Category: Energy

Don’t Blame Sunoco, ConocoPhillips, Or Unions For Refinery Shutdowns

 

“Thank you for trying to get those who
should understand the urgency of energy independence, jobs, and our
future…to do so. (We are) loading up the SUV almost every day to give
away household items to Neighborhood Services and friends…and preparing
to relocate if necessary. You are right… finding middle class wages here
in Pennsylvania is challenging if not impossible. The blood, sweat and
tears of years planning and building our dream home only to sell it in a
bad housing market is like adding salt to the wound….”

This
heartbreaking message was sent by a distraught wife of a 19-year Sunoco
refinery worker, as that company’s two refineries (Philadelphia and
Marcus Hook) are slated for closing, as is the ConocoPhillips refinery
in Trainer, Delaware County, if no buyers are found. Making the sin
mortal, there are reports that the ConocoPhillips plant might be
dismantled, shipped overseas, and resurrected in a foreign- potentially
adversarial – country. But this is nothing new, as America’s abandonment
of its manufacturing base has often included shipping entire facilities
overseas for the benefit of our competitors.

Can it be reversed?
Is it possible not only to save these refinery jobs but at the same
time create a rebirth of American manufacturing – mandatory for the
nation’s future since no country has ever survived without an industrial
base? Many “experts” will arrogantly claim “no,” that America can’t
compete with Chinese labor costs, and smugly proclaim that manufacturing
is passé anyway – unnecessary in a modern 21st century economy.

Unfortunately,
the wrong people here are losing their jobs. The backbone of America
shouldn’t be facing the unemployment lines. The so-called experts,
including the politicians from both Parties who got us into this mess,
should be the ones getting canned. See Freindly Fire’s Sunoco Refinery Part One.

But
if we are to save jobs by retooling the refineries to process God’s
gift to Pennsylvania (and the nation) – Marcellus Shale natural gas – it
is imperative to stop the blame game and halt the tendency, while
natural in a time of such high emotion, to conveniently point fingers at
whatever “boogeyman of the day” caused this unfortunate situation.
Likewise, the fly-by-night ideas proposed by some shortsighted
politicians must be seen for what they are: either clueless suggestions
or a naked pandering for votes.

Who Didn’t Cause The Problem

Sunoco

A
million dollars is a lot of money – who hasn’t thought about having
that much cash? You could do a lot with a mil per year, even more if you
made that per week, and would be king of the world if you raked in
seven figures per day, especially if that that was the case for three
straight years. Life would be sweet – unless, of course, you happened to
be in the sweet crude oil refining business in a deteriorating market.

So
let’s be consistent. If making a million a day is desirable, losing
that amount on a daily basis would be, in professional financial
nomenclature, very, very bad. Common sense tells us that anyone losing a
million a day for three years would do everything possible to stop the
hemorrhaging. Welcome to Sunoco’s plight.

Ask any student unschooled in
economics what the primary objective of business is, and he will
invariably answer, “to make money.” Wrong. Making money is easy. Earning
a profit by taking in more than you spend – the correct answer – is the
hard part.

Despite the misguided “Occupy” mentality that profits
are nothing more than gluttonous greed, the truth is quite different.
They are necessary to expand operations, hire more personnel, pay
salaries and benefits, and contribute to the overall health of a company
– and the entire economy. (Not that Wall Street greed doesn’t exist in
numerous other forms, much of which should be regulated/outlawed, but
that is another column).

Sunoco and ConocoPhillips are not in the
“business” of losing money, and their past profits and payouts to
shareholders are completely irrelevant to the fact that the outlook for
the refining business is bleak. They are under no moral, ethical or
financial obligation to keep the doors open. Keeping people employed
inefficiently – READ: subsidized – in a business with no possibility of
profit is anathema to the Free Market and would eventually collapse the
entire entity. This is not speculation but economic certainty.

And
if you want to see what happens when this course is recklessly pursued,
pull up a chair because you’re in luck. You have a ringside seat
watching such an implosion in action: the unsustainable economic
policies of the United States Government.

It is also important to
note that in 2009, Sunoco announced a significant worker layoff in an
attempt to improve company competitiveness –  and all were white collar,
with no unionized personnel getting pink slips. Closing the refineries
is anything but anti-labor.

