Global warming is real and terrifying

More evidence that if humans continue to burn fossil fuels at the current rate, we are headed for global disaster. Germany is the only rich country that seems to be serious about minimizing its carbon output:

"Germany is one of the only big countries that has actually tried hard to change its energy mix; on one sunny Saturday in late May, that northern-latitude nation generated nearly half its power from solar panels within its borders. That's a small miracle – and it demonstrates that we have the technology to solve our problems. But we lack the will. So far, Germany's the exception; the rule is ever more carbon."

Abdul Karim Qasim was first to nationalize Iraqi oil

In the video bellow John Perkins talks about the US relationship with Saddam when Abdul Karim Qasim was President of Iraq. I want to post this to remind people and myself that Abdul Karim Qasim nationalized Iraqi oil. Some Arabs seem to believe that Saddam was the first Iraqi president to nationalize Iraqi oil. He was not.

Many Arabs praised Saddam as if he was the original populist who did good things for ordinary Iraqis. He was not. It reminds me of my post Iraqi Goodfellas - I will always remember that dinner with the Iraqi woman who said that Saddam made education free!

 

 Thanks 3amu for the forward!

Iraq would be hurt if Iran closes Hormuz

"Iraq will lose the capacity to export 1.7 million barrels of crude a day if Iran blocks the Strait of Hormuz, the transit point for about two thirds of its production, an Oil Ministry spokesman said."

Saudi Prince doesn't want US to find alternatives to oil

The Saudis want to keep the price of a barrel of oil between $70 and $80, because if it's much more than that, the incentives to finding alternatives to oil will be greater. And the Saudis don't want that!

"BIN TALAL: The stiff position of Saudi Arabia, we want the price to be between $70 and $80. Not only to help the West, but also to help ourselves. We don’t want the West to go and find alternatives, because, clearly, the higher the price oil goes, the more you have incentive to go and find alternatives. So, really, our interest coincides with American interest, to have the price for around $70, $80 which is a price good for consumers and producers."

Misinformation on FOX News

Who killed the electric car?

I always thought it was consumers who did not create the demand, until I saw this excellent documentary. Consumers are partially guilty, but so are the other major players, including the car companies. But this documentary was made in 2006, and a lot has happened since then. Today I saw a Nissan ad for its hybrids and all-electric. The Prius and Honda Civic Hybrid have been very successful. The end of the documentary, even though it's titled Who Killed the Electric Car, discusses the bright future of electric cars.



Since the federal government took over GM, the company has developed the Chevy Volt, which "is the most fuel-efficient car with an internal combustion engine sold in the United States."

Iran worried about resurgence in Iraqi oil production

"Iran has counted on the shortage of Iraqi oil production as a buffer against potential sanctions on purchases of Iranian crude, says the Tehran-based analyst. Although Iraq is currently excluded from OPEC's quota system, Iranian oil officials admit they are worried that the resurgence of its historical rival will affect Tehran's standing within the organization. (Baghdad and Tehran clashed over OPEC production targets before Iran's 1979 revolution and during the 1980s, when the two countries were engaged in an eight-year war.) While Iran has increased influence in Baghdad nowadays because of the country's Shi'ite-dominated government, that is not likely to diminish Iraq's determination to rehabilitate its war-hobbled petroleum industry."

Read more: http://www.time.com/time/world/article/0,8599,2066791,00.html#ixzz1KUAev4Zt

Thanks Hayder for posting.

They had oil on their minds

HP: "Revolution in the Middle East, nuclear meltdown in Japan, war in Libya, the U.S. budget crisis, the looming problems of the Eurozone -- some days it's all just too much. But today there's something no one can afford to ignore: The Independent, one of Britain's leading newspapers, broke a must-read story. In a nutshell, the story buries forever all claims that the US, the UK, and other governments did not have oil on their minds as they prepared to invade Iraq."

Libya meets specific conditions

LAT: 'Obama indicated in his speech to the country Monday that Libya met a set of specific conditions for military action, including an international mandate, a broad coalition willing to take part and appeals from Libyans themselves. Rebels in eastern Libya quickly formed an alternative government and sought foreign intervention through establishment of a no-fly zone.

