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Sometimes it's truly amusing to watch the world pass by...
Here's the latest connect-the-dots exercise my mind went through today.
The pilot show audience test of this soap opera series debuted in January last year with Arnold doing his usual Terminator schtick; in this case the termination of global warming apparently:
Episode 1 of the made-for-TV mini-series finally launched in December in the form of the US Energy Independence and Security Act of 2007, which contained this little one-liner:
After a small delay, no doubt to poll audience response, Episode 2 played last month in Miami at the 76th US Conference of Mayors. Below an excerpt from the High-Carbon Fuels Resolutions.
[If interested you can go here for links to all 132 topics that the Mayors agreed to pass various resolutions on (must have been a busy 4 days in Miami), including the "Cradle to Prison Pipeline Initiative", which doesn't seem to have anything to do with pipelines, and "Common Sense Measures in Support of Efforts to Fight Illegal Guns"]
Unlike "Desperate Housewives", where we have to suffer a whole week before our next fix, Episode 3 of "As the World Warms" came the same week in Las Vegas, where candidate Obama's campaign team had this to say:In its own version of "No Politician Left Behind" the Alberta Government, engorged, fat and happy from its windfall petroleum royalties, decided to join the dance while there was still some empty room left on the floor. Nothing like finding new, creative and utterly stupid ways to spend the voter's dollars...
Now one would think that all this would scare the private sector so badly it would dutifully fall in line. But, instead, today came this interesting joint announcement from TransCanada Pipeline and ConocoPhillips.
Are TransCanada and Conoco hard of hearing? Don't they understand this isn't supposed to be in the script? Aren't they afraid of incurring the wrath of Arnold & Obama & The Mayors and the other mini-series producers?
Or do they understand something about the US energy situation that seems beyond the grasp of those in elected office?
Stay tuned for future episodes...:p
Here's the latest connect-the-dots exercise my mind went through today.
The pilot show audience test of this soap opera series debuted in January last year with Arnold doing his usual Terminator schtick; in this case the termination of global warming apparently:
Arnold sparks revolutionary energy plan
Oakland Tribune, Jan 10, 2007 by Ian Hoffman
In the state's biggest, immediate step toward cutting global warming pollution, Gov. Schwarzenegger on Tuesday began shifting California's 26 million cars and trucks off petroleum-based fuels and toward alternatives that emit less greenhouse gas.
The governor said his new, greenhouse-gas standard for transportation fuels -- the world's first -- "leads us away from fossil fuel" and would help "in moving the entire country beyond debate, denial and inaction" on global warming.
"Our cars have been running on dirty fuel for too long. We have been dependent on foreign oil for too long, so I ask you to free us from dirty oil and from OPEC"...
More...
Oakland Tribune, Jan 10, 2007 by Ian Hoffman
In the state's biggest, immediate step toward cutting global warming pollution, Gov. Schwarzenegger on Tuesday began shifting California's 26 million cars and trucks off petroleum-based fuels and toward alternatives that emit less greenhouse gas.
The governor said his new, greenhouse-gas standard for transportation fuels -- the world's first -- "leads us away from fossil fuel" and would help "in moving the entire country beyond debate, denial and inaction" on global warming.
"Our cars have been running on dirty fuel for too long. We have been dependent on foreign oil for too long, so I ask you to free us from dirty oil and from OPEC"...
More...
...Stripped to its bare essentials, Section 526 of the U.S. Energy Independence and Security Act of 2007 bans federal agencies from buying alternative fuels that produce more greenhouse gases than conventional oil. This would include purchases by the military and the postal service -- far and away the two biggest consumers of fuel in the United States...
After a small delay, no doubt to poll audience response, Episode 2 played last month in Miami at the 76th US Conference of Mayors. Below an excerpt from the High-Carbon Fuels Resolutions.
[If interested you can go here for links to all 132 topics that the Mayors agreed to pass various resolutions on (must have been a busy 4 days in Miami), including the "Cradle to Prison Pipeline Initiative", which doesn't seem to have anything to do with pipelines, and "Common Sense Measures in Support of Efforts to Fight Illegal Guns"]
...WHEREAS, the production of fuels derived from unconventional sources, such as tar sands, liquid coal, and oil shale, emits even greater amounts of global warming pollution than conventional petroleum sources; and...
...WHEREAS, the production of tar sands oil from Canada emits approximately three times the carbon dioxide pollution per barrel as does conventional oil production and significantly damages Canada’s Boreal forest ecosystem--the world’s largest carbon storehouse; and...
...BE IT FURTHER RESOLVED, that the U.S. Conference of Mayors encourages mayors to track and reduce the lifecycle carbon dioxide emissions from their municipal vehicles by preventing or discontinuing the purchase of higher-carbon unconventional or synthetic fuels for these vehicles.
