Monday, August 31, 2015

I don't think there are any wells coming off the confidential list today.

RBN Energy: natural gas supply / demand balance keeps prices in a tight range.

Canadian Oil Sands Ltd halts crude oil production at oil-sands giant Syncrude: fire has damaged euqipmetn at is synthetic crude oil processing facility. According to the WSJ, the incident adds to the woes of a company that has struggled with unplanned equipment outages at Syncrude and a slide in crude oil prices to six-year lows.

Flashback! Clip from ABC's 2009 special in which it was predicted that the US would be a changed planet by 2015 due to global warming.  I wonder when this will be re-telecast? Maybe at the next DNC convention.

Another free market success. Grain trains in abundance. North Dakota grain crops may set new records. I wonder if there will headline stories in the nation's media how diversified North Dakota's economy is? BNSF should be publicly praised for what they have been able to do over the past few years. The Bismarck Tribune is reporting:

Just in time for what the U.S. Agriculture Department expects to be near-record corn and soybean harvests, grain train cars are in abundance. The reversal is attributed to unprecedented spending on track upgrades, political pressure from politicians in agriculture-rich states and a drastic decrease in trains hauling crude and freight to and from the oil patch.

"There had been some uncertainties, but it has gradually gotten better," said Josh Mardikian, grain manager at the South Central Grain Cooperative elevator in Sterling. As he spoke, a train was being loaded with 24 million pounds of spring wheat, much of which would be used for a national pizza chain's dough. Grain trains had been running late by as much as 45 days in the past 18 months, Mardikian said, but in the past week, mile-long, 110-car trains had shown up some four days earlier than expected.

Oil activity in North Dakota was partly to blame for the widespread shortage and backlog of rail cars from North Dakota and Montana down to Kansas and east into Illinois, National Farmers Union President Roger Johnson said.

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NIMBYs In Dayton's Backyard

I would assume imposing moratoriums on solar farms in Minnesota would make them Neanderthals.

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NIMBY's In Maine

Bangor Daily News is reporting:

Renewable power developer SunEdison has withdrawn plans for a wind farm in Hancock County, saying it needs more time to respond to issues raised by environmental regulators.

John Lamontagne, spokesman for SunEdison, wrote in an email to the Bangor Daily News that the company plans to refile the application for the 73-megawatt, 23-turbine project at some point in the future.

“We’re disappointed we won’t be moving forward with this project as soon as we’d like, but we remain confident that this is an excellent clean energy project,” Lamontagne wrote.

The Department of Inland Fisheries and Wildlife in June came out in opposition to the project out of concern it would kill migrating birds and bats.

Most likely SunEdison will look at wind farms in eastern North Dakota where regulators aren't as concerned about eagles or other birds.

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Coming In Threes

Oliver Sacks.
Wes Craven.
Wayne Dyer.