Keystone Argument Just Got More Interesting

POSTED BY JHW22

As we all know, the GOP has been blaming Obama for killing jobs and the high gas prices, in part by saying his decision (that they pressured him to make) to delay one leg of the Keystone Pipeline. The GOP forced him to delay it then then blamed that delay for the cost of gas. It was predictable.

What wasn't predictable was the conundrum the GOP now faces on the Oklahoma to Texas Gulf branch. In case you weren't aware, we've already had oil coming into America from Canada via the Keystone Pipeline for YEARS. The branch Obama delayed is a pipe that just sends more oil to Oklahoma -- where all the oil is bottle-necked. In fact, the oil has had to be re-routed because the facility couldn't contain it all. Why? Because the oil in Oklahoma can't get to refineries in Texas. Why? Because Texas land-owners in RED counties have blocked the pipeline. Why? Because they don't want the state to take their land so a foreign company can make profits while their land is at risk of pollution.

WAIT! WHAT?

You heard me right. Conservative Republican Libertarians in East Texas Red Counties don't want a corporation to make money off their sacrifice. They want Big Government to stop the very pipeline their own party has used to paint Obama as THE reason for high gas prices. The very people fighting the Texas branch of Keystone are the very people who support the GOP's attempt to force the Keystone Pipeline expansion.

So, if we make sure every American knows that East Texas doesn't want the pipeline and if we make sure every American knows that those landowners are Republican, then we box the GOP into a corner.

So, even though I don't like the pipeline, I sure like this corner and paint can the President presented us with today. Let's paint!

President Obama's Weekly Address - June 27, 2009

Opening the Door to a Clean Energy Economy

Hey You Guys!

guest-posted by Armadillo Joe

Howdy, Blog-O-Maniacs!

Your favorite rabble-rousing cowboy hippie is here once again. Mr. The Broadway Carl has asked me to mind his store for a few days while he and The Mrs. galavant about the country, visiting historic places and family and the like. Happy to help, sez I, but these people like to talk. Or, uh, read and type. How shall I keep them interested enough to ensure that you will still have a readership by the end of next week?

So much pressure.

Well, while Broadway Carl is away, these mice shall play! Whatever shall we talk about? So many topics, so little time. So much going on in this country, in the world. Octo-moms or whether Katherine Heigl will stay with "Grey's Anatomy" or not are important subjects, but I'm guessing not the principle reason most of you folks make this a semi-regular stop on your inter-web meanderings. Now, while I'm always as political as the next guy -- particularly the guy who runs this'n here website -- I'm not always engaged in the particular he-said/she-said's of any given political moment. Though in Michelle Bachman's case, I'm willing to make an exception.

Which is not to say that I won't highlight how much I enjoy some schadenfreude at the expense of our dim-witted opponents in the Party of "No." John "Cray-Baby" Boehner's pathetic "budget proposal" press conference this past week was just too darned precious not to snicker about. I just also, within the realm of serious-topics-we-all-should-be-worried-about, try to find time for bigger picture stuff without getting bogged down in the daily blow-by-blow of political combat.

But, Joe? Whatever do you mean?

For instance, I don't just want to talk about how deeply angry the AIG bonuses make me (which is so-o-o-o-o-o-o, like, last week already -- positively pre-historic in blogging-time) but I want to talk about the way our government (as a reflection and the real-world implementation of our underlying cultural values) reinforces certain economic inequities and social injustices, either by malicious intent or benign neglect, and that as a result the system of work and reward in this country is wildly out of whack. The sense that the bonuses -- orders of magnitude larger than the lifetime earnings of many Americans -- were even morally and socially acceptable after the company dispensing them received tax-payer money to the tune of 80% of the value of the company to even keep the doors open when so many people have been cruelly and heartlessly rendered unemployed, homeless or both or even worse, the complete lack of a sense of shame on the part of the people taking the bonus money, even as "Bushville" tent cities sprout like mushrooms across this country, is indicative of a deeper sickness in our national soul.

Or, I don't just want to talk about the exploded housing bubble and how it is such a damned shame that all those greedy banksters were able to dispense all those questionable loans willy-nilly with no apparent repercussions now that it has blown back on them and the rest of the country, but I want to also talk about how the housing bust is itself also a good thing that finally neutralized a burgeoning problem because of what we as a nation have actually been building these last ten, twenty, thirty or forty or more years of frenzied construction, that we have been building the wrong kinds of houses in the wrong kinds of cities that destroy good lands in the worst possible ways for the long-term health of ourselves and the planet we and all our descendants will have to live on for the rest of our lives. It's the only planet we'll ever get, and we haven't taken very good care of it so far.

Or, I don't want to just talk about our energy policy in this country, lamenting how we use too much petroleum, but I want to discuss alternatives -- not just the hybrid cars Obama and Co. fetishize as a panacea to rescue our struggling automakers -- but a world with fewer cars in it altogether and what that means for transportation options here and abroad not just for middle class commuters, but for all of us rich and poor and what impact our country's transportation policy has on social justice.

Stuff like that, ya know.

What do you guys want to talk about? Have I bored you yet?

Obama's Energy Speech

Here's Barack Obama's Energy Plan Speech in Lansing, Michigan, in case you missed it.




