Climate Change, Charge and Collection
First we had Cap and Trade Bill, that did not go well except in the House of Representatives. It is stalled in the Senate. What to do now? Hey name it something else, it is now the American Power Act. Whatever it is called, it is the last nail in the coffin of the American Energy infrastructure and the entire United States financial system.
We have found however, this American Power Act is already going on in America and too many are just not engaged in the world around you and that of Washington D.C. to know the difference. Okay, this is summary to get up to speed. Then you need to engage and not only speak out but make sure you are heard nationwide.
Minerals Management Services, established in 1982, had a charter to collect royalties from all mineral mining in the United States for the sake of using those funds to conserve and protect the environment. Royalties quickly become a major revenue source for the agency and those funds were deposited into the Federal Reserve. MMS quickly became a corrupt government agency and played the typical back-scratching game in the oil industry. It has now been taken over by Michael Bromwich. So why would a guy from the Department of Justice even begin to have the qualifications to run such a department as Bureau of Ocean Energy Management, Regulation, and Enforcement (BOEMRE)?
Here is an astonishing fact: The revenue from the oil and gas royalties paid by the industry is second in dollar value to taxes paid to the Internal Revenue Service. Wow For onshore federal drilling leases, the Minerals Lands Leasing Act prescribes the share or royalty rate as 1/8 the value of production; for offshore leases, the Outer Continental Shelf Lands Act prescribes the royalty rate as 1/6 the value of production. ‘According to the MMS, annual revenues from federal onshore and offshore (OCS) mineral leases are one of the federal government’s largest sources of non-tax income. In 2000, the MMS collected $5 billion in oil and gas royalties. The bulk of this ($4 billion) came from offshore production, with natural gas production generating 60 percent of the royalty revenue. For federal onshore lands, gas production generated over 70 percent of the almost $1 billion in royalties. The MMS also collected over $1 billion in bonus bids and rental payments to bring the total federal revenue collected by MMS from oil and gas leasing to approximately $6.3 billion. In addition, Indian lands, separate from federal onshore lands, generated about $200 million in revenues for Indian tribes. Please see the
| Oil and Everyday Life
Oil is used in many everyday objects – more than you may have ever imagined. Click on any colorized object below to learn a little bit about how oil may have been used to create it. |
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http://www.api.org/aboutoilgas/sectors/explore/oilandnaturalgas.cfm
Gasoline: Gasoline helps power the American dream, giving us the freedom to travel where we want and when we want — for work, for school or for recreation. A steady supply of clean-burning gasoline is central to our nation’s economy.
Diesel: Seventy percent of the nation’s goods are transported in diesel-powered vehicles, helping to make it America’s primary commercial fuel.
Natural gas: Many Americans rely on safe, efficient and clean burning natural gas to heat and cool their homes. Natural fuels many manufacturing and electricity generation plants, and is a key ingredient in products that we use every day.
Heating Oil: 8.5 million American households, mostly in the Northeastern states, rely on heating oil to keep warm in winter. Many households buy Affordable Home Heating Oil to keep their home warm.
Emerging Energy Technologies: To help meet projected U.S. energy demand growth, the oil and gas companies invested $121.3 billion from 2000 through 2007 on emerging energy technologies in the North American Market.
http://www.api.org/aboutoilgas/factsfuel/index.cfm
http://www.priweb.org/ed/pgws/uses/uses_home.html
Ok, it is now clear that our way of life must be powered by oil. Can we make adjustments to our way of life? Sure we can, but understand it is not practical and realistic to change it all. Yet that is just what the Federal Government/ EPA/ DOE/ DOI/ Congress and the President are trying to do. What will take the place of oil? Well algae as part of a bio-fuels agenda.
http://www.greentechmedia.com/articles/read/the-return-of-fed-funded-algae-fuels/
The bio-fuels agenda is already going on in the background and you have not even noticed. But is it real and is it practical? Not hardly. Is there government corruption? Yes. Is there private corruption? Yes. Is the science flawed? Too early to tell, but, bio-fuels can never replace the volume of consumption of oil.
Below is a map of some popular corrupt connections of distinctions of including the self-avowed communist Van Jones.
Ok, so where does the Federal Government fit in? The government is now in the business of being in business by providing grants and loans. The government is also mandating departments and passing legislation. Click the link below to see a short EPA list of grant funding.
http://www.epa.gov/ogd/grants/funding_opportunities.htm
This next link describes how small firms are seizing free money for bio-fuel technologies.
http://www.greenbiz.com/news/2010/05/13/small-firms-land-big-bucks-epa-funding-green-technologies
Here is another link among thousands on the net speaking to the agenda.
http://www.biofuelsdigest.com/blog2/2010/01/22/usda-2010-grant-and-funding-opportunities-surveyed/
Mandates?
http://greenenergyreporter.com/tag/epa-biofuel-mandates/
But algae?
NASA?
Do we have an example of how big the funding really is and where? Yes, glad you asked.
