Filed under: Uncategorized | Tags: FHWA, oil consumption, traffic volume trends, US oil consumption, US oil demand, vehicle miles traveled, Vmt
Filed under: Uncategorized | Tags: Alaska, Beaufort Sea, Coast Guard, energy, Kulluk, oil production, peak oil, Royal Dutch Shell, Shell
‘Season full of headaches:’
Adding to a season full of headaches for Shell Alaska’s debut offshore-drilling program in the U.S. Arctic, the company’s Kulluk drill rig was stuck Friday in monster seas off the coast of Alaska as its tugboat’s engines failed and the Coast Guard cutter that came to assist became entangled in a towline.
There were no immediate threats to crew or equipment, but Shell Alaska was rushing additional aid vessels to the scene as the Kulluk, which drilled the beginnings of an exploratory oil well in the Beaufort Sea over the summer, sat without ability to move forward in 20-foot seas about 50 miles south of Kodiak.
via Coast Guard cutter hits trouble trying to aid Shell rig off Alaska | Local News | The Seattle Times.
Don’t freak out, but this is what Peak Oil For All Intents And Purposes looks like.
Filed under: Uncategorized | Tags: Art of Cycling, art of urban cycling, Energy Benchmarking reports, energy efficiency, energy use in large buildings, EPA, Greener Greater Buildings Plan, LEED, NYC, NYC Finance, plaza, Seagram Building, urban cycling
As part of the Greener, Greater Buildings Plan, Finance is required to publish a benchmarking report that shows the Energy Utilization Index (EUI) and Energy Star ratings of city government buildings.
via NYC Energy Benchmarking Reports.
The Seagram Building (1958) scored a 3. Out of 100. I wrote a paragraph about this influential building in Art of Cycling.
Filed under: Uncategorized | Tags: blood doping, doping, EPO, Lance Armstrong
From ESPN:
LONDON — Lance Armstrong is being sued for more than $1.5 million by a British newspaper over the settlement of a libel action, which followed doping allegations against the cyclist that it published.
The Sunday Times paid Armstrong 300,000 pounds (now about $485,000) in 2006 to settle a case after it reprinted claims from a book in 2004 that he took performance-enhancing drugs.
“It is clear that the proceedings were baseless and fraudulent. Your representations that you had never taken performance enhancing drugs were deliberately false.”
— Sunday Times, in letter to Lance Armstrong’s lawyers
Filed under: Uncategorized | Tags: apparently nein, Bad Nigel, Bakken, Christian Parenti, Colorado Springs Gazette, energy production, fracking is new technology, fracking is old technology, fraulein, icepick, limits to growth, Nigel Somebody, oil production propaganda, peak oil, propaganda, shale formations, stabbing one's eyes out, Thatcher
All on the same page.
This bit by Christian Parenti in The Nation is an example of lefty journalists carrying water for the oil and gas lobby, unknowingly or not, by repeating the false narrative that fracking is new technology:
As the economists say, demand calls forth supply. Just look at all the new shale gas. The United States has gone from having a twenty-year supply of known reserves to a 100-year supply, thanks to the new technology of hydraulic fracturing used to get at both gas and oil. Whatever one wants to say against the practice of fracking (and, for the record, I believe it is dangerous and so I’m against it), it has opened up huge new fossil fuel reserves and thus pushed the notion of “peak oil” further into the future. (The real problem is not too little oil, but too much oil and the pollution it causes.) In other words, technology and innovation continue to transcend the limits of supply.
Parenti is depressingly incorrect on a fundamental level. Fracking hasn’t “pushed the notion of ‘peak oil’ further into the future.” Peak Oil has dragged fracking into the present. I do agree about fracking being environmentally dangerous, but Parenti needs to spend more time researching his subject. Like five minutes more.
via http://www.thenation.com/article/171610/limits-growth-book-launched-movement#
Even anti-fracking activists in anti-fracking pieces blindly repeat the industry’s PR that fracking and horizontal drilling are new technology. Do some research kids! It’s good! From Truth-out.org:
Advanced fracking technology has allowed gas drillers to uncover previously unavailable gas reserves from deep underground shale formations. The new technology, known as high-volume horizontal hydraulic fracturing, has quickly industrialized rural communities in states across the US and become one of America’s most high profile environmental controversies.
