Wednesday: Harry Reid Exempts His Staff From ObamaCare; Pipeline Patterns In The US Are Changing Dramatically; Poor Nations Need Fossil Fuel -- NY Times

ObamaCare milestones:

√ employer-mandate delayed one full year
√ small-business on-line enrollment delayed one year
√ Harry Reid exempts his staff from ObamaCare
    individual mandate delayed one year (currently delayed a few weeks) 
    webpage fixed 

Active rigs: 192

RBN Energy: this is just incredible, how pipeline patterns in North America are changing. Again, I highly recommend folks read the RBN Energy posts daily; if you have limited time, I would recommend their posts over my blog. It's my experience that RBN Energy is posting actionable investing information six months to a year before Motley Fool picks up on the same ideas. But remember, this is not an investment site. But wow, you can pick up some great ideas reading RBN Energy.

Output of naphtha range material such as plant condensates and natural gasoline in the Ohio section of the Utica shale is increasing rapidly as new processing and fractionation capacity in the region comes online. Output of field condensate from the wellhead is also expected to take off in 2014. These light hydrocarbons will be delivered to market by a combination of pipeline, rail and barge infrastructure. Today we look at pipeline infrastructure plans to deliver condensates and natural gasoline to Canada as diluent.

The headline is interesting, the story much less so. Reuters is reporting:

Iran and Iraq on Tuesday put OPEC on notice of substantial oil output increases to come, saying others in the producer cartel will need to give way to make room for them. Speaking ahead of an OPEC meeting, oil ministers for the two countries -- rivals as the group's second and third biggest producers after Saudi Arabia -- said they were targeting 4 million barrels a day, growth of about one million bpd apiece.

Neither country can expect to reach those goals any time soon, but both are keen to prepare the ground for special treatment should the Organization of the Petroleum Exporting Countries need next year to negotiate a deal to curb supplies to keep oil prices above its favoured $100 a barrel. Neither can raise output quickly enough to make waves at Wednesday's OPEC meeting - ministers confidently predict no change in the group's production cap of 30 million bpd.

There are two interesting stories that deserve stand-alone posts, but maybe later. Maybe it's just me, but it appears there is more balanced reporting / more rational reporting / deeper analysis when it comes to renewable energy. Take this op-ed from The New York Times sent to me by a reader:

For many parts of the world, fossil fuels are still vital and will be for the next few decades, because they are the only means to lift people out of the smoke and darkness of energy poverty.

More than 1.2 billion people around the world have no access to electricity, according to the International Energy Agency’s World Energy Outlook for 2012. Most of them live in sub-Saharan Africa and in Asia. That is nearly four times the number of people who live in the United States. In sub-Saharan Africa, for instance, excluding South Africa, the entire electricity-generating capacity available is only 28 gigawatts — equivalent to Arizona’s — for 860 million people. About 6.5 million people live in Arizona.

Even more people — an estimated three billion — still cook and heat their homes using open fires and leaky stoves, according to the energy agency. More efficient stoves could help. And solar panels could provide LED lights and power to charge cellphones.

But let’s face it. What those living in energy poverty need are reliable, low-cost fossil fuels, at least until we can make a global transition to a greener energy future. This is not just about powering stoves and refrigerators to improve billions of lives but about powering agriculture and industry that will improve lives. 

Amen. A liberal sees the light.  Perhaps he's a closet conservative.

The writer is wrong one thing but I won't bother to re-print it. It's obvious the error he made but I firmly believe he had to put it in the story to maintain his credibility among the activist environmentalists.

The second story. That will have to wait. I have to take the granddaughters to school.