Saturday, April 19, 2014

"White House delays Keystone XL pipeline decision indefinitely"

"According to White House officials, the decision to delay the presidential go-ahead comes as Nebraska lawmakers debate whether or not the 1,179-mile pipeline can be built through the state. US District Court Judge Stephanie Stacy overturned a law in February that originally approved the project, stating in her ruling that the law violated Nebraska's state constitution. If the ruling isn't overturned, the route of the pipeline may change, affecting future assessments of its environmental impact. The AP reports that the Nebraska Supreme Court isn't expected to hear an appeal until September or October, meaning that the administration will likely schedule their decision for after the congressional elections in November."
 

"The Keystone XL has faced considerable contention since it was proposed in 2008. Even though the State Department raised no major objections to it in January, the Environmental Protection Agency has long made its concerns known about the potential for heightened greenhouse gas emissions. President Obama, who previously stated that he'd veto the project if the State Department took issue with it, now has until the fall at the earliest to decide its fate."
 
U.S. Unemployment is at 7.3% (Oct 2013)

75 comments:

Michael Haz said...

What Obama has done with this delay is set up a big problem for the congressional Democrats running for re-election in 2014.

The unions have put them on notice.

Shouting Thomas said...

Oh, well...

Here in the late and decadent stages of the empire, who wants a job?

ricpic said...

Obama, EPA, federal judges: all united in the assault on the middle class. Why? Because the middle class must be punished. Why? For being the middle class.

Bleach Drinkers Curing Coronavirus Together said...

October 2013 is the date you use to reference unemployment in a post uploaded on April 19th, 2014?

Seriously… how much oil industry-employable U.S. population lies in these quadrilateral states expecting an oil boom? Does it equal the million jobs cut by Tea Congress?

Keystone itself says 9,000 jobs for the construction. I'd bet it's a lot less for the maintenance after we're done Arabizing and Russifying our economy.

Can't they at least claim an opportunity to employ more than the 2009 stimulus did? What a disappointment.

Unknown said...

We can power our lives with Harry Reid's Chinese made shiny death-glass wild-life death traps.

Bleach Drinkers Curing Coronavirus Together said...

Heh, with the pipeline going through Canada, we should get Putin to help us see about grabbing a few chunks of southern Alberta once this is done.

Unknown said...

The dirty side of solar power.

Unknown said...

Why should tax payers be forced to pay for so much hazardous waste?
Associated Press: Solar Energy Actually Has a Big ‘Hazardous Waste Problem’

Bleach Drinkers Curing Coronavirus Together said...

Well April, the great thing about solid and liquid byproducts is that they're easier to treat and control than a primary vapor emission. But progress awaits our Russifiers and Arabizers! Our friends at the nest of Yahoo report on the advent of smog-gems.

Unknown said...

China Solar Company Pledges Toxic Waste Cleanup

Unknown said...

Copper coils? I don't think there's enough copper on planet earth to clean Beijing's horrible air.

Bleach Drinkers Curing Coronavirus Together said...

It's ok April. We read the first cut-and-pasted report. The second one repeated the 1 to 3-month timeline to recoup the CO2 of transport. Not very scary(!) considering most people like keeping them up and running the meter backward for much longer than that.

Cleaning processes are SOP in an industrial nation so it's hard to see what their scare is angling for on the cadmium treatment issue.

If you want some real fun I drove by some oil refineries out west recently. Yum… Sulfur!

Bleach Drinkers Curing Coronavirus Together said...

Beijing's air is indeed horrible which is why I'm sure every bit counts. Nonetheless, the designer's idea is still a pipe dream (pardon the pun) at this point -- more theoretical than photosynthesis. I mean, than solar energy.

john said...

Those sulfur emissions might be mitigating some of that global warming R&B. You should appreciate it more.

Shouting Thomas said...

Solar energy is, basically, a Democratic Party scheme to pay off campaign donors.

There's nothing, or close to nothing, there.

Solar cells still consume more energy in their manufacture than they produce during their lifetime.

It's a scam.

Shouting Thomas said...

"... Arabizing and Russifying our economy..." seems to mean "becoming energy independent in fossil fuels," or "becoming a net exporter of fossil fuels.

Quelle horreur!

Unknown said...

America is a pretty clean place compared to China. Perhaps we should consider all technology? Perhaps we should be suspicious of Harry Reid, Carbon offset ATMs, Solyndra, and other failed authoritarian insistence?

Michael Haz said...

