The Weekly Oil and Gas Follies – Volume 24, December 16, 2013
In which we drill down into the @GDBlackmon Twitter feed to briefly chronicle the week’s silliness, foibles, fake news and real news related to the oil and natural gas industry.
Oil Patch Photo of the Week:
A large natural gas processing plant in the Eagle Ford Shale region of South Texas
We will begin with our God Bless Texas Link of the Week, courtesy of Texas State Comptroller Susan Combs: Texas Budget Surplus Bigger Than Expected - Comptroller Susan Combs reported that Texas ended the 2012-13 biennium with a $2.6 billion surplus, more than double the $964 million surplus her office projected over the summer. The report also predicts that Texas taxes paid by energy development firms will be at least $2 billion more than earlier projections, resulting in $8 billion in the state’s piggy bank by 2015. The revisions means that the Rainy Day Fund could be more flush than expected for the 2015 legislative session, even after lawmakers backed measures asking voters to approve tapping the fund's revenue stream for water and road projects.
Can we get the Mormon Tabernacle Choir warmed up on this one?: Hallelujah: Aversion to the Renewable Fuel Standard Seems to be Catching on in Congress - The growing public consciousness of corn ethanol’s negative environmental effects and its impact on food and gas prices has been catching on, however, in conjunction with increased cries of exasperation coming from oil and auto industries that find themselves running up against the problematic “blend wall” at which they are required to blend a higher concentration of ethanol than is deemed safe for use in cars and trucks. If even the EPA can’t pretend any longer that this policy is a particularly good idea, everybody else is going to have rather a rough time of it, which gives me renewed hope for the legislation coming out of the Senate.
Here is our News for the New York Times and anti-Fracking Activists to Ignore Link of the Week: Corn Ethanol Carries Hidden Risks - (Phys.org) —Blending more ethanol into fuel to cut air pollution from vehicles carries a hidden risk that toxic or even explosive gases may find their way into buildings, according to researchers at Rice University. Those problems would likely occur in buildings with cracked foundations that happen to be in the vicinity of fuel spills. Vapors that rise from contaminated groundwater can be sucked inside, according to Rice environmental engineer Pedro Alvarez. Once there, trapped pools of methane could ignite and toxic hydrocarbons could cause health woes, he said.
Bald Eagles and bats will take Probably So for $100, Alex: Bladeless Wind Turbine Too Good To Be True? - Tunisia-based Saphon Energy's "bladeless wind turbine" has been getting a lot of attention on social media this week, a year after its being featured in a short and laudatory article on the website Treehugger. Despite the age of the article, the Internet seems to be treating the bladeless turbine as breaking news. Regardless of the age of the news about Saphon's design, it seems too good to be true. A turbine that's smaller, more efficient, and safer than the big blade turbines you see on California mountain passes? Casual readers can be forgiven for wanting to believe. But when something seems too good to be true, it probably is.
The Mexican government is about to make a great economic decision for its people. Good for them.: Power to Mexico - Drastically reforming Mexico's energy sector is indeed major. "This will be the most significant change in Mexico's economic policy in 100 years," Duncan Wood, director of the Mexico Institute at the Woodrow Wilson Center, told Forbes magazine recently. It's not done yet; the vote is expected on Dec. 15. Even with passage of energy reform - with constitutional amendments stripping away the monopolies of Pemex, the state oil company, as its centerpiece - enforcement of the new laws will be a major challenge.
And now for the Totally, Competely, 100% Self-Serving Link of the Week: Space, the Final Oil & Gas Frontier - With that little collision with rank hysteria, Space becomes the second anti-Fracking activist we’ve seen contend that “fracking” is going to destroy human existence, the first having been Yoko Ono. (Come to think of it, can there be much doubt that Yoko Ono serves as a role model for anyone named “Space”?) To date, in spite of all the propaganda, hyperbole, hysteria, fake documentaries and episodes of CSI and Longmire that contend otherwise, hydraulic fracturing is yet to claim a single human victim. That’s after 66 years and about 2 million frac jobs having already been performed. So getting up to doing away with more than 7 billion human beings is going to take quite some time. One might daresay that Space won’t be around to see it all happen, but then, we guess that goes without saying, doesn’t it?
Why yes, yes it did. Fracking says You’re Welcome, America.: Remember the Energy Crisis? Fracking Fixed It - Daniel Yergin's analyses of that debacle always stood apart, characterized by their recognition that market forces would work if given a chance to. And they did. Or else we wouldn't be wondering today what ever happened to the Energy Crisis. It's nowhere to be seen or painfully felt. The relief is palpable, if anybody would care to notice. This happy ending hasn't been the result of price controls, rationing and all the rest of those counter-productive "fixes" that still attract statist theoreticians. It turns out the country wasn't so much addicted to oil all those errant years as to the quack cures government kept producing to cure our addiction.
You don’t say…: U.S. Energy Boom Helps Grease Manufacturing’s Spinning Wheels - The U.S. manufacturing renaissance may have an invisible hand guiding it along: the energy sector, which is in the midst of its own breakneck expansion. The heavily chronicled shale boom that has propelled U.S. oil production to historical peaks also may be greasing the wheels of manufacturing, which suffered for years as production moved to cheaper havens overseas. Now, however, the once-beleaguered sector is expanding briskly. Last week the Institute for Supply Management reported that manufacturing activity expanded at its fastest pace in 30 months in November.
Why yes, yes they are: Environmentalists Are Mistaken Over Fracking - Environmentalists are making a “tragic mistake” with their stance on fracking, which is a “wonderful gift” for reducing emissions and pollution, claims the Centre for Policy Studies. Hydraulic fracturing, a means of sourcing fuel by fracturing rock with a pressurized liquid, is arguably revolutionising the US energy industry. But at what cost? In its defence, climate scientists Richard and Elizabeth A. Muller have produced a report for the Centre for Policy Studies (CPS), claiming that environmentalists are making a “tragic mistake” in not supporting the technique. The report claims that many of the fears held over fracking are either unsubstantiated or can be controlled with proper legislation
The wages of stupid energy policy: New Law Leads to Light Bulb Hoarders - Stephanie Leggett refuses to be caught in the dark next year when the next phase of 2007 energy legislation takes effect. Leggett, owner of Oldile's Interiors in Orange, is an unapologetic advocate of the incandescent light bulb, and she's been prepping for the coming incandescent apocalypse for the last couple of years. "I hoard incandescent light bulbs," she said Tuesday with a laugh. "I've been hoarding them for two years." As of Jan. 1, federal legislation will ban the manufacture of bulbs rated at 40 watts or more.
Finally, there’s this bit of highly predictable information – call it the We Already Knew That Link of the Month: Americans Uninformed About Fracking - Most Americans have heard little or nothing of the oil and gas production process called hydraulic fracturing, and many don’t know if they support or oppose it, according to a new paper by researchers from Oregon State, George Mason and Yale universities. The research, published this week, is based on questions about fracking included in the 2012 biennial Climate Change in the American Mind survey, which gauges the public’s understanding of issues associated with climate change.
That’s all for now – see you next week!
Follow me on Twitter at @GDBlackmon
