A Little Bit Of Everything -- A Montana Report

But let's start here:

“The sage grouse is an incredibly sensitive species. They don’t like areas of development, and if they are disturbed, they won’t dance. If they don’t dance, they won’t find a mate or procreate.”

TMI, as my wife would text. LOL.

Sage Grouse Mating Dance On A Lek, Near Hudson, Wyoming

But, again, I digress. The Fairfield Sun Times is reporting on the Treasure State Resource Industry Association's annual meeting.

This was very, very nice to see: now that Warren Buffett has bought the BNSF it's hard to come by some of this information:

Since 2008, there has been a nearly 7,000 percent increase in the volume of oil BNSF moves and last year it hauled 88.9 million barrels. A spokesman for BNSF’s hazardous materials program said crude oil is now the most abundant chemical moved by the railroad. Additionally, BNSF trains are hauling an ample amount of equipment to the oil patch, including pipe, frac sand, and “oil field jewelry,” as a speaker for BNSF called the heavy equipment hauled into drilling sites.

It was nice to see exactly how much the president's war on coal will improve our quality of life, and and at what cost:

The EPA’s new emissions regulations [will] dramatically affect the coal industry. “Coal supplies 40% of America’s electricity, yet accounts for just 3% of global CO2 emissions.” Ourada added, “If every coal plant in the U.S. were to shut down, global CO2 emissions would drop by only 1%.

And it appears the president would like to see global CO2 drop by 1%. Of course, it all evens out in the end: the US will move toward closing all its coal plants while China adds about 700; Japans switches to coal and natural gas; and Germany replaces nuclear energy with coal. We may not use as much coal in this country going forward, but the Chinese, Japanese, and the Germans will more than make up for it. Like Mark Twain, reports of King Coal's death have been exaggerated.

Oh, and that quote about dancing sage grouse? Go to the linked article for the rest of the story.

A huge "thank you" to Don who sent me the article.