Unions

The
refinery shutdowns have nothing to do with “greedy unions sucking too
much money” from the companies’ bottom lines, as some critics of
organized labor incorrectly state. Many of those in refinery operations
are highly skilled union workers who have made a solid living over the
last several decades. But a look at the market conditions shows such a
minefield ahead for the companies that no amount of concessions would
come close to solving the problem. In the big picture, the significant
obstacles facing Sunoco and ConocoPhillips are infinitely greater than
any “high” labor costs associated with operating the refineries.

Just
like “evil empire” rich oil company executives make inviting targets
for blame, so do “pillaging” unions who “want more for doing less.” Is
either side perfect? Of course not, since there is no such thing. But
while both make good scapegoats, it is simply counterproductive to
continually throw darts at them. Insults don’t solve problems. Strategic
vision and genuine partnerships do. The only thing that matters is
solving the problem – and quickly.

Obama

Some
find it convenient to blame the President for everything from high gas
prices to their children getting a bad test grade. While he certainly
has his faults, he extended his hand to the Republicans on the single
most important issue of our time – moving America towards energy
independence. If some of his suggestions had been enacted (which, in
reality, are part of the Republican platform), they would have quite
possibly made the refining outlook much brighter for Sunoco and Conoco,
and the shutdowns may not have occurred.



And the GOP response? No bills were
introduced, and they absolutely refused to work with the President,
with many stating that “he didn’t really believe what he was saying.”
What a brilliant, mature response.

For the disbelievers who need
proof, just watch the President’s 2010 State of the Union speech, when,
in front of the entire nation, he urged Congress to expand our offshore
drilling ventures, and freed up millions of acres of coastal water for
exploration and development. In addition, he called for an increase in
nuclear power plants across America and pursued loan guarantees for new
facilities (even one year later in light of the Japanese disaster).

Which
was interesting, not only because he went against one of his strongest
constituencies (the environmental lobby), but also because Obama’s move
threw a wrench in the conspiracy that he was a closet Muslim who wanted
to weaken America. Pushing for energy independence would be the polar
opposite way to achieve that goal.

Granted, Obama has not been
stellar in following up on his domestic drilling initiatives after the
BP spill, and has yet to authorize the critical Keystone XL Pipeline
project, but those shortcomings pale in comparison to the other Party’s
inaction.

What did oilman George W. Bush or his Halliburton-affiliated sidekick Dick Cheney do to increase domestic production? Zero.

Or
the patriarch of the Bush family, George Herbert Walker Bush? Well, it
was the elder Bush who signed the moratorium on offshore drilling. His
son W. left it in place for seven years, despite having sizable
majorities in both Houses of Congress. Only after fuel costs skyrocketed
to over $4.50 per gallon in 2008 did he call for the lifting of the
moratorium. But it was too little, too late. And it never happened.

What
could have prevented those crippling spikes at the pump? Offshore
drilling – both off the continental shelves and in ANWR (the Arctic
National Wildlife Refuge) – and the construction of new refineries,
given that the last one was built in 1976.

And what better time
to have pushed it through than right after the Sept. 11 attacks. In
addition to having a Republican congress and nearly 100 percent of the
nation behind him, Bush had the world’s goodwill in his corner.

Instead,
this nation’s reliance on foreign oil — which is a nice way of saying
we are pumping billions of petro dollars into the coffers of some who
are hell bent on destroying us — has only increased.

And this week, gas hit another all-time high for this time of year.



Both Parties are guilty of
forsaking America’s security and economic well-being. It is only right
that they atone by eliminating the red tape, bureaucracy and onerous
regulations placed upon the energy industry, as well as rescind the
economy-killing taxes on fuel. Those steps would make it infinitely more
palatable for entrepreneurs to convert the refineries, keeping those
strategic assets and jobs exactly where they belong: in America.

Ethanol Policy Might Make Us Hungry

The production of ethanol to which federal taxpayers are coerced into giving  $5 billion annually could soon start hitting us elsewhere in our wallets and adversely affecting our diet.

