Senator Gary Peters from Michigan asked for an amendment to the KXL bill to fund improvements of a pipeline within the Mackinac Straits since the pipeline is 60 years old. Murkowski states it should be a free standing bill otherwise it might delay the KXL. She states she knows nothing about the need for improvements of this Michigan pipeline. Senator Murkowski is the Chairwoman of the Committee of Energy and Natural Resources and the Subcommittee Appropriation Chair for Interior, Environment and Related Agencies. Given the fact she knows nothing about this pipeline that might explain a lot about all the other leaks to date.
The Amendment to repair Michigan's 60 year old pipeline was defeated.
US Senator Gary Peters currently has 49 bills sponsored. (click here) Impressive considering he is a freshman Senator.
US Senator Bernie Sanders offers an amendment to increase the use of solar electricity with rebates for installation and use.
Ms. Murkowski stated the USA can't afford it. Funny, I thought the USA couldn't afford not to.
January 28, 2015
By Timothy Gardner and Susan Cornwell, Reuters
The Amendment to repair Michigan's 60 year old pipeline was defeated.
US Senator Gary Peters currently has 49 bills sponsored. (click here) Impressive considering he is a freshman Senator.
US Senator Bernie Sanders offers an amendment to increase the use of solar electricity with rebates for installation and use.
Ms. Murkowski stated the USA can't afford it. Funny, I thought the USA couldn't afford not to.
January 28, 2015
By Timothy Gardner and Susan Cornwell, Reuters
...Keystone supporters (click here) in the Senate faced tough odds, and one
lawmaker they hoped might be a “yes” — independent Sen. Angus King of
Maine — voted against the project.
In a news release earlier Tuesday announcing he would vote
against the bill, King said, “Congress is not — nor should it be — in
the business of legislating the approval or disapproval of a
construction project.”...
This is going to be the theme of McConnell's Senate. Repeat bills until they pass. The Senate is as much at an impasse today as before the 2014 elections. This is not leadership or governance, it is politics. There won't be bills passed this year except funding bills. The votes are coming down along party lines, except, in some Blue Dog states,
Bernie doesn't get his rebate, correction, the American people doesn't get a rebate for the installation of solar energy.
Cruz wants the USA to export LNG (Liquid Natural Gas). Senator Markey states there are many reasons to vote against the Cruz amendment and among them it would raise the cost of natural gas to consumers in the USA.
...Although these low prices (click here) have been a boon for consumers, they pose an economic challenge to domestic producers. Consequently, these producers are eager to find new domestic and foreign markets for natural gas in order to boost demand. Exporting more natural gas will tighten domestic supplies and, in turn, increase U.S. natural gas prices....
It would also escalate fracking and threaten more and more of the USA water supply. The real problem with the Cruz amendment is that it would remove all controls on these exports. The USA could export anywhere it pleased.
LNG exports are currently provided on a case by case basis. It works and those applications are providing some exports. When decided on a case by case basis the amount exported can be controlled with minimal impact on American consumers.
The U.S. Department of Energy, or DOE, already has approved several applications to export liquefied natural gas, or LNG, to customers around the globe. The Energy Information Administration, or EIA, predicts that the United States is on track to become a net exporter of natural gas before 2020. Natural gas producers, however, are pushing federal officials to expedite the approval of additional applications to export even higher levels of LNG.
The two LNG export ports are currently under construction.
Freeport LNG Terminal(Under Construction) (click here) - Texas
Cheniere Sabine Pass terminal (under construction) (click here) - Texas and Louisiana
Kenai LNG, Nikiski, Alaska
- The Kenai LNG Plant, (click here) located in Nikiski on the Kenai Peninsula, was the world’s largest plant when built, and the first to serve the Asia-Pacific market. Nearly all LNG produced at the plant has been sold via contracts with two Japanese utilities.
This is another reason LNG exports are determined on a case by case basis. Allies. If the USA shipped American LNG all over the world what then comes of our allies? Applications for exported LNG from the USA is appropriate, necessary and reassuring to allies.
Considering the two export facilities under construction are in Texas explains Senator Cruz amendment.
March 2014
In response (click here) to the rapid and severe decline of the lesser prairie-chicken, the U.S. Fish and Wildlife Service today announced the final listing of the species as threatened under the Endangered Species Act (ESA), as well as a final special rule under section 4(d) of the ESA that will limit regulatory impacts on landowners and businesses from this listing. Under the law, a “threatened” listing means the species is likely to become in danger of extinction within the foreseeable future; it is a step below “endangered” under the ESA and allows for more flexibility in how the Act’s protections are implemented....
