Is Canada Resolute While Obama 'Dithers'?

Connect the dots….

Calgary Herald by Barry Cooper.  Columnist Claudia Cattaneo (NGP Photo) provided readers of the National Post with a commonsensical explanation: “As Obama dithers, Canada moves on.” Ever since 2005, when The Economist called Paul Martin “Mr. Dithers” for his indecisiveness, no one has confused dithering with prudence. Cattaneo was referring to the refusal by Obama to approve another TransCanada project, the Keystone XL pipeline, which would deliver 830,000 barrels of oil (more than four per cent of American daily consumption) to Gulf Coast refineries.

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Editor Comment: While Obama dithers on Keystone XL (see above), "Premier Alison Redford is engaging in more than a little political rhetoric when she says the proposed Energy East pipeline project to transport Alberta oil to Eastern Canada "is truly a nation-building project," according to Graham Thomson, Calgary Herald.

Consumer Energy Alliance Clips – August 7, 2013

 

UPI.com: Momentum builds for Atlantic drilling

Limiting development of offshore energy resources in the United States is hurting the everyday consumer, an advocacy group said. Eight U.S. state governors who form a coalition advocating offshore energy developments say the Outer Continental Shelf contains at least 88.6 billion barrels of technically recoverable oil and more than 390 trillion cubic feet of natural gas. Michael Whatley, executive vice president of the Consumer Energy Alliance, said his organization was standing behind efforts to bring more energy developments to the Atlantic Ocean.

 

International Business Times: Plenty Of Business For Railroads Even If Keystone Pipeline Is Built, Experts Say

The controversial proposed Keystone XL pipeline to carry Canadian crude from Alberta to the U.S. Gulf Coast would not harm the railroad industry’s growing oil shipping business, an industry expert said on Tuesday. John Felmy, chief economist at the American Petroleum Institute, asserted that the Keystone pipeline will focus on shipping oil from Canada and North Dakota to the Gulf, which is only a portion of the system. "Our refineries are everywhere. We have refineries on the East Coast that are interested in using the high-quality Bakken crude oil,” he said in an interview.

 

Bloomberg: Probe of Keystone Contractor Energizes Pipeline Opponents

An ethics probe of the contractor assessing the environmental impact of TransCanada Corp. (TRP)’s proposed Keystone XL oil pipeline has energized critics who say it should be grounds for the project to be delayed.

 

Huffington Post: Pipelines Create Jobs. Or Do They?

There's a big dust-up between Barack Obama and Keystone XL proponents over how many jobs the pipeline is projected to produce.  This debate can be summarized by asking the question: "How many jobs do you want it to produce?" Whatever your answer, it's not hard to find someone to support your claim.

 

The Hill: Billionaire Keystone foe to run ad during Obama’s Leno visit

Climate activist Tom Steyer sees President Obama’s "Tonight Show" visit on Tuesday as a chance to stoke opposition to the proposed Keystone XL oil sands pipeline among Obama’s fans.  Steyer, through his NextGen Climate Action group, has bought an ad slated to run during the broadcast critical of TransCanada Corp.’s proposed pipeline that Obama is reviewing.

 

The Dickinson Press: Hoeven tours site of Keystone XL pipe in Gascoyne

Sen. John Hoeven, R-N.D., received a firsthand look Tuesday at more than $200 million worth of pipe tagged for use in the Keystone XL pipeline and sitting in a remote railroad shipping yard in southwest North Dakota.

 

Journal Star: Keystone XL forces at odds on landowner bonuses

Len Skoglund could have converted the tidy sum of $22,721.59 into a new car or an extended Caribbean vacation.  Instead, he let the Aug. 4 deadline expire on an accelerated acquisition bonus offered by TransCanada for a half-mile-long easement along the proposed route of the Keystone XL pipeline near Polk.

 

Money News: Steve Forbes: Build the Keystone Pipeline and Frack, Baby, Frack

Forbes magazine editor Steve Forbes, a stalwart defender of the Keystone XL pipeline, says approving the pipeline would actually help prevent oil spills, not cause more environmental damage, and that fracking is a key element of America's energy future.
 

Huffington Post: EPA Finalizes Biofuel Standards For 2013, Plans To Lower Volume Goal For 2014

The U.S. Environmental Protection Agency on Tuesday maintained its overall target for biofuel use in 2013, but said it would use its authority to lower the volume goal for 2014 from the current requirement.

