That Smug Mug Just Got a Little
…smugger at the mugging we’re taking.
Energy in America: EPA Rules Force Shell to Abandon Oil Drilling Plans
Shell Oil Company has announced it must scrap efforts to drill for oil this summer in the Arctic Ocean off the northern coast of Alaska. The decision comes following a ruling by the EPA’s Environmental Appeals Board to withhold critical air permits. The move has angered some in Congress and triggered a flurry of legislation aimed at stripping the EPA of its oil drilling oversight.
Shell has spent five years and nearly $4 billion dollars on plans to explore for oil in the Beaufort and Chukchi Seas. The leases alone cost $2.2 billion. Shell Vice President Pete Slaiby says obtaining similar air permits for a drilling operation in the Gulf of Mexico would take about 45 days. He’s especially frustrated over the appeal board’s suggestion that the Arctic drill would somehow be hazardous for the people who live in the area. “We think the issues were really not major,” Slaiby said, “and clearly not impactful for the communities we work in.”
(Thanks to Instapundit for that link.)
Oh, but that’s okay. We had that stalwart pillar of honesty ~ Dick Blumenthal ~ on “Face the Nation” yesterday leading the “hoot and hollar” charge for investigations:
Connecticut Sen. Richard Blumenthal on Sunday called for a grand jury investigation into possible wrongdoing in relation to rising gasoline prices, and urged the government to actively fight “the kind of illegal speculation and trading and hedge fund activity that may be driving prices up.”
In an appearance on CBS’ “Face the Nation,” Blumenthal commended President Obama for forming a task force aimed at rooting out fraud or manipulation in the oil and gas markets, but argued that stronger actions were required.
Well, I’m sure that’s just gonna terrify the hell outta of somebody and Lord KNOWS what it’ll do to take care of petrol prices right this very second.
That’s Dick for ya.
And oil companies report their earnings starting this week, so gird your loins as far The Present dusting off his best Reverend Al on the stump accent to demonize and divide, sans mentioning that oil companies don’t set prices.
More smugness, more lectures, more solar unicorns and fairy wind dust schemes that won’t ever get my car from Point A to Point B, but piss on individual me now, anyway. It’s the collective we need to be concerned with.
update: In the comments I note that Bill Clinton vetoed ANWR drilling in 1996 with the justification that nothing would be produced “in 10 years”, so what the hell good would it do anyway? Might as well save the reindeer, right? Meandering through some of the later drilling fights, I ran across this curious 2008 column from “Crooks and Liars”. The focus is Rep. Marsha Blackburn [R-TN] and what a whang-doodle-dang nutjob she is (“Big on Republican talking points, light on facts…”), especially for statements like this:
“…People are concerned about the economy and they’re concerned about gas prices, and in ’95 it was President Clinton who vetoed drilling in Anwar. If he had not done that, we would be seeing more gas in the pipeline right now. So this is an issue I think that’s tailor made for John McCain.“
To quote a famous philosopher, you can slap my hiney and call me Shirley ~ I don’t get what’s so crazy about that statement. Their next assertion, however, had me confused:
Oy. Where to begin? The ANWR myth has been debunked, but Marsha wasn’t about to let those pesky facts get in the way. Besides, it’s much better to blame Bill Clinton than take responsibility for your own party’s failures, right?
Debunked WHAT?!? I hadn’t heard that…and followed their linky-poo to the American Progress.Org take down of the 2004-5 drilling fight.
-Drilling in Alaska’s Arctic National Wildlife Refuge (ANWR) will do nothing to relieve our dependency on foreign oil. The House leadership is attempting to buy votes for drilling in ANWR – the centerpiece of the Bush administration’s energy plan – by linking proceeds to health care costs of retired coal mine workers. This ploy does not change the proposal’s fundamental flaws. Drilling in ANWR would likely produce only 3.2 billion barrels of oil, according to the U.S. Geological Survey, not even enough to satisfy six months’ demand; oil would not begin to reach the market for another 10 years; and it would take 50 years to extract the full amount. For this pittance, the House leadership and the administration are willing to disturb hundreds of acres of pristine wildlife habitat.
You’ll notice some similarities with the 1996 veto rationalizations, only, in 2004 when this was written, it’s damn near ten years out from that milestone already, right? It’s like they cut and paste the same old crap, “Will do nothing to relieve our dependency on foreign oil…“. Oh, STFU.
