Newshoggers.com

Magic Ponies and Unicorns

Commentary By Ron Beasley

We have known for decades that there is lots of kerogen - pre oil - in the Green River formation in the western US.  There have been attempts to convert the kerogen into a usable/affordable energy source and they all have failed.  Over at the Agonist Steve Hynd  reports that magic ponies and unicorns never die.

Quite a few rightwing commentators are making waves today about a Government Accountability Office statement which says (PDF) that:

The Green River Formation—an assemblage of over 1,000 feet of sedimentary rocks that lie beneath parts of Colorado, Utah, and Wyoming—contains the world’s largest deposits of oil shale. USGS estimates that the Green River Formation contains about 3 trillion barrels of oil, and about half of this may be recoverable, depending on available technology and economic conditions. The Rand Corporation, a nonprofit research organization, estimates that 30 to 60 percent of the oil shale in the Green River Formation can be recovered. At the midpoint of this estimate, almost half of the 3 trillion barrels of oil would be recoverable. This is an amount about equal to the entire world’s proven oil reserves.

Keep in mind this is not the "tight" oil they are getting from the Balkan formation via fracking or the oil sands in Canada.  It is 3 trillion barrels of oil that no one could afford.  The first thing we have to look at is "energy return on investment" EROI - how much energy you have to spend compared to how much energy you get.  This alone makes Green River formation kerogens uneconomical.

In addition since it's kerogen and not oil the EROI to refine it is less:

Since it takes as much or more energy to extract and refine the kerogen it is not economic. 

And then there is the water.  The Green River formation is located in an area that already has water shortages.  Even if we ignore the probable ground water contamination issues it will still require 5 to 10 barrels of water for each barrel of oil.

We have known of this resource for decades and Royal Dutch Shell snd Chevron have made attempts to exploit  this resource with no economic success.

There are environmetal concerns as well but since it will never be economical that doesn't concern me very  much.

This is entirely political.  One third of the Green River formation is on private land and when that is developed economically we can talk about government interference.

The Plutocrats war on Democracy

Commentary By Ron Beasley

"If elections mattered they would be illegal".  This statement was from a citizen of Greece.  The Greeks are expeirencig this first hand as the technocrats working for the big banks have taken over their country - an economic Third Reich.  Over at The Moderate Voice Pete Barnes has a must read post - What Capitialist Don't Know: Without Democracy Capitalism Dies,

Here is a teaser:

In the 1990s renowned political scientist and author Ben Barber wrote in Jihad vs McWorld that global capitalism was at war with democracy. He was right, of course, and the intensity of that war has only increased since then. Global corporations are battling democracy’s environmental regulations, taxation, labor laws, legislation aimed at fairness or income equality. They are battling democracy’s concern for the long-term survival of community or any values more human than economic.

Go to the link and read the entire post. 

Just Say No

Commentary By Ron Beasley

What's going on in Europe?  They are just saying no to an economic Third Reich.

It is a revolt against the plutocrats and the technocrats and yes the bankers.  This is the sort of the thing that has resulted in revolution - think Cuba, Venezuela and yes pre Communist Russia.  Sometimes violent sometimes through the ballot box.

Shep Smith off the range again!

Commentary By Ron Beasley

Book Review - Guest of Honor

Commentary By Ron Beasley

In 2008 the United States elected a black President – the result was a very negative reaction by about 25% of the population. It's not the first time there was a reaction to shifts in racial equality. In his concession speech in 2008 John McCain mentioned T.R, Roosevelt's dinner with Booker T. Washington in 1901. Like most of us this was the first time author Deborah Davis had heard of this historical event. She became curious and researched the history of the event -*-and wrote Guest of Honor: Booker T. Washington, Theodore Roosevelt, and the White House Dinner That Shocked a Nation.

The first half of the book is a mini biography of both T.R Roosevelt and Booker T. Washington. For me this was very informative since I had little knowledge of this period of US history. TR was born into wealth and privilege and Booker T. was born a slave but their lives had many parallels. They first met in 1898 when they discussed the performance of the black soldiers that were part of TR's Rough Riders.