The Energy Independence and Security (sic) Act of 2007 requires that we produce 36 billion gallons of biofuel by 2022 of which 15 billion gallons would be from corn.

The Act required 4.7 billion in 2007 and requires 7.5 billion next year most of which is from corn.

Ranchers are pointing out that this is going to start increasing the cost of beef and pork — along with the loss of jobs in their industry.

If “energy independence and security” is the goal why not  forget this  vote-buying, treasury-looting “renewable” scam  and just drill in desolate ANWR? How about we drill in the Gulf of Mexico so the Chinese don’t get it?

How about we approve the Keystone Pipeline so the Canadians don’t sell their oil to China?

Stupid, corrupt, even treasonous people are running this country. It’s time to get very mad so we can have some change, and maybe even some hope.

Save Philly Refineries? Get Pols Out Of The Way

 

 

Part 1 of a series on saving refinery jobs and getting America working again

For the tens of thousands whose livelihoods depend on the Sunoco and
ConocoPhillips oil refineries in Philadelphia, Marcus Hook and Trainer,
the Grinch arrived early this Christmas, announcing that all three
facilities would be closing in the near future.

But unlike the Grinch who delighted in causing misery for the sake of misery, the oil
companies seemed to have no choice. Their hand was forced by a
combination of market forces that saw them losing millions every single
day.

And now, short of the companies finding buyers, those
workers will be thrown out into the cold, unemployed in an America that
is plunging farther into the abyss. An America that doesn’t make a
bloody thing anymore. An America with the highest corporate taxes in the
world. And an America with trade policies that sell out its own
citizens.

Making matters worse, most of the workers will be
seeking new jobs in Pennsylvania, one of the least competitive states in
the nation when it comes to attracting new companies.

Doom and
gloom? No, just the hard truth. And here’s another one. Short of packing
up and moving to refinery-laden Louisiana, most of the laid off workers
will never find a job in this region close to the pay scale and skill
level that they are leaving.

Welcome to The New America, one that
too often puts the interests of its competitors – and even its
adversaries – ahead of its own citizens.

Compounding the problem
even further (if that’s possible) is the unwanted involvement of those
who caused our economic mess in the first place – the politicians. And,
as they continue to demonstrate, they don’t have the slightest clue as
to how to right the ship.

Politicians need to be taken out of the equation. Pandering for votes by holding pointless meetings with
refinery and union officials isn’t solving anything. It only gives false
hope (while providing them with 30-second sound bites).

But
here’s the good news. There is hope, more than can be imagined. Those
refinery workers could not be sitting on a better spot on Earth to reap
the rewards of a massive opportunity –  the correct utilization of the
Marcellus Shale natural gas bonanza. If the politicians do their most
important job –  and the only one they should be doing – of cutting
bureaucratic red tape and slashing stifling regulations, the free market
will take hold, creating jobs and wealth of unprecedented proportions.

But that’s a tall order.

Former
Gov. Ed Rendell, while certainly an affable chap, was never mistaken
for a genius, especially when it came to getting Pennsylvanians working
again. His mentality was that a paternalistic government knows best,
derived no doubt from the fact that he virtually never held a private
sector job in his life. Thus, he was wholly incapable of understanding
the difficult decisions that businesses must make to maintain
profitability.

So it was no surprise when, in 2009, Rendell
inserted his nose where it didn’t belong, publicly excoriating Sunoco
for its decision to lay off some of its salaried workforce. Sunoco
officials had stated the move was geared toward remaining competitive,
as the company was anticipating a “more difficult economic reality”
moving forward.

Taking his criticism even further, Rendell flatly
rejected the decision-making of Sunoco’s Chairman and CEO Lynn
Elsenhans, arrogantly saying he couldn’t take her at her word.
Incredibly, he went so far as to state the “real” reason for the
layoffs: “They are solely intended to make a profitable company more
profitable and helping pad the dividends paid to shareholders.”

So
if Ed was correct (which is always the case – just ask him), Sunoco’s
recent decision to shut down its refineries – permanently – must be
because it’s just making too much money.

Or…

Maybe the
folks at Sunoco had a slightly better idea than Ed Rendell of the
deteriorating market conditions coming down the pike, and maneuvered
accordingly to keep their head above water. Despite their best efforts
though, Sunoco did not meet with success, as the closures clearly
indicate.