EPA to Offer $10 Million in Grants to Protect Puget Sound
By Laura Kaliebe
The U.S. Environmental Protection Agency (EPA) announced <http://yosemite.epa.gov/r10/water.nsf/Office+of+Water/WEI09RFP> yesterday that it is accepting project proposals for $10 million in grants targeted specifically to protect and restore Puget Sound watersheds.
Tribes, local governments and “special purpose districts” are eligible for this round of funding. Proposals <http://yosemite.epa.gov/r10/water.nsf/Office+of+Water/WEI09RFP> must be submitted by Jan. 5, 2010.
According to Michelle Pirzadeh, acting EPA regional administrator in Seattle, this funding will help local tribes and government agencies turn their plans into action.
More at
http://www.northwesthub.org/epa-10-million-grant-puget-sound-245
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10/28 Seattle Times
Corps maps show Green River flooding scenarios
By Craig Welch
Seattle Times environment reporter
Inundation maps that show how the Green River might flood communities from Auburn to Tukwila under four scenarios have been posted on the U.S. Army Corps of Engineers’ Web site.
The maps show how the lower stretch of the river might respond if floodwaters were to reach stages ranging from 13,900 cubic feet per second to a worst-case-scenario 25,000 cfs. Those are the ranges of possibility that have generally been identified by the Corps if it ends up releasing water this winter to avoid stressing the troubled Howard Hanson Dam.
The heaviest-hit stretches in each case are just southeast of Auburn and immediately west of Highway 167 between Auburn and Kent, which could be under three to 10 feet of water even with the more minor flooding. At 25,000 cfs., a two- to four-mile wide swath of the entire valley, from Auburn to Tukwila, could be deluged.
More at
http://seattletimes.nwsource.com/html/localnews/2010146443_greenmaps28m.html
Maps at
http://www.nws.usace.army.mil/PublicMenu/Doc_list.cfm?sitename=HHD&pagename=Green_River_Maps
See also 10/28 Tacoma News Tribune
Flood pros set strategy for Green, White rivers
http://www.thenewstribune.com/news/local/story/932297.html
Listen 10/27 KPLU-FM
Howard Hanson Dam Update
http://www.publicbroadcasting.net/kplu/news.newsmain/article/0/1/1570948/KPLU.Local.News/Howard.Hanson.Dam.Update
10/27 Northwest News Network
Coastal Algae Bloom: “It’s Like An Oil Spill, Without the Oil”
Tom Banse
It’s like an oil spill, but without the oil. That’s how wildlife rescue people are describing an unusual red tide along the Northwest coast. The algal bloom is causing hundreds upon hundreds of dead or dying seabirds to wash up on coastal beaches. Today, the deluge of distress shows signs of tapering off.
Listen at
http://www.publicbroadcasting.net/kplu/news.newsmain/article/0/1/1570689/KPLU.Local.News/Coastal.Algae.Bloom.’It’s.Like.An.Oil.Spill..Without.the.Oil’
See also 10/28 Everett Herald
PAWS rescuers scramble to save seabirds covered in algae
http://www.heraldnet.com/article/20091028/NEWS01/710289753/-1/NEWS#PAWS.rescuers.scramble.to.save.seabirds.covered.in.algae
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10/26 Associated Press
US reps worry ocean policy will block development
By MARY PEMBERTON
Associated Press Writer
Dozens of U.S. representatives sent a letter Monday to the head of the President’s Interagency Ocean Policy Task Force with concerns that the policy will block offshore energy development and cost jobs to Americans.
Sixty-nine House members, including Alaska Rep. Don Young, signed the letter in which they responded to the task force’s interim report released last month.
The task force is working on a national policy for governance of the country’s oceans, coasts and Great Lakes. Two dozen senior policy members from numerous agencies are working on the national policy.
Washington Rep. Doc Hastings, the ranking Republican member of the House Natural Resources Committee, said it is important that the task force recognizes multiple uses of the nation’s oceans, from fishing to energy development to recreation.
Ok, so there really is a Federal Agenda being played out before us on algae? Yes, and it is land and water based. This link is a short defined presentation.
http://www.ascension-publishing.com/BIZ/HD6-Rich.pdf
Is the oil and gas industry opposed to the bio-fuels agenda? Yes and no. The oil and gas industry wants to explore the science and is willing to do that but not at the cost of complete elimination of oil and gas or nationalizing the industry which appears to be the next play from the Obama administration. Could it be that the Feds and lobbyists are demanding oil and gas to play a role in bio-fuels? Yes, pay up or it is likely that a drilling permit or license for a refinery will not be forthcoming. Demanding that oil and gas participate in bio-fuels gives credibility to the science and technology of bio-fuels as the final solution to elimination of fossil fuels. Pay up and shut up.
http://greenenergyreporter.com/tag/algae-biofuel/
More to come soon.
People in every country get the mortgage loans from different banks, just because that’s simple and comfortable.
I couldn t agree more!