I mean, that writer really sounds like he knows what he’s talking about with that string of words there, does he not?
Local news outlets always get it wrong. That’s their job. If they don’t, it signals something really major is about to happen, like the water getting sucked out to sea before the tsunami hits.
New technology has allowed drillers to reach oil for the first time that’s been trapped under the Kansas soil for millions of years. Horizontal fracking drills a diagonal path through the rock, releasing it with a combination of chemicals, water, and sand.
I enjoy that part — where ‘horizontal fracking drills a diagonal path…” Icepick, eyes. Stab, stab, stab.
Of course the Colorado Springs Gazette opinion writers got it terribly wrong. They should call that paper Everything In Here Is Wrong. Gazette. But You Love It Gazette:
New technology, fracking, makes the area a promising source of natural gas and oil that our country needs if we are to free ourselves from foreign fuel.
via http://www.gazette.com/articles/oil-148424-council-gas.html#ixzz2Fq8T83ZN
No surprises there. But the Germans?
Germans — wrong:
Thanks to a new technology called fracking, short for hydraulic fracturing, shale buried deep underground and hard to reach can now be extracted in a more lucrative way.
via Deutche Welle: http://www.dw.de/whats-behind-the-natural-gas-boom-in-the-us/a-16459631
You’d think the German reporters would be more precise or something, but apparently nein.
The Brits have been deciding if they want to “take part in the fracking revolution,” or not, as if the country’s notable lack of shale formations were a minor technicality.
Former British Secretary of State for Energy from the Thatcher years Nigel Somebody got it all hilariously wrong in his recent wildly incoherent pro-frack screed in the Daily Mail:
Until recently, the cost of extracting the gas has been prohibitive.
He got that part mostly right.
But the combination of two innovative technologies — horizontal drilling and fracking to release the natural resources — has changed all that.
No Nigel. Bad Nigel.
Fracking is also “new technology” over at Reuters, big time:
The Bakken shale formation and its bounty of oil and gas is a proving ground for hydraulic fracturing, or “fracking,” as the new technology loosens more than 150 million barrels a year out of the ground in Montana and neighboring North Dakota alone.
via http://www.reuters.com/article/2012/12/14/usa-montana-schweitzer-idUSL1E8NDII420121214
To review, fracking is NEW. new new new. New technology, that has unlocked previously unreachable reserves of oil and gas.
Are we all on the same page now?
Related posts: Fracking is old technology, Chris Martenson on the fracking narrative
Filed under: Uncategorized | Tags: Chris Martenson, frac, fracking, narrative, oil production, technology
Chris Martenson: Well, this is really important. The current story is something along these lines: “Hey, look at how clever we’ve been. Because of the magic of technology, we have discovered how to unlock these incredible oil and gas resources that we just didn’t even know about before.”
When I talk to people who are in the oil business, they say, “Oh, no, no, we’ve known about those shale deposits, we’ve been drilling into and through them for decades. We’ve had horizontal drilling for decades; we’ve had fracking for decades. What we haven’t had is $80-a-barrel oil reliably enough to support us going into those with those technologies.”
So what really unlocked those reserves was price. Not technology, not cleverness, not ingenuity. Don’t get me wrong, there’s a lot of very clever, ingenious stuff going on in those drilling actions, but price was the primary driver here.
via Conservation Not Technology will be our Savior – Chris Martenson (Part 2) « naked capitalism.
Filed under: Uncategorized | Tags: COGC, Colorado Oil and Gas Association, energy production, Frackenlooper, fracking, fracking ban, Hickenlooper, Longmont, Natural gas, shale oil, tight gas, tight oil
This report in the NYT doesn’t mention that our governor Frackenlooper has all but joined the suit in an attempt to overrule the voters of Longmont. If he plays his Weasel Cards right he’ll be a cabinet member some day.
