Tuesday, April 24, 2012

OBOF SS & MORE PART 34


WELCOME TO OPINIONS  BASED  ON FACTS (OBOF)



Name
Published
OVERVIEW
Dec. 28, 2010
SOCIAL SECURITY PART 1
Dec. 30, 2010
SOCIAL SECURITY PART 2
Jan. 10, 2011
SOCIAL SECURITY PART 3
Jan. 17, 2011
SOCIAL SECURITY PART 4
Jan. 24, 2011
SOCIAL SECURITY PART 5
Jan. 31, 2011
SOCIAL SECURITY PART 6
Feb. 07, 2011
SOCIAL SECURITY PART 7
Feb. 14, 2011
SPECIAL ISSUE
Feb. 18, 2011
 SOCIAL SECURITY PART 8
Feb. 21, 2011
SOCIAL SECURITY PART 9
Mar. 01, 2011
SOCIAL SECURITY PART 10
Mar. 07, 2011
SS & MORE PART 1
Mar. 14, 2011
SS & MORE PART 1A
Mar. 21, 2011
SS & MORE PART 2
Mar. 25, 2011
SS & MORE PART 3
 Mar. 29, 2011
SS & MORE PART 4
 Apr. 04, 2011
SS & MORE PART 5
 Apr. 11, 2011
SS & MORE PART 6
 Apr. 18, 2011
SS & MORE PART 7
 Apr. 25, 2011
SS & MORE PART 7A     
 Apr. 29, 2011
SS & MORE PART 8
 May 02, 2011
SS & MORE PART 9
 May 09, 2011
 SS & MORE PART 10
 May 16, 2011
SS & MORE PART 11
 May 24, 2011
SS & MORE PART 12
 Jun. 06, 2011
SS & MORE PART 13
 Jun. 20, 2011
SS & MORE PART 14
July  05, 2011
SS & MORE PART 14A
July  18, 2011
SS & MORE PART 15
July  19, 2011
SS & MORE PART 16
Aug. 03, 2011
SS & MORE PART 17
Aug. 15, 2011
SS & MORE PART 18
Aug. 29, 2011
SS & MORE PART 19
Sept. 12, 2011
SS & MORE PART 20
Sept. 26, 2011
SS & MORE PART 21
Oct.   10, 2011
SS & MORE PART 22
Oct.   24, 2011
SS & MORE PART 22 EXTRA
Nov.  04, 2011
SS & MORE PART 23
Nov.  07, 2011
SS & MORE PART 24
Nov.  21, 2011
SS & MORE PART 25
Dec.  05, 2011
SS & MORE PART 26
Dec.  19, 2011
SS & MORE PART 27
JAN.  03, 2012
SS & MORE PART 27A
JAN.  05, 2012
SS & MORE PART 28
JAN.  17, 2012
SS & MORE PART 29
JAN.  31, 2012
SS & MORE PART 30
 Feb.  14, 2012
SS & MORE PART CL1
 Feb.  21, 2012
SS & MORE PART 30 EXTRA
 Feb.  23, 2012
SS & MORE PART 31
 Feb.  28, 2012
SS & MORE PART CL2 - 59
 Mar.  06, 2012
SS & MORE PART 31 EXTRA
 Mar.  07, 2012
SS & MORE PART 32
 Mar.  13, 2012
SS & MORE PART CL3 - 1
 Mar.  20, 2012
SS & MORE PART 32 EXTRA
 Mar.  24, 2012
SS & MORE PART 33
 Apr.  10, 2012
SS & MORE PART CL 4 - 2
 Apr.  17, 2012
SS & MORE PART 34
 Apr.  24, 2012







IN  THIS  ISSUE



1.  Starting all over again.

2.  "THE FAB GROUP."

3.  Happy earth day.

4.  Why "We're on the Right Track" isn't enough.

5.  Why a fair economy is not incompatible with growth.

6.  BP rig blow out concealed.

7.  Shale pipeline and more.  You really want to read this one.

8.  Parting thought.

~~~



"VOTE, AN  EDUCATED  VOTE"



What is an educated vote?  It is one that has been made with as much knowledge, based on facts, not misinformation, that an individual can obtain.

