"Tar Sands Dirty Oil and the Future of a Continent" by andrew Nikifonuk. (click here)
Upon taking office, then Vice President Richard Cheney convened an "energy committee." We have all heard about the closed meetings with the petroleum industry and how one sided it all was. That was 2001. In the policy book that followed every corner of Earth that Richard Cheney and Halliburton was interested was a part of that policy.
Let's start with this:
November 14, 2014
HOUSTON Oilfield-services (click here) company Baker Hughes Inc. said Friday that rival Halliburton Co. plans to nominate candidates to replace the entire board of directors of Baker Hughes after negotiations about a possible acquisition stalled.
Baker Hughes said that Halliburton has refused to raise its first and only offer to buy it, which the Baker Hughes board determined was not "adequate." Baker Hughes didn't disclose the offer's value.
Baker Hughes said it considers Halliburton's move to replace its directors an attempt to pressure its board into accepting the offer. A combination of the two would create a company slightly larger in revenue than Schlumberger Ltd., currently the world's biggest oil services company....
I was surprised to hear the deal between the two oil field service companies had gone through. Only last week the SEC told Halliburton in order to acquire Baker Hughes they had to sell off billions in assets. The reason was to avoid any antitrust lawsuits. Either Halliburton threw caution to the wind, or there was a garage sale at Halliburton over the weekend.
Halliburton sold off KBR due to antics in Iraq, but, maintained itself as a premier oil field service company. It is now engaged in eliminating it's competition. Things are good at Halliburton since Cheney was Vice President.
When I say the KXL was never needed I mean it. The USA doesn't need foreign oil. This is a report from the USGS that outlines all the gas and oil pockets/vats in the entire world.
There is no shortage of gas and oil. To that end there is no need to worry about anything other than the growth of alternative energy. Why? Because global warming is real, causing droughts, massive fires and changing the face of Earth into an uninhabitable rock.
Why doesn't the USA have to worry about the future of oil? Well, there is the Bakkan, but, to be completely honest there is a vat of oil and gas within the continental borders of the USA called the Green River deposits. It isn't as though the public wasn't aware of it either.
Link: http://abcnews.go.com/Business/american-oil-find-holds-oil-opec/story?id=17536852
The Green River Deposits are estimated to be at least 1.4 trillion barrels. Some estimates by private industry state 4 trillion. That seems too high to me. But, the 'idea' the KXL is the best alternative for USA energy is among the most hyped and stupid things ever stated. It, however, makes for great politics (OBVIOUSLY) noting the right with their "Drill, Babe, Drill" and "Mine, Babe, Mine" rant.
The USA has a lot of gas and oil. The USA is not alone in having a lot of gas and oil. What would happen to the petroleum industry if all of a sudden 1.4 trillion barrels were dumped on the world markets right now? It would collapse under the sheer glut of oil available as a commodity.
Peak Oil did happen in 2005. Basically, all the cheap oil has been drilled and there are now declining supplies of oil from that TRADITIONAL source. It is far cheaper for Saudi Arabia to extract their oil than it is for the USA to extract it's using horizontal drilling.
I guarantee you any small operator that has been drilling because of the high price of the COMMODITY 'oil' is now scaling back. The cost of running those small operations simply doesn't justify the return on investment at this point. That is also true of the Canadian tar sands.
While the Canadian tar sands and the KXL makes for great politics, it is all hot air. There is nothing to this. The USA is making precious land available for a highly dangerous form of oil that will absolutely end up polluting the aquifer and destroying farm land.
When I reflect on this profound reality I have to wonder what kind of mind Richard Cheney actually has considering he has absolutely no respect for anyone besides himself. He sure as heck doesn't value the people of this country and it's land and agricultural production that daunts most other agriculture in the world.
The American people have to make their choices to bring about a reduction in Greenhouse Gases. They simply have to. The USA and China have to make that reduction without compromise. There has to be a return to Earth's balance of it's gaseous layers we live in. The part of Earth that provides for life. President Obama with his alliance with China is a great and hopeful sign we are finally going to be turning the corner on droughts, wild weather that kills, floods and furious fires of the land.
Global warming is a scientific fact. It isn't a political ideology, but, the petroleum industry made it so. The petroleum industry created the myth there is no such thing as global warming and CO2 could never be a toxic gas. That was their profit and they didn't care of the world's atmosphere collapsed tomorrow.
The scientists of the world never politicized the fact there was anthropogenic global warming. They never disrespected the American people in their findings for the idea they were earning money not otherwise available. I am intricately involved with the conservation community and movement and there is no one becoming a million-billionaire because they are pulling in government monies from research of global warming. That simply doesn't happen. The people I know have their research as a side line to their teaching credentials.
The USA is not in need of any Canadian tar sands EVEN IF it was being sent into the country from the Texas refineries. The Texas refineries were always going to export the CANADIAN oil to other countries.
Why should the USA completely compromise it's land for the sake of a pipeline that doesn't even serve it's needs and tar sands oil (that is very dangerous because it is 50% nathpha)? Why? There is absolutely no reason. Dick Cheney provided 'the talking points' and the GOP has been running with it ever since.
Now, the US Senate can spend time passing an oil bill that is only necessary to assist one of it's members dealing with the propaganda of the right wing. But, it is President's Obama's OBLIGATION to veto the bill if ever making it to his desk. When he does, the GOP will scream and cry that thousands of jobs have been destroyed and the country needs a fine Republican president like Jeb Bush and a Vice President like Rubio. Then the GOP will be off to the races and any lawsuit and/or impeachment proceedings will be nothing but politics for the next two years.
The USA has plenty of oil and gas and if the country ever needed it for a military emergency the Army Corp Engineers along with soldiers could drill it and bring it to refineries to process it for the battlefield even for as expensive as it might be.
It is a great idea to send the USA to war if you are an oil man, by the way. It drives the demand and the price up, and well what could be better.
The country is fine. There is nothing happening to the USA because of oil and gas. The USA has to roll back it's EMISSIONS of Greenhouse Gases and it has to do it now. The oil isn't going anywhere. But, a habitable and productive planet is.
