4 posts tagged “oil industry”

Back in the States for awhile, I have a thing I do to entertain myself when sitting at long traffic lights: I count the SUVs that go by as opposed to the little cars. SUVs always outnumber the little cars about seven to one. (by the way, my car uses no fuel at stop lights)

Men’s Health magazine has an interesting article in its latest issue. It rates the cities with the biggest gas (gasoline, aka petrol) guzzler vehicles per capita (Men’s Health what? Yep). Charlotte, of my home state North Carolina, ranked a whopping tenth from the top. (all those NBA moms driving hummers…yuck.) The greenest city in the state based on vehicle fuel-suckage is Durham (bunch of hybrid driving liberals, thanks, y’all).

 

Who ranked biggest wasters (called "fossil fools" by Men’s Health, I love it, I wish I had thought of that term) on the US map? Well, jest y’all think about it. What state do Dubya and Jeb hail from? The grand city of Arlington, Texas wins the prize. Number two for piggy at the pump is Yonkers, New York; number three would be….(drum roll)…again, from Texas: El Paso. Numero quatro, Riverside, California (hour and a half long commute to work one way, anyone?) Five, Birmingham Alabama (in Birmingham they luv the guvna…woo hoo hoo). Number six, Fort Worth, Texas (Dang!)and number seven biggest gas hogs, El Paso, Texas.

Seattle ranks number one in least petrol usage per person. Burlington, Vermont is number two in greenest drivers, and Portland, Oregon numero tres.

In North Carolina, public transportation (bus) usage is on the rise. Big surprise; nothing like money to get some action when common sense will not. It’s been there all the time, but loads and loads of people prefer to ride alone in their car to work and back, and the roads got more and more clogged. There was talk (and money spent and work started) of a commuter train. But Dubya cut the federal funding that was to go towards the building of it in 2002 (how do I know? I worked where I had access to that knowledge) so it got poop-canned. Fabulous. Instead they spent millions on widening the highways between the Triangle cities, where more and more people move each year from afar and take up residence. (They call it the "New Atlanta" in honour of the horrid traffic problems). Meanwhile, no train.

This is the time for change. This is the turning point, and if people can learn to ride the bus, or move to where they can walk or bike to work (and thus lower their trouser size, another problem in the States), they can be part of a transportation revolution that defies the Big Oil companies, General Motors Corp, and the oil dictatorship that sold them out. Sigh…but meanwhile, China’s petrol use is on the rise, ten per cent per year on average. More and more people there want and get their hands on cars….and apparently (which I was unaware of before today, oops) their government ALSO (like ours did) has been keeping petrol prices low to "stimulate the economy" but now that’s all over with. And people there are whinging. Aw…get in line.

Personal Spip: I remember when my mom (rest her soul) wanted to buy a new SUV…I talked her into getting a hybrid one. (It’s better than a non-hybrid SUV, but at 35 mpg highway, not a great alternative, but she was determined.) My sister then wanted to trade her Lincoln Navigator (that my mom bought her, thanks) for something even bigger and stoopider, a Cadillac Escalade last year; this with my advice against it. I warned her, prices would rise…I hope she did buy the horrid thing, and is whinging like a champ about gas prices and can’t buy as many Coach handbags as last year. Meanwhile, I drove my Prius about 300 miles on a trip to and from somewhere last month and spent $37 on…weeee… you reap what you sow, baby. The future is bright for me and my kind (and I am not talking about my Dubya-voting family members), cause we have that special thing called vision.

 

Peace out.

Nuttier than a Snickers Bar. They are all nutters. I am talking about, the people campaigning for president of the U.S. of A. this year.

Here is why:

John McCain is simple. He is so obviously insane, there is no denying it. You can see it in his eyes. They glow with an inner light fueled by misfiring synapses that flap around in the dark like bats in a bellfry. They shimmer like the gas planet Saturn, methane and CO2 from all the greenhouse gas spewed by his party's homies, churning around in a soup. And anyone who would run for this position for the Republican party after the oil company dictatorship that has reigned supreme in this country for the past seven and a half years, would have to be. Plus, he says wacky things that contradict themselves.