~~~

STARTING ALL OVER AGAIN



As I said in a previous posting, I really shot myself in the foot, when I decided, that one time, to stop my postings.  At that time, I was having an average of 200 readers a month.  Since the HUGE MISTAKE I made, I have about 12 who have still been taking a look. 



Well, when I started in December 2010, I, of course, had no readers, but it did build up.  SO, I AM ASKING ANY OF YOU WHO ARE STILL FAITHFUL READERS, NO I AM PLEADING WITH YOU, TO TELL OTHERS THAT I AM BACK AND REALLY NEVER MISSED A SINGLE, SCHEDULED, POSTING. 



I made this huge mistake, just at the time that I should have even been expanding my postings.  I am going to do just that now.  Hopefully, I'll get some readers back and some new ones. 



Just as a reminder, I am going to list my posting schedule again.  The OBOF posting is set by noon on every other Tuesday.  The Tuesday between the OBOF postings, there will be a posting entitled "Contemplating Life."  As I explained at the beginning of that posting, it is a series of essays written by Allen W. Smith Ph.D.



Now, in addition I will be posting EXTRAS, from time to time.  There probably are going to be more of those, than in the past, as so much is happening, both with Congress' action, or non action, and with the Presidential and Congressional candidates heating things up. 



PLEASE, TELL OTHERS THAT I HAVE NOT STOPPED, AND PLEASE WRITE ME ANY COMMENTS THAT YOU MIGHT HAVE ON YOUR MIND. IT IS EASIER NOW.



~~~

"THE FAB GROUP"

MORE  NEWS  -  LESS  READING



What is "THE FAB GROUP?"  Very simply, it is a group of short news items that provide more varied amounts of news, which I think we all will be interested in, without long detailed commentary.  More news - less reading.



Why "FAB?"  My name is Floyd Austin Bowman -  (FAB), and these are a group of items that I have chosen, thus "THE FAB GROUP,"  pronounced "FAB."



Lawmakers Unite with Activist Groups to Press for Constitutional Amendment on Citizens United




Suzanne Merkelson, News Report: Each member echoed Sanders, especially focusing on the momentum building across the country for such an amendment. Hawaii, New Mexico, and this week, Vermont, have all passed resolutions in their state legislatures calling on Congress to overturn Citizens United. They’re joined by over 147 cities nationwide that have passed resolutions. The summit highlighted the Resolutions initiative spearheaded by Public Citizen and other organizations, aimed at passing local resolutions the week of June 11.



NEW GRADS FACE UNDER

 OR

 UNEMPLOYMENT

President Obama may be kicking off a campaign this week to keep student loan interest rates low, but the class of 2012 likely has something more immediate on its mind: employment. And according to an analysis of government data conducted for the Associated Press, about half of them will end up jobless or underemployed.

Roughly 1.5 million, or 53.6 percent, of bachelor's degree holders under the age of 25 were underemployed or jobless last year. The split between jobless and underemployed among the group was about half and half.

The AP reports that last year job prospects for graduates with a bachelor's degree fell to their lowest point in more than a decade. Pair that with mounting student loan debt and rising tuition costs, and the newest crop of graduates has a pretty bleak outlook.



The Dream of Monsanto and Other Corporations Wanting To Privatize Water




Sarka-Jonae Miller, News Analysis: “Four dollars for a gallon of gas is ridiculous enough, but $4 for a gallon of water could someday became a reality, that is if oil tycoons like T. Boone Pickens and water bottling companies have their way. Privatization of water in which companies control the public’s water sources and free water is a thing of the past appears to be what Pickens and corporations such as Monsanto, Royal Dutch Shell, and Nestle are banking on to increase their vast fortunes.”

 


 THE CITIZENS UNITED GANG




Jim Hightower, Op-Ed: Unfortunately, the mugging by the Citizens United Gang has only begun. Not only is Restore Our Future by far the biggest presidential super PAC of them all — dwarfing Barack Obama's, which is called Priorities USA Action — but its attacks will be supplemented by an even bigger super-super PAC, called American Crossroads. Created by campaign attack-meister Karl Rove and longtime Republican operative Ed Gillespie, this political battering ram intends to pound Obama (and America’s TV viewers) mercilessly with a staggering $200 million in bloody-ugly negative ads from now to Election Day.



Connecting the Economic Dots


Robert Reich “Seeing the big picture: 1. For three decades the American economy has been growing, but almost all the gains from that growth have been going to the very top. 2. All the income and wealth at the top has translated into political power. 3. This political power has been used to reduced taxes on the top and get corporate welfare for big businesses. 4. Because so much income and wealth have gone to the top the vast middle class no longer has the purchasing power to keep the economy going. 5. Because most people’s wages have gone nowhere, and tax rates on top earners have dropped, tax revenues to fund government have plummeted.”



THE END OF "THE FAB GROUP."