The lawsuit, filed on Monday by the Colorado Oil and Gas Association, seeks to overturn the ban on the contentious practice that passed by a wide margin last month in the northern Colorado city of Longmont. The measure, the first of its kind in the state, still allows oil and gas drilling within city limits, but it prohibits hydraulic fracturing, which has lifted energy production across the country but has raised concerns about air and water contamination.
via Suit Seeks to Overturn a City Drilling Ban in Longmont, Colorado – NYTimes.com.
Filed under: Uncategorized | Tags: Asjylyn Loder, Bakken, cornucopianism, crude oil, fracking, hydraulic fracturing, lies about fracking, Marcellus, North Dakota, oil extraction, peak oil, PR, propaganda, shale oil, techno-worship, technology, tight gas, tight oil, United States oil production
America’s latest oil rush was spurred by new technology that has made drilling faster, cheaper and better at unleashing oil from rock formations,…
That is false. Fracking (the oil guys always called it ‘fracing’) is old technology. Many decades old. But it’s an expensive way to get oil, relatively speaking. So it hasn’t been prudent to frack/frac for shale oil until the overall situation reached a certain point where the price of a barrel of crude was likely to remain above the cost of extraction. In other words, the fracking boom in the U.S. does not signal the death of Peak Oil. It is in fact part and parcel of a new era wherein cheap oil is a memory, a much more expensive era in energy. Perhaps that is why the misinformation campaign has been in overdrive.
via Asjylyn Loder, “American Oil Growing Most Since First Well Signals Independence,” Bloomberg..
Spreading disinformation through the media is even older technology.
Filed under: Uncategorized | Tags: Aspen stage, Brad Wiggins, Core Strengthweasel, doping, doping in cycling, EPO, Garmin, Garmin-weasels, ignorant public, Independence Pass, Lance Armstrong, pathetic conundrum, PEDs, TD, Tom Danielson, US Pro Cycling Challenge, Vaughters, weasel power, Zabriskie
Great bike racers really do need all sorts of things to accomplish what TD did in that stage into Aspen this year. They need freakish talent, guts, race smarts, incredibly hard training, including core strength training and I’m sure he knows plenty about it, and good luck. They need teammates who have these things and are willing to make themselves barf on their behalf. Also, a really effective doping program is a necessity if you want to compete with the other guys who have all of the aforementioned list in addition to a highly effective doping program. And yet TD can’t come out and say what I just did. Can’t say it. Has to lie like a complete weasel instead. He has been on the right team for that.
According to Tom’s new book, “Core Strength for Cycling’s Winning Edge” tells the story of how Danielson was able to use strength training techniques to be a better racer.
via Tom Danielson's new book – Core Strength for Cycling's Winning Edge | 303Cycling News.
Filed under: Uncategorized | Tags: 1959, 1979, Cesium-137, hotspots, meltdown, melted blob, nuclear accident, radioactivity, reactor, strontium-90, UCLA
Not unlike my soul.
The EPA says 423 of the samples contained man-made radioactive contaminants exceeding background levels. Most of the contaminants were cesium-137 and strontium-90, both powerful carcinogenic substances.
Most samples exceeding background levels were found in the surface soil at locations known to be contaminated, including where the partial meltdown occurred on the morning of July 14, 1959. Details of that incident, which spewed colorless and odorless gases into the atmosphere, were not disclosed until 1979, when a group of UCLA students discovered documents and photographs that referred to a problem at the site involving a “melted blob.”
via Radioactive hot spots remain at former research facility's site – latimes.com.
I’ll tell you what though. If I ever owned a nuclear reactor, and it went all meltdown and everything, I would inform the people living in the surrounding areas. So they could make arrangements and whatnot.
Filed under: Uncategorized | Tags: A. A. Zimmerman, architecture, bicycle racing, bicycle track racing, bicycle tracks, bicycling, Billy Hamilton, Bob Gerwing, Charles Murphy, E. C. Bald, fixed gear, fixed gear fever, Floyd MacFarland, Iver Lawson, John Johnson, keirin, Major Taylor, Monte Scott, Sanger, Tom Cooper, Tom Eck, track bikes, track racing, velodromes
http://www.fixedgearfever.com/modules.php?name=Velodromes&op=list
From fixedgearfever.com. They call it the world’s best velodrome database. That is probably the case.
