Could fracking make the Persian Gulf irrelevant?

Could fracking make the Persian Gulf irrelevant?

click link

snip


Since November, the United States has replaced Saudi Arabia as the world’s biggest producer of crude oil. It had already overtaken Russia as the leading producer of natural gas.

The emergence of the United States as a global energy superpower has a profound strategic impact that is raising expectations and concerns among America’s allies.
 
“This is something that is going to change not only the energy market in the world, but everything else,” said Jeppe Kofod, a Danish lawmaker who is drafting a report on the oil and gas revolution for NATO’s Parliamentary Assembly.

“It has huge political and geo-strategic implications,” Kofod told a recent meeting of legislators from the 28 alliance nations.

The lawmakers expressed concern America’s shift toward self-sufficiency in energy will weaken its strategic interest in the Middle East, North Africa and the Persian Gulf, while Europe remains dependent on oil and gas supplies from the region.

“This could have implications for NATO over the longer term,” Kofod’s draft report says. “The alliance is premised on the notion of shared security interests … a significant divergence in energy security perspectives could begin to erode this foundation.”
US oil imports fell below domestic production this year for the first time since the 1990s and now represent just 40 percent of demand. In addition, most of the imports come from other Western hemisphere producers. The United States imports over three-times more oil from Canada than it does from Saudi Arabia.

Documentary. Tabloid Hacks Exposed

Michele Bachmann retirement video

Monsanto Wins Fight to Take Away State Food Labeling Rights

Industry giant GE aims to improve fracking | Business & Technology | The Seattle Times

Industry giant GE aims to improve fracking | Business & Technology | The Seattle Times

click link

snip

 PITTSBURGH —
One of America's corporate giants is investing billions of dollars in the new boom of oil and gas drilling, or fracking. General Electric Co. is opening a new laboratory in Oklahoma, buying up related companies, and placing a big bet that cutting-edge science will improve profits for clients and reduce the environmental and health effects of the boom.

"We like the oil and gas base because we see the need for resources for a long time to come," said Mark Little, a senior vice president. He said GE did "almost nothing" in oil and gas just over a decade ago but has invested more than $15 billion in the past few years.

GE doesn't drill wells or produce oil or gas, but Little said the complexity of the fracking boom plays into the company strengths. Wells are being drilled horizontally at great depths in a variety of formations all around the country, and that means each location may require different techniques.

Poll: Americans still oppose Obamacare

Poll: Americans still oppose Obamacare

click link

Is the government helping speculators manipulate grain futures?

Is the government helping speculators manipulate grain futures?

click link

snip


While the activities of the Agriculture Department don’t always garner a lot of attention, a highly questionable decision it recently made to help wealthy speculators could, over time, cost anyone who buys food. But while the decision — a big win for high-frequency traders at the expense of farmers, food companies, and the public — is consequential, its effects have hardly been reported.

First, some history is in order. In 1905, a government statistician was caught leaking numbers related to the cotton crop. While Agriculture Department employees finalized statistics in a locked room, the informer would walk over to the window and raise or lower the blinds, depending on whether the forecast was above or below a predetermined figure. His accomplice outside would then dart off to trade on the information before it was publicly released. The duo netted several hundred thousand dollars this way until the scandal broke.
The government responded forcefully. President Roosevelt ordered his administration to launch a full investigation into the affair and to prosecute any official involved. The House and Senate both unanimously passed a bill making premature disclosure of agriculture statistics a crime. Nobody needed to argue that the scheme had inflated cotton prices or swindled the public. The issue was fairness. As Agriculture Secretary James Wilson wrote, “We take the ground here that nothing goes out unless it goes to the whole people. We have no favorites.”

In the century since, officials have heeded Wilson’s rule, often stringently; in the 1940s a New York Times reporter likened the protections to those around an atom bomb. Today elaborate security regimes continue to surround routine releases of government numbers on crops, as well as other figures like unemployment reports.