If the Cons want to blame something for the loss of jobs, maybe they should look to the oil and gas corporations instead of the Democrat in the Governor’s seat. If production was up in 2009 (to record levels for natural gas and near-record levels for oil) and workers were laid off, then aren’t the corporations at fault?
In fact, 1,773 new wells were placed in 2009. While that is a decrease from 2008, the number of wells drilled in CO exceeded the number in Wyoming and New Mexico. According to the fear-mongering Republicans, however, the oil and gas industry was going to leave CO for our neighboring states because of the new rules implemented by the Colorado Oil and Gas Conservation Commission. That obviously didn’t happen, just as a couple of us here at SquareState accurately predicted.
Are the rules delaying the permit approval process, another claim the Republicans made time and time again in 2009? No. The average time to approve a drilling permit fell from 96 to 25 days, a huge improvement demonstrating that government works!
To recap: Republicans were flat wrong about drillers leaving the state. Republicans were flat wrong about the oil and gas industry suffering under responsible, common-sense rules that went into effect last year. Republicans were flat wrong about permits taking longer due to too much government interference.
One more reason to stop burning fossil fuels has come out after recent observations of low-level ozone levels were found throughout the inter-mountain (and over-drilled) Western U.S. Wintertime ozone pollution is quickly becoming as much a problem as summertime ozone pollution. What amazes me is not what amazes the industry, of course. Somehow, the last decades’ worth of fossil fuel drilling operations explosion hasn’t factored into anybody’s mind now that the problem has been detected.
The article says that high levels of ozone haven’t been detected yet in Colorado, while Wyoming, New Mexico and Utah have been positively identified as problematic. I think that’s simply a matter of Colorado being undersampled or sampled incorrectly. There isn’t anything intrinsically wrong about that, but given the levels of ozone found in neighboring states, I would hope that organizations in Colorado become more aggressive about testing fossil fuel drilling operations next winter. Some already are:
The federal Environmental Protection Agency is drafting a new ozone- sampling plan that “may require more monitors and in some areas year- round testing,” said agency spokeswoman Cathy Milbourn.
I’ll take this opportunity to point out that this is what the EPA was designed to do. The Bush “administration’s” mis-use of the EPA frustrated a lot of important efforts, ozone detection among them.
Then there’s this:
Still, the oil and gas industry is already moving to cut emissions, and in the Pinedale area, more than $100 million has been invested to cut emissions, according to a NOAA estimate.
Interesting. Normally the industry fights and whines about the “enormous” costs associated with mitigating their pollution. That isn’t evident in this article.
Despite that, this is one more reason to not drill oil and gas in the first place. What pollution does solar (photovoltaic or thermal) produce when absorbing the sun’s energy? What pollution do turbines produce when absorbing the wind’s energy? None. Now, there is likely to be some pollution generated when the solar and wind infrastructure components are originally constructed. The same can be said for fossil fuel infrastructure, though. Overall, solar and wind are far less polluting energy sources than are fossil fuels. Greenhouse gas and ozone pollution can and should be completely removed from our energy production. After all, there is more than enough (see here and here – 4th link from the top) renewable energy available for our society’s needs.
The Bush “administration” has approved increased drilling in Montana. The decision would allow 18,000 natural gas wells to be drilled on more than 1.5 million acres of federal land in the Powder River Basin in southeastern Montana over the next two decades. Yes, the drilling boom in the West remains stuck in high gear. Despite a dramatic increase in the number of wells for oil and gas in the past 8 years, prices haven’t decreased for consumers. During the same time period, oil and gas corporations’ profits have increased quarter after quarter, year after year. The drilling is solely benefiting corporations while Western residents deal with increases in crime and pollution. Moreover, the heightened pace of industry is taking a toll on local infrastructure – roads, water, sewage and the like. Has the fossil fuel industry paid for the increased wear-and-tear of public infrastructure? No. They’ve been handed corporate welfare in giveaways by the Bush “administration”.
