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He that would make his own Liberty=20 secure

must guard even = his=20 enemy from oppression.

=97Thomas = Paine

Features

End the Green Nightmare

by Gary Jason = | =20 Posted November 16, 2011

There is currently a maelstrom of news about costly failures in the = so-called=20 green energy industry. Of course, solar power is prominently featured, = and the=20 Solyndra fiasco is only one of the scandals. Rapidly rising to public=20 consciousness is another crony = capitalist solar=20 company, SunPower, which looks like it too will go bust and cost the = American taxpayer a fortune. Also in this club=20 of losers are solar companies such as First Solar and Abengoa, both = again=20 the recipients of taxpayer dollars, thanks to the current = administration=92s rigid=20 environmentalist ideological mindset.

But not to be overlooked are disappointments in the other segments of = the=20 green energy industry. Corn-based ethanol has proven to be such a = wasteful=20 boondoggle that even Al=20 Gore has rethought his support of it. And wind power has come in for = a good deal of scrutiny. Why, even geothermal = companies=20 are proving=20 questionable. A recent report of three on the biggest such companies = =97=20 Nevada Geothermal Power, Raser Technologies, and U.S. Geothermal =97 = shows that=20 they are all in financial difficulty or are just not profitable. All are = recipients all of taxpayer loans or loan guarantees.

This has left the proponents of green power trying desperately to = explain=20 away its dismal failure =97 both here and abroad =97 to prove itself = commercially=20 viable without massive governmental subsidization, and without the = corruption=20 that governmental subsidies typically bring. But while we are witnessing = the=20 bursting of the Great Green Energy Bubble, we are also witnessing a = renaissance=20 of fossil fuels =97 the very fuels that Malthusian prophets of doom have = for=20 decades claimed are =93running out.=94

This renaissance has been caused by a technological revolution that = is=20 transforming oil and gas drilling. Because of it, oil and gas are far = more=20 plentiful here and in countries outside the Middle East and other = hostile=20 neighborhoods, such as Russia and Venezuela. I am thinking especially of = two=20 technologies, fracking and horizontal drilling. The rebirth of fossil = fuel=20 production was unimaginable a few years ago. It is completely beyond the = ken of=20 the Greens who constitute the Obama Regime, people who never anticipate=20 revolutions that are not run from above, by them, but instead originate = in the=20 distributed intelligence of regular (read: creative) people.

We are also witnessing a renaissance of fossil fuels =97 the very = fuels that=20 Malthusian prophets of doom have for decades claimed are =93running=20 out.=94

Start with fracking. It=20 has certainly made some energy companies rich. For, example, Noble = Energy has=20 just paid a whopping=20 $3.4 billion for a half-interest in the Marcellus Shale holdings of = Consol=20 Energy. Together they plan to develop a huge chunk of Pennsylvania and = West=20 Virginia (663,000 acres). Even after selling off half its holdings, = Consol still=20 expects to extract a massive 350 billion cubic feet of gas.

What is fascinating is that Conrol Energy is a Pennsylvania-based = coal=20 company =97 you know, one of those, well, fossils of the fossil fuel = industry. It=20 is nicely positioning itself for the inevitable shutting down of = coal-fired=20 power plants under the relentless pressure of the EPA. Consol and Noble = are just=20 two of the flood of companies moving in to develop the Marcellus Shale=20 formation.

Fracking is also rewarding key players in the industry. Marcus = Rowland, the=20 CEO of the small but important player, Frac Tech International, earned a = tidy $24.4=20 million last year. His compensation made him the highest paid CEO of = any=20 publicly-traded energy company. He is paid more than the CEO of IBM.

Frac Tech is beating many other energy companies by providing = hydraulic=20 fracturing services for big energy companies such as Chesapeake Energy = and=20 ExxonMobil. It brought in nearly $1.3 billion in revenues. In the world = of=20 fracking, only Halliburton and Schlumberger are bigger.