~~~

HAPPY EARTH DAY

from

THE WHITE HOUSE

Floyd


Happy Earth Day.

Today's a big day for the environment -- but to protect our air, land, and water, we have to make every single day count between now and November 6th.

President Obama knows we don't have to sacrifice clean air and clean water to create jobs and grow our economy. But time and again, we've seen that our opponents are willing to play politics with the health of our natural resources -- and the American people -- just to protect the bottom line of their special-interest allies.

If it was up to them, we'd have no EPA working to protect our kids from harmful air pollution or make sure our water is safe to drink -- polluters would once again have a free pass. And I probably don't need to remind you of their views on climate change.

So today, as we pause to appreciate our planet, say you're standing with the only candidate in this race who's fighting for it:

Join Environmentalists for Obama.

This community will help spread the word about the President's record on the environment and what's at stake in this election.

President Obama has already taken historic steps to clean up our air and water, reduce our dependence on foreign oil, and bring ecosystems like the Great Lakes, Chesapeake Bay, and Florida Everglades back to life.

This is what that kind of change looks like:

    -- Setting the first-ever national standards on mercury and other forms of toxic air pollution from power plants, which will prevent up to 11,000 premature deaths, 4,700 heart attacks, and 130,000 asthma attacks every year when fully implemented


    -- Developing fuel efficiency standards that will nearly double fuel economy for cars and light trucks by 2025 -- and save families thousands of dollars at the pump and save our country millions of barrels of oil


    -- Establishing safeguards to cut interstate soot and smog-forming pollution from power plants by more than 50 percent and improve air quality for more than 75 percent of Americans


    -- Investing more in clean energy than ever before -- and putting us on track to double our use of renewable sources by the end of the year


    -- Signing one of the largest expansions of wilderness protections in a generation, setting aside more than 2 million acres of land

All of that is on the line -- along with the chance to keep going.

We simply can't afford a White House that is skeptical about the human impact on climate change and continues to give Big Oil taxpayer giveaways at a time of record profits.

It's on us to make sure that doesn't happen -- right now, President Obama needs you to have his back.

If you're ready to fight alongside him, join Environmentalists for Obama today:

