Tuesday: Break The Fever; Slow News Day On The West Coast

Active rigs: 182

RBN Energy: This blog is an epilogue to our recent series titled “Get Back to Where You Once Belonged –REX Reversal and Implications for Marcellus/Utica”.  In that series, Part 1 compared the pipeline capacity constraints faced by Rockies producers a few years ago – and resolved by REX -- with similar constraints that Marcellus/Utica producers are dealing with today.   Part 2 looked at how quickly gas production has increased in Marcellus/Utica, and how pipeline developers are scrambling to catch up.  And Part 3 examined the implications for reversing REX flows into the Midwest market and which traditional supplies in that market will likely be displaced.

The Wall Street Journal

Do you remember my poll -- maybe it's still up -- if so I need to close it out. Do you remember my poll asking why Apple was committed to solar energy? The answer is here.

Congress has moved on. The debate on the nation's debt limit is now taking center stage in the impasse.

Senate Democrats this week are planning a vote to extend the nation's borrowing authority through 2014, the latest sign that the focus of the budget impasse is shifting toward preventing a U.S. debt default.

Democrats are still debating their opening bid, but the most likely scenario is to advance a debt-limit bill free of extraneous policy amendments, as President Barack Obama has demanded. The bill would put the need for the next debt-limit increase after next year's midterm elections.

House Republicans say they won't pass any such debt-limit extension unless it is accompanied by deficit-reduction measures or other priorities.

And then this analysis: why Democrats are dug in on the shutdown impasse.

Republicans have several, sometimes conflicting goals in the current government-shutdown impasse. Democrats, by contrast, have just one. It's called "break the fever."

Breaking the fever is code for ending the cycle of recurring, last-minute crises over spending bills and increases in the nation's borrowing limit—the debt ceiling. The White House believes these crises give outsize power to a minority of conservative House Republicans who don't have the strength to push their agenda into law but can, in a crisis, stop the action.

More important, Democrats are convinced they must break the cycle now, or see much of the Obama second-term agenda sink away.

Greece forecasts a budget surplus; I wonder if they will repay Germany for all the money Germany gave them? LOL.

Karzai raises stakes in US-Afghan talks. There are few world leaders that irritate me more than Karzai. The sooner the US pulls out of Afghanistan, the better.

Alcatel-Lucent will cut 10,000 jobs. It will be interesting to see if the EU allows this.

It looks like the pilots have had time to get their story straight. Remember that Asiana plane that crashed on approach at San Francisco airport? Pilots of an Asiana Airlines jet that crashed while trying to land in San Francisco have told investigators an automated speed-control system malfunction was a major factor in the fatal accident.

The Los Angeles Times

Emboldened Republicans defy DC ways -- top story on front page.

By sheer force of their personalities, and under the protection of their conservative districts, these representatives feel secure in rejecting compromise. 

Give me a break. Let's see: Schumer, New York; Hillary, New York; Kennedy, Massachusetts; Al Franken, Minnesota; Pelosi, California; Harry Reid, Nevada. The list of Democrats that fit the definition is a lot longer than the Republican list. Stories like this, at the top of the page, front page tell me the newspaper is just another blog, and just another mouthpiece for the Democratic party.

It must have been a very slow news day on the west coast.