Energy Update - Ripped From the Headlines

Here are some thoughts derived from the front page of the Wall Street Journal today--along with a bit of Bon Jovi--think of it as musings at 11:30pm.  The Journal led with

The American energy boom is deepening splits within the Organization of the Petroleum Exporting Countries, threatening to drive a wedge between African and Arab members as OPEC grapples with a revolution in the global oil trade.

Turns out the US shale oil is about the same, slightly lower quality as the African oil and cheaper, so we get to recoup some of our losses over the last couple of decades.  Meanwhile, another WSJ article notes that we are cutting down swamp forests in North Carolina and shipping the wood pellets to Europe because they are slightly cleaner burning than European coal.  I would like to see the full calculation on that carbon footprint!

And the Journal reporting finishes off today by noting that "electric car venture Better Place filed for liquidation in a blow for Renault, which had championed the Israeli company's technology".  So with Fisker and the Renault deals dead, it looks like only hybrids and Tesla will survive.  I'm seeing more Teslas around town and I just wish the US Government had invested in it instead of losing massive amounts of our money in Fisker!

So, in the meantime, what is our own Gov. Moonbeam spouting off about today?  Here's the SacBee report

Gov. Jerry Brown complained bitterly in a speech last week in Mountain View that the news media ignore the risks of climate change.   "If you take a look at Google and type in 'global warming news,' I venture to say on most days in the news, 20 to 30 percent, if not more, of the news will be by climate deniers or skeptics, whatever you want to call them," Brown said Thursday at a conference with climate scientists at NASA's Ames Research Center.

I only see one "denier" in the bunch-- Jerry Brown.  I doubt the buffoon even reads the Journal nor does he give a damn what gas costs these days since he is expensing his tankfulls to the California taxpayer.  Are you accustomed to $4-plus gas?  I am, but that doesn't mean I like it.

Let's finish with a lyric from Bon Jovi that I happened to hear tonight.  The song is called "Dry County" from their 1992 album "Keep the Faith":

Now there's nothing in this paydirt

The ghosts are all I know

Now the oil's gone

The money's gone

And the jobs are gone

Still we're hangin' on

That sounded reasonable in 1992, but in 2013 we see that it is absurd, unless like Gov. Moonbeam, you ain't actually following the news.

Comments

[Anne]

Sigh... ... love, love, love Burlingame-my hometown. And I love the concept of the "Burlingame Voice." But sometimes, it's just "Joe's Burlingame Voice." Sorry, Joe, but Republican Arnold is out of office...our political system has an ebb and flow, at a national, state and local level. "Your guy" (and not necessarily my guy) will not always be the head honcho.

[Joe]

Rather than jump right to the partisan discussion, how about actually addressing the issues I raised. I do put a bit of work into the think pieces you know.

ps. Arnold was a RINO. Basically as useless as Brown.

[Anne]

I'm sorry, but Joe's Burlingame Voice really CAN be rather partisan, if you are honest with yourself. This is the reason why why some/many are not as interactive on the The Voice as we could be/should be. It's supposed to be about OUR town, right?

So who would be your Dream Come True? Michelle Bachmann? I hear she's available.

[Joe]

Actually, I think Tom Campbell had the right mix of real world experience, political experience and temperament. Same could be said for Steve Poizner. Either would be a huge step up from Arnold or Brown.

I make no bones about being partisan toward more fiscal conservatism, common sense and protection of real transparency and quality of life in Bgame. That wasn't my point above. I would love to hear which local "news source" you think is not partisan on their editorial page--which is what the Voice is more like than the news pages. We even have a great example with the Examiner of how the partisan view changes when the paper is sold!