While Booker T. continued to build Tuskegee TR used the popularity of the Rough Riders to become governor of New York. Being TR he manged to upset the New York Republican political machine. The machine convinced McKinley to choose TR as his Vice President just so they could get him out of the State House. TR continued his communication with Booker T and agreed to visit Tuskegee. Fate had other ideas and when McKinley was assassinated TR suddenly found himself President and Booker T suddenly found himself an adviser to the President of the United States.

On October 16, 1901 TR had a evening meeting with Booker T. In addition TR had a big family meal planned that included a hunting friend from Colorado. He made the decision to invite Booker T to dinner. Both men recognized the danger – TR almost withdrew the invitation and Booker T almost turned it down. But the dinner happened and the next morning it was reported in the press.

A summary of TR's daily agenda was read by a reporter at the Washington Post and suddenly realized that a black man had dined with the President at the White House.

“Booker T. Washington of Tuskegee, Ala., dined with the president last evening.” he wrote in his column. That one line caused the telegraphs to start clicking furiously in the capital, their shocking message reverberating across the nation like a thunderclap.

In the South the reaction was immediate and angry. TR was blasted for the invitation and the “uppity” Booker T for accepting. The loss of slavery was bad enough for the South but the idea that “coons” were social equals was just too much. The press in the North was for the most part positive.

Although both men were able to accomplish a great deal that dinner haunted them for the rest of their lives.

This is a very readable book covering the history of the US 30+ years after the civil war. It is valuable because it gives us not only a picture of how things have changed in the century since TR was President but also how much really hasn't changed.  I recommend this book to anyone interested in this short period of history.

Cross Posted At The Moderate Voice

Note:

I received a review copy of this book from the publisher.

 

Guest of Honor: Booker T. Washington, Theodore Roosevelt, and the White House Dinner That Shocked a Nation
by Deborah Davis

Book Review - The RX Factor

Commentary By Ron Beasley

I read mostly non-fiction and when I read fiction is usually Science Fiction. But I also like a good suspense thriller once in awhile. The RX Factor by J. Thomas Shaw certainly qualifies. There is certainly enough suspense and enough murders and assassinations to qualify it as a thriller. In addition there is a lot of corporate and government malfeasance.

Dr Ryan Mathews discovered a cure for ovarian cancer. His company did not have the resources to do the human testing so he sold out to a large pharmaceutical company. Human testing commenced and the results were not good – it didn't work. Ryan's wife came down with ovarian cancer and she was part of the human testing. When the testing was canceled Ryan stole the last two doses his wife required. He was caught and fired from the large pharmaceutical. All of the tests indicated his wife was going to die within months so the decision was made to move to the Bahamas for the last few months of her life. His wife and children were killed in a plane crash on the way to the Bahamas and Ryan spent the next few years drinking in paradise. One day Ryan met another medical researcher there to spend some time with her aunt and uncle. When her relatives ship was blown up Ryan partnered with her to find out what was going on and the adventure began. Many murders and attempted murders in addition to many surprises. It came to Ryan's attention that his drug had worked and the results had been tampered with. But why – the big pharmaceuticals don't want to cure people. People who are well don't buy drugs. More adventures and murders along the way and an ending that unearths an even more sinister plot.

A really great read that I had trouble putting down and the ending was a shocker.

Cross Posted At The Moderate Voice

Note:

I received a review copy of this book from the publisher.

 

The RX Factor
by J. Thomas Shaw

 

Terror Politics - 2004 VS 2012

Commentary By Ron Beasley

Sunday Night Tunes

Commentary By Ron Beasley

Sarah McLachlan is a wonderful poet and songwriter.  In addition she has a voice that is a musical instrument - she has the voice of an angel.

Wingnut Welfare

Commentary By Ron Beasley

The socipathic Republicans/Conservatives hate welfare unless it's for large corporations that are part of the military industrial complex.  In order to avoid cuts in the "defense" budget they want to cut food stamps.