Even then, all you have to do is let your fingers do the walking to find some cherry picked/manipulated data in ‘debunk central’ and they have the nerve to snicker at Blackburn. That “pittance” of a dribble of oil that we could have been working with for a couple of years now? Darned if there isn’t a tad more available there than those liar liar pants on fire would have you believe.
…An example is the 3.2 billion barrel estimate often attributed to the 1998 USGS study. This may have originated with the 1987 BLM EIS, or it may be based on a misinterpretation of data presented in the 1998 USGS report. In either case it is wrong.
But it’d take ten years.
You know.
Biz, Gorebal Warming, Nanny State, People, Politics | tree hugging sister | 
April 25, 2011 11:04 am
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The lackwits at at the EPA heard Chukchi Seas and thought Shell wanted to drill in a kid’s pizza parlour.
Exactly what “illegal speculation” is lttle Dickie talking about. I guess he is talking about all of the indictments handed down by the
Justice Department. That is shallow water drilling, with little danger, and other countries including Russia are stomping all over the field. The polar bear ,as endangered species, ploy is also part of this. Just the continuing assault against carbon by the left.
Dollars to doughnuts one entity you won’t hear from in these investigations is Goldman Sachs, probably the biggest player in energy trading but a key dem funding source. Strange how that works. And for the record, I’m agin’ drilling in pizza parlors, especially during business hours.
Fairy wind dust and collectives forever!
And don’t forget ~ Clinton vetoed drilling in ANWR in ’96 because it wouldn’t “produce any oil for 10 years”, so what a big frickin’ waste of time, right?
Dick “that’s what I am” Blumenthal just made a royal ass out of himself yesterday. Guess all the “A” listers were out of town for the Dems. “Hazardous to the people living there” you have to be shitting me? Who lives there? Yeah, the Oil Companies will be demonized when the profits come out but not the traders who are making a gazillion, go figure.
It is allowing Russia to rearm even faster than they had originally predicted. What’s not ta like?
China is rolling out a 2 million barrel capacity supertanker in August, one of many coming onstream.
May you live in interesting times.
This weekend we paid $8/gallon here in Zurich. Yowza.
Want more good news? The U.S. Fish & Wildlife Service will hold public hearings this Wednesday about putting the Dunes Sagebrush Lizard under endangered species protection. Who cares, you say? The habitat for this little critter is the PERMIAN BASIN. Yes, that oil and gas Permian Basin. Its habitat is smack dab in the middle of West Texas Intermdiate country. The move would destroy oil and gas production and exploration in the area, one of our most vital. Yet another prong in the all in assault on carbon.
Pleasant dreams.
Marsha Blackburn Voted FOR:
Omnibus Appropriations, Special Education, Global AIDS Initiative, Job Training, Unemployment Benefits, Labor-HHS-Education Appropriations, Agriculture Appropriations, FY2004 Foreign Operations Appropriations, U.S.-Singapore Trade, U.S.-Chile Trade, Supplemental Spending for Iraq & Afghanistan, Flood Insurance Reauthorization , Prescription Drug Benefit, Child Nutrition Programs, Surface Transportation, Job Training and Worker Services, Agriculture Appropriations, Foreign Aid, Debt Limit Increase, Fiscal 2005 Omnibus Appropriations, Vocational/Technical Training, Supplemental Appropriations, UN “Reforms.” Patriot Act Reauthorization, CAFTA, Katrina Hurricane-relief Appropriations, Head Start Funding, Line-item Rescission, Oman Trade Agreement, Military Tribunals, Electronic Surveillance, Head Start Funding, COPS Funding, Funding the REAL ID Act (National ID), Foreign Intelligence Surveillance, Thought Crimes “Violent Radicalization and Homegrown Terrorism Prevention Act, Peru Free Trade Agreement, Economic Stimulus, Farm Bill (Veto Override), Warrantless Searches, Employee Verification Program, Body Imaging Screening, Patriot Act extension.
Marsha Blackburn Voted AGAINST:
Ban on UN Contributions, eliminate Millennium Challenge Account, WTO Withdrawal, UN Dues Decrease, Defunding the NAIS, Iran Military Operations defunding Iraq Troop Withdrawal, congress authorization of Iran Military Operations, Withdrawing U.S. Soldiers from Afghanistan.
Marsha Blackburn is my Congressman.
See her “blatantly unconstitutional” votes at :
http://mickeywhite.blogspot.com/2009/09/tn-congressman-marsha-blackburn-votes.html
Mickey