Posted on 02/25/2014 1:43:30 PM PST by Kaslin
Though you wouldn't necessarily know it based on news coverage, the United States in the reign of President Barack Obama is enduring the most prolonged period of slow growth and high unemployment since World War II. The president asserts that he saved us from another Great Depression, which, like his claim that the stimulus would "create or save" millions of jobs, is about as provable as the number of angels that can dance on the head of a pin.
The Obama administration has done little to spur job creation, but a great deal to inhibit it. The president mocks the idea of deregulation ("cut two regulations and call me in the morning"), but the new layers of rules and directives his administration has layered over the already-existing sedimentary encrustations cannot have helped.
There is one segment of the economy that has defied the trough, though, and that's energy. The U.S. is now the world's leading producer of hydrocarbons. The International Energy Agency predicts that the U.S. will produce more petroleum than either Saudi Arabia or Russia by 2015. For the first time since 1949, the U.S. is a net exporter of gasoline, diesel, and jet fuel. For the past several years, the oil and gas industry has added between $300 billion and $400 billion annually to the economy. Without the hydrocarbon boom, the economy would still be in recession.
Obama has attempted to take credit for the boom in domestic energy production. His website boasts, "The President established a national goal in 2011 to reduce oil imports by one third ... "
The president can issue goals and schedules to his heart's content, but like so much else about his tenure, these words are piffle. As Mark Mills, an energy analyst at the Manhattan Institute notes, the president had absolutely nothing to do with the energy renaissance that is reshaping our economy and can do more.
Neither did Big Oil. Small businesses, most with fewer than 15 employees, are responsible for 75 percent of America's energy production. "Fracking" is only part of the story. The boom in on-shore energy production is the result of American technological prowess wedded to entrepreneurial genius. Computers and cameras guide probes below ground, minimizing dry holes. Horizontal drilling permits seams long inaccessible to be tapped.
Rumor has it that in North Dakota, epicenter of the Bakken formation, workers are in such demand that McDonald's is paying up to $18 an hour. The state currently enjoys the lowest unemployment rate in the nation and boasts a $1 billion budget surplus.
The boom is not limited to North Dakota. At least 16 other states have more than 150,000 workers associated with the energy industry. In the states most associated with the fracking revolution -- Pennsylvania, Colorado, Louisiana, Oklahoma and Wyoming -- statewide employment growth has beaten the national average.
Is the domestic energy expansion bad for the environment? Certainly not when natural gas replaces coal. Besides, the world has not yet figured out how to power itself with other energy sources. Ethanol, which consumes 40 percent of all corn grown in the U.S., provides only 5 percent of transportation energy. Renewables, including hydropower, biomass wood, wind, solar and geothermal, accounted for just 9.3 percent of U.S. energy use in 2012, despite government subsidies. The developing world, including China, India and Brazil, are unwilling to sacrifice economic growth on the altar of climate change. Germany, which made a hasty and emotional switch away from nuclear power after Fukushima and made a heavy investment in wind power, is now building dirty coal generation plants to cope with rising prices.
Democrats can sneer at so-called deniers all they like, but they themselves are denying a hard reality: Hydrocarbons will continue to power the world for the foreseeable future. There is no other fuel that can put planes in the air, for example. If carbon dioxide is causing the planet to warm (and the models significantly overpredicted the amount of warming so far), mankind will have to find ways to cope with the problem other than massive taxes to discourage CO2 use. Maximizing natural gas usage is one such step. Basic R and D on improving batteries, solar cells and other technologies is another. Seawalls, dikes and other ameliorating efforts are a third.
In the interim, the energy boom in the U.S. is a job creator, a boon to our friends (like Canada, Britain and Israel -- also poised to exploit the new technologies) and a setback for our adversaries.
“Ethanol, which consumes 40 percent of all corn grown in the U.S., provides only 5 percent of transportation energy.”
//////////////////////////////////////////////////////////////////////////////////////////////////////////////////////////
This seems entirely too kind to ethanol, I don’t believe it provides even one percent NET energy, in fact I would challenge anyone to believe there is anything other than a net energy loss with ethanol considering that my own very careful analysis indicates an eight percent loss in miles per gallon when using ten percent ethanol compared to pure gasoline. Five percent of total transportation energy sounds impossible.
The peak Taxpayer “Rage Day” is April 15, Every Year.
For the 53 % who still pay personal Federal Income taxes, I say “Put y’alls Tax Rage to work and get rid of Obama’s TROJAN HORSE John “Doormat” Boehner” on Imperial Democrat Tax Day, April 15, 2014.