http://my.barackobama.com/Environmentalists-for-Obama

Thanks,

James

James Kvaal
National Policy Director
Obama for America

~~~

WHY "WE'RE ON THE RIGHT TRACK" ISN'T ENOUGH.



BY ROBERT B. REICH, one of the nation’s leading experts on work and the economy, is Chancellor’s Professor of Public Policy at the Goldman School of Public Policy at the University of California at Berkeley. He has served in three national administrations, most recently as secretary of labor under President Bill Clinton. Time Magazine has named him one of the ten most effective cabinet secretaries of the last century. He has written thirteen books, including his latest best-seller, “Aftershock: The Next Economy and America’s Future;” “The Work of Nations,” which has been translated into 22 languages; and his newest, an e-book, “Beyond Outrage.” His syndicated columns, television appearances, and public radio commentaries reach millions of people each week. He is also a founding editor of the American Prospect magazine, and Chairman of the citizen’s group Common Cause. His widely-read blog can be found at www.robertreich.org.

President Obama’s electoral strategy can best be summed up as: “We’re on the right track, my economic policies are working, we still have a long way to go but stick with me and you’ll be fine.”

That’s not good enough. This recovery is too anemic, and the chance of an economic stall between now and Election Day far too high.

Even now, Mitt Romney’s empty “I’ll to it better” refrain is attracting as many voters as Obama’s “we’re on the right track.” Each man is gathering 46 percent of voter support, according to the latest New York Times/CBS poll. Only 33 percent of the public thinks the economy is improving while 40 percent say they’re still falling behind financially — an 11 point increase from 2008. Nearly two-thirds are concerned about paying for housing, and one in five with mortgages say they’re underwater.

If the economy stalls, Romney’s empty promise will look even better. And I’d put the odds of a stall at 50-50. That puts the odds of a Romney presidency far too high for comfort. Need I remind you that Romney enthusiastically supports Paul Ryan’s wildly regressive budget, and as president would be able to make at least one or possibly two Supreme Court appointments, and control the EPA and every other federal agency and department?

The Obama White House should face it: “We’re on the right track” isn’t sufficient. The President has to offer the nation a clear, bold strategy for boosting the economy. It should be the economic mandate for his second term.

It should consist of four points:

First, Obama should demand that the nation’s banks modify mortgages of homeowners still struggling in the wake of Wall Street’s housing bubble — threatening that if the banks fail to do so he’ll fight to resurrect the Glass-Steagall Act and break up Wall Street’s biggest banks (as the Dallas Fed recently recommended).

Second, he should condemn oil speculators for keeping gas prices high — demanding that the oil companies allow the Commodity Futures Trading Corporation to set limits on such speculation and instructing the Justice Department to investigate and prosecute oil price manipulation.

Third, he should stand ready to make further job-creating investments in the nation’s crumbling infrastructure, and renew his call for an infastructure bank. And while he understands the need to reduce the nation’s long-term budget deficit, he won’t allow austerity economics to take precedence over job creation. He’ll veto budget cuts until unemployment is down to 5 percent.

Finally, he should make clear the underlying problem is widening inequality. With so much of the nation’s disposable income and wealth going to the top, the vast middle class doesn’t have the purchasing power it needs to fire up the economy. That’s why the Buffett rule, setting a minimum tax rate for millionaires, is just a first step for ensuring that the gains from growth are widely shared.

The President can still say we’re on the right track. But he should also say he’s not content with the pace of the recovery and will do everything in his power to quicken it. And he should ask the American people for a mandate in his second term to make the economy work for everyone, not just those at the top.

Such a mandate can be put into effect only with a Congress that’s committed to better jobs and wages for all Americans. He should remind voters that congressional Republicans prevented him from doing all that was needed in the first term, and they must not be allowed to do so again.

~~~

WHY A FAIR ECONOMY IS NOT INCOMPATIBLE WITH GROWTH, BUT ESSENTIAL TO IT.



BY ROBERT B. REICH

One of the most pernicious falsehoods you’ll hear during the next seven months of political campaigning is there’s a necessary tradeoff between fairness and economic growth. By this view, if we raise taxes on the wealthy the economy can’t grow as fast.

Wrong. Taxes were far higher on top incomes in the three decades after World War II than they’ve been since. And the distribution of income was far more equal. Yet the American economy grew faster in those years than it’s grown since tax rates on the top were slashed in 1981.

This wasn’t a post-war aberration. Bill Clinton raised taxes on the wealthy in the 1990s, and the economy produced faster job growth and higher wages than it did after George W. Bush slashed taxes on the rich in his first term.

If you need more evidence, consider modern Germany, where taxes on the wealthy are much higher than they are here and the distribution of income is far more equal. But Germany’s average annual growth has been faster than that in the United States.



