McCarthyism: Will The Keystone XL Be Approved?

The Oil & Gas Journal reports:

The US Senate confirmed the nomination of Gina McCarthy as administrator of the US Environmental Protection Agency by 59 to 40 votes. The July 18 action came after Republicans withdrew objections that had blocked the vote for months as part of a compromise with Democrats who threatened a filibuster overhaul attempt over prolonged nomination confirmation delays.

They nevertheless signaled they will continue to scrutinize EPA’s actions because they believe it has exceeded its authority. “For instance, in an attempt to smear the idea of hydraulic fracturing, EPA has carried out a campaign against that process in an attempt to justify unnecessary federal regulations that would usurp the successful and traditional regulation of that process,” David Vitter (La.), the Environment and Public Works Committee’s ranking minority member, said before the vote.

Vitter also cited problems with the federal Renewable Fuel Standard. “As renewable fuel mandates increase each year while demand for transportation fuels decreases, refiners are forced to blend more biofuels into a gasoline and diesel pool that is shrinking,” he said. “We are hitting a blend wall. It is a mounting crisis. It is right before us. EPA is managing—or I should say mismanaging—this existing program.”

So, we'll see. I'm not holding my breath.

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A Note To The Granddaughters

Whenever we are in San Pedro (south Los Angeles), we always visit the Marine Mammal Care Center collocated with the International Bird Rescue Research Center. The MMCC is always open to the public, but because rescued birds are much more fragile, more easily stressed by humans, the IBRRC is "never" open to the public. In a rare event, hosted by several organizations, KNX 1070 radio broadcast from the IBRRC this morning (and afternoon) and visitors were given an opportunity to tour the facility. It was truly incredible.

The center rescues birds all along the coast but the pelicans are their number one (in terms of numbers) rescued birds. Naturally occurring seeping oil from the bottom of the ocean, man-made oil spills, and fish hooks appear to be the major problems for the pelicans.

And this is simply amazing: after much "trial and error," bird rescuers discovered that Dawn Dish soap is best solution to washing birds covered in oil.



When I was out at the IBRRC, I saw a lot of bottles of Dawn; it really was quite amazing.

I am overlooking the Pacific Ocean from the Marine Museum Library at Cabrillo beach and enjoy watching the pelicans join up to form V-formations as they fly along the coast. One will see two or three pelicans join up with another small group, and eventually one will see a V of 12 - 15 pelicans flying along the coast.

I did not realize it but the American white pelican nests and breeds predominantly in North Dakota, Alberta, Saskatchewan, and Manitoba. I always saw pelicans in North Dakota when I was growing up in Williston; I thought they were lost; I never knew their breeding grounds were there. The brown pelican is not seen in the interior of North America. In the graphic below, the solid polygons represent the number of nests (the larger the polygon, obviously, the more nests) and the arrows represent breeding grounds, again of the American white pelican:

From: Cormorants, Darters, and Pelicans Of The World, Paul A. Johnsgard, c. 1993, p. 378.

It would be sad to see these beautiful birds hurt by wind turbines in North Dakota.