Senator Moran of Kansas wants to kill off the chicken to benefit the US Petroleum industry.
US Fish and Wildlife should be on the look out for poachers. The bird didn't ask for any trouble. It simply wants to eat and sleep and have babies.
ALBUQUERQUE, N.M.— Lesser prairie chicken population numbers dropped by more than 50 percent over the past year, according to a study released today. The finding raises questions about the adequacy of voluntary conservation measures proposed today for the rare grouse in a final rangewide conservation plan intended to preclude the need for Endangered Species Act protections....
...The study, by Western EcoSystems Technology Inc. of Laramie, Wyo., estimates the total population size at 17,616 individuals in 2013, more than a 50 percent drop from the 2012 estimate of 34,440 birds. The study also estimated there to be 2,036 occupied breeding areas (known as leks) in 2013 — a decline of more than 30 percent from the 2012 estimate of 2,930 leks.
Prairie chicken habitat has declined overall by as much as 92 percent, according to federal scientists, and threats from habitat loss and fragmentation will increase with proposed energy developments, agricultural conversions and other land uses anticipated under the new rangewide conservation plan. Only 71 patches of habitat as large as 25,000 acres — the area required for effective chicken strongholds — exist within the entire five-state occupied range....
The issue is bigger than this species. In 2005 University of Kansas conducted a land use map measuring the impacts of global warming. This is a state effort to limit the impact of the warming and protect the land.
The map was not imposed on anyone. The University of Kansas, in recognition of it's responsibility to citizens, asked and received a grant to carry out their study. Kansas is a very important agricultural state and there would be no doubt by anyone at the National Science Foundation to provide such monies. This are all very well thought out priorities to protect the interest of citizens and future citizens.
The new land-cover map will be used by Kansas geographers, ecologists, economists and hydrologists to investigate and forecast environmental changes that occur as a result of climate- and human-induced change. The map was produced by the Kansas Applied Remote Sensing Program, a division of the Kansas Biological Survey, and covers the state of Kansas as well as the Kansas River watershed. The combination of high-resolution and wide-area coverage provides scientists a mechanism for forecasting the effects of climate change on plant and animal communities....
Currently, Governor Brownback (click here) is complaining this is federal overreach. I suggest he speak with his scientists at the university before he embarrasses himself in advocating for cronies that saw him elected.
Four amendments have passed for Keystone Bill:
January 28, 2015
...What’s passed so far? (click here) One amendment, from Ohio Republican Sen. Rob Portman, aims to improve energy efficiency in buildings. On another, senators agreed that climate change is real — but rejected a separate amendment saying humans significantly contribute to it. Sen. Lisa Murkowski, the Alaska Republican who leads the Senate Energy Committee, won passage of her amendment saying oil sands shouldn’t be excluded from paying into an oil-spill trust fund. And senators approved an amendment simply saying private property is protected by the U.S. Constitution....
Senator Whitehouse proposed an amendment to limit the ability to pay Republicans for votes. This was Senator Murkowski's reply.
This is going to be the theme of McConnell's Senate. Repeat bills until they pass. The Senate is as much at an impasse today as before the 2014 elections. This is not leadership or governance, it is politics. There won't be bills passed this year except funding bills. The votes are coming down along party lines, except, in some Blue Dog states,
Bernie doesn't get his rebate, correction, the American people doesn't get a rebate for the installation of solar energy.
Cruz wants the USA to export LNG (Liquid Natural Gas). Senator Markey states there are many reasons to vote against the Cruz amendment and among them it would raise the cost of natural gas to consumers in the USA.
...Although these low prices (click here) have been a boon for consumers, they pose an economic challenge to domestic producers. Consequently, these producers are eager to find new domestic and foreign markets for natural gas in order to boost demand. Exporting more natural gas will tighten domestic supplies and, in turn, increase U.S. natural gas prices....
It would also escalate fracking and threaten more and more of the USA water supply. The real problem with the Cruz amendment is that it would remove all controls on these exports. The USA could export anywhere it pleased.
LNG exports are currently provided on a case by case basis. It works and those applications are providing some exports. When decided on a case by case basis the amount exported can be controlled with minimal impact on American consumers.
The U.S. Department of Energy, or DOE, already has approved several applications to export liquefied natural gas, or LNG, to customers around the globe. The Energy Information Administration, or EIA, predicts that the United States is on track to become a net exporter of natural gas before 2020. Natural gas producers, however, are pushing federal officials to expedite the approval of additional applications to export even higher levels of LNG.