Now the big questions loom – can the refineries be
saved, will a buyer be found, can they be converted to refine natural
gas, and, of course, what will be the fate of the thousands of families
whose livelihoods depend on the refineries?

While Rendell is out of the picture, the involvement of other elected officials still leaves a lot to be desired.

Earlier
this week, members of Congress emerged, extremely frustrated, from a
meeting with refinery officials, complaining that the company wouldn’t
reveal details about highly confidential strategic negotiations with
potential buyers.

Earth to Congress: Have We Met? Who
do these guys think they are that Sunoco owes them an explanation for
anything, let alone sharing privileged information of the highest
magnitude? And do we even have to mention that Congress hasn’t been able
to keep anything secret in 200 years?

And last month, a
bipartisan congressional delegation called on the U.S. Energy
Information Administration (along with the U.S. Department of Energy and
the Federal Energy Regulatory Commission) to conduct an impact analysis
on the potential of the refineries’ closure.

Uh, here’s a not-so-humble message to each member of that delegation: your proctologist called. He found your head.

Are they serious? Another Blue-Ribbon study to tell us what any sixth-grader already knows?

It
will be bad. Very, very bad. Jobs will be lost, families thrown into
chaos, houses foreclosed, businesses shuttered. The refining capacity
for the East Coast will suffer tremendously (not helped, of course, by
the fact that we haven’t built a new refinery in America since 1976).
Prices will increase. Volatility will spike. And America will, yet
again, find itself bent over the barrel, spending billions more petro
dollars buying oil from hostile nations because we (READ: Congress) will
not do the obvious – implement a policy of energy independence.

So
let’s save the tens of millions of taxpayer dollars on an absolutely
meaningless study, and do something novel: solve the problem!

And
to reiterate Step One, the politicians woefully short on private sector
experience and who lack the necessary vision to turn an unfortunate
situation into a positive one need to get out of the way and let
business-savvy entrepreneurs do what they do best: Create opportunity.

Energy
is the single most important industry in getting America back on her
feet again. And retooling the refineries here in our backyard – the
right way, for the right product, to fulfill the right vision – is the
blueprint to make that a reality.

And what a Christmas present that would be!

Remember Poor State Worker This Tax Season

Remember Poor State Worker This Tax Season — The Philadelphia Inquirer, yesterday, Nov. 25, editorialized on the need to hike the fees on those planning on drilling for natural gas in the Marcellus Shale.

Exactly! The state needs more money! Our bureaucrats and legislators are underpaid! And think of our poor teachers!!

But why should we stop the new taxes at natural gas drilling? How about a tax on newspaper sales? Why shouldn’t these consumer products be taxed while needy state workers suffer?

Or how about newspaper advertising? How about for every column-inch sold in the Inky, have 6 percent  go to the state? It’s only fair!!

Granted  Doonesbury and opinions as to whether Andy Reid should be fired are far more socially necessary than things like energy independence and home heating, but when it comes to paying those who keep our traffic snarled by manning toll booths and  decide the benefit packages of emeritus professors of physical fitness at our major universities, no sacrifice is too great!!

Remember Poor State Worker This Tax Season

Will It Be A New World In 10 Days?

The claims of an Italian inventor that he has developed a  power generation system that will cut the cost of a cross-country trip to pennies is starting to creep into the old media.

Andrea Rossi is scheduled to use his E-Cat on Oct. 28 to run a 1 MW plant in Bologna putting to rest all questions about it.

E-Cat stands for “energy catalyzer”. It allegedly uses a secret technique to transform nickle into copper creating beaucoup heat which means usable energy.

Come 10 days, will we soon see the demise of OPEC, wind farms and strip mining, and find ourselves all playing in the sun.

Or we will find that Rossi’s claim of free energy is not much different than the one made by Philadelphian Charles Redheffer whose revolutionary device was found to be powered by an old guy munching on bread while turning a crank?

Expect to see some energy hype among next week’s Halloween stories.

Why We Need ‘Right To Work’


Reader Cathy C submitted an email she received from Mark Mix of of  National Right To Work Committee.