...WHEREAS, the production of tar sands oil from Canada emits approximately three times the carbon dioxide pollution per barrel as does conventional oil production and significantly damages Canada’s Boreal forest ecosystem--the world’s largest carbon storehouse; and...
...BE IT FURTHER RESOLVED, that the U.S. Conference of Mayors encourages mayors to track and reduce the lifecycle carbon dioxide emissions from their municipal vehicles by preventing or discontinuing the purchase of higher-carbon unconventional or synthetic fuels for these vehicles.
Obama's clean-oil vow could threaten oilsands industry
Published: Tuesday, June 24, 2008
WASHINGTON - Barack Obama on Tuesday vowed he would break America's addiction to "dirty, dwindling, and dangerously expensive" oil if he is elected U.S. president - and one of his first targets might well be Canada's oilsands.
A senior adviser to Obama's campaign told reporters it's an "open question" whether oil produced from northern Alberta's oilsands fits with the Democratic candidate's plan to shift the U.S. sharply away from consumption of carbon-intensive fossil fuels.
"If it turns out that those technologies don't advance . . . and the only way to produce those resources would be at a significant penalty to climate change, then we don't believe that those resources are going to be part of the long-term, are going to play a growing role in the long-term future," said Jason Grumet, Obama's senior energy adviser...
Published: Tuesday, June 24, 2008
WASHINGTON - Barack Obama on Tuesday vowed he would break America's addiction to "dirty, dwindling, and dangerously expensive" oil if he is elected U.S. president - and one of his first targets might well be Canada's oilsands.
A senior adviser to Obama's campaign told reporters it's an "open question" whether oil produced from northern Alberta's oilsands fits with the Democratic candidate's plan to shift the U.S. sharply away from consumption of carbon-intensive fossil fuels.
"If it turns out that those technologies don't advance . . . and the only way to produce those resources would be at a significant penalty to climate change, then we don't believe that those resources are going to be part of the long-term, are going to play a growing role in the long-term future," said Jason Grumet, Obama's senior energy adviser...
Alberta to capture CO2 with oil sands revenue
From the Financial Times
By Bernard Simon in Toronto
Published: July 9 2008 01:16 | Last updated: July 9 2008 01:16
Alberta is to set aside C$4bn ($3.9bn, €2.5bn, £2bn) of its burgeoning oil and gas revenues for projects to reduce greenhouse gas emissions.
The initiative, announced on Tuesday by Ed Stelmach, the Canadian province’s Conservative premier, is a response to increasingly vocal criticism of environmental damage caused by huge projects to exploit the bitumen-like oil sands deposits in north-eastern Alberta.
The C$4bn will be allocated to two funds. One will finance large projects to capture and store carbon dioxide emissions from oil sands recovery sites, the plants that upgrade the bitumen into crude oil, and from coal-fired power stations.
The gas would be pumped deep into the earth where it can be trapped for millions of years.
The other fund will finance improved public transport in the province. The extra funds are likely to revive interest in a high-speed rail link between Calgary and Edmonton, the province’s two main cities.
More...
From the Financial Times
By Bernard Simon in Toronto
Published: July 9 2008 01:16 | Last updated: July 9 2008 01:16
Alberta is to set aside C$4bn ($3.9bn, €2.5bn, £2bn) of its burgeoning oil and gas revenues for projects to reduce greenhouse gas emissions.
The initiative, announced on Tuesday by Ed Stelmach, the Canadian province’s Conservative premier, is a response to increasingly vocal criticism of environmental damage caused by huge projects to exploit the bitumen-like oil sands deposits in north-eastern Alberta.
The C$4bn will be allocated to two funds. One will finance large projects to capture and store carbon dioxide emissions from oil sands recovery sites, the plants that upgrade the bitumen into crude oil, and from coal-fired power stations.
The gas would be pumped deep into the earth where it can be trapped for millions of years.
The other fund will finance improved public transport in the province. The extra funds are likely to revive interest in a high-speed rail link between Calgary and Edmonton, the province’s two main cities.
More...
Are TransCanada and Conoco hard of hearing? Don't they understand this isn't supposed to be in the script? Aren't they afraid of incurring the wrath of Arnold & Obama & The Mayors and the other mini-series producers?
Or do they understand something about the US energy situation that seems beyond the grasp of those in elected office?
Stay tuned for future episodes...:p
TransCanada, Conoco to extend pipeline to U.S. Gulf
Wed Jul 16, 2008 5:10pm EDT
CALGARY, Alberta (Reuters) - TransCanada Corp and partner ConocoPhillips said on Wednesday they will spend $7 billion to expand the Keystone pipeline system to take an additional 500,000 barrels of Canadian oil sands crude per day to the refineries on the U.S. Gulf Coast.