There is a very recent report about the development of a shale field = of truly=20 stupefying proportions. The Utica Shale deposit is an enormous = geological=20 formation stretching from Quebec to Kentucky. It may be an even more = fertile=20 source for oil and gas than the Marcellus Shale field. Ohio state = geologists =97 a=20 neutral source, please note =97 estimate that Ohio=92s share of = this field=20 holds upwards of 15 trillion cubic feet of natural gas and 5.5 billion = barrels=20 of recoverable oil (or roughly a third of the production of America=92s = largest=20 oil reserve, Alaska=92s Prudhoe Bay).

Then there is brilliant article discussing one=20 of the unsung creative geniuses of American industry, Harold Hamm. = In a week=20 dominated by paeans to the fallen Steve Jobs =97 who rightly deserved = recognition=20 for his amazing success in making Apple what it is =97 it was nice to = see a piece=20 on the remarkable Mr. Hamm.

Far from welcoming the renaissance of the American fossil fuel = industry and=20 the jobs it would provide, the Obama Regime has fought it tooth and=20 nail.

Hamm is the founder and CEO of Continental Resources. He rose from = humble=20 origins =97 the thirteenth child of Oklahoma sharecroppers =97 to become = thirty-third on the current Forbes list of wealthy Americans. Yes, = Virginia,=20 there is a Horatio Alger. Hamm is almost certainly going to rise to a = much=20 higher place on the list, given how much oil he owns.

He made his early success as a wildcatter with a keen sense of where = oil=20 could be found. But his greatest contribution was his early employment = and=20 improvement of a second innovative fossil fuel technology, a method = called=20 horizontal drilling. This is a technique whereby the drilling company = drills=20 downward (up to two miles deep), then drills outward, horizontally. This = technology has =97 as dramatically as fracking =97 allowed energy = companies to=20 exploit petroleum and gas reserves hitherto not commercially viable.

Hamm is the discoverer of the famous Bakken oil field that extends = from=20 Montana to North Dakota. So fertile has this field proven that it has = helped put=20 America back in third place in the world in oil production. He estimates = the=20 reserves in Bakken alone at 24 billion barrels =97 which if true is=20 double our currently proven national reserves. Continental has = seen its=20 proven reserves go from 118 million barrels in 2000 to 421 = million=20 barrels this year.

One might expect that the Obama Administration would be delighted at = the=20 prospects of America=92s becoming energy independent =97 and potentially = millions of=20 American blue-collar workers getting high-paying jobs.

But one would be wrong.

Far from welcoming the renaissance of the American fossil fuel = industry, the=20 Obama Regime has fought it tooth and nail. It is attacking shale oil and = gas=20 with every tool at its disposal. Its Department of the Interior has = undertaken a=20 jihad against them. It has locked away from exploration and development = vast new=20 areas of the Midwest and has waged a war against conventional offshore = drilling.=20 It is now doing its best to stop the new technological drilling, even in = lands=20 that have been drilled conventionally before.

The Green Regime=92s SEC has entered the fray, demanding that = companies like=20 Continental follow new Sarbanes-Oxley requirements about reporting = royalty and=20 production figures, meaning that CEOs like Hamm face jail time if some = low-level=20 operator misreports production from a field.

Ironically, the feds never apply Sarbanes-Oxley to themselves. If = Obama or=20 any of his administration misreports taxpayer liabilities, say, for = solar=20 industry loans, nobody faces any consequences.

In addition, the Regime is pushing de facto tax increases = for the=20 oil and gas industry, by ending various tax credits the oil industry has = long=20 enjoyed. This =97 coming from an administration lavish in its subsidies = to minor=20 and expensive energy sources such as solar, wind, geothermal, and = ethanol =97 is=20 from the point of view of physical science simply bizarre.

Finally, the Green Dream Team has brought its Justice Department into = the=20 jihad. It recently brought charges against seven oil companies in North = Dakota=20 for killing 28 birds. Continental has been accused of killing =97 one = bird! But=20 this is not a minor matter: the executives face six months in jail if = convicted.=20 (Note: The same Justice Department has never even once pursued any = American wind=20 power company, even though American wind power facilities kill on the = order of=20 half a million birds a year.)