Hillary Clinton was driven nuts by her husband. He may have been a good president, but he was a shyte hubby. He believes receiving oral sex from other women is not cheating. And she remained married to him all these years. Also, she is not right in the head if she thinks taking away the gas tax for a season will improve the economy. I don’t know about you, but saving one dollar eight cents a week (18 cents times ten) is not going to inspire me to suddenly run out to Macy’s department store and buy a pair of $100 sandals (If you want to improve the economy, punish the oil companies, whose record profits will enable their executives’ great-great-great-etc grandchildren to inherit more cash than Anna Nicole Smith’s baby. Gas tax pays for many things, and does not punish them. In fact, people might buy MORE of their product if it is cheaper, so it could actually REWARD them). Now she is putting on her Blue Collar hat, portraying herself as the champion of the working class. Really? When was the last time she had to forgo dining out for a month in order to get both the electric bill and the water bill paid (never)? And why exactly, when she was a big-wig for Wal-mart in the ‘80s and ‘90s, did she do nothing when the retail giant fought against labor unions? (we all know what a great employer the company has been) But apparently, many Democrats are nutters too, cause they believe her when she says she represents the working people.

Barak Obama is a nutter. He thinks telling the truth and having really good ideas that will cause actual improvement, will get him elected president of this country. He believes he will be able to get this government to pull away from corporate lobbyists like Big Oil. The people of North Carolina are nutters. They voted him in 56%. (1% picked "no preference". Is that a choice?) They are inspired by someone who seems honest and intelligent. When was that ever a factor in electing a president? (With sarcasm, I speak, said Yoda)

Giuliani and the rest, well…

Pioneers in blowing stuff up:

Pioneer Natural Resources is an oil and gas exploration and production company. They claim they are “independent”, whatever that means.  They have energy fields in the US, Tunisia and South Africa.  Two of their claims to fame are, “Pursue bolt-on acquisition opportunities to expand core operating areas” as well as “Leverage coal bed methane expertise into new unconventional resource plays”.  

They are based in Irving, Texas. They are formed by a marriage of Parker and Parsley Petroleum, MESA Inc. and Evergreen Resources, Inc. They are the most ambitious and biggest “operator” in the Raton Basin, Colorado as well as the Spraberry Oil Field in Texas.

Now problems have arisen with methane trapped in old coal fields beneath people’s homes built in the Raton Basin. They have been extracting methane of late. Methane has shown up in well water and caused a couple of explosions at homes. Pow, wham ka-BOOM! Problem is, the land owners signed a contract that would allow the company to retain its mineral rights. Oops.

Conoco-Philips and a whole bunch of hogwash:

Conoco-Philips and BP have joined together to construct a new Alaska pipeline for natural gas. This was announced on April 8^th, 2008. The pipeline will be on the North Slope. The Arctic national Wildlife Refuge is also located on the North Slope.

The mad dash for what’s left of energy resources out of the ground in the US has led to this atrocity. Interestingly enough, another preserve located there is the National Petroleum Reserve. Thing is, studies have been performed that have proven that Alaska simply does not contain enough energy resources to merit its being drilled.

Conoco-Philips’ headquarters is in Houston, Texas. They are one of the big boys of oil and gas including ExxonMobil and BP. A study by the University of Massachussetts has reported that they are the third largest corporate air polluter in the country.  They are also a member of the largest toxic waste dumpers, and have been indicted by the US EPA in 52 Superfund sites (locations of very bad environmental degradation).

In February 2008, Conoco-Philips purchased a large campus in Lousiville, CO to establish a  research facility in hydrogen, solar and wind power technology (or so they claim. As well as, not one to miss the boat on profits after they have lobbied for years, the White House, in keeping the dirty technology in the forefront.) They also plan to pursue something weird called “carbon fuel recovery”.

Conoco-Philips hosted a lecture series at the White House Library (that would gag a maggot) which “brings to public attention the various offices of the White House and Executive Branch that provide policy, administrative, and overall support to the President”. (Good gracious.)

Halliburton and Dubya (how DO these people get away with their activities?):

Halliburton Energy Services’ president Ray Hunt was appointed to George W Bush’s Foreign Intelligence Advisory Board in October, 2001. Ray donated the largest amount of greenbacks from the company to the Bush-Cheney campaign in 2004. Dick Cheney was CEO of Halliburton. Halliburton is an oil company based in Houston, Texas.

