Posted on 08/22/2009 2:43:45 PM PDT by Libloather
Oil industry protest campaign adds to summer heat on President Barack Obama
Protests against Barack Obama are spreading across America like wildfire on a summer prairie, fuelled by an angry and fearful oil industry.
By Leonard Doyle in Washington
Published: 7:04PM BST 22 Aug 2009
Still grappling on one front with opponents of his healthcare reforms, the President now faces a separate battle against an equally powerful foe: America's oil companies.
As the Mr Obama begins his summer family holiday on the island retreat of Martha's Vineyard, a raucous new group of protesters has begun venting its anger about his plans to tackle climate change - and has made clear that it will not allow his 10 day break to get in its way.
This time the strings are being pulled by the oil industry - known to its detractors as "Big Oil" - which is moving quickly and aggressively to block America's first climate change legislation.
The protests moved into a higher gear when the White House last week signalled a sudden retreat over a key aspect of the President's health care reform proposals: the plan for the US government itself to provide health insurance coverage for those who do not already have it.
It was a sign of weakness on which the oil industry has pounced. "Big Oil smells blood in the water," said Frank O'Donnell, who advises Democrats on the environment. "The stakes are very high."
The oil industry is aiming to kill off legislation which for the first time would limit how much carbon dioxide pollution US industry can pump out.
(Excerpt) Read more at telegraph.co.uk ...
More evil mongering Nazi mobs on the way.
The “cap and trade” carbon trading scheme, which is based on very bad interpretations of marginal scientific fact, is a HUGE consumption tax, and one that has no business whatsoever being applied at just the time when the economy is already in a tailspin and falling out of the sky.
We need conversions of HUGE quantities of energy to useful forms, to re-ignite our industrial might in this country, and we need to extract this energy from our own real estate.
There is an ENORMOUS store of energy right off our own coastline, all we need is the gumption and ingenuity to retrieve it and put it to use. Methane Hydrate is somewhat heavier than saline water, and naturally sinks to the bottom. It is amorphous, that is, it has no crystalline structure, but is kind of a gel. Machinery that is rather like either a large suction apparatus, could pull this substance up, or a simple dredge line could scoop pieces up and convey them to a submerged receiving chamber. Here, the debris would be allowed to fall away, all the while keeping the Methane Hydrate stored near the temperature where it would be stable, 38º F., which is the temperature everywhere at depths of 1,500 feet or greater. When the debris is cleared out of the submerged chamber, then warm water from the surface is drawn down and allowed to warm the Methane Hydrate, which then goes through phase change, and the methane is released from its containment through a vertical pipe, to a collection and compression apparatus on the platform above. The practical application is to compress and cool the released methane to liquified natural gas, and transport it in refrigerated ships to the port, where it is transferred to storage units until it is warmed and sent into natural gas distribution pipelines.
Methane does not liquify until it is cooled to -260º F. Otherwise, it remains a gas, one that may be greatly compressed, and for use as a vehicle fuel, would have to be. Methane has a rather low energy density per pound, and even compressed, takes up a comparatively large volume per pound. But internal combustion engines burn the fuel quite cleanly, there being almost complete combustion and virtually no carbon monoxide formed in the exhaust, much cleaner than Diesel or even good quality gasoline.
There is a way to convert methane to other, longer-chained alkanes, such as octane, nonane and decane, the major components of gasoline and Diesel fuel, by keeping it under pressure, in the presence of a nickel-iron catalyst, and applying heat. This may be, in fact, a much simpler way to transport the extracted methane than by cooling it and transporting it as a liquid. And as it is already compounded to almost the exact requirements for motor fuel, very little additional refinement would be necessary.
It is estimated that on the ocean floor, there is enough of this Methane Hydrate to equal from four times to ten times the amount of the total of all the known and estimated reserves of coal, natural gas and petroleum in the world. Methane Hydrate is formed continuously, because under the conditions of temperature (38º F.), and pressure six to ten times atmospheric, that exist at the bottom of the ocean continental shelf, the physical fixing of this substance is the stable configuration. Methane is being continuously as the final decomposition product of ALL organic matter. After all, what do you think became of whale poop? It drifts to the bottom, where highly specialized anaerobic bacteria combine the elements in water and organic materials, to form the methane and carbon dioxide. Carbon dioxide combines with water, in turn, to form carbonic acid, which then reacts with other minerals (chiefly calcium and magnesium) in the water to form carbonate rock, the basis of the formation of limestone.
There is an ENORMOUS store of energy right off our own coastline
And so has Bill, HURRICANE BILL
There aren't many Mom and Pop refineries but stripper wells ( Less than 10 bbls/day) account for over a quarter of US dometic production, employ something like 300,000 people and the vast majority are "Mom and Pop" operations. They'll be hurt worse than the Majors and the large independents who will just move overseas where the environment is more conducive to their operations.
I have a piece of land that generates about 100/month in mineral rights. Is that small enough?
I work for a large independent oil company. By “overseas” do you mean South America?
We need to start exposing “Big Green” for what it is.
I’d like to offer a few corrections then a thought
First, Methane Hydrate is buoyant, especially in cold dense seawater. Second, it has a very well know crystal structure. It may seem, at times, like a gel if it is a mass of tiny dendrite crystals mixed with water.
My thought is that the “cap and trade” CO2 scheme has a lot of bugs to be worked out. This can be seen with Europe’s attempt at it. We could learn a lot from some of their early mistakes. I personally would like to see a move in that direction because it’s a consumption tax. I would rather be taxed on what I use rather than what I earn. While it doesn’t sound like a repeal of the income tax is on its way. I would support the move . Also, just because cap and trade is being proposed now, I don’t think congress could get into action; let alone make it law within a few years. Many people see sign that a recovery is upon us.
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