WASHINGTON -- The latest Republican plan to reconcile the budget and preserve defense spending extracts even deeper cuts from programs to help the poor and Americans still reeling from the recession.

Although spending levels for the budget were set in the Budget Control Act passed last summer in the deal to raise the nation's debt limit, Republicans are pushing ahead with another plan that cuts more while trying to prevent the beginning of $600 billion in cuts over 10 years to the growth of the defense budget.

So what are they trying to save?  The billion dollar flying lemon better known as the F35.  They had to cheat to keep the F35 and Lockheed Martin alive.

It seemed like a promising step for America’s next stealth fighter: The F-35 Joint Strike Fighter passed a key Pentagon test of its combat capability. But it turns out that the family of jets cleared the mid-February exam only because its proctor agreed to inflate its grade. In essence, the military helped the F-35 cheat on its midterms.

The collusion between the Pentagon testing body, known as the Joint Requirements Oversight Council (JROC), and the F-35 program — first reported by Inside Defense — confirmed that the U.S.’ most expensive warplane met previously established performance criteria. Specifically, the review was meant to show that the jet can fly as far and take off as quickly as combat commanders say they need it to.

But the review council, which includes the vice chiefs of the Army, Navy, Air Force and Marine Corps, eased the standard flying profile of the Air Force’s F-35A model — thereby giving it a range boost of 30 miles. And it tacked an additional 50 feet onto the required takeoff distance for the Marines’ F-35B version, which Defense Secretary Leon Panetta just took off budgetary probation.

This lemon has 13 known flaws.  This will increase the amount of wingnut welfare required and delay delivery.  But the project continues and Lockheed Martin remains alive.  It's a Budgetary Disaster but easy money for a major defense contractor.

While the Republicans continually talk about government waste the F35 is waste they won't talk about.

It's a Fracking Ponzi Scheme

Commentary By Ron Beasley

Hydraulic Fracking can recover otherwise unrecoverable natural gas but it's expensive.  With natural gas around $2.00 there is simply no way there is any money to be made leading some to refer to it as a ponzi scheme.  Chesapeake Energy is a big player in the fracking business and the chickens may be coming home to roost.

To plug what's been estimated as a $9.2 billion gap between Chesapeake Energy's (CHK, Fortune 500) 2012 capital expenditures and its cash flow, CEO Aubrey McClendon needs to sell assets fast.

Record low natural gas prices have the potential to bankrupt a highly indebted company that was built on $4 natural gas. As natural gas prices hit 10-year lows in recent months, that's put Chesapeake on thin ice.

McClendon has said that Chesapeake plans to sell up to $17 billion in assets by the end of 2013 to fill that gap, but analysts and M&A advisors question whether Chesapeake's assets are worth as much as McClendon claims.

While Chesapeake has valuable assets, it's unlikely to be a takeover target because it also has a heavy debt burden of roughly $10 billion, say analysts.

This has put Chesapeake's CEO Aubrey McClendon in the sites of investors and his 1.1 billion dollar loan from the company didn't help.

We believe the best thing for investors would be to replace the board and/or CEO," Phil Weiss, an analyst at Argus Research, wrote in a research note. Weiss cited not only McClendon's personal loans as reasons for shareholders to push him out, but Chesapeake's "use of financial engineering" and "the relatively low quality of its financial data."

....

"Since 2001, their capital expenditures have always exceeded their cash flows," said Weiss.

So how do you spell ponzi?

Overall, investors remain a bit befuddled by how Chesapeake accounts for interest expenses and where profits come from.

"They're spending a lot of money and the money they're making seems to be coming from raising more money," said Daniel Yu, a private investor who has been studying the company but does own any shares or short positions on Chesapeake.

Like many of its competitors, Chesapeake must wrestle with a new world of $2 and under natural gas prices. "If gas stays at $2, there's not a single company out there that's prepared for it," said Chandra.

Cross posted at The Moderate Voice