Monday Morning Links, News, And Views -- Part III

Wells coming off the confidential list have been reported. Click here.

It looks like the Nobel-Prize-winning president will dispense with UN mandate, and will strike Syria unilaterally. Just a hunch. Oh, of course, he will say that Great Britain took the lead. I assume the president was not happy with just one war in the Mideast (Afghanistan); now it's Syria. Interestingly, the markets are not concerned: oil is down; the DOW is up; just the opposite that we usually see when we start another war in the Mideast.

CHK and KOG hit new 52-week highs. Disclaimer: this is not an investment site; do not make any investment decisions based on what you read here or what you thought you read here. 

Yahoo! In Play: First Solar sells Canadian Power Plants to GE-Alterra Partnership (GE); Terms were not disclosed.: Co announced today that it has sold a collection of solar projects in Ontario, Canada, totaling 50 megawatts (MW) AC to an investment partnership led by GE (GE) unit GE Energy Financial Services. Terms were not disclosed. It is the first project transaction between First Solar and GE since their solar technology and commercial partnership was announced Aug. 6. The ABW Partnership raised debt for the acquisition, with The Manufacturers Life Insurance Company serving as agent and lead arranger. First Solar has completed construction of the power plants -- Amherstburg (10MWAC), Belmont (20MWAC) and Walpole (20MWAC) -- and has commissioned and energized them so they are providing power to the grid. First Solar will provide operations and maintenance services under long-term contracts.

Colin Powell weighs in on Trayvon -- I agree with him: the case will be forgotten. Breaking news: it already is (forgotten). Breaking news: both suspects in the killing of the 88-y/o WWII veteran have been arrested. Breaking news: Colin Powell has not weighed in on the killing of the 88-y/o WWII veteran. Nor the killing of Australian jogger. Nor about a 1,000 other such murders. And so it goes.

WSJ Links

Barge operators are struggling along the Mississippi:

Mississippi River barge operators and their customers had been hoping business would get back to normal this year after two years of extreme weather that wreaked havoc on the river's bustling freight traffic.

But massive flooding in 2011 and last year's drought have permanently altered some aspects of shipping on the Mississippi and its tributaries, the nation's largest river system and one of its most important commercial waterways.

Even though water levels are more normal this year, businesses that depend on the river are writing protective measures into their shipping contracts, building more flood-resistant port facilities and trying to diversify their revenue streams to offset years of weather-related financial losses. 

Something to watch as the CBR phenomenon continues. 

In case you missed it the first time: front page, above the fold, headline story has photograph taken at Williston, North Dakota. The big story on the US energy revolution begun by the Bakken:

Oil delivered to refineries by trucks grew 38% from 2011 to 2012, according to the U.S. Energy Information Administration, while crude on barges grew 53% and rail deliveries quadrupled. Although alternatives are growing rapidly, pipelines and oceangoing tankers remain the primary method for delivering crude to refineries.

Sounds like North Dakota:

The heavy trucks moving Eagle Ford crude are causing headaches for residents and local officials, ripping up roads and causing traffic tie-ups.

"These are rural roads built for 10 cars an hour, and now it's 100 vehicles an hour, and 75 of them are 80,000-pound trucks," says Tom Voelkel, president of Dupre Logistics LLC. The Lafayette, La., company started hauling crude in Eagle Ford in November 2011 and has more than 100 drivers full time in the region.

And all of this has been made worse by President O'Bama killing Keystone XL. 

But fracking still divides a lot of New Yorkers. 

New York Gov. Andrew Cuomo, facing a politically fraught decision on whether to allow fracking in New York state, has dispatched top administration officials from coast to coast in the past year in search of advice and information on its health and environmental impacts.

His deliberative approach on hydraulic fracturing, even as neighboring Pennsylvania and other states have quickly adopted such drilling for natural gas, has drawn praise from environmentalists and some communities that oppose fracking. But it has frustrated many upstate New York residents and local officials, who have embraced fracking as a source of energy-industry jobs in a region suffering from population and employment losses.

That discord was on display Friday in economically struggling Binghamton, N.Y., where an appearance by President Barack Obama sparked renewed pressure on his fellow Democrat to address the matter, particularly in light of Mr. Obama's June remarks praising "cleaner-burning natural gas."

My hunch is that the airline industry is a lot tougher on the environment than the fracking industry, but there are no calls to dismantle the airports in and around New York. The hypocrisy abounds.

This is what happens when one does not follow through on threats. Syria does it again; gasses another 1,000 victims. I guess the Obama administration is still sorting this one out. Meanwhile, Assad joins Hussein, Hitler, and Mussolini.