US Overtaking All Others In Energy Production

  

Good News on energy independence, but it comes at an expense. Nonetheless, we find a half-full glass for certain.






As long as I can remember, the United States has been so dependent on foreign sources of fossil fuel products. While no one in any past Administration would ever say the words, but our national interest is rooted in protecting active or potential sources of bulk oil.  
What were the euphemisms, “our interest”.  

“Our interest” is so deeply rooted in our psyche it has became the ‘dog whistle for any call for foreign intervention (other than 9/11).  I recently exchanged a very profession set of retorts with an committed progressive an international fighter for the rights of all people. The basis for our retorts was American support for interventions in Africa.  Basically, the conversation centered around the good in African intervention with my position that we should have done something to help stop the Rwandan Genocide in the 1990s.  A killing of over 800,000 people that resulted in centuries of divisiveness induced by European Colonialism  (Belgium in particular).  A key point in the conversation was why the intervention in Eastern Europe (Kosovo) without like intervention in Rwanda  The counter response was, “Rwanda did not possess key national interest” (oil).  Of course, my retort was, “…and what was the national interest in stopping the genocide in eastern Europe?”  Before I leave this digression, allow me to remind Bill Clinton emotionally and profusely apologized for not intervening in Rwanda’s genocide during a visit to the country well after he left the Oval Office.

“National Interest” is taking  a decided turn for the better as we considered post 2009 progress in national energy independence. After decades of watching or economy trod through economic fluctuations in a major way based in energy independence, time has come for what could be decades of a “reversal of fortune”.  As is always the case, an image provides a quick reference. 

America’s dependence on foreign oil has gone down every single year since President Obama took office. In 2010, we imported less than 50 percent of the oil our nation consumed—the first time that’s happened in 13 years—and the trend continued in 2011. | Image courtesy of the White House.

The Boston Globe’s  Jay Fitzgerald wrote, this past December (2012)

(the nation is) “……..in the early stages of witnessing what the International Energy Agency calls a “dramatic reversal” of America’s energy fortunes: The United States is expected to become the world’s largest producer of natural gas by 2015, the world’s leading producer of oil by 2017, and nearly energy independent by 2035, according to recent IEA projections, thanks largely to the unlocking of huge domestic reserves of oil and gas found in shale rock.

Energy Independence. Ah, a wonderful thought, indeed. As is often the case with much good news, it also carries a partial ’empty glass’ of consternation. Fossil fuel production involves ever-present prospect of environmental harm from oil spills, drilling mishaps, and yes fracking.

You may know our avowed aversion and angst about energy extraction that includes Hydraulic Fracking.  There-in lies our dichotomy.

From a political perspective we are ecstatic about GOP campaign mantra about Obama’s failed energy policy.  The false mantra based on current information takes its place alongside other GOP campaign failed mantra (e.g., southern strategy,  lies about the economy, et al). 

Yet, even with  the “in-your-face’ gotcha against the GOP, we know that human dependence on fossil fueled energy is not an infinite source of energy.  Such finitary  prospects does not bode well for future generations unless fossil fuel dependence is balanced with research in renewable energy.

Dichotomy and aversion aside he Boston Globe article is  ‘a good new story”.  While we will remain firmly against hydraulic fracking, we have a writer credibility responsibility to report good and bad news stories.

The Boston Globe  

Effect on consumers unclear as US oil, gas production rise
By Jay Fitzgerald|
DECEMBER 16, 2012

Excerpt 

…….increased domestic oil production, expected to rise by nearly 30 percent to 7.5 million barrels per day by 2019, could lead to more stable prices and fewer supply disruptions for American consumers and businesses, economists said. 

Above all, increased US oil production will almost inevitably lead to a reduction in the more than $400 billion the country now spends each year to import foreign oil, cutting the nation’s annual trade deficit, which stood at more than $500 billion last year, and keeping more money flowing through the domestic economy, analysts said. 

“This is one of the five best story lines of the 21st century for America,” US Representative Edward Markey of Malden, the ranking Democrat on the House Natural Resources Committee and a senior member of the House Energy and Commerce Committee, said of America’s newfound energy prowess.