TransCanada, the country's biggest pipeline firm, said it decided to go ahead with the project after customers committed to ship 300,000 barrels per day (bpd) on the line for an 18-year term.
The remaining space on the new line that is not taken by the anchor shippers will be up for bids in a binding open season that begins on Wednesday and runs until September 4.
"We've had support from both producers and refiners," said Russ Girling, president of TransCanada's pipeline division. "It's a good mix at both ends."
Keystone is one of a number of new pipeline projects, either under way or on drawing boards, aimed at accommodating a massive expansion of oil production from the oil sands of northern Alberta.
Output from the oil sands, the biggest storehouse of oil outside the Middle East, is expected to nearly double to 2.8 million bpd by 2015 and could replace declining Mexican and Venezuelan supplies for U.S. refiners on the Gulf of Mexico.
"Most (producers) have been looking to the Midwest and southern Midwest markets," said Greg Stringham, vice-president, markets and fiscal policy, at the Canadian Association of Petroleum Producers. "This will extend to the Houston market ... which really is a big market and has the capacity to handle this oil."
Valero Energy Corp the largest independent U.S. refiner, said on Wednesday it agreed to participate as a shipper on the expanded pipeline.
Valero said it expects to be one of the largest recipients of heavy sour crude oil from the expansion and expects an option to acquire an equity ownership position in the Keystone Partnerships.
The Keystone expansion will see a new pipeline built from a starting point near Edmonton, Alberta, and running about 3,200 km (2,000 miles) to terminals near Port Arthur, Texas. An 80-km (50-mile) lateral line will take the oil from Port Arthur to Houston.
The line will be built in four phases, Girling said, with construction beginning in 2010 and completed in 2012.
The new line is in addition to the $5.2 billion Keystone pipeline planned by TransCanada and ConocoPhillips, which will deliver Canadian crude to Wood River and Patoka, Illinois, and Cushing, Oklahoma.
Keystone's first phase, a 435,000 bpd line, is expected to be in service late in 2009 and will be expanded to handle 590,000 bpd a year later.
TransCanada said with the addition of incremental pumping facilities, the Keystone pipeline system, including the expansion, could be further expanded to 1.5 million bpd from 1.1 million.
Article...
Wed Jul 16, 2008 5:10pm EDT
CALGARY, Alberta (Reuters) - TransCanada Corp and partner ConocoPhillips said on Wednesday they will spend $7 billion to expand the Keystone pipeline system to take an additional 500,000 barrels of Canadian oil sands crude per day to the refineries on the U.S. Gulf Coast.
TransCanada, the country's biggest pipeline firm, said it decided to go ahead with the project after customers committed to ship 300,000 barrels per day (bpd) on the line for an 18-year term.
The remaining space on the new line that is not taken by the anchor shippers will be up for bids in a binding open season that begins on Wednesday and runs until September 4.
"We've had support from both producers and refiners," said Russ Girling, president of TransCanada's pipeline division. "It's a good mix at both ends."
Keystone is one of a number of new pipeline projects, either under way or on drawing boards, aimed at accommodating a massive expansion of oil production from the oil sands of northern Alberta.
Output from the oil sands, the biggest storehouse of oil outside the Middle East, is expected to nearly double to 2.8 million bpd by 2015 and could replace declining Mexican and Venezuelan supplies for U.S. refiners on the Gulf of Mexico.
"Most (producers) have been looking to the Midwest and southern Midwest markets," said Greg Stringham, vice-president, markets and fiscal policy, at the Canadian Association of Petroleum Producers. "This will extend to the Houston market ... which really is a big market and has the capacity to handle this oil."
Valero Energy Corp the largest independent U.S. refiner, said on Wednesday it agreed to participate as a shipper on the expanded pipeline.
Valero said it expects to be one of the largest recipients of heavy sour crude oil from the expansion and expects an option to acquire an equity ownership position in the Keystone Partnerships.
The Keystone expansion will see a new pipeline built from a starting point near Edmonton, Alberta, and running about 3,200 km (2,000 miles) to terminals near Port Arthur, Texas. An 80-km (50-mile) lateral line will take the oil from Port Arthur to Houston.
The line will be built in four phases, Girling said, with construction beginning in 2010 and completed in 2012.
The new line is in addition to the $5.2 billion Keystone pipeline planned by TransCanada and ConocoPhillips, which will deliver Canadian crude to Wood River and Patoka, Illinois, and Cushing, Oklahoma.
Keystone's first phase, a 435,000 bpd line, is expected to be in service late in 2009 and will be expanded to handle 590,000 bpd a year later.
TransCanada said with the addition of incremental pumping facilities, the Keystone pipeline system, including the expansion, could be further expanded to 1.5 million bpd from 1.1 million.
Article...
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