You see, higher taxes on the wealthy can finance more investments in infrastructure, education, and health care – which are vital to a productive workforce and to the economic prospects of the middle class.

Higher taxes on the wealthy also allow for lower taxes on the middle – potentially restoring enough middle-class purchasing power to keep the economy growing. As we’ve seen in recent years, when disposable income is concentrated at the top, the middle class doesn’t have enough money to boost the economy.

Finally, concentrated wealth can lead to speculative bubbles as the rich in the same limited class of assets – whether gold, dotcoms, or real estate. And when these bubbles pop the entire economy suffers.

What we should have learned over the last half century is that growth doesn’t trickle down from the top. It percolates upward from working people who are adequately educated, healthy, sufficiently rewarded, and who feel they have a fair chance to make it in America.

Fairness isn’t incompatible with growth. It’s necessary for it.

~~~

ANOTHER BP RIG BLOW OUT,

CONCEALED BY BP UNTIL NOW.





BY Greg Palast



Greg Palast is the author of the New York Times bestseller, "Armed Madhouse" (Penguin Paperback 2007). When Palast, an investigator of corporate fraud and racketeering, turned his skills to journalism, he was quickly recognized as, "The most important investigative reporter of our time" [Tribune Magazine] in Britain, where his first reports appeared on BBC television and in the Guardian newspapers.



Yesterday, Ecowatch.org revealed that, in September 2008, nearly two years before the Deepwater Horizon explosion in the Gulf of Mexico, another BP rig had blown out in the Caspian Sea— which BP concealed from U.S. regulators and Congress.

Had BP, Chevron, Exxon or the Bush State Department revealed the facts of the earlier blow-out, it is likely that the Deepwater Horizon disaster would have been prevented.

Days after the Deepwater Horizon blow-out, a message came in to our offices in New York from an industry insider floating on a ship in the Caspian Sea. He stated there had been a blow-out, just like the one in the Gulf, and BP had covered it up.

To confirm this shocking accusation, I flew with my team to the Islamic republic of Azerbaijan. Outside the capital, Baku, near the giant BP terminal, we found workers, though too frightened to give their names, who did confirm that they were evacuated from the BP offshore platform as it filled with explosive methane gas.

Before we could get them on camera, my crew and I were arrested and the witnesses disappeared.

Expelled from Azerbaijan, we still obtained the ultimate corroboration: a secret cable from the U.S. Embassy to the State Department in Washington laying out the whole story of the 2008 Caspian blow-out.

The source of the cable, classified “SECRET,” was a disaffected U.S. soldier, Private Bradley Manning who, through WikiLeaks.org, provided hot smoking guns to The Guardian.

The information found in the U.S. embassy cables is a block-buster.

The cables confirmed what BP will not admit to this day: there was a serious blow-out and its cause was the same as in the Gulf disaster two years later—the cement (“mud”) used to cap the well had failed.

Bill Schrader, President of BP-Azerbaijan, about the Caspian disaster:












“BP’s ACG partners are similarly upset with BP’s performance in this episode, as they claim BP has sought to limit information flow about this event even to its ACG partners.”

Kennedy is concerned about the silent collusion of Chevron, Exxon and the Azerbaijani government. “The only reason the public doesn’t know about it is because the Azerbaijani government conspired with them to disappear the people who saw it happen and then to act in concert, in collusion, in cahoots with BP, with Exxon, with Chevron to conceal this event from the American public.”

Kennedy’s particular concern goes to the connivance of the State Department, then headed by Secretary of State Condoleezza Rice, in the cover-up and deception. Chevron, noted Kennedy, named an oil tanker after Rice who had served on the oil company’s board of directors. “BP felt comfortable—and Chevron and Exxon—in informing the Bush State Department, which was run by Condoleezza Rice,” he said, “and they felt comfortable that that wasn’t going to come out.”

The U.S. Securities Exchange Commission requires companies to report “material” events. BP filed a ” report in 2009 stating, “a subsurface gas release occurred below the Central Azeri platform,” suggesting a naturally occurring crack in the seafloor, not a blow-out. This contradicted the statements of three eyewitnesses and the secret statement of BP’s Azerbaijan President in then WikiLeaks cable.

“The three big actors, Chevron, Exxon and BP all concealed this from the American public,” concludes Kennedy. “This is a criminal activity.”

And why would the Azerbaijan government cover up a disaster costing it $40 million to $50 million a day? According to another insider, Les Abrahams, it has to do with at least $75 million in bribes that he paid to Azeri officials in Baku.

Abrahams was a BP executive in Baku in the 1990s working simultaneously, at BP’s insistence, with MI6, British intelligence. We met with Abrahams in London who told us he was joined in his payoff runs by BP’s CEO and Chairman Lord Browne who insisted on handing over a “sweetener” himself.

BP refused to be interviewed for this investigation, but did answer our questions in writing. The company will neither confirm nor deny the 2008 Caspian Sea blow-out. As to the failure to tell Congress and US regulators and the SEC about the blow-out, BP states only that it informed the government and regulators of Azerbaijan. However, the company does implicate its partners (Chevron and Exxon). BP states it, “shared the facts of its investigation with the Azerbaijan government, regulators, partners and within BP.”

In response to further questions, BP does not deny the payment of bribes to Azerbaijan officials by company executives. It should be noted that at the time, that, unlike under U.S. law, Britain had not made bribery of foreign officials a crime.