The biggest drawback to the potential increase in drilling is water concerns:
The Powder River Basin holds a type of natural gas known as coal-bed methane, which companies can extract only after pumping vast quantities of water from underground aquifers that trap the gas. That’s the same water ranchers in the arid region depend on to irrigate fields and fill stock ponds.
That means the corporations padding the pockets of Republican politicians are going to compete for the same resources as the voters those Republicans depend on. The word is the fossil fuel corporations won’t keep drilling if environmental concerns arise. This might be likelier under an Obama administration than a Bush “administration”, but I say wait until the concerns arise to see how it’s handled. We’ve been reassured that drilling has such incredible technologies that the environment is basically left untouched for years by pro-Bushies. The environment always suffers, the fossil fuel industry always profits and nothing is cleaned up by the corporations doing the damage – it always falls to taxpayers who didn’t get a profit from the drilling. That kind of socialism is alright for Republicans – privatize the profit, socialize the loss.
This kind of plan is incredibly short-sighted. As climate change makes its influence felt in the Western U.S., steady precipitation is forecasted to decrease. While that’s going on, burning more natural gas will generate even more greenhouse gases whose effect won’t be felt for decades. Mitigating those effects will become increasingly expensive, by the way. So the climate in the Western U.S. will be forced toward increasingly arid conditions while additional drilling continues, which will require millions of gallons of water from ranchers and other Western interests. All while drilling corporations privatize the profits and socialize their losses.
On the other hand, we could install wind farms and new transmission lines, which wouldn’t release nearly the GHGs drilling does during manufacture and assembly and wouldn’t compete for water like drilling will. Americans would get clean energy and the climate and wildlife wouldn’t be as impacted. I can’t wait until Jan. 20th and our energy nightmare is addressed more honestly.
CU is currently developing a $9 million program which will bring nationally recognized conservative scholars to teach on the Boulder campus. The program will allow CU to create an endowment for a visiting chair in conservative thought.
What exactly is the push for this crazy idea? It all arises from the Republican penchant for self-victimization. The whole world is out to get every singe Con-servative, according to them. The push is coming from entities like the American Enterprise Institute and the Independence Institute who have conducted “studies” demonstrating how crazy liberal every public college in America is. What doesn’t get related by the corporate media is AEI and II are funded exclusively by conservatives. Their “studies” are slanted from the start to show what they want them to show. Because they’re so well funded and organized, they can push things like hiring a “chair of con-servative thought”. How then, you might ask, could a place like CU in “ultra-liberal” Boulder even consider such a thing? This is what happens when a partisan like Bruce Benson is hired as University President. I haven’t read any stories about how CU is suddenly swimming in cash due to Benson’s superior fundraising abilities. But CU is suddenly getting a chair in conservative thought. Gee, I wonder how that happened. Can you imagine the screams from the Cons if CU were to hire a chair in progressive thought?
In a major shakeup of House Committee Chairs, Rep. Henry Waxman will be the new House Energy and Commerce Committee Chairperson. He took the Chair away from Rep. John Dingell, who had been in the Democratic leadership of the Committee for the past 28 years. Waxman is a more aggressive politician who isn’t bought by corporate influence. In fact, Waxman has made it his cause to root out corruption and malfeasance. Dingell on the other hand has been in the auto industry’s pocket for years. He’s been one of their bigger supporters of killing universal health coverage and increased fuel efficiency standards, at the industry’s request. While the auto industry is currently begging for low interest loans from the government, it is instructive to remember why they argued against universal health and higher efficiency standards: it would cost too much and they would fail. Well, they saved millions upon millions of dollars and they’re failing. Any loan the government provides should include the removal of these dinosaurs from corporate leadership without compensation. Back to Waxman, this is very good news on the climate change front. Waxman realizes the imperative to begin action on the most critical issue facing us this century. Dingell would have delayed our way past important thresholds, forcing future generations to contend with a much different climate than the one he lived in.
Thyne, a geology professor consulting for Garfield County, said he thinks evidence is piling up in Colorado and elsewhere in regard to water contamination related to oil and gas development.