I drove by some oil refineries

In your solar powered car? :0)

Unknown said...

I think it was his wind powered car.

Bleach Drinkers Curing Coronavirus Together said...

You may now proceed to explaining to us why photosynthesis is a lost cause, ST.

Geez. Last October's unemployment records. Pre-2010 solar data. Does the date even matter or is it just an issue of finding the right words published in the right order for the right cause? Social data, technology… time stands still for all!

Shouting Thomas said...

Yes, I read that article months ago.

So, for the first time, the most high tech solar panels produce slightly more energy during their life spans than they consumed in their manufacture. As I understand, the mass manufacture of these high tech solar panels is not yet reality.

And, you're crowing about this?

That means that decades of solar installations were nothing but political boondoggles that produced more pollution than fossil fuels.

Thanks for proving my point.

Bleach Drinkers Curing Coronavirus Together said...

Mine's a hybrid, but it wasn't the one I was driving. (It was someone else's ;-)0. I did rent a large new Fiat for a couple days, though (station-wagon type), which was interesting. But I wouldn't knock solar for transport, either. Elon Musk's behind one of the few promising developments in the U.S. auto industry - no it's not directly solar, but being based out west means it will incorporate more solar into its energy source. Colleges love putting their engineering students to solar car building and racing contests and now we have trans-oceanic flights on that stuff. The technology's obviously moving very well in the right direction for efficiency and cost and I don't see why we should assume it won't in terms of proper manufacture.

Shouting Thomas said...

Colleges would be better served by steering their students into petroleum engineering.

Shouting Thomas said...

Petroleum engineering is one of the highest paying entry level professions a kid can enter.

Precisely because of the loony green energy propaganda.

Bleach Drinkers Curing Coronavirus Together said...

That means that decades of solar installations were nothing but political boondoggles that produced more pollution than fossil fuels.

Thanks for proving my point.


I think this is so antithetical to the American pioneering spirit it's hard to know what to say. People had all kinds of qualms about the American motor industry until Henry Ford proved them wrong. Solar's simply a ubiquitous source that lacks huge procurement issues, and has been seen as such in the best corporate research labs for half a century or more. IBM's nothing more than a political boondoggle? Methinks you're conspiratorializing a tad much, man.

Unknown said...

eh.... Don't preach about clean energy when solar panel creation isn't clean. Don't preach about viable economic solutions in the clean energy arena - when - Solyndra. Don't preach about the left's supposed superior motivations - when - Harry Reid and the corrupt lining of his family's pockets.

Make your damn clean energy without polluting the planet and demanding that my tax dollars pay for your failures.

Shouting Thomas said...

Henry Ford was a private entrepreneur. You are correct that he represents the true American pioneer spirit.

Green energy is a political boondoggle. It represents the true spirit of political corruption and back room deals with political bag men.

Bleach Drinkers Curing Coronavirus Together said...

Petroleum engineering is one of the highest paying entry level professions a kid can enter.

Precisely because of the loony green energy propaganda.


Lol. "Precisely"? PLease say you're being sarcastic. Otherwise I can't tell me how dismayed I am at not finding the trash can icon next to this comment.

Bleach Drinkers Curing Coronavirus Together said...

Last I checked IBM wasn't owned by the government.

Bleach Drinkers Curing Coronavirus Together said...

Texas Instruments needs to stop using solar chips in their calculators. Otherwise they are the worst socialists imaginable.

Bleach Drinkers Curing Coronavirus Together said...

Don't preach about clean energy when solar panel creation isn't clean. Don't preach about viable economic solutions in the clean energy arena - when - Solyndra. Don't preach about the left's supposed superior motivations - when - Harry Reid and the corrupt lining of his family's pockets.

I hear a lot of preaching in here… starting with the word "don't". ;-)

Shouting Thomas said...

And green energy isn't even green. Even that BS is a lie.

Towns all around Woodstock are banning wind farms. Because:

o They blight the landscape
o They kill birds by the thousands
o They produce vibration and strobe FX pollution that leads to accidents, and depression in nearby residents
o Investors milk the subsidies dry, then abandon the hulks to rust and destroy property values

Solar produces massive heavy metal pollution.

Bleach Drinkers Curing Coronavirus Together said...

Good colleges have no problem with their students taking on competitive challenges with other colleges - especially fun ones that aren't too noisy or dirty while involving racing.

Shouting Thomas said...

Yes, the kids are heavily propagandized at how evil it is to be a petroleum engineer.

There is a shortage of petroleum engineers as a result.