~~~

SHALE PIPELINE TO CHUSHING OK.

AND MORE

in

THE WORKS

by STEVE HORN

DESMOGBLOG/NEWS ANALYSIS

Published 4-20-12

Floyd's note:

This article tells a great deal more than just about a pipeline to Cushing, OK.  It shows what a mixed up mess of pipelines,  there are that most of us know nothing about.  It also, points out that the oil industry has no intention of making gas and oil cheaper for Americans.  All of this, maze of chris-crossing pipelines and the junctions for a mix of routings, resembles our interstate highway system.  This article is long, but I think you should really be aware of what the next 5 or 6 years may do to our country, with no visible benefit to the United States. 



The controversy over TransCanada's Keystone XL pipeline has raged on for years now, with no end in sight.



The Keystone XL pipeline would carry tar sands crude from the tar sands epicenter of the world in Alberta, Canada, take it down to Cushing, OK, and then eventually down to Port Arthur, TX, where it will be refined and placed on the lucrative oil export market.



While Republicans continue to try to make Keystone XL a campaign issue, President Obama has officially put the fate of the pipeline on the backburner until after the November 2012 U.S. elections.But this has not stopped other key pipelines and pipeline extensions from being built "in the meantime, in between time," as the song lyrics made famous by the classic novel, The Great Gatsby, go.



Most recently in the limelight: Obama's late-March approval of the TransCanada Cushing Extension, which extends from Cushing, OK — the self-proclaimed "pipeline crossroads of the world" — to Port Arthur, TX, where oil would be placed on the global export market.



Now, another key pipeline proposal is in the works, one that would move unconventional oil and gas obtained via the problematic hydraulic fracturing ("fracking") process in North Dakota's Bakken Shale basin southward to Cushing, where it would then be moved to Port Arthur and also placed on the global export market. Another portion of that pipeline would move the oil and gas westward toward Coos Bay, Oregon, where it would also be exported to the highest bidder.

A review, then, is in order.

Enter the Bakken Crude Express Pipeline

On April 11, Wyoming's Casper Star-Tribune reported "A natural gas company wants to build a 1,300-mile pipeline to carry crude oil from North Dakota through easternmost Wyoming on its way to the nation’s biggest storage terminal in central Oklahoma (Cushing)." The deal will cost somewhere between $1.5-1.8 billion, according to the Associated Press.



The company and name of the pipeline? Oneok Partners LP's Bakken Crude Express Pipeline. The pipeline essentially performs the same function TransCanada's proposed but not yet approved portion of the TransCanada Keystone XL pipeline, known in the business world as the Bakken Marketlink Project.