Filed under: Uncategorized | Tags: bicycle, bicycling, Colorado Springs, cycle touring, cycling, epic climbs, global warming, local warming, Pikes Peak, Pikes Peak Highway, Pikes Peak Toll Road, weird warming
Been to the summit several times on foot and once in an automobile. Can’t wait to ride my bike up that ridiculous road.
7NEWS – Pikes Peak Highway to open to cyclists Jan. 1 – News Story.
But — Jan. 1? The road is open? …. weird…. we are doomed … but sure should be a fun ride… ugh…
Filed under: maps | Tags: brine, climate, diagonal drilling, energy, environment, fracking, fracking waste, gaming, HCLs, horizontal drilling, Marcellus Shale, natural gas production, radioactive fracking waste, vertical drilling
A link to an animated map of drilling operations in Bradford County since 2008.
http://www.bradfordcountypa.org/Natural-Gas.asp?specifTab=2
Filed under: Uncategorized | Tags: Alberta, Canada, China, ECA, Encana, energy, energy security, PetroChina
PetroChina Co. (857) agreed to pay Encana Corp. (ECA) C$1.18 billion ($1.2 billion) for a 49.9 percent stake in an Alberta shale formation as Asia’s biggest oil producer steps up acquisitions of overseas oil and gas assets.
via PetroChina Pays $1.2 Billion to Form Encana Joint Venture – Bloomberg.
Filed under: Uncategorized | Tags: fracking, fracking ban, it's about water, shale gas, tight gas, UK
Poor blokes have been snowed. Quite.
Not only has the UK green-lighted fracking, it is also using tax breaks to promote shale exploration and development. Indeed, the UK hopes to see a shale gas revolution of its own.
So what are the new rules for fracking? Right now it’s still a bit vague, but overall it involves a strengthening of oversight and an automated seismic activity detection system designed to halt operations in time.
via UK Lifts Fracking Ban, Now What?.
Filed under: Uncategorized | Tags: 2011, bicycling, cyclist fatalities, cyclist injuries, FARS, NHTSA, traffic accidents, urban cycling
Significantly more bicyclists killed in car-bike crashes, significantly fewer injured in car-bike crashes… Does this make some kind of sense?
click to enlarge
via NHTSA 2011 Motor Vehicle Crashes Overview (pdf): http://www-nrd.nhtsa.dot.gov/Pubs/811701.pdf
Filed under: Uncategorized | Tags: air pollution from fracking, CH4, Clean Air Act, EPA, fracking, gas drilling, greenhouse gases, hydraulic fracturing, methane, New York, oil and gas production, Schneiderman
…
Schneiderman said that the coalition of states “can’t continue to ignore the evidence of climate change or the catastrophic threat that unabated greenhouse gas pollution poses to our families, our communities and our economy.” He said Connecticut, Delaware, Maryland, Massachusetts, Rhode Island and Vermont joined in sending a required 60-day notice of intent to sue to EPA.
Pennsylvania, West Virginia, and Ohio – all states with intensive oil and gas drilling – didn’t join in the campaign. None of the states that sent the notice to the EPA are major producers of oil or gas
via Drilling Methane Emissions Lawsuit: New York And 6 Other States To Sue EPA.
Filed under: Uncategorized | Tags: 2010 fatalities, cyclist fatalities, fact sheet, FARS, gov pubs, NHTSA, traffic deaths, transportation
Take this back to 1970 and you would see a far more extreme change.
The decline of child cycling is the most important story in American cycling, rears its ugly head in data like this.
via NHTSA Bicyclists and Other Cyclists Fact Sheet 2010 (pdf): http://www-nrd.nhtsa.dot.gov/Pubs/811624.pdf
Filed under: Uncategorized | Tags: Chevrolet, heavy trucks, light trucks, light vehicle market share, light vehicles, passenger vehicles, pick em up trucks, pick-up trucks, pickup trucks, Ram 2500, SUV's, transportation, transportation trends United States, vehicle size
…
via Transportation Energy Data Book, ch. 4 (pdf): http://cta.ornl.gov/data/tedb31/Edition31_Chapter04.pdf
via a comment on Oil Drum.
Industrialized Cyclist Notepad 