know but it was 5 of something really BIG!
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Interior to allow some shallow water projects to... →
In a nutshell, Shelf projects can still fall under “categorical exclusions” if there are no unusual environmental risk factors. Operators must comply with more rigorous requirements for their Oil Spill Response Plans.
All new Deepwater projects will require environmental assessments.
Spill Hype Justifies Climate Change Skepticism
Virtually the entire environmental community showed a blatant disregard for the science and the facts, leading to an overblown forecast of the impact of the BP oil spill on the Gulf Coast.
All the observable factors which would serve to mitigate the spill’s impact were ignored by the hand-wringing greenies. The press cooperated, parroting dire predictions of oil fouling the entire Gulf...
BP Spill: Having Your Cake And Eating It, Too
On one hand, Mr. Obama, the “Worst Oil Spill in History” theme serves your Administration well as a pretext for eviscerating the offshore petroleum industry, an industry that, until this spring, was relatively healthy despite the recession. By doing so, you can suck the economic life out of four very red Gulf States.
On the other hand, your Energy Czar, Carol Browner, has joined the...
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Kill the well! Bash it's head! Do it in! #rsrh →
I agree completely. Having drilled the relief well, BP should perform the bottom kill.
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TX Att'y General sues Feds over Deepwater drilling... →
“The Texas attorney general sued the Obama administration on Wednesday over its new deepwater offshore drilling moratorium, claiming that it is unjustified and that federal officials did not contact the state before issuing the ban. “
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Despite NOAA forecast, tropical cyclone activity... →
Al Gore may find this truth to be inconvenient, but global cyclone energy is just not what it used to be, say around 2005.
When a scientist makes a prediction based on a theory, the theory is refuted if the prediction doesn’t hold. When a politician makes a prediction based on pseudo-science, and the prediction doesn’t hold, he just buries the prediction.
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Rep. Markey (D-MA) suggests CC deniers start their... →
Well, that’s one way to achieve consensus.
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Who would've thought that *competitive sauna* was... →
R.I.P., Vladimir Ladyzhensky. You’ll always be a champion in my book. Mr. Ladyzhensky’s passing leaves Vladimir Guerrero the athletic world’s #1 Vladimir.
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Luddite victory in NY as Senate bans hydraulic... →
Maybe they should also ban the importation into the state of natural gas that is the result of hydrofracking. That’ll show ‘em.
What a bunch of idiots. Don’t whine when your miserable state is bankrupt. Don’t complain when you can’t afford to heat your 600 square foot, rat-infested flat.
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More deepwater rigs to leave Gulf. Macondo BOP... →
CSI: Macondo
Remember back when BP severed the riser, so they could install the cap, the one that finally controlled the spill? Here is a photo taken by an ROV just after the severing was completed.
To me, this image presents the biggest, and perhaps most important puzzle of the spill so far. It shows the outer shell of the riser, at one time a 21-inch cylinder, collapsed like a Coke can by the severing tool....
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BP static kill appears to be working. 'Mother... →
Where did the oil go?
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BP static kill appears to be working. 'Mother... →
Where did the oil go?
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BP static kill operation begins. #rsrh →
The most troubling part of the article is that the plan was reviewed with Steven Chu before proceeding. Steven Chu?!
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Gulf of Mex 'Dead Zone': Gulf handles #oilspill... →
Aaaaand…. Massachusetts wins the distinction this year! Every year, the T-P compares the Dead Zone’s size to a small northeastern state. Past winners include Connecticut and New Jersey.
Farmers in the Midwest have to use a lot of natural gas-derived fertilizers to grow the corn to make ethanol. The fertilizer runs off and eventually finds its way to the Gulf where algae feed on it,...
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If you ever wondered about the #oilspill's... →
…this is why they were there in the first place.
BP is, was, and always has been liable for 100% of the spill cleanup. Liability limits apply to the economic damages to third parties.
And I have no doubt that things are a little slow around the Venus Experience these days. Would it be OK for an aging Slim Whitman lookalike to hang around & be towel boy?
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Poison Pill: The New Senate Energy Bill #rsrh →
Holy Cats! What are these guys smoking?
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China passes U.S. as #1 energy consumer. #rsrh →
And they did it using windmills, solar panels and unicorn farts.
#FAKE#
Of course, they did it with coal and oil. And if you think this is not a huge issue in future global relations, you’re just kidding yourself.
The Non-Moratorium Moratorium
Interior Secretary Salazar imposed a moratorium on deepwater drilling until November 30, despite the recommendation of a panel of experts from the National Academy of Engineering. For operations on the shallow water Shelf, the administration maintains, no moratorium is in place. Business as usual, nothing to see here: move along, move along. But Interior has plenty of tricks up its sleeve. ...