Enterprising young men would be well advised to enter the profession. They'll get rich in a hurry.

Shouting Thomas said...

Why are you carrying on about IBM, Ritmo?

Shouting Thomas said...

Texas Instruments needs to stop using solar chips in their calculators. Otherwise they are the worst socialists imaginable.

Yes, solar has some very limited uses.

Not much help in powering an advanced technological, industrial society.

Bleach Drinkers Curing Coronavirus Together said...

o They blight the landscape

"Blight" is an "opinion". Matters of taste aren't scientific evidence of anything. Neither does pretending away that the same opinions exist toward your "preferred" industries.

o They kill birds by the thousands

Enough to affect their overall populations? Birds die. Stupid birds die. Science cares about whether the population itself is ensured, though - which you don't.

o They produce vibration and strobe FX pollution that leads to accidents, and depression in nearby residents.

Funny. Your other hippie friends claim the same goofy things about simple transmission lines, but you won't clamor to ban those.

o Investors milk the subsidies dry, then abandon the hulks to rust and destroy property values

Surely frackers have a history free of such problems.

Solar produces massive heavy metal pollution.

And the piece de resistance is our resident science enthusiast not quantifying "massive". Unless by quantify he means "a number that FEELS REALLY REALLY BIG to ME".

Shouting Thomas said...

We'll see what the global warming people have been hiding as the Mark Steyn vs. Michael Mann lawsuit discovery moves forward.

I think Mann has made a huge mistake by opening himself up to wide open discovery.

Bleach Drinkers Curing Coronavirus Together said...

Enterprising young men would be well advised to enter the profession. They'll get rich in a hurry.

How ridiculous. Enterprising people create their own path. They need "advice" like Dustin Hoffman needs to be told to go into plastics.

Unknown said...

The path to Solyndra.

Shouting Thomas said...

Oh, God, Ritmo, you're going to start playing "I'm a scholar" in a weblog comment section.

You really descend into a laughable lout when you do that.

What's next? You're "I read books!" claptrap.

Nobody said fracking doesn't carry risk. It does, however, produce useable energy on an industrial scale.

There is no free lunch.

You are a waste of time when you lapse into your sophomoric tactics. I'm better educated and more experienced than you. You'd do well to shut the fuck up and listen, but you're too stupid to do so.

Shouting Thomas said...

So, we've entered Ritmo's adolescent stupidity stage.

I'm out.

Nice day for a bike ride.

No sense wasting a nice day on a moron.

Bleach Drinkers Curing Coronavirus Together said...

IBM was mentioned because you seemed somewhat ignorant of their early steps in developing solar technology, as they've tended to take with many technologies.

It's what they do. But they don't have an uncle telling them that plastics is the only thing they need to do.

Shouting Thomas said...

Yes, I do mean it, Ritmo.

You're a dumb fuck, uneducated, inexperienced kid.

It really shows.

Off to ride my bicycle.

Bleach Drinkers Curing Coronavirus Together said...

I'm better educated and more experienced than you. You'd do well to shut the fuck up and listen, but you're too stupid to do so.

When you want to be respected for simply knowing things, you need to be capable of telling people things they didn't already know.

Maybe you'll learn how to do that on your bike ride.

Hope you don't see any plants while you do that. They've been onto the wrong energy manufacturing process for billenia. It's a wonder they're still around. When will they convert to fossil carbon? Who knows… Maybe ST will tell us. He's more respected than them and has probably been around longer - or so he wants us to think. ;-)

edutcher said...

The real reason is Mr Buffett, who thinks all the little people should pay more taxes BTW, would be financially inconvenienced considerably if Keystone went through.

Rhythm and Balls said...

I'd bet it's a lot less for the maintenance after we're done ... Russifying our economy.

That's what Choom is trying to do.

Or does Ritmo prefer the word collectivizing?

chickelit said...

How ridiculous. Enterprising people create their own path. They need "advice" like Dustin Hoffman needs to be told to go into plastics.

1967 -- the year that Mike Nichols made and released "The Graduate" -- was a good year for plastics. Not as good as 1950s when Karl Ziegler accidentally discovered how to make polyethylene efficiently -- that was the time to get in on the ground floor:

Why, boys, when I was seventeen I walked into jungle and when I was twenty-one I walked out. [He laughs] and by God I was rich!

chickelit said...

"Plastics" got a bad rep from dirty hippies IMHO. We should talk about that -- have a national conversation maybe. "Plastics" made the nation rich.

