North American Energy Revolution: If You Don't Believe It, Look At Kinder Morgan At Edmonton

Active rigs: 189

RBN Energy: Kinder Morgan's infrastructure in the Edmonton region.

Midstream companies are expanding their infrastructure in Edmonton, Alberta. Kinder Morgan is adding over 5 MMBbl of storage at the origin terminal for its Trans Mountain pipeline to the West Coast. However new investment is also being piled into rail infrastructure – including Kinder’s JV unit train loading terminal with Keyera. Canadian producers are shopping for routes to market that offer them optionality that can help mitigate congestion and discounting.  Today we describe five company’s infrastructure plans in the Edmonton region.

The Wall Street Journal

Federal judge says NSA spying violates the 4th Amendment.

Another sign the economy is turning: US industrial production hits pre-recession peak.

Industrial production, which measures the output of U.S. manufacturers, utilities and mines, surged a seasonally adjusted 1.1% from the prior month, the Federal Reserve said Monday. That was the biggest jump in a year.

This is really cool. Some pediatricians noted this years ago, that kids with asthma with dogs seemed to do better than kids with asthma without dogs. It did not make sense. 

Multivitamins found to have little benefit, and "should be avoided."

Insurers fight hospitals' paying premiums. Very, very clever. I always thought this might happen: hospitals paying the premiums for their high-use (and potentially very profitable patients). Remember, the insurers are on the hook for unlimited liability. And in the end the courts are going to rule it does not matter who pays the premium. How could one control who pays the premium?

Buyer's remorse in southern California:

A water war in Southern California could result in rates being driven up for millions of customers, just as the state enters a third year of drought. The San Diego County Water Authority is alleging in a lawsuit that its supplier, the Metropolitan Water District of Southern California, is gouging the county on charges to deliver water through an aqueduct system. MWD officials say San Diego agreed to the rates 10 years ago and is essentially suffering buyer's remorse.

The data points keep getting better: the economy continues to improve. Earlier it was reported that Ford would be building three (3) new manufacturing plants. Now, this from GM:
CEO Dan Akerson said the nation's largest auto maker could consider paying a dividend on its common shares next year even as it looks to raise executive salaries and invest $1.3 billion in modernizing five factories.
Regardless of what the US does under this administration, Canada is moving forward:

Canadian federal regulators on Monday approved four new applications to export liquefied natural gas, including for proposed Pacific Coast terminals backed by Exxon Mobil Corp., BG Group PLC and Malaysian state-owned energy giant Petroliam Nasional Bhd, or Petronas. The move by Canada's National Energy Board comes as the latest in a series of approvals issued by the government body in response to a flurry of applications to export natural gas offshore. Western Canada aims to become a global hub for LNG by matching rising demand across the Pacific in Asia, where LNG sells for a premium, with abundant supplies of cheap gas in North America. 

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Did you all see how XOM did yesterday. Incredible.  I think Warren Buffett put 2 + 2 together -- Asia plus XOM.

The Los Angeles Times

Linda Rondstadt voted into the Rock and Roll Hall of Fame. Others inducted: Peter Gabriel, KISS, Hall and Oates, Nirvana and Cat Stevens.

They never give up.

Water samples collected at Colorado sites where hydraulic fracturing was used to extract natural gas show the presence of chemicals that have been linked to infertility, birth defects and cancer, scientists reported Monday.

The study, published in the journal Endocrinology, also found elevated levels of the hormone-disrupting chemicals in the Colorado River, where wastewater released during accidental spills at nearby wells could wind up.

Tests of water from sites with no fracking activity also revealed the activity of so-called endocrine-disrupting chemicals, or EDCs. But the levels from these control sites were lower than in places with direct links to fracking, the study found.

"With fracking on the rise, populations may face greater health risks from increased endocrine-disrupting chemical exposure," said senior author Susan Nagel, who investigates the health effects of estrogen at the University of Missouri School of Medicine.

Fracking involves injecting millions of gallons of chemical-laced water and sand deep underground to crack shale formations and unlock oil and gas. The process is exempt from some regulations that are part of the Safe Drinking Water Act, and energy companies do not have to disclose the chemicals they use if they consider that information a trade secret.

It would be interesting to see what shows up in all that waste water from all those fertilized farms. I don't think we want to go there.