"I don't know if those circumstances could be duplicated anyplace else," Obama told ABC News on Tuesday. He added that in each case, he needed to measure the national and international interest, and the possibility of success versus the risks involved.

While the death toll has risen into the dozens in Syria, officials point out that it is still far lower than the thousands feared killed in Libya, and probably many fewer than would be needed to build foreign support for military intervention there.'

Is oil a big factor in meeting those specific conditions?

Arab Revolution + Japan disaster = higher oil prices

A couple of weeks ago on facebook Media Matters posted something about media blaming Obama for higher oil prices. A few commenters on that post said Obama "wanted" oil prices to rise. Apparently these commenters were arguing that Obama (as Senator) said that cap and trade would result in higher energy costs. He was right, of course. Obama predicted that putting limits on greenhouse gas emissions would cause the price of energy to rise. This doesn't mean he wanted prices to raise.

Even without regulations and taxes, one could predict that oil prices will rise, given the turmoil in the middle east. This is why oil prices have already risen. Speculators have been betting that prices of oil will rise at rates higher than inflation - those are the people who want prices to rise, not Obama. The nuclear power disaster in Japan only adds to the pressure on fossil fuels, no doubt. The US government has has handed out dozens of permits to oil companies to drill in the Gulf of Mexico, even though safety has not really improved since the Deepwater Horizon blowout, as Rachel Maddow explains below.

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US tax breaks for oil companies decades old

From a July 2010 NYT article about tax breaks for oil companies: "Some of the tax breaks date back nearly a century, when they were intended to encourage exploration in an era of rudimentary technology, when costly investments frequently produced only dry holes. Because of one lingering provision from the Tariff Act of 1913, many small and midsize oil companies based in the United States can claim deductions for the lost value of tapped oil fields far beyond the amount the companies actually paid for the oil rights."

Other tax breaks were born of international politics. In an attempt to deter Soviet influence in the Middle East in the 1950s, the State Department backed a Saudi Arabian accounting maneuver that reclassified the royalties charged by foreign governments to American oil drillers. Saudi Arabia and others began to treat some of the royalties as taxes, which entitled the companies to subtract those payments from their American tax bills. Despite repeated attempts to forbid this accounting practice, companies continue to deduct the payments. The Treasury Department estimates that it will cost $8.2 billion over the next decade."

Wow, it seems the US did all kinds of stupid shit in the name of fighting communism.

A chance to support a new beginning

Professor Anne-Marie Slaughter: 'Gen. Wesley K. Clark argues that “Libya doesn’t sell much oil to the United States” and that while Americans “want to support democratic movements in the region,” we are already doing that in Iraq and Afghanistan. Framing this issue in terms of oil is exactly what Arab populations and indeed much of the world expect, which is why they are so cynical about our professions of support for democracy and human rights. Now we have a chance to support a real new beginning in the Muslim world — a new beginning of accountable governments that can provide services and opportunities for their citizens in ways that could dramatically decrease support for terrorist groups and violent extremism. It’s hard to imagine something more in our strategic interest.'

Thanks Mona for posting on fb.

Raise taxes on the rich

Raise taxes on big oil. NOW.

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What's the profit margin on crude these days, Mr. Koch? How about for Chevron? What was Exxon's profit last year? What kind of profit margin are the Royal Wahhabis looking at, even after they subtract the cost of bribing the people with free money? I bet it costs the Saudis less than $5 a barrel to extract the crude from underneath the eastern provinces.

Check this out: "Saudi Arabia's `Day of Rage' Lures Record Bets on $200 Oil".

Iraq's petroleum impasse

DENISE NATALI: "Iraq’s petroleum impasse is rooted in the vagaries of the Iraqi constitution and the ethnic and sectarian interests it has encouraged. By devolving large powers to the regions and providing for the distribution of oil revenues to make up for the wrongs of the past, the constitution disempowered Baghdad regarding key oil sector activities."

Republicans are for big oil

not jobs. It's not surprising.

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Why does America subsidize big oil?

That doesn't make sense, considering the huge profits made by BP and other big oil companies.