And here's his new ad bitchslapping McCain on Energy.

Tire Gauges - This Election's Purple Band-Aid

The amount of stupidity which right wing nuts and Republicans in general display really amazes me sometimes to the point of wondering how some of these people survive day to day activities. The latest in a string of attacks on Barack Obama is the "Tire-Gauge Syndrome."

Recently Obama stated the following: "There are things you can do individually, though, to save energy. ... Making sure your tires are properly inflated - simple thing. But we could save all the oil that they're talking about getting off drilling - if everybody was just inflating their tires? And getting regular tune-ups? You'd actually save just as much." - Aug. 1 speech in Springfield, Mo.

It seems simple enough. Proper tire inflation and a tuned up engine increases efficiency and therefore saves gas. Now the question remains, if everyone implemented proper maintenance of their cars and trucks - about 140 million of them in the US - how much oil could we theoretically save?

According to the U.S. Department of Energy, "every pound per square inch of tire underinflation wastes 4 million gallons of gas daily in the U.S." Survey information from the National Highway Traffic Safety Administration shows that 27% of the cars on the road have a significantly under-inflated tire.

...Using the website FuelEconomy.gov, Verrastro writes, we can estimate that "the maximum (estimated) fuel economy (i.e., mileage) savings drivers could expect as a result of keeping their engines properly tuned (4%), replacing air filters (up to 10%), properly inflating tires (up to 3%) and using the correct motor oil (1-2%) is 18-19%. Since American drivers use roughly 380 million gallons of gasoline (not including diesel) per day, an 18% improvement translates into a savings of 68 million gallons, or 1.62 million barrels of oil per day."

Current crude oil and condensate production in the [Outer Continental Shelf] is about 1.25 million barrels per day.

Now, of course you'd have to assume that not all cars on the road are improperly maintained. If, as the linked article suggests, we're only talking of about a quarter of cars on the road, "the production offset is more likely to approach 800 thousand barrels per day..." and according to the Energy Information Administration's Official Energy Statistics from the US Government, if Congress lifted the moratorium on offshore drilling, by 2030, oil crude production in the “lower-48″ outer continental shelf will increase by about 200,000 barrels per day.

Here's a little expanded information on those numbers from Time Magazine's Michael Grunwald:

The Bush Administration estimates that expanded offshore drilling could increase oil production by 200,000 bbl. per day by 2030. We use about 20 million bbl. per day, so that would meet about 1% of our demand two decades from now. Meanwhile, efficiency experts say that keeping tires inflated can improve gas mileage 3%, and regular maintenance can add another 4%. Many drivers already follow their advice, but if everyone did, we could immediately reduce demand several percentage points.

Of course, Mr. Straight Talk and the GOP shills would have you believe that this is crazy talk.

McCain: "Anybody who says that we can achieve energy independence without using and increasing these existing energy resources either doesn't have the experience to understand the challenge we face or isn't giving the American people some straight talk." - Aug. 4 in Lafayette, Pa.

But these blowhards fail to mention Obama's actual energy plan, instead going with the meme that the tire-gauge suggestion is the only thing Obama has in his pocket. They fail to mention providing short‐term relief to American families facing pain at the pump. They fail to mention helping create five million new jobs by strategically investing $150 billion over the next ten years to catalyze private efforts to build a clean energy future. They fail to mention proposals that within 10 years, will save more oil than we currently import from the Middle East and Venezuela combined. They fail to mention an initiative to put 1 million Plug‐In Hybrid cars – cars that can get up to 150 miles per gallon – on the road by 2015, cars that we will work to make sure are built here in America, including a $7,000 tax credit to help but those cars. They fail to mention ensuring 10 percent of our electricity comes from renewable sources by 2012, and 25 percent by 2025. They fail to mention implementing an economy‐wide cap‐and‐trade program to reduce greenhouse gas emissions 80 percent by 2050.

So who's really out of touch? All the rubes would have to do is read or even just listen to someone other than Limbaugh or Hannity to know what Obama's plan would entail. But why read the truth when you can close your eyes and be led like lambs to the slaughter?

Listen to this little tidbit of information: "...increasing the fuel efficiency of replacement tires for our cars to the same level as those sold on new automobiles will save drivers $90 in fuel costs over the lifetime of the tires and will save the U.S. more than 70 times the amount of oil we might find in the refuge." That was Joe Lieberman in 2001 arguing against drilling in ANWR, but I suppose everyone has his price.

And other Republicans like Charlie Crist and Arnold Schwarzenegger agree with Obama. What about NASCAR Nation? NASCAR told fans, “With escalating fuel prices, the time is now for drivers to focus on simple things like proper tire pressure to maximize tire performance and increase fuel economy.”

The saddest part in all of this is that ultimately, all you'll hear this week from the McCainstream Media will be about tire-gauges and the GOP using a false argument and that Obama doesn't know what he's talking about blah blah blah. Because, really, why should the public actually be informed when the Obama tire-gauge can be this election's purple band-aid?

Also read:

Jonathan Martin: McCain camp amps up tire gauge gag

Carla Marinucci: Tire gauge pumping up campaign rhetoric

Steve Benen: GOP won’t let go of its new tire-gauge toy