Beating A Dead Horse?

Or maybe, better said, beating a dead pipeline.

On/about February 17, I posited the question, and then the suggestion that the singular reason for the soaring gasoline prices was the policy decision to kill Keystone XL 1.0 a year ago.

I posted a poll. About 30% agreed. I was surprised that many actually agreed. I expected closer to 99% to disagree.

Then earlier today, Don sent me a Bloomberg video where the question was raised.

Now, I see that The Oil Drum has said practically the very same thing: actions have consequences. Some excerpts:

With the occasional collapse of the odd wind turbine, and the difficulty in seeing how solar power can help in the blizzards and snow storms I have gone through in the last week, there is some concern over the size of the contribution that these technologies can make into the energy mix of the next decade.

In those circumstances, a wise application of the Precautionary Principle to future energy supplies in both Europe and the United States might suggest that sufficient legacy power systems be left in place to ensure that neither community is left short of energy in the years ahead. This is to guard against the proposed replacements being either inadequate or insufficient to meet the future need. [Comment: the writer might note that the math does not work for solar or wind, even under best of circumstances. Period. Dot. Folks need to quit being ambivalent about this fact.]

And yet, unfortunately, this is not likely to occur. As with many arguments and tools used in political debate, once a position or an argument has been adopted it is extremely rare for it to be renounced. The consequences of current decision making rarely come back to haunt those politicians who make them since they often occur past the current elective term and are thus of less interest to those who are more focused on the next election.

Yet longer-term events do eventually arrive, and time having passed, the day of reckoning is becoming visible. It is likely that the Bakken will peak before the end of the current Administration. Ofgem has already raised concerns over an over-reliance on imported natural gas into the UK, and warned of possible shortages by the end of 2015, and urged a diversification of supply types.

As President, [Obama] appointed Dr. Stephen Chu to head the Department of Energy, an individual who has said “Coal is my worst nightmare.” And to follow on his statement as a candidate, the President appointed Lisa Jackson to the EPA who issued a finding that greenhouse gases constitute a threat to public health and welfare, with a series of actions to reduce carbon pollution. In such a political climate it is unlikely that applications for new mines and plants will receive an accelerated resolution. (Just consider the case of decision on the Keystone Pipeline, which continues to drag on.) If there is a sudden discovered need for new coal and nuclear power plants they will not be there to answer that call, and nor can they be for over a decade after the call is made. 

Absolutely incredible.

The dots continue to connect. Actions have consequences.