There shouldn’t be any surprise, but fluids used to fracture gas formations were exempted by Congress in 2005 from federal clean water regulations. Huh. Imagine that – deregulating industries comes back around and affects people’s lives negatively.
Some residents voiced anger Thursday in connection with the study’s second phase, which involved retesting water wells where initial tests raised concerns. Marcia Davis-Durnil said residents shouldn’t have had to wait until now to be told about those concerns and consider water treatment options.
“That could have affected a pregnancy, a special needs child, an autistic child,” she said.
It appears most people aren’t thinking the Con-servative approach to governance through very well. “You’re on your own” does really mean that you’re on your own. Nobody and nothing should get in the way of corporations making their money. Citizens’ interests be damned, they’ve done what they wanted to in the past 8 years. Will we see change?
The Treasury has come up with some solution details. First: purchasing troubled mortgage-back securities. That’s okay, I guess. Second: buying mortgages, particularly from regional banks. That’s a lot better. Third: insuring mortgages and mortgage-backed securities. That’s a good idea too. Fourth: purchasing equity in a broad array of financial institutions. That’s a darn good idea. If taxpayer money is being used to take assets off company books, taxpayers should be in line for any potential future gains. Fifth: helping delinquent borrowers stay in their homes. That’s kind of vague, but it’s a good summary statement. I’d really like to see some details on just how they’re planning on achieving this goal. [Update]: These details and weekend-long meetings among the largest economic powers had a positive effect on U.S. markets today: the Dow gained 936.42 today, as an example.
67% of Coloradans would rather protect pristine national forest lands and not increase oil and gas protection in them. 70% thought that the high number of already unused leases was reason enough not to grant the industry new ones on public lands. 56% were intelligent enough to recognize that opening drilling up in the lands wouldn’t lower gas prices. Just one more reason why “Drill, baby, drill” isn’t working out West: we live next to the areas where the drilling would actually occur and we don’t think it’s a good idea.
Dependence on imported oil (currently 10 million barrels per day) by 33%
Electricity-sector CO2 emissions by 95%
Personal vehicle sector CO2 emissions by 38%
US CO2 emissions overall by 48% (40% from today’s CO2 emission level)
The cost of Google’s plan? $4.4 Trillion! Ah, but the savings of Google’s plan? $5.4 Trillion!! I’ve heard estimates of the cost of business-as-usual, but I forget what they are. I’ll follow up on this in the future.
The effects of climate change in Colorado are being assessed. Among them: change in river flows through mid-century. Climates are expected to migrate upward in elevation. Supplies of water will decrease. Demand is likely to increase. Guess what will happen to costs. Or we could actually do something about our climate change forcings. See the Google plan above. It’s a step in the correct direction.
The hysteria over Amendment 41 continues among wonky circles. It shouldn’t, as info from the Colorado Independent Ethics Commission came out last week. Scholarships, insurance policies and dinners are allowed, just like A41 supporters have maintained. A41 banned gifts from lobbyists and anything over $50 in value from non-lobbyists. The Colorado Supreme Court has refused to look at A41’s constitutionality until the law was applied or enforced. I think the intent behind A41 was apparent to voters. I don’t think the Commission will whittle away the intent, as opponents claim.
Arctic sea ice volume likely set an all-time minimum this year. While the areal extent reached the second lowest value on record, the volume of the remaining ice was less this year than last. It’s not hard to figure out why this is. A record low areal extent last year meant the ice that formed last winter was new and thinner than ice that formed over decades or longer. That ice melted easily this summer. The small area of thicker ice? It melted more this year because of the warmer ocean waters underneath it. As those waters get warmer year after year, the ice above it has less long-term viability. The NSIDC should continue to verify the final volume value for 2008.
Republicans have maintained their stranglehold on local and state politics with their GOPAC program – it trains folks how to push fringe policies to the public. That’s how they’ve gotten so many extremists in positions of power. Want to counter it? Throw a little something toward Progressive Majority.