The Center for Responsive Politics, based in Washington, DC reports that George W Bush’s campaigns received more money from the oil industry than any candidate since before the 2000 election. The amount is over 440 million dollars. ExxonMobil led the way contributing a cool 55 mil. Chevron Texaco sent 32 mil, Marathon Oil 29 million, and Bp, 28 million.

Dang. Hey, guess what. I got carded buying a six pack the other day. Strange things can happen and no one bat an eyelash.

 

Greetings, y'all. This is a longer one than usual, but worth the read. Prepare to be shocked, dismayed, and even have a laugh. And it is ALL TRUE as all my posts are. Taken from official documents and reports and company websites. As usual, sometimes I insert witticisms that are extrapolations from my odd brain, exaggerations, or falsehoods (which I call myself on), in parentheses. Here we go:

The National Petroleum Council’s Big Dawg is Lee Raymond. He comes with the lauded position of being Big Dawg at ExxonMobile until of late.  

By the way, ExxonMobile just bought rights to acreage in the Beaufort Sea, which is just off Alaska’s northern coastline. (Om…how do you buy “rights” to the ocean? Trade fish to Humpbacks and Orcas to ruin their feeding areas?)

He and his good-ole-boy buddy US Energy Secretary Samuel Bodman got together recently over whiskey and cigars and decided Lee would make a super duper reference for figuring out America’s energy problems. Specifically that tasty word Republicans luv even more than their Mamas, SECURITY, was brought up. This report is submitted to the US Dept. of Energy and the NPC serves as an advisory committee to that department.

 

 

They came up with a plan on Wednesday July 18. Here is the meat from the draft report titled "Facing Hard Truths": (Yeah, I got my hands on it, weeee, even though when you try to download it from their website, mysteriously you get nothing, I gots my ways, being female and being schmart)

• The NPC’s “view of supply, demand, infrastructure, technology, and geopolitics” (that’s a new word on me. What the f&ck does geopolitics mean? Is that like China’s usurpification of Africa’s oil supply, trading oil for weapons? Or the US trying to take over Iraq for the past four years to get some more oil?)
• "Policy options viewed through economic, security, and environmental lenses”. (Would those be some near-sighted lenses by chance? And there’s that tasty word, security. Cuz everyone knows you can’t ride around the desert blowing stuff up in a tank without some oil)
• “Dialogue with more than 1,000 persons and groups actively involved in energy”. (Hogwash. Who did they phone up? Chrysler-Daimler? GMC? BP Oil? Dick Cheney? OPEC? Elvis? I bet I know who they didn’t. And you shall see who they if you read on.)
• They report that they “found” that “total global demand for energy is projected to grow by 50-60 percent by 2030, driven by increasing population and the pursuit of improving living standards.” (Wow. That took a lot of research. No one else has said that before or that it would be a problem.) (sarcasm dripping)
• Also that we are “accumulating risks to the supply of reliable, affordable energy to meet this growth, including political hurdles, infrastructure requirements, and availability of a trained work force. We (the US) will need all economic, environmentally responsible energy sources to assure adequate, reliable supply.” (In other words, Git it while the gittin’s good, and to hell with the rest of the world. “Political hurdles”? What would those be, pray tell? Methinks, like, green people who are not pleased with our country continuing to suck the rest of the world, that which we can grab onto and bite, dry? And wassup wit the “trained work force”? What does that mean, reinact the draft?)

Are you awake yet? If not, go get another coffee, hot tea, or Coke, whatever it takes to make our eyes open and your brain get in gear and prepare to go, "Oh, ___!" (insert naughty word).

 

 

• They (the NPC) say that coal, oil and gas (note coal is first now) are the future to our energy needs.
• They believe that the planet will not run out of these items, but that getting ahold of them will be increasingly risky, in fact, in their words, “accumulating risks” over time.
• While getting past the “risks”, “coal, nuclear, biomass, other renewables, and unconventional oil and natural gas. Each of these sources faces significant challenges including safety, environmental, political, or economic hurdles, and imposes infrastructure requirements for development and delivery.” (Glad they acknowledge “renewable”, but hey, I guess that they couldn’t possibly be used as our main energy source.)
• “There can be no U.S. energy security without global energy security”. (Is your blood running cold yet?)
• “Policies aimed at curbing carbon dioxide emissions will alter the energy mix, increase energy related costs, and require reductions in demand growth.” (Om…yeah. Some of it. Alter the energy mix? Yeah, that would be a GOOD THING. And not increase costs, Dodos. Well, maybe by “reductions in demand growth” For the PETROLEUM INDUSTRY.)