While Mix’s group is pushing for national reform,  Pennsylvania becoming a “right to work” state would likely do as much if not more to save the Delaware River refineries than relief from thoughtless environmental regulation.

BTW, Delaware County Daily Times columnist Gil Spencer, with this column and one written Friday, is joining the crusade to highlight the havoc stupid, quasi-religious regulations are creating with the lives of Delaware Countians.

Welcome Gil and thank you, Cathy.

Here is Mix’s letter.

Dear Cathy,

“You guys slash my tires, stab me in the neck, try to beat me up,” the construction company official explained to the union organizer.

Given all that, he asked, why should the company hire such aggressive union militants?

“The positives are that the negatives you are complaining about would go away,” the union operative reportedly replied.

According to the Buffalo News, the “negatives” include hot coffee thrown at independent-minded workers, sand dumped into the engines of company vehicles, and the wife of a company representative threatened with sexual assault.

And the union toughs just might get away with it.

You see, ever since the Supreme Court’s infamous 1973 Enmons decision, union bosses have been granted immunity from federal prosecution for acts of violence and vandalism they orchestrate in the so-called “pursuit of legitimate union objectives.”

AFL-CIO union lawyer Jonathan D. Newman told the Buffalo News that “we simply want to make sure that the [federal law] is not interpreted in a way that could have a chilling effect on legitimate union activity.”

The union violence in Buffalo is hardly an isolated incident.

As you may recall, the Associated Press reported that hundreds of Longshoreman union militants held security guards hostage for hours at the Port of Longview in Washington State on September 8.

Union thugs reportedly committed numerous acts of vandalism and violence including breaking windows, cutting brake lines on railroad cars, and threatening police officers with baseball bats.

Weeks later, local police have only made two arrests in connection with the September 8 raid.

And now Longshoremen union officials have launched a Wisconsin-style recall campaign against the county sheriff investigating the raid.

Union officials know that if they intimidate local authorities, they can get away with anything.

The loophole in federal law ensures that union officials who may have orchestrated and encouraged the union violence may never be brought to justice, especially where they can intimidate and use political connections to stop local or state prosecutions.

That’s why the Freedom from Union Violence Act (FUVA) is so vital. To learn more about FUVA and how you can help urge Congress to take action, please click here.

Your National Right to Work Committee has an aggressive plan of action to force the politicians in Washington, D.C. to stop turning a blind eye to union violence.

Thank you once again for helping us fight back.

Sincerely,
 
Mark Mix

The Suffering Caused By Stupid People Setting Policy

ConocoPhillips  announced, yesterday, that it is joining Sunoco in ending oil refining in the Philadelphia region if it cannot find a buyer for its refinery in Trainer.

Joining the Obama bread-lines — or SNAP lines rather — will  be 400 workers,

Also hundreds of hazardous-waste impregnated acres useless for anything but oil refining will be idled and the United States will become further dependent on Hugo Chavez for  gasoline.

And of course a large part of the  tax base of tiny Trainer and the Chichester School District, which includes Marcus Hook which is the site of one of the Sunoco plants, will disappear.

Congressman Pat Meehan (R-Pa7) has been warning that this was going to happen almost since he took his oath.

Maybe you can’t blame irrational environmental zealotry entirely for this economic and strategic havoc  but no way can it be absolved.

Clearly no attempt was made by the Obama administration to communicate with the plant’s owners regarding attempts to save the plants. There appears to have been no offer to grant waivers — even temporary ones — regarding the ever increasing regulatory burdens which it was placing on them  to save the jobs and the infrastructure.

In other news related to the suffering caused by stupid people setting policy, the cost of health insurance rose 9 percent since 2010.

But, but, but that wasn’t supposed to happen with ObamaCare.

When stupid people who set policy say something is going to happen, bet otherwise.

Marcellus Shale Protesters = Lobbyists For Mideast Oil Barons

 Marcellus Shale Protesters = Lobbyists For Mideast Oil Barons

By Chris Freind

 

 

And there they were, in all their glory, basking in the attention gained from protesting Marcellus Shale drilling. Sure, those who were angrily denouncing the gas industry during the Marcellus Shale Coalition Conference in Philadelphia got the attention of the local media. But by far, their biggest cheering section, the folks who were happily paying the closest attention, weren’t even in Pennsylvania.