But even as the Regime wages its jihad against domestic fossil fuel=20 industries, other countries are moving ahead with the new fossil fuel=20 technologies. As I noted in an earlier piece, Israel has set about using fracking to free itself from reliance = on=20 foreign sources of oil, which would mean changing the balance of power = in the=20 Middle East. Israel is using fracking to exploit some major fields, the = most=20 recent being a field (named =93Leviathan=94) which holds 16 trillion = cubic feet of=20 natural gas, or about a century=92s worth of gas at Israel=92s current = usage. This=20 field is only part of the massive Levant Basin shale field, which holds = upwards=20 of 122 trillion cubic feet of natural gas, or about eight = centuries=92=20 worth.

More recently, a small energy player in the UK has announced that the = Bowland=20 Shale field, in northwest England, contains an estimated 200=20 trillion cubic feet of natural gas. This estimate (by Cuadrilla = Resources)=20 means that this one shale field contains enough natural gas for = two-thirds of a=20 century of the UK=92s needs at present levels. And that is only one = field.

The British boom is being echoed elsewhere in Europe, where other = countries=20 are also turning to fracked gas =97 except France, which has outlawed = shale gas=20 exploration altogether, one suspects to protect its nuclear industry = from=20 competition. But Poland, for instance, has an estimated 187 trillion = cubic feet=20 of shale gas. This is geopolitically game-changing, considering that = Poland now=20 has to import its natural gas from neighboring Russia, a country that=20 historically has kept trying to incorporate Poland into its empire.

Note the extremism of Banks=92 demand: don=92t even explore, = much less=20 try to use, resources until they are proven, to her ilk, to be perfectly = safe=97something that will never happen.

This discovery in the UK comes just in time to stop its increasing = dependence=20 on natural gas from the Middle East and Norway. But =97 naturally =97 = the British=20 energy suppliers are facing the same kneejerk environmentalist = opposition that=20 Hamm and other American suppliers do. Soi-disant environmentalists in = Britain=20 are roused in furious opposition. Jenny Banks, the =93energy policy = officer=94 for=20 the environmentalist group WWF (World Wildlife Fund) demands, =93The = government=20 should at the very least halt shale gas exploration in Britain until = more=20 research can be undertaken on both the climate-change impacts and = contamination=20 risks associated with shale gas.=94 Note the extremism of her demand: = don=92t even=20 explore, much less try to use, resources until they are proven, = to her=20 ilk, to be perfectly safe=97something that will never happen.

What explains this visceral hostility to a product the human race = desperately=20 needs, and the pushing of forms of energy that have proven time and = again to be=20 commercial losers?

The answer is that much of the environmentalist movement consists of = two=20 groups: neo-socialists, and neo-Romantic pagans. The former profess = a=20 love of the ecosystem but are really animated by a hatred of capitalism. = These=20 are the people who never uttered a peep about environmental degradation = when the=20 Soviet Empire was cheerfully despoiling the ecosystem, but who now wax = furious=20 at the thought that a capitalist =97 a capitalist =97 should = even explore=20 for oil. Should Vladimir Putin or Hugo Chavez start using fracking, why, = instantly, fracking would be fine.

The second group, even more bizarre, is populated by those I have=20 characterized elsewhere as self-loathing=20 hominids, i.e., people who are ideologically misanthropic. They view = their=20 own species as vile and disgusting, literally a blight upon the planet. = The=20 thing they fear most is precisely the discovery of=20 inexhaustible, inexpensive energy. They fear it because such energy = would allow=20 the human race to flourish, and these self-loathing hominids do not want = the=20 human race to flourish. To them, rats and roaches are wonderful, but = children=20 are not.

You simply can=92t please these worshipers of Thanatos.

But the rest of us should rejoice in the renaissance of fossil fuels. = Unlike=20 the green energy sources that have done so pathetically little to help = humanity,=20 it holds the promise of inexpensive energy on which our continued = prosperity=20 depends.

About this Author

Philosopher Gary Jason is a senior editor of Liberty Unbound, and the = author of=20 the forthcoming book Dangerous = Thoughts.

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Comments

Nic Leobold

Brilliant!

Thu, 2011-11-17 05:03

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