The two LNG export ports are currently under construction.
Freeport LNG Terminal(Under Construction) (click here) - Texas
Cheniere Sabine Pass terminal (under construction) (click here) - Texas and Louisiana
Kenai LNG, Nikiski, Alaska
- The Kenai LNG Plant, (click here) located in Nikiski on the Kenai Peninsula, was the world’s largest plant when built, and the first to serve the Asia-Pacific market. Nearly all LNG produced at the plant has been sold via contracts with two Japanese utilities.
This is another reason LNG exports are determined on a case by case basis. Allies. If the USA shipped American LNG all over the world what then comes of our allies? Applications for exported LNG from the USA is appropriate, necessary and reassuring to allies.
Considering the two export facilities under construction are in Texas explains Senator Cruz amendment.
In response (click here) to the rapid and severe decline of the lesser prairie-chicken, the U.S. Fish and Wildlife Service today announced the final listing of the species as threatened under the Endangered Species Act (ESA), as well as a final special rule under section 4(d) of the ESA that will limit regulatory impacts on landowners and businesses from this listing. Under the law, a “threatened” listing means the species is likely to become in danger of extinction within the foreseeable future; it is a step below “endangered” under the ESA and allows for more flexibility in how the Act’s protections are implemented....
Senator Moran of Kansas wants to kill off the chicken to benefit the US Petroleum industry.
US Fish and Wildlife should be on the look out for poachers. The bird didn't ask for any trouble. It simply wants to eat and sleep and have babies.
ALBUQUERQUE, N.M.— Lesser prairie chicken population numbers dropped by more than 50 percent over the past year, according to a study released today. The finding raises questions about the adequacy of voluntary conservation measures proposed today for the rare grouse in a final rangewide conservation plan intended to preclude the need for Endangered Species Act protections....
...The study, by Western EcoSystems Technology Inc. of Laramie, Wyo., estimates the total population size at 17,616 individuals in 2013, more than a 50 percent drop from the 2012 estimate of 34,440 birds. The study also estimated there to be 2,036 occupied breeding areas (known as leks) in 2013 — a decline of more than 30 percent from the 2012 estimate of 2,930 leks.
Prairie chicken habitat has declined overall by as much as 92 percent, according to federal scientists, and threats from habitat loss and fragmentation will increase with proposed energy developments, agricultural conversions and other land uses anticipated under the new rangewide conservation plan. Only 71 patches of habitat as large as 25,000 acres — the area required for effective chicken strongholds — exist within the entire five-state occupied range....
The issue is bigger than this species. In 2005 University of Kansas conducted a land use map measuring the impacts of global warming. This is a state effort to limit the impact of the warming and protect the land.
The map was not imposed on anyone. The University of Kansas, in recognition of it's responsibility to citizens, asked and received a grant to carry out their study. Kansas is a very important agricultural state and there would be no doubt by anyone at the National Science Foundation to provide such monies. This are all very well thought out priorities to protect the interest of citizens and future citizens.
- University of Kansas scientists (click here) have released an updated land-cover
map of the state of Kansas designed to help researchers forecast the
effect of global change on the state’s landscape.
The new land-cover map will be used by Kansas geographers, ecologists, economists and hydrologists to investigate and forecast environmental changes that occur as a result of climate- and human-induced change. The map was produced by the Kansas Applied Remote Sensing Program, a division of the Kansas Biological Survey, and covers the state of Kansas as well as the Kansas River watershed. The combination of high-resolution and wide-area coverage provides scientists a mechanism for forecasting the effects of climate change on plant and animal communities....
Currently, Governor Brownback (click here) is complaining this is federal overreach. I suggest he speak with his scientists at the university before he embarrasses himself in advocating for cronies that saw him elected.
Four amendments have passed for Keystone Bill:
January 28, 2015
...What’s passed so far? (click here) One amendment, from Ohio Republican Sen. Rob Portman, aims to improve energy efficiency in buildings. On another, senators agreed that climate change is real — but rejected a separate amendment saying humans significantly contribute to it. Sen. Lisa Murkowski, the Alaska Republican who leads the Senate Energy Committee, won passage of her amendment saying oil sands shouldn’t be excluded from paying into an oil-spill trust fund. And senators approved an amendment simply saying private property is protected by the U.S. Constitution....
Senator Whitehouse proposed an amendment to limit the ability to pay Republicans for votes. This was Senator Murkowski's reply.