Okay, here’s the part where they get down to business. They “propose five core strategies”, and I put it all in here, word for word:

 

The United States must:

• Moderate the growing demand for energy by increasing efficiency of transportation, residential, commercial, and industrial uses. (Hey! That’s a good thing! And…om….someone else already said that.)

• Expand and diversify production from clean coal, nuclear, biomass, other renewables, and unconventional oil and gas; moderate the decline of conventional domestic oil and gas production; and increase access for development of new resources.

• Integrate energy policy into trade, economic, environmental, security, and foreign policies; strengthen global energy trade and investment; and broaden dialog with both producing and consuming nations to improve global energy security. (Security! Security!)

• Enhance science and engineering capabilities and create long-term opportunities for research and development in all phases of the energy supply and demand system. (Yeah, y’all already cut the budget for NOAA, arseholes. Where are you going to get the money for this? Make Dick drive a Prius?)

• Develop the legal and regulatory framework to enable carbon capture and sequestration. (Okay, they can only mean one thing here: fossil fuels.)

 

Also I thought y’all would like to know the names and jobs of the white boys they hired to be their “study group” (sorry I couldn't get pics of all their ugly faces):

 

 

 

Chair (Big Dawg) Lee Raymond, former CEO of ExxonMobile

 

Jeffrey Clay Sell, Dep. US Secretary of Energy

 

Daniel Yergin, Chairman, Cambridge Energy Research Assoc.

 

 

David J.O’Relly, CEO, Chevron

 

Andrew Gould, CEO, Center Schlumberger Ltd.

 

Alan J. Kelly, Former Corporate Planning General Mgr, ExxonMobile

 

James A. Slutz (luv the name), Dep. Asst. Secretary for Oil and Natural Gas, US Dept of Energy

 

James Burkhard, managing Director, Global Oil, Group, Camrbidge Energy Res. Assoc.

 

Donald J. Paul, VP, Chevron

 

Rodney F. Nelson, VP Innovation & Collaboration, Schlumberger Ltd

 

 

Frank A. Verrastro, Director, Energy Program, Center for Strategic & International Studies

 

The dirt on each of these guys, including Samuel Bodman, Us Energy Secretary:

 

• Bodman served as Chairman, CEO and VP of Cabot Corp in the late ‘80s. This company specialized in sequestration of chemicals and other materials, including a metal used in cell phones, coltan. In fact, the mining of this metal caused the Second Congo War, where more people died than in WW2. The United Nations Panel of Experts has specifically named Cabot Corp for being unethically involved in the Second Congo War and dang. This jerkoff is in charge of our energy policies and practices.
• Jeffrey Clay Sell, From 1995 to 1999, he served on the staff of Republican Congressman Mac Thornberry of …..Texas! (Mac has a SERIOUS combover too) That’s it? How did he get his current job? Oh, yeah. Texas.
• Cambridge Energy Research Assoc. Are they looking at ways to turn zucchini scraps into fuel? Nope. www.cera.com. Among their forums are “Global Power”,”Capitol Costs Analysis”, and they do mention once “clean energy”, but as in, how to be “competitive” in it (how to rake in the dough).
• ExxonMobile and Chevron, don’t even have to say a thing. We know they’re evil, scandalous ornery and evil.
• 

  Schlumberger: one of their "research" sites, Cambridge, England. SOMEbody's makin' some money.

  Schlumberger Ltd, http://www.slb.com/. The world’s largest oilfield services corperation. Enjoy. They even have a link to info about the Beaufort Sea. They are also listed in The Handbook of Texas Online. (!!!)  http://www.tsha.utexas.edu/handbook/online/articles/SS/dzsxg.html
• The Center for Strategic and International Studies: (Hold on to your chair, this is word for word from their website) “With one of the most comprehensive programs on U.S. defense policy and international security, CSIS proposes reforms to U.S. defense organization, defense policy, and the defense industrial and technology base. Other CSIS programs offer solutions to the challenges of proliferation, transnational terrorism, homeland security, and post-conflict reconstruction.” (speaking of evil)

Oh, I have been having fun. This is more fun than digging up Ammonite fossils. But way scarier.