Anyways, wish I could stick around but I'm off.

Bleach Drinkers Curing Coronavirus Together said...

"Plastics" aren't evil but the removal of synthetic estrogens etc. from them at long last sounds like a good thing.

The issue of The Graduate seems to have been about doing something boring vs. doing what you find passion in. Steve Jobs came of age in the not-too-distant future and became a billionaire doing something more revolutionary than whatever was going on in plastic at the time.

Enjoy your time out.

ricpic said...

When "stupid birds" fly into Schmendrik's beloved solar farm wind blades "stupid birds" deserve death. The Agenda first; living things not so much. Thus the ghastly jaws of death behind Schmendrik's shit eating grin. Thus every last leftist. Now and forever.

Unknown said...

....amen.

AllenS said...

The issue of The Graduate seems to have been about doing... first the mother, and then the daughter. It wasn't about plastics.

Bleach Drinkers Curing Coronavirus Together said...

I eagerly await ricprick's efforts to tear down all the buildings that up to 976 million birds fly into every year. We will have to live in huts, but that's the price of kindness to animals - ric style.

What a turd. Doesn't all the goalpost-shifting ever get boring?

Bleach Drinkers Curing Coronavirus Together said...

...first the mother, and then the daughter. It wasn't about plastics.

True dat.

Bleach Drinkers Curing Coronavirus Together said...

Also, don't forget all the radio antennae that we'll have to raze. We'll be reduced to communicating through tin cans connected by string, but it's the least rick can do to help the birds.

Thanks, rick! You certainly are one concerned, non-leftist!

AllenS said...

Small birds fly into my house windows. Large birds, such as eagles don't.

Shouting Thomas said...

Ah, it's great to get outdoors and away from morons.

Speaking of morons, Ritmo is typing out his idiot opinions on a machine largely made out of petroleum based plastics.

Plastics are certainly boring, aren't they?

Ritmo is that strange pajama boy varietal who imagines that he's a rebel when, in fact, he's a sycophant of the state. It's a bizarre manifestation.

Shouting Thomas said...

And, for a guy who's always lecturing others on schoolmarm issues, what I actually said is...

Small, very liberal towns all around Woodstock are banning wind farms because they kill thousands of birds.

Somewhere in his infantile consciousness, Ritmo jumped to the conclusion that I advocated a moratorium on building anything because that might kill birds.

The bird kills in upstate NY have included large numbers of protected species, including eagles.

bagoh20 said...

Was that "plastics" advice bad advice in 1960's, 70's 80's? Really?

bagoh20 said...

"The bird kills in upstate NY have included large numbers of protected species, including eagles."

Another of the endless examples of Fen's law. They have no actual principles they really believe in other than telling other people what to do and think.

bagoh20 said...

Maybe that's not fair. From knowing so many leftists, I'd say that they really do believe what they preach, they just aren't smart enough or honest enough to admit there is no free lunch. So they push and vote for things that don't work and do more harm than good. When this come to their attention, they just go into complete denial or imagine endless eggs available to make their omelettes.

bagoh20 said...

Naaa. They're just full of shit. There are a few like Ed Begley Jr. that actually live by their principles, but most are just CO2 spewing, racist, tax avoiding, greedy bastards like the rest of us but with less self-awareness.

Unknown said...

Tom Steyer is paying democrats big bucks to offer allegiance to Man Made Global Climate Change.

bagoh20 said...

A warmer planet is a greener planet. A higher CO2 planet is a greener planet.

Why do leftist hate a greener planet?

Bleach Drinkers Curing Coronavirus Together said...

Was that "plastics" advice bad advice in 1960's, 70's 80's? Really?

Apparently for people who wanted an interesting career it was. There's a reason that line resonates.

Bleach Drinkers Curing Coronavirus Together said...

They have no actual principles they really believe in other than telling other people what to do and think.

What nonsense. No one's clamoring for putting a smokestack in their own backyard, and those whored out by the frackers aren't exactly enamored of the arrangement and "progress" made by it, they just want their fair share of the property rights - which they get increasingly screwed out of. OTOH, show me all the people too upset to put windmills on their property or who have been strong-armed into it.

You're listening too much to Crazy Angry Thomas again - always a bad thing.

Bleach Drinkers Curing Coronavirus Together said...

Naaa. They're just full of shit. There are a few like Ed Begley Jr. that actually live by their principles, but most are just CO2 spewing, racist, tax avoiding, greedy bastards like the rest of us but with less self-awareness.