As for timing, the new fire-in-the-belly, Speaker of the House can then, with great and detailed TV Fanfare, draw up the necessary Articles of Impeachment on Soetoro-Obama to be officially filed on the Grandest of all Patriotic Days, July 4, 2014.
Then the 2014 Campaign will be going on along with the following:
* Obama’s Impeachment trial;
* Pro-Obama Impeachment street protests;
* Pro-Military street protests;
* Pro-Privatization of “Entitlements” street protests;
* Anti-Coverup of Benghazi Murders street protests;
* Anti-Coverup of Fast and Furious murder street protests;
* Anti-IRS street protests;
* Anti-NSA street protests;
* Anti-Holder’s DOJ street protests;
* Anti-Bypass Congress street protests;
* Anti-Judge Robert’s street protests;
* Anti-Obamacare street protests;
* Anti-Trojan Horse RINOs street protests; and
* Anti-Democrat Party street protests.
The strategy is simple:
1.) CREATE AS MANY POINTS OF ATTACK AS POSSIBLE AND
2.) ATTACK WITH NO HESITATION WHENEVER ONE OR MORE POINTS OF ATTACK FINDS A WEAKNESS.
Warning: Success is guaranteed BECAUSE this strategy will be strongly opposed by RINO Rove, RINO Peter King of NY, RINO “Romneycare” Romney, and of course, Loser Emeritus John “Wacko Birds” McCain.
LET THE “AMERICAN STREET” SUMMER OF DISCONTENT BEGIN !
_____________________________________________________________
RINOS ARE THE OBAMA TROJAN HORSE TROOPS PARTY
The “RINOs” are really just Trojan Horse troops sent in by Obama.
They do as they are told to avoid Left Stream Media jeers.
John “The Doormat” Boehner has his paranoid fears:
Obama and the Left Stream Media Journalists will drive him to tears.
And then there is “Capitulation” Cantor,
With a soft Virginia Drawl,
Who wears patches on his knees
From his frequent Cave-In crawls.
Don’t forget “No Resistance” Ryan,
Appeasement is his long suit.
No wonder “Romneycare” Romney
Was such a big Ryan fan.
Obama’s Trojan Horse is now filled with House RINOs,
All promising that in 2014 they will ALL be silent.
The Republican’s RINO Rove, and “Wacko Birds” McCain,
Act as the Loyal Rear Guard for the Obama Trojan Horse.
What have we here? So say the skeptical.
Forward, ever FORWARD rolls the Obama Trojan Horse,
Crushing the Constitution, all Checks and Balances, and all who complain,
While the RINOs in Obama’s Trojan Horse stay always silent. and do not complain.
Did Obama capture the House RINOs inside his Trojan Horse?
Or did the Loyal RINOs stampede on to get there first?
The “What” and the “Why” are just idle chatter,
The RINO Five Years of failure, is what the to voter matters.
With only two plus years left to Impeach Obama,
Can the Trojan Horse House RINOs be trusted,
What the Constitution requires elected Stewards to do?
Or will re-elected House RINOs just continue the destructive Obama trauma?
When I was in school, we learned CO2 was plant food! Is it causing the planet to warm? Well, the planet is warming, this is not in dispute, and it has been warming for the past 12,000 years.
Today, CO2 in the air is around 350 ppm. 100 years ago, it was 250 ppm. 80 million years ago it was 1000 ppm (about the same as the inside of a typical office building). Hydroponic grow rooms use an atmosphere enriched with 1400 ppm of CO2.
We also know that CO2 is not a good greenhouse gas. The real culprit is methane. So we need to ban beef and all go on a vegetarian diet, right? Oops, turns out 98% of all methane is produced by decaying plant matter.
So if the globe is warming, is this even bad? That depends. If you are in the business of selling heating oil, global warming is very bad. If you are in the business of growing food, global warming isn't bad at all (and increased CO2 in the atmosphere is very, very good).
Warming, cooling, warming, cooling. Not exactly at the top of the curve right now.
With the number of people falling for the Climate Change propaganda, I bet the guys on street corners don't even have to play three card monte...it's now one card monte and the rubes still fall for it.
Right Mona, we all know thanks to your recent article that CO2 is nothing to worry about as long as Ted Cruz is alive!
It’s worse than that when you take into account the considerable amount of energy it takes to distill and transport the ethanol. They can’t run the stuff through a pipeline.
I wish Ed Henry would ask Carney “Exactly how many jobs has the president saved?”
The president saved us from another Great Recovery ...
Disclaimer: Opinions posted on Free Republic are those of the individual posters and do not necessarily represent the opinion of Free Republic or its management. All materials posted herein are protected by copyright law and the exemption for fair use of copyrighted works.