In a move toward improving the transparency of bills in Congress, PublicMarkup.org has put the original Bush Bailout plan and Senator Chris Dodd’s plan dealing with the same issue up for public view. The public can also comment on the legislation.
Oh, in case you’re wondering – despite having billions of dollars worth of bad assets and paying executives millions of dollars every year, the financial institutions looking for a $700 billion handout is still paying for lobbyists. In the millions this year alone. While families are losing their houses. That’s immoral.
While the summer season has drawn to a close for the Arctic, thankfully ending the horrible rate of melt this year, the Antarctic’s winter is also ending. This winter wasn’t as good to the sea ice in the Southern Hemisphere as last winter was. The maximum extent was 15 million sq. km, over 1 million sq. km. less than the area last year. It appears Aug. 2008 wasn’t a good year for ice worldwide as the Southern Hemisphere actually lost over 500,000 sq. km. of ice in a two-week time period. August also saw the fastest rate of melt of ice in the Northern Hemisphere. After attaining a +2 million sq. km. anomaly last year, the Southern Hemisphere is lucky to be right at the 1970-2000 mean, and appears to be heading negative as the melt accelerates.
The shuttle mission to Hubble has been delayed by 4 days, from Oct. 10th to the 14th. Most of the delay was caused by Hurricane Ike’s landfall and damage to the Houston, TX area. Atlantis is scheduled to make the trip to Hubble. Endeavour is waiting on a nearby launch pad in the event that Atlantis experiences damage significant enough to prevent a return to Earth. Endeavour is scheduled to make another construction flight to the International Space Station later this year if the rescue mission is unneeded.
A potential lunar colony site has been mapped in 3-D using camera data that wasn’t meant for 3-D. I think Mars exploration and colonies should come first, but recognize the long-term importance of the Moon as well.
Gas shortages are occurring across the southern U.S. A couple of factors are causing this situation. Hurricanes Gustav and Ike shut down drilling and refining infrastructure as well as power delivery systems across the Gulf of Mexico, Louisiana and Texas. More disturbing is the following:
In its most recent Weekly Oil Data Review, Barclays Capital pointed out that the U.S. gasoline inventory has reached its lowest level since August 1967, when demand was a little more than half its current level of 9.3 million barrels a day. At 178.7 million barrels, inventories are 21.6 million barrels below their five-year average.
Replacing those inventories isn’t easy either. “Once the refineries get back up and running, they’ll drain the already low crude oil inventories.” Not discussed in the article is the impact of fuel corporations sitting on millions of acres of leased land without drilling. Not discussed in the article is the impact of not building additional refining capacity in the last 30 years, making the drilling issue completely irrelevant. It’s that lack of refining capacity (which are only operating at 67% of capacity right now) that has put a large region of the country in danger of running out of gasoline. If that situation gets worse, food won’t be able to be supplied. Then the anger over Bush’s Wall St. Bailout will seem minor in comparison.
George Bush decided not to change the number of troops holding down our occupation of Iraq for the remainder of his time in office. Like the courageous visionary he is, he’s leaving the decision to the next President.
The Colorado Oil and Gas Conservation Commission staff recommended the elimination of the proposed 90-days drilling restriction in some wildlife areas. Imagine if instead of spending millions on lobbying, fuel corporations spent that money on developing new technologies. Imagine if their actions were responsible and moral.
Sarah Palin’s Alaska is a welfare state. In 2005 (the most recent figures), according to the Tax Foundation, Alaska ranked 18th in federal taxes paid per resident ($5,434) but first in federal spending received per resident ($13,950). Where does all that money come from to spend on each resident? The rest of the country’s taxpayers. Leeches! The last paragraph sums up the situation very nicely (emphasis in bold is mine):
Why is a windfall-profits tax good for Alaska but not for the U.S.? Well, it’s obvious, isn’t it? People in Alaska are better than people in the rest of the U.S. They’re more American. Although there are small towns and farms and high school hockey teams in the lower 48, there are fewer down here, per capita, than in Alaska. And there are many more journalists and pollsters and city dwellers [and community organizers] and other undesirables who might benefit if every American had the same right to leech off the government as do the good citizens of Sarah Palin’s Alaska.