Translation: Making some sacrifices and publicity on behalf of your values makes you a lying fraud unless you are a purist who pretends he has no other values!

Well, I can see why a guy with no values might believe that.

Bleach Drinkers Curing Coronavirus Together said...

Plastics are certainly boring, aren't they?

Translation: I, Crazy Angry Thomas, am a tool who doesn't understand the difference between something useful and something interesting.

Ritmo is that strange pajama boy varietal who imagines that he's a rebel when, in fact, he's a sycophant of the state. It's a bizarre manifestation.

You certainly have a bizarre definition of the word "rebel". I think for myself regardless of whether a government or a big corporation has the sense to agree with it or not. That's on them.

You, OTOH, simply pick an allegiance - so of course you wouldn't know anything about rebellion, and then beat your chest about swearing loyalty to money or a corporation as the supposedly "right" entity to swear by. Values and principles have nothing to do with it. For you it's just about ardent loyalty and never thinking for yourself. That would get in the way of your ridiculous obsession over who agrees with it or not.

edutcher said...

Gee, looks like Ritmo had to run and hide for 8 hours so he could find more talking points.

Bleach Drinkers Curing Coronavirus Together said...

Gee, it looks like edutcher doesn't know anything about having a life. If I knew less, I'd wonder why.

bagoh20 said...

"Apparently for people who wanted an interesting career it was. There's a reason that line resonates."

Yea, it's not like being a Kardashian. It involves science and math, very boring to our most interesting citizens.

edutcher said...

Rhythm and Balls said...

Gee, it looks like edutcher doesn't know anything about having a life. If I knew less, I'd wonder why.

I'm not the one who spends hours on end here screaming at everybody else.

Am I?

Bleach Drinkers Curing Coronavirus Together said...

I'm not the one who spends hours on end here screaming at everybody else.

Am I?


Lol. Yup. ;-)

Actually, ST is more the screamer. You're actually a bit more of a whiner. ;-)

Bleach Drinkers Curing Coronavirus Together said...

Yes, solar has some very limited uses.

Not much help in powering an advanced technological, industrial society.


http://www.google.com/green/

http://www.google.com/green/energy/

"Across Google, we're currently using renewable energy to power over 34% of our operations."

You hear that, Larry? You hear that, Sergei?

Shouting Thomas knows MORE than you! Because he's old and knows stuff! He's the pioneer you guys will NEVER be! Lol.

Time to get the Old Dawg down from humping our cyber-legs.

Aridog said...

R & B ... I am not going to join this sad thread on energy, however I do need to suggest that you are way over-simplifying how electrical power is handled, generated, stored, mixed, and distributed. You are doing it to make a personal point, not a technical one. That's on you. I am speaking as an old guy with a fair amount of experience with hydro-electric power generation.

See, like oil and natural gas, electricity is a fungible product. Now Google may think they are buying 34% green power via Power Purchase Agreements ... something smaller organizations would be unable to do anyway. Like I said, electricity is fungible and mixed among sources almost immediately. However, "labeling" is important politically and socially, so claims will be made the reflect "good intentions", not necessarily reality.

Let me quote a publicity piece by CPS Energy, who are fairly expert on the subject:

Energy generated by wind farms is transmitted to regional electric grids. For example, CPS Energy’s wind farms transmit power to the Electric Reliability Council of Texas (ERCOT) grid which manages the flow of electric power to Texas customers and schedules power for thousands of miles of transmission lines and hundreds of generation units. Once that wind power reaches the grid, it is hard to determine where it is distributed. Therefore, a CPS Energy customer at a 20 percent Windtricity participation level will not necessarily receive 20 percent of their electricity as wind power. Really, a customer’s participation level indicates their support for the continued generation of wind power and reduces the community’s dependence on traditional fuel sources.

Good intentions are great, and I welcome them. Like Henry Ford who innovated car manufacturing and thus distinguished himself among hundreds of prior makers. When new (old actually) green energy sources become as efficient as hydro-power generation, we'll be getting someplace. But it is baby steps to get there. Google's running of their dedicated servers & offices, as an application, will hardly build a material product, such as steel, lumber, concrete, and the like. Another energy source, nuclear, is efficient and already has produced material benefits. However, we are too afraid of it to use it systematically...even though, based upon my own personal experience working inside Fermi II, it is very likely the safest place one could ever work.

Wind and Solar have a long way to go before they achieve full efficiency, and I question how efficiently they use land per se .... at least at the moment.