In the Pipeline: 2/27/13

If you want to throw down fisticuffs, fine. Pyle’s got Jack Johnson and Tom O’Leary waiting for ya, right here. National Journal (2/26/13) reports: “As passionate as these protests may be, the reality is that the oil in Alberta will go somewhere, and no amount of plastic zip ties — made from refined petroleum products, I might add — will change that. The price of Western Canada Select crude oil was $68.27 last Friday compared to $95.87 for West Texas Intermediate, and more than $110 for Brent crude oil. This price difference is why the Canadian oil will find its way to market regardless of whether the Keystone XL is built. Unfortunately, those markets will be in Asia where governments have little to no concern about pollutants.”

It’s so cute when peak-oilers try to explain the shale oil and gas revolution. It has to be frustrating to be so wrong. And I should note that this is Sen. Udall’s brother. Christian Science Monitor (2/22/13) reports: “As we move from a reliance on conventional oil flowing freely from highly porous reservoirs to a dependence on shale plays, whose permeability is a million times less, the future course of America is no longer indicated by a compass needle pointing west, but by a drill bit pointing down… In short, shale plays are a peculiar sort of blessing. For sure, they’ve given us a staggering amount of new energy. Simultaneously, they’ve hijacked our energy future, chained us to a drilling rig, and thrown away the key.”

The Red Sox are probably causing more health problems for these folks. But we’re all on the same team in some sense, so we do sympathize with them. Fox News (2/26/13) reports: “Two wind turbines towering above the Cape Cod community of Falmouth, Mass., were intended to produce green energy and savings — but they’ve created angst and division, and may now be removed at a high cost as neighbors complain of noise and illness… ‘It gets to be jet-engine loud,’ said Falmouth resident Neil Andersen. He and his wife Betsy live just a quarter mile from one of the turbines. They say the impact on their health has been devastating. They’re suffering headaches, dizziness and sleep deprivation and often seek to escape the property where they’ve lived for more than 20 years.”

It isn’t just the unborn that are threatened by Gov. Cuomo, it is also landowners with dreams of getting in on the energy boom.The Reporter (2/26/13) reports: “‘I have three young girls. My husband left,’ More said. ‘I don’t want to be on social services. I want to take care of my family with my own land.’ But five years later, her natural gas dreams and those of thousands of other New York landowners have faded to frustration as a decision languishes on whether the state should allow fracking, the process of extracting gas by drilling horizontally through the shale and breaking it apart with chemically treated water.”

Why is Senator Ben & Jerry shilling for the insurance companies? I thought he disliked corporate profits. Politico (2/26/13) reports: “Sen. Bernie Sanders, who recently introduced legislation to put a fee on carbon emissions, rebuffed a study from the National Association of Manufacturers that criticized a potential carbon tax. Sanders cited insurance industry concerns regarding extreme weather and the $60 billion in government funds directed at Hurricane Sandy recovery aid. Sanders says his legislation, introduced with Senate environment chair Barbara Boxer would invest $75 billion over 10 years in energy efficiency for manufacturers and $10 billion over a decade for job-training in new energy technologies. ‘The price that America cannot afford to pay is the price of doing nothing to reverse global warming,’ said Sanders.”

I wonder if the bad guys are going to attend the ceremony for these ‘solar sarcophaguses’. Mourning is a crucial step in the healing process. Heritage (2/26/13) reports: “The Denver Post estimates more than 2,000 total pallets of solar panels remain that are either unsellable or defective. Abound’s manufacturing facility still contains more than 4,000 gallons of cadmium-contaminated liquids, The Post said… At the height of Abound’s production, CDPHE estimated a “waste stream” of 630 pounds of hazardous cadmium-laced materials produced per month, according to a report from Complete Colorado… Following the company’s bankruptcy, an investigation by the Environmental Protection Agency (EPA) revealed that the warehouse in Denver storing the unsold panels did not have a hazardous waste permit. The cleanup, NCBR reports, will require encasement and burial…”