Gas and oil corporations have been pushing to open the pristine Roan Plateau up to drilling for years. Recently, they used arguments that Colorado would reap a financial windfall at an auction for drilling sites. They have been spewing figures like $2 billion in total sales, meaning Colorado could receive $1 billion dollars (the federal government gets the rest).
The sites were placed on auction yesterday. How many billions did they end up selling for? $0.114. You read that correctly: the total dollar value of all the sites sold to oil and gas corporations was a mere $114 million. That’s 1/20th the number those corporations were using to ensure the auction took place. The Roan Plateau will have thousands of drill pads developed on its top, changing it for the rest of my lifetime as well as that of future generations. That’s not all. Not only did Colorado get shafted out of $1,886,000,000 of funds corporations played off as guaranteed, the state will end up losing twice because of the actual guaranteed decrease in tourism on the Plateau. Tourism generates $7.3 billion per year for Colorado. That means the state got gipped by the auction once, but any gains realized by the energy corporations by oil and gas prices (which will likely be higher in the future, of course) will act as a double hit to the state in the form of fewer tourism dollars filling the state’s coffers.
What’s particularly disgusting in this case is that the same industry lobbying group that pushed the $2 billion number so hard immediately blamed Democrats for the short-change. Gov. Ritter has said since his time in office that the number was a ploy to get the land sold. Simply put, it worked. Two spokesmen even had the audacity to compare the Roan sale to a previous sale that netted a much larger average bid price without mentioning one critical difference: the Roan is public land while the previous sale was private land. Isn’t it interesting how the government got fleeced by corporations while private land sold for 20 times as much per acre?
Oil and gas lobbyists don’t even blink an eye at this level of immorality. They don’t have Colorado citizens’ best interests in mind. They work to drive up profits while disregarding every other facet of their industry.
The Colorado Petroleum Association paid for a report that says if Colorado were to eliminate the corporate welfare currently given away to oil and gas corporations, Colorado taxes would rank second in the nation behind Wyoming. The message they’ve manufactured is that taking away their welfare will end up costing consumers more. I’m not buying it.
Here is the important fact: the ad valorem tax credit allows energy companies to subtract 87.5% of their property tax bills from the mineral taxes they owe the state. Why was the credit established? Gov. Ritter has provided that answer. The credit has its roots in the late 1970s when Colorado wanted to help the energy industry establish itself in the state. Does anyone seriously think the drilling industry isn’t established in Colorado? I agree with the Governor: enough is enough. Oil and gas companies are recording record profits every quarter. If the companies want to continue to do business in the state, they should pay what they owe.
Once the giveaway is canceled, the state will receive an additional $260 million in revenue. Gov. Ritter, looking ahead for our state, wants to use some of that money to underwrite “Colorado Promise” scholarships. That makes sense to me: oil and gas corporations pay their fair share and young Coloradans gain another avenue to further themselves.
There is an alternative ballot measure that would redirect the taxes to a different recipient: transportation (read: roads). This is a less optimal situation. Once the money is spent on roads, it’s spent. Roads need additional funding, that’s for sure, but Republicans are trying to do so without raising taxes. Here is my opinion: if our infrastructure needs investment, let’s invest in it. If nobody ever pays anything for the infrastructure, it’s going to fall apart and end up costing us more in the long-term. If the money is directed toward improving citizens’ future earning potential, I think the state sees a larger benefit from that in the long term. They’ll not only earn more, and therefore generate more revenue for the state, but they’ll produce more for the state during their careers, thanks on their increased education.
The oil and gas corporations want people to buy into their myth that eliminating their welfare would hurt their industry. I’ll expose that for the lie that it is: are the corporations fleeing Wyoming, where their taxes are higher, for Colorado? Of course not. The energy industry is thriving in Wyoming also.
Colorado deserves its fair share from the energy industry just like it does from every other industry. The time for giveaways is over.
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