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Attack shuts down Iraq's biggest oil refinery

WP: "Gunmen shot their way into Iraq's largest oil refinery early Saturday, setting off explosions that forced the facility to shut down for at least two weeks, officials said.

Insurgents have attacked pipelines before, but an assault on a facility is rare, if not unprecedented, an industry analyst said.

The attack occurred about 150 miles north of Baghdad in the city of Baiji, known as an insurgent stronghold. Four guards and an engineer were killed."

Conservative Americans want to get off foreign oil

They think our foreign policy and our economy is "held hostage" by foreign oil and the likes of Qaddafi and Ahmedinejad. Joe Scarborough repeated "held hostage" several times throughout his show today. I'm still not quite sure what he means by "held hostage".

I categorize the hosts on Morning Joe as conservatives. On today's show, which included Jim Cramer (the stock guy) and Steven Rattner (a private equity investor), they discussed Thomas Friedman's article "If Not Now, When?". Mika read part of Friedman's article and said "I just wish we would...get off our dependence, so that we can not be in this situation." What situation, Mika? Please elaborate.

The implication is that we're in bed with dictators, and conservative Americans like Mika and Joe don't like that. Steven Rattner said we have no choice, we have no influence with the Saudis because we are so dependent on them. I agree with Rattner that nothing we will do in the foreseeable future will change our dependence on middle east oil. But that doesn't mean we shouldn't reduce our dependence on foreign oil. Also it doesn't mean that we shouldn't (or can't) influence what happens inside KSA and other oil-rich states.

If the US can get the Saudis to do business (ARAMCO being the significant one in history) with us, if we can get them to be nice with Israel, if we can get them to match dollar for dollar in funding the fight against communism in Afghanistan, if we can get them to invite American soldiers (half a million of them) onto their soil and fight a war with them (against another Muslim country), then we should be able to influence them on their human rights and democracy record.

Joe emphasized the need to develop alternative forms of energy, not because it might help reduce greenhouse gases, but because it would reduce our dependence on foreign oil. And we gotta keep up with China. Those are the factors that drive conservative Americans towards energy independence.

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They didn't even mention Israel, except the part in which Mika read Friedman's reference to Israel.

At least conservative Americans are beginning to realize the importance of clean energy. In this clip Joe deserves kudos for giving credit to Jimmy Carter, who started talking about a sensible energy policy in 1977. Why doesn't the US spend more to develop clean sources of energy? Joe asks the question, but there are no answers, not on his show. Jeffrey Sachs, a Columbia University professor, answered that question on The Last Word today, and explains how billionaires are influencing politics in America. If we are being held hostage, we are being held hostage by the Koch brothers.

Oil hits $100/barrel

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1991 Gulf War oil spill largest in history?

This article claims that the 1991 Gulf War oil spill is the largest in history: "The Gulf War oil spill, when Saddam Hussein intentionally spilled oil into the Persian Gulf, resulted in anywhere from 240 million to 460 million gallons of crude oil poured into the Gulf. It remains the world’s largest oil spill today."

I was surprised to see that today because just a few weeks ago, while writing the post Humans can be quite stupid, I read this Wikipedia article, which at the time listed the Gulf War oil spill as the third largest in history. The list of the largest oil spills in that Wiki entry has since been updated to include "Kuwaiti oil fires" and "Kuwaiti oil lakes". The Wiki article claims that an incredible 42-63 BILLION gallons of oil were burned in 1991, and a further 1-2 billion gallons of oil were spilled from sabotaged fields in Kuwait that year. One billion gallons is more than five times the amount of oil spilled as a result of the Deepwater Horizon explosion.

Until now I did not know that so much oil was burned in 1991 (more than 200 times the amount spilled by Deepwater Horizon), and I did not know that Saddam's saboteurs discharged millions of barrels of oil directly into the Persian Gulf. The burning of dozens of billions of gallons of oil may not be considered a spill by some, but it's definitely a waste and a huge spike in emissions of carbon dioxide and other pollutants into the atmosphere. Those environmentally damaging acts of sabotage alone should have been reason enough to overthrow Saddam in 1991.