RantsCounterRants:  NRDC’s two cents on ANWR

It must be “Environmental Issues” day here at this blog; I’m kind of on a roll right now.

From the National Resources Defense Council on why drilling for oil in the ANWR would not be of real benefit:

“Although drilling proponents often say there are 16 billion barrels of oil under the refuge's coastal plain, the U.S. Geological Service says the amount that could be recovered economically -- that is, the amount likely to be profitably extracted and sold -- is roughly 3.2 billion barrels. Moreover, it would take 10 years for that oil to reach the pump, and even when production peaks -- in the distant year of 2027 -- the refuge would produce less than 2 percent of the oil Americans are expected to use that year.

This small amount of oil would come at an enormous, and irreversible, cost. The refuge is among the world's last truly pristine wild places and one of the largest sanctuaries for Arctic animals. Traversed by a dozen rivers and framed by jagged peaks, this spectacular wilderness is a vital birthing ground for polar bears, grizzlies, Arctic wolves, caribou and the endangered shaggy musk ox, a mammoth-like survivor of the last Ice Age.

For a sense of what big oil's heavy machinery would do to the refuge, just look 60 miles west to Prudhoe Bay -- a gargantuan oil complex that has turned 1,000 square miles of fragile tundra into a sprawling industrial zone containing 1,500 miles of roads and pipelines, 1,400 producing wells and three jetports. The result is a landscape defaced by mountains of sewage sludge, scrap metal, garbage and more than 60 contaminated waste sites that contain -- and often leak -- acids, lead, pesticides, solvents and diesel fuel.”

Would this be different for natural gas?  Highly doubtful.

Note the graphic on the projected rate of consumption; isn’t reducing consumption by a substantive, double-digit percentage more likely to be effective both short and long-term?  (Our population isn’t expanding this quickly!!)

Can you think of ways to reduce your energy consumption by ten percent?  I can.  I lived through the oil embargo of 1973, remember all that we learned to do following the embargo.  I know that many of us today have completely forgotten or are totally unaware of the concepts of reducing consumption or improving efficiency.

It’s time to get in touch with that again.  The residents of the United States have no right to call for the sacrifice of the entirety of the wilds for its own frivolity.  As the largest consumers of energy in the world, we have an obligation to set an example to other developing nations who could find themselves in the same position in a handful of years.  We need to do what’s right – start conserving the limited resources we already have.

4:31:46 PM    comment []

WARNING: SLOW BLOGGING – HOUSE HUNTING UNDERWAY AGAIN

Last Friday's houses were a bust; the first one was perfect, but there already was a purchase agreement on the house.  The second one was very nice, but about 30% too small even for an intermediate home.

I'm meeting the realtor in a half-hour; I'll report our findings later.  My fingers are crossed, but I'm realistic about my chances.

12:21:15 PM    comment []

RantsCounterRants:  Natural Gas stock depletion a lot of hot air

Fat boy Spencer Abraham, our dubious Energy Secretary, has been stressing the drastic reduction in U.S. natural gas stocks that may lead to dramatically higher prices this next winter.  The implication is that we must find new places to drill, including the Arctic National Wildlife Refuge (ANWR) in Alaska.

Bullsh*t.

The biggest single reason this country is experiencing a kink in its supply chain is the on-going political upheaval in Venezuela; Venezuela is and has been a large supplier of natural gas (as well as petroleum); that country’s general strike this past winter may have been the largest precipitor of the current natural gas stock reduction.  (Ask a few large chemical companies based here in the US and you’d probably get some concurrence on this; their financial performance has been seriously hampered by the events in Venezuela.)  Were Venezuela competing freely and openly in an open market, we’d wouldn’t have Abraham in our faces.

But Venezuela isn’t working in normal, free operations – not because of protesters, but because of incredibly fascist leadership.  The U.S. government and media continues to turn a blind-eye to this situation.  Early on, we could have attributed the bottleneck to this Administration’s flubbed up handling of an attempted coup in Venezuela.  Now?  I really have to wonder whether the oil-and-gas sector companies haven’t been pressing for U.S. NOT to work on diplomacy in Venezuela, in an effort to drive up prices AND to push for drilling in the ANWR.

May be I’m wrong.  Prove it.

Here’s a little prospectus I found on the internet from a natural gas company; what does it tell you?  Does it clearly say that there is NO more gas to be had in the Midwest?  That there are NO other available supplies outside the ANWR?  Or does it say that an increase in pricing might encourage more drilling inside known and already tapped areas?

You be the judge.  Share your observations, be glad to learn something new, especially if there’s answers besides drilling in the ANWR.

It still doesn’t address the question why the single largest economy with the largest consumption of natural gas in the western hemisphere chooses to ignore a supply problem located a couple hours outside its back door.

Why don’t we all ask fat boy Abraham why?

No, I don’t have a problem with people who are heavy.  I have a problem with people who sit on their *sses all day and only come up with questions and no REAL answers; I have a problem with people who are great sycophants (plenty of hot air) and lousy logisticians and tacticians (little genuinely effective effort).  If Abraham got off his butt and expended some energy talking directly to the State Department about diplomatic efforts in Venezuela, he might be in better shape.  So would we.

I also note fat boy Abraham has only posted a little three-word link to energy conservation on the front page of the Energy Department’s website to resources on the subject of conservation.  The content at that link looks like an afterthought or something put together by the last administration or another organization; it’s not contiguous with the rest of the “branding” from the DOE’s main website. That ought to say volumes alone about Abraham’s genuine loyalties, the essence of his real concerns.

9:19:05 AM    comment []