They’re in the Middle East.

The leaders of those oil nations could not
be more thrilled to have such a passionate cadre of protesters, who do
everything in their power to ensure the United States remains bent over
the foreign oil barrel. As an added bonus, American petro dollars are
used to fund extremist anti-American programs in those very same Middle
Eastern nations, resulting in a new generation of well-funded
terrorists.


About the only thing missing is the Middle
Eastern oil barons not paying the protesters to be their registered
lobbyists, because that’s exactly what they are.


* * *
We are witnessing the greatest transfer of wealth in the history of
mankind as America needlessly sends trillions to China and the Middle
East. The standard of living in those countries continues to rise, as
does their global power, while the United States slowly devolves into a
second-world nation with—at least for now—a first-world military.


And here’s the part no one wants to admit
but is unequivocally true: It will never again be the way it was, and
the American way of life simply cannot improve until the people remove
their heads from their derrieres and demand that we utilize our own
domestic energy resources. Absent that, the demise is unstoppable.


A look at any port tells the story: Tankers
and freighters come to America fully laden, but leave U.S. shores
virtually empty. And the reason is simple. We make nothing. No nation
can survive, let alone prosper, if it abandons its manufacturing base.
But that is exactly what we did.


Of course, we will never be able to compete
with the lowest labor costs in the world. So the only way to offset that
is to have the lowest energy costs in the world. And more than any
nation on Earth, America can do that. How? By utilizing the greatest
concentration of energy resources on the planet—a level that dwarfs that
of any other nation.


There are vast—almost immeasurable—yet
untapped oil reserves off both coasts and in the Gulf of Mexico, in
Alaska (especially in the ANWR), under the Rocky Mountains, and in the
Bakken Formation in North Dakota. And that’s just for starters.


America has also been blessed with an
overabundance of natural gas, including the Marcellus Shale, which just
happens to be the second-largest gas deposit in the world. Ironically,
many of the gas protesters who describe themselves as
“environmentalists” (whatever that means) are opposing the cleanest fuel
available.


Natural gas produces virtually no emissions,
which not only is good for the environment, but its low price and
limitless supply are lessening use of more emission–producing fossil
fuels. It’s a no-brainer. And since it is less than half the price of
gasoline, the wider utilization of natural gas can power the economy in
an unprecedented way. As companies like UPS have realized, lower fuel
costs give them a competitive edge, and that means greater commerce and
more jobs.


And speaking of jobs, take a look at just
one glowing example right here in Pennsylvania of how natural gas can
get the economy moving again. Procter & Gamble has a substantial
manufacturing plant in the state, and as with any such facility, energy
costs are always one of the priciest budget items.


Upon discovering natural gas under that
plant, the company invested in several gas wells on the property—money
that was quickly recouped since their energy bill is now dramatically
less. Businesses in that situation can now take the millions in savings
and expand operations, hire more workers at good salaries, and keep
manufacturing doors open in America.


But that’s just the beginning. It’s all the
ancillary effects that result from gas that can jumpstart the economy:
Homes are built and bought (driving down foreclosures), restaurants
thrive, many small businesses no longer face closure, and untold new
businesses spring to life. Estimates are that 100,000 jobs have already
been created because of Pennsylvania’s (fledgling) gas industry, and
billions in tax revenue have filled municipal and state coffers.


And that is but a mere preview of what’s to come.


Yet the protesters would rather kill all
that off, content to keep the status quo of $4 gasoline, rising
inflation and a stagnant economy. Oh, and one more thing: Their actions
jeopardize the safety of every American by keeping the nation in a state
of begging, totally reliant on foreign oil. To say our national
security is weakened would be a gross understatement.


Here’s the bottom line. Two plus two always
equals four, whether or not one chooses to believe that. Likewise, black
gold and natural gas are the lifeblood of every economy, and that
unequivocally will not change for scores of decades, if ever. Those
countries with petroleum resources thrive, while those reliant on rival
nations for their energy needs are always at a substantial disadvantage.
It is survival of the fittest, and no amount of fairy-tale fluff will
change that fact.


