From NOEBIE.net
Peak Oil Theory says that the rate of production worldwide may soon be in terminal decline, with dire consequences. It’s been called “the world’s biggest serious question.”
When will the peak happen? What will it mean to our lives?
Find out on Learnist.
First, from yesterday’s New York Times:
Next, from today’s Wall Street Journal:
When you dig into the details, both reports seem “factual.” The question is whether or not these stories represent competing points of view, or competing agendas.
Click on the images to read the full articles.
Keystone Oil Pipeline May Raise U.S. Gas Prices. [Bloomberg] – TransCanada Corp. (TRP)’s Keystone XL oil pipeline, a project backers including Republican Presidential candidate Rick Santorum say will create cheaper U.S. gasoline, instead risks raising prices as much as 20 cents a gallon in the Midwest, Great Plains and Rocky Mountains.
Another reason I won’t be voting for Obama in 2012:
White House gives blessing to partial Keystone XL pipeline construction. [The Hill’s E2-Wire] – The White House backed TransCanada Corp.’s bid to build a major portion of the Keystone XL oil pipeline Monday, a move that could shield President Obama from growing GOP attacks over the project.
In addition to causing general environmental degradation, earthquakes and poisoned water, it appears that hydraulic fracturing also leaks methane at dangerous levels not previously suspected.
Fracking study sends alert about leakage of potent greenhouse gas. [Pete Spotts | CSMonitor.com] – A new study finds that fracking is releasing methane, a greenhouse gas, from a Colorado field at a higher rate than estimates suggested. Researchers must determine if the field is an anomaly or part of a bigger problem.
From Gung-Ho to Uh-Oh: Charting the Government’s Moves on Fracking. [Lena Groeger | ProPublica] – Fracking has only recently become a household word, but government involvement with the drilling technique goes back decades. ProPublica’s chart traces officials’ moves, and levels of caution, over time.
“We have to have a president who understands how to get an economy going again. He [Obama] does not. He plays 90 rounds of golf when you have 25 million people out of work. He says gasoline prices doubled during his presidency. He says don’t build a Keystone pipeline.”
– Mitt Romney, Florida Debate, 23 January 2012
I am utterly amazed that this sort of argument in favor of Keystone XL goes unchallenged. The fact is that the project would likely increase our gasoline prices. The oil that would be produced from the project would be exported, because that’s where the money is to be made. Take a look at this from a December 31st USA Today report, noting that fuel is now the largest U.S. export, and that we are now a net fuel exporter.
There’s at least one domestic downside to America’s growing role as a fuel exporter. Experts say the trend helps explain why U.S. motorists are paying more for gasoline. The more fuel that’s sent overseas, the less of a supply cushion there is at home.
Keystone XL is not expected to lower gasoline prices in the United States, nor would it help us move toward “energy independence.” It would, however, help to increase the profits of Big Oil while despoiling environmentally fragile areas and contributing to global warming.
The question remains whether Rmoney is ignorant, cynical or just a big fat liar.
Federal Agency Cancels Water Delivery to Pa. Town. [ABC News] – The U.S. Environmental Protection Agency abruptly changed its mind Saturday about delivering fresh water to residents of a northeastern Pennsylvania village where residential wells were found to be tainted by a natural gas drilling operation.
Did renewables overtake nuclear power in 2011? Sort of. [The Washington Post] – In 2011, for the first time in decades, the United States got more of its energy from renewable sources than it did from nuclear power. Not only that, but renewables are growing much faster than any other energy source.