Oneok hopes the pipeline is in place and pumping out 200,000 barrels of oil per day "from the heart of North Dakota’s rich oil patch to the hub in Cushing, Okla" by 2015.

Opal, Wyoming: Where the Bakken Shale and Niobrara Shale Converge

The Bakken Crude Express isn't the only one in play in this deal.

Oneock's Bakken Pipeline, as well as Williams Company's and Oneock's Overland Pass Pipeline — which both co-own on a 50-50 joint venture basis — are also part of this deal and are all key pieces of the oil and gas industry's big-picture pipeline infrastructure puzzle.



The Bakken Pipeline will pump the oil and gas fracked from the Bakken and carry it southward to the meeting point of the Bakken Pipeline and the Overland Pass Pipeline. Some of that oil will continue moving southward toward Cushing, while some of it will divert westward to the city of Opal, Wyoming, another key pipeline fork in the road.



Oil and gas piped further southward toward Cushing will now be part of Oneock's Bakken Crude Express. Oil and gas being piped westward toward Opal will connect with the Ruby Pipeline, which carries gas fracked in the Niobrara Shale westward to Malin, Oregon. From Malin, the oil and gas will continue its westward voyage to the city of Coos Bay, Oregon, via the Pacific Connector Pipeline, where it will end up at the Jordan Cove LNG export terminal and placed on the Asian gas export market.

If all of these pipelines are approved, one would see oil and gas liquids fracked in the Bakken and Niobrara Shale basins both placed on the global export market, the former in the Asian and European export markets, the latter exclusively on the Asian export market.

What do American citizens get out of the deal? Higher home heating prices and all the pollution problems associated with the extraction and transportation of these dirty fossil fuels. Meanwhile, the oil and gas industry gets what it wants - higher profits from overseas buyers. So much for the gas industry talking point that "natural gas promises more affordable energy for Americans."

The Alternative: Flaring?

Close observers of the North American oil and gas industry know that the Bakken has been the home of vast amounts of gas flaring, a process recently condemned by the Coalition for Environmentally Responsible Economy (CERES) and written about by DeSmogBlog.



As of right now, according to an important September 2011 New York Times report, roughly 30-percent of the gas currently fracked in the Bakken is flared because pipeline infrastructure is lacking.



Flaring — as noted by a startling 2004 Friends of the Earth UK (FOE UK) briefing — creates horrific climate and ecological damage.

The flares also contain widely-recognised toxins, such as benzene, which pollute the air. Local people complain of respiratory problems such as asthma and bronchitis. According to the US government, the flares contribute to acid rain and villagers complain of the rain corroding their buildings. The particles from the flares fill the air, covering everything with a fine layer of soot.

Local people also complain about the roaring noise and the intense heat from the flares. They live and work alongside the flares with no protection.

Bearing that in mind, it is important to dig to the root of the problem: extreme oil and gas extraction methods, such as fracking and tar sands development, and not what DeSmogBlog has referred to as playing the game of "pipeline whack-a-mole."

To repeat what we wrote then, as it is the same game, merely different pipelines:

Basically, we're grasping for leftovers from the original fossil fuel frenzy, and still ignoring the fact that we're not only running out, we're also cooking the atmosphere with global warming pollution in the process.

Alas, until we awaken from this delusion, it's still damned if we do, damned if we don't.

Some day maybe we'll pursue a real clean energy future. Until then, it's 'pipe dreams' for the foreseeable future.Join NationofChange today by making a generous tax-deductible contribution and take a stand against the status quo.

~~~

PARTING  THOUGHT

Patience and perseverance have a magical effect before which difficulties disappear and obstacles vanish.

John Quincy Adams

~~~

If the good Lord is willing and the creek don't rise, I'll talk with you again next Tuesday, May 1, 2012, if not before with an EXTRA of OBOF.    God bless you all.                 FloydJoin NationofChange today by making a generous tax-deductible contribution and take a stand against the status quo.
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