The most ignorant aspect of Shale protesters
is that they only harp on the “horrors” of natural gas and oil (most of
which are easily debunked myths, but that’s another column), yet offer
no alternatives—at least none grounded in the real world. If they ever
do, they will be taken seriously. But until then, they will be laughed
off as extremists trying to achieve a relevance that is simply
unattainable.


Solar? Wind? Hydro? Love them all. And we
should continue to utilize them so long as they are cost efficient. But
they do not make even the smallest dent in meeting America’s energy
needs. Attempts to argue the contrary are folly.


Nuclear is a different ballgame, and we
should be doubling our plants, but in the wake of Japan’s (avoidable)
crisis, combined with zero political leadership from either party in
Washington, that’s a pipe dream.


Which brings us back to gas. If not gas and
oil, then what? More reliance from hostile foreign nations while our
global competitors gain yet another foothold on America? That’s not a
solution. It’s a death sentence.


Natural gas, and the industry itself, are
not perfect, but they are most certainly the best option we have to keep
our communities safe and prosperous, and our people’s dignity intact.
Criticism for the sake of criticism—with no viable solutions—is simply
irresponsible.


Of course, so is cooking one’s meal with
propane stoves while protesting a natural gas conference—as some
hypocritical protesters actually did. And that says it all.


It’s high time the United States of America
stops using Chinese as its official language and asking permission from
Middle Eastern oil barons.


So come up with something better and get your fracking facts straight, or go pass gas somewhere else.

 

Did You Hear About The Big Chinese Oil Spill?

Two wells sprang leaks, June 4,  in the Penglai 19-3 oil field in China’s Bohai Bay which is off the Yellow Sea on that nation’s northeast coast polluting 1,650 square miles of sea.

Yes, there were lots of dead fish.

So did you hear about it?

Of course not. It’s a Zen thing. If a fish dies in China and Casey Anthony is on trial does it make a sound?

The field is 51 percent owned by China National Offshore Oil Corp. and 49 percent owned by ConocoPhillips of Texas.

The  Chinese government blamed ConocoPhillips for the disaster and fined it 200,000 yuan which equals $31,000.

This has upset many Chinese who have learned about the incident via Sina Weibo which is a Twitter-type service. They are pointing to the $4.7 billion coughed by BP for Deepwater Horizon disaster in the Gulf of Mexico and want a similar smack given to ConocoPhillips.

One sympathizes until one remembers that, unlike in China, the government was not the majority owner of the operation in the Gulf.

Still, if ConocoPhillips finds itself on the hook one supposes they can ask the Obama Administration for a bail out. Obama gave the OK to a $2 billion loan to the Brazilian oil company Petrobras allowing them to make a $10 billion deal with the Chinese for drilling off the coast of Brazil.

Remember hearing about that one?

Of course not. It’s a Zen thing. If a foreign oil company gets a $2 billion U.S. government loan and a Democrat is president does it make a sound?

Pa. Wind Turbines Destroying Environment

Bats, as scary as they are to some, are one of the more useful mammals in creation. The diets of those species common in Pennsylvania consist of mosquitoes and other insect pests including the ones that damage crops.

A colony of 100 brown bats can consume of a quarter-million insects in a single night. Science magazine has estimated the pest control service provided by bats can save farmers about $74 per acre.

Well, the unattractive wind turbines built at the hectoring of  the nature worshipers who’ve managed to convince most that they are the arbiters of all dogma scientific are turning out to be a bit of an environmental disaster.

The 420 wind turbines in use in Pennsylvania  killed 10,000 bats last year.

The plans call for 2,900 turbines to be placed in the state by 2030 so figure on 72,000 less bats per year by then and 180 million more bugs.

And a lot more expensive tomatoes.

Meanwhile, nuclear power, which is probably the most environmentally friendly energy source, is constantly vilified by the nature worshiping pseudo-scientists and fear mongers with the talent to make you forget about a 9 magnitude earthquake and a 30-foot tsunami if a nuclear power plant can be blamed for something.

If the citizens of this nation don’t learn to turn a deaf ear to them we are going to find ourselves walking five-miles to work as their gardeners and bean pickers while living in thatched roofed huts.