Read full story
Oil Production and Production Capacity by Country (oil exporters)

Country-by-country projected evolution of (gross) oil production capacity to 2020 (first 23 countries)

The Daily Mail. UK 

Oil Production
 

The Fracking Story

HOW FRACKING HAS FUELLED AMERICA’S INSATIABLE APPETITE FOR OIL AND GAS

With its voracious appetite for energy and a desire to be less reliant on imports, the U.S. became the first country to exploit the potential of fracking.The process – shorthand for hydraulic fracturing – involves creating little explosions underground, then injecting water and chemicals to release gas and oil trapped in cavities in shale rocks.In 1996, the U.S. produced just 0.3trillion cubic feet of shale gas. By 2011, however, that figure had leapt to 7.8trillion, allowing America to transform itself from an importer to a net exporter of gas.But the abundant supplies of gas have outpaced development of infrastructure around oil plants.And with gas prices having dropped from their 2008 peak of more than $13 per million British thermal units to just $3.40 it is now uneconomic to build pipelines and storage tanks.As a result, much of the gas is burned off instead.Shale gas reserves are plentiful and widespread across much of the world, but until developments in fracking it has been largely inaccessible.In China, explorable shale reserves are estimated at 86 trillion cubic feet, enough to supply the nation’s needs for two centuries.

Read more: http://www.dailymail.co.uk/news/article-2269517/The-picture-space-shows-U-S-oil-field-burning-gas-power-Chicago-AND-Washington-cheaper-selling-it.html#ixzz2KMom1KUY
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Energy independence is an admirable state of existence. We are as excited about that prospect. However, our concerns about harm to the environment lives-on. On another front, the ridiculousness of Big Oil subsidies should become clear to all, even the GOP. And, hopefully the nation will accompany energy independence with programs to help people who genuinely need human services.

Marion Piperni: The Fox and The GOP

Cross posted from Mario Piperni Dot Com. …Yes the Fox…..  If you like cerebral visuals with your politics ..Journey over to http://www.mariopiperni.com…and enjoy!

The Fox and the GOP
FEBRUARY 8, 2013 BY MARIO PIPERNI

Ana Marie Cox has a great piece in the Guardian on the changing relationship between Fox News and the Republican party. She captures the essence of the current relationship in this wonderful observation on how Fox and the GOP play off each other in fabricating conspiracies – in this example, Benghazi.

Witness the coverage of Benghazi, where conservative outrage on the channel remains strident and forceful and in harmony with Republican officials, despite the willingness of most of the country to move on to matters closer to home. It’s a positive feedback loop that spirals into irrelevance:Republicans pursue a conspiracy that only Fox viewers believe, based on reports only Fox airs, and new information gets hammered into a shape that fits the existing narrative. 

Exactly right. Cox’s entire piece is well worth the read.

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L. Frank Baum: The Wizard of Oz Creator And Geoncide

Cross posted from Native American – Honoring our Ancestors, Culture & Spirituality

Native American – Honoring our Ancestors, Culture & Spirituality

Did you know: L. Frank Baum ADVOCATED The Extermination Of Native Americans

There are not too many people who have not heard of the beloved childhood books “The Wonderful Wizard of Oz” (1900), and the sequel that followed, “The Marvelous Land of Oz” (1904), both written by a man named L. Frank Baum. 

Before L. Frank Baum wrote the book “The Wonderful Wizard of Oz”, he held the editors chair at a weekly newspaper called “The Aberdeen Saturday Pioneer” in South Dakota in the early 1890’s, during the time of the “Indian Wars.” Baum filled the pages of his newspaper with passionate essays, political poetry, satirical humor, and some of the most exuberant and inventive local reporting ever seen during that time period.

When L. Frank Baum learned of the killing of Sitting Bull and the massacre at Wounded Knee, his editorials took a severe turn, revealing his true character and he began filling his pages with editorials calling for the “killing each and every last Native American.”

Here is a part of just ONE of the editorials he wrote after he learned of the death of Sitting Bull:

“The proud spirit of the original owners of these vast prairies inherited through centuries of fierce and bloody wars for their possessions, lingered last in the bosom of Sitting Bull. With Sitting Bull’s fall, the nobility of the Redskin has been extinguished, and what few are left are a pack of whining curs who lick the hand that smites them. The Whites, by the law of conquest, by justice of civilization, are masters of the American continent, and the best safety of the frontier settlements will be secured by the total annihilation of the few remaining Indians. Just why not annihilation? Their glory has already fled, their spirits are broken, their manhood effaced; it is better that they die than live the miserable wretches that they are.”

This is not an isolated opinion of L. Frank Baum. This is who Baum was. A cold blooded monster, a highly racist white supremacist who also just so happened to also write beloved children’s books! Most of us have either heard of or read these childhood books. Many have passed them down to their own children. Maybe it’s time for some of us to re-evaluate our true feelings of what we thought we knew about the person writing these “beloved children’s books”. The truth is, Mr. L. Frank Baum is DISGUSTING and a true DISGRACE to all Native & Indigenous People!! 

This is just my personal opinion…..