 

Argus Leader: Ethanol, Big Oil battle escalates

In hearings before the House Energy and Commerce Committee last week and in a new advertising campaign, the oil industry has stepped out from behind stalking horses it has used in the past and flat out declared it opposes competition from renewable fuels.

 

Washington Times: EPA cutting alternative fuels goal in bow to market reality

The Environmental Protection Agency bowed Tuesday to the limits of the U.S. market’s ability to work renewable fuels into the nation’s energy mix, disclosing it will set 2014 production goals for alternative motor fuels that are below the target set by law.

Bloomberg: EPA Gives Refiners More Time to Meet Renewable Mandate

The federal government relented on quotas for renewable fuels as U.S. production of next-generation sources and demand for gasoline has lagged projections.

 

Associated Press:  Judge Upholds Approval of Arctic Spill Plans

Interior Department approval of oil spill response plans for an Arctic drilling program off the Alaska coast did not violate environmental laws and policies, a federal judge has ruled.

 

Reuters: U.S. shale mania costs latecomers dear: Kemp

Shale skeptics have seized on big writedowns in the value of shale gas and oil properties in North America to question whether the fracking revolution could be running into trouble.

 

Reuters: Exclusive: Chesapeake drops energy leases in fracking-shy New York

Chesapeake Energy has given up a two-year legal fight to retain thousands of acres of natural gas drilling leases in New York state, landowner and legal sources told Reuters.  Landowners in Broome and Tioga counties, who had leased acreage to Chesapeake over the past decade, had battled the pioneering oil driller in court to prevent it from extending the leases under their original terms, many of which were agreed to long before a boom in hydraulic fracturing swept the United States.

 

New York Post: Choking a golden goose

The Marcellus Shale is a layer of gas-rich rock that extends from New York’s Finger Lakes district and Southern Tier through Pennsylvania, Ohio and West Virginia, covering nearly 100,000 square miles. The layer gets its name from a surface outcropping near Marcellus, NY — which makes it ironic that New York is the only state not basking in the riches of this cornucopia.

 

Pittsburgh Post Gazette: Marcellus M&A cooling off

According to PwC's quarterly tally of oil and gas deals, the Marcellus Shale isn't as hot as it once was.

Of the 39 oil and gas deals that took place during the three months before June 30, only three involved the Marcellus. While this is on par with the first quarter of 2013, which also had a mere three deals – and is the mean average for 2010-2012 – the total deal value and average deal value for Marcellus related deals took a nose dive. During the first quarter of 2010, the total deal value of Marcellus-related deals was $5,488; this year, it was $416.

 

My San Antonio: PwC report: Eagle Ford leads in mega-deals

The Eagle Ford Shale in South Texas led shale play deal-making in the second quarter, with mergers and acquisitions totaling $1.5 billion, PwC reported Tuesday.

 

KTRH News: Texas Remains the Nation’s Top 'Oil Rich' State

A new process for drilling for oil is keeping Texas at the top of the list of the nation’s oil rich states.  Houston oil industry expert George Littell says the Eagle Ford shale field makes Texas the world's marginal oil field leader because it costs more to extract oil from shale.

Times-Tribune: Jessup power plant plan latest since shale boom began

The combined-cycle electricity plant proposed for Jessup represents the most efficient technology for producing energy from natural gas and the latest in a number of power projects proposed for the region since natural gas began flowing up from the Marcellus Shale formation.

 

The Times-Picayune: Judge orders BP to explain its refusal to pay $130 million cost of operating oil spill settlement claims center

A U.S. magistrate judge has ordered BP to appear in federal court on Wednesday to explain why the company should not be directed to pay a $130 million bill it was sent to underwrite the cost of operating the center that is processing billions of dollars in economic claims covered by a settlement between BP and private claimants last year.

 

Denver Post: GE abandons plans for Aurora solar plant; 50 jobs lost at Arvada lab

The General Electric Co. has abandoned plans for a $300 million solar-panel factory in Aurora and instead struck a deal with the largest U.S. solar-panel maker, First Solar Inc.

San Francisco Chronicle: SF firm’s climate change ad to air during Obama “Tonight” show appearance

The Haight Ashbury ad firm Portal A – the wacky kids behind theHammer/Ed Lee and S.F. Giants “Don’t Stop Believin’” videos — hit the national radar tonight when their climate change ad airs during President Obama’s visit with Jay Leno on the “Tonight” show.