Locator: 48418B.
AP: for some reason, I get an AP Newsletter every morning via e-mail. I don't know why. All of a sudden AP Newsletter started showing up in my e-mail.. Obviously I subscribed some time ago and had completely forgotten. I usually just delete it. But with the current kerfuffle between the AP and President Trump, I'm hyperacute with regard to my sensitivities involving of Trump's kerfuffles, which brings us to this AP story:
Well, that headline certainly caught my eye. Trump cancels an education testing metric. One wonders what that's all about. He no longer cares about American education?
Here's the rest of the story:
The bigger question is why has the test not been given since 2012 and what administration cut that testing program.
It was Arne Duncan, Secretary of Education, appointed by then president Barack Obama. His resume appears a bit weak: rant the Chicago public schools for several years. Prior to that,
Prior to joining the Chicago Public Schools, from 1992 to 1998, Duncan ran the nonprofit education foundation Ariel Education Initiative, which helped fund a college education for a class of inner-city children under the I Have A Dream program. He was part of a team that later started a new public elementary school built around a financial literacy curriculum, the Ariel Com
munity Academy, which today ranks among the top elementary schools in Chicago.
From 1987 to 1991, Duncan played professional basketball in Australia, where he also worked with children who were wards of the state.
So, what was this incredibly important testing stopped? My hunch: the numbers did not reflect well for the Obama administration and this character had been Secretary of Education for three years under Obama.
At the end of the day, he was jock. A smart jock.
Duncan graduated ...
... magna cum laude from Harvard University in
1987, after majoring in sociology. He was co-captain of Harvard's
basketball team and was named a first team Academic All-American.
And then folks suggest Trump's nominees are under-qualified. Oh, give me a break.
My hunch: Annie Ma who covers national K-12 education for the AP is probably a DEI hire. And with this kind of writing, obfuscation, she should probably be made redundant.
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All The President's Men
I watched this movie last night on TCM. It really is a very, very good movie. It should be watched at least once a year. Among so many story lines, this is the one that stood out for me: the break-in was done by "Cubans." They were recruited from the Miami area, and the operation may have been run by the CIA. This was not particularly "far in time" from the JFK assassination. It almost makes one think, why was the CIA possibly involved? And Cubans again. It may have simply been as innocuous as the president / and the "President's Men" orchestrating it. But Nixon was going to blow McGovern away (politically, electoral college) and there was no need for this operation. Unless the CIA was interested in something else.
"Far in time":
- JFK defeats Nixon in 1960 under very, very questionable circumstances.
- JFK assassinated in 1963.
- His VP becomes president.
- Then Nixon, like the phoenix, rises from the ashes of its predecessor, becomes president in 1969, only six years later (from the assassination) , and ...
1963 - 1969 -- four years.
And here we are -- 1963 --> 2025 -- 56 years later ... the JFK assassination is as hot a topic as any.
And now we're waiting -- again, waiting -- for President Trump to release all of the files (or maybe just some more of the files) of the JFK assassination.
One wonders if Woodward and Bernstein missed a much, much bigger story.
Kennedy, Cuba, CIA, assassination, Cubans break into the Watergate.
No reason ever given for what they might have been looking ... at least as far as I know.
Yeah, it's a great movie. I made need to read "the book."
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Back to the Bakken
WTI: $70.77.
New wells:
- Tuesday, February 25, 2025: 51 for the month, 96 for the quarter, 95 for the year,
- 40249, conf, Hess, GO-Olson-157-98-2536H-2,
- Monday, February 24, 2025: 50 for the month, 95 for the quarter, 95 for the year,
- 40569, conf, Empire North Dakota, Magpie 29 1H,
- 39830, conf, Hess, EN-Meiers-154-93-1324H-5,
- 38668, conf, Petro-Hunt, USA 153-95-3A-33-4H,
- 38667, conf, Petro-Hunt, USA 153-95-3A-33 5H,
- Sunday, February 23, 2025: 46 for the month, 91 for the quarter, 91 for the year,
- 40429, conf, Grayson Mill, Alfred North 17-15 5H,
- 40369, conf, Enerplus, LK Erickson 147-97-11-2-8H,
- 39829, conf, Hess, EN-Meiers-154-93-1324H-4,
- 38669, conf, Petro-Hunt, USA 153-95-3A-33 3H,
- Saturday, February 22, 2025: 42 for the month, 87 for the quarter, 87 for the year,
- 39955, conf, Hess, EN-Wefald-LE-156-94-2413H-1,
- 39942, conf, Koda Resources, Stout 2032-6BH,
- 38670, conf, Petro-Hunt, USA 153-95-3A-33 2H,
RBN Energy: PADD 3 maintains dominant position on shale production, extensive refining capacity. Archived. Part I of this series is archived here.
PADD 3 has it all — crude oil production from the prolific Permian
Basin, a string of refineries along the Gulf Coast, and a fair bit of
refined product consumption. Its importance in crude oil production and
refining has allowed it to play a central role in the nation’s crude oil
supply-and-demand balance. This is especially true regarding crude oil
exports, as it’s responsible for virtually all of the U.S. total that
can top 4 MMb/d. Because of this, PADD 3 has a significant and growing
influence in balancing domestic and international markets for crude oil
and refined products. In today’s RBN blog, we’ll look at how the Shale
Revolution has transformed the Gulf Coast and how its connectedness with
international markets has reaffirmed its dominant position.
In Part 1
of this series, we explained how the U.S. is divided between five
Petroleum Administration for Defense Districts, or PADDs, with PADD 1
representing the East Coast. With no production to call its own, PADD 1
relies on imported crude oil to supply its shrinking refinery base. But
PADD 1’s population density also makes it the largest consumer of
refined products. In Part 2,
we put the spotlight on PADD 2 and how the looming threat of a 10%
tariff on U.S. imports of Canadian crude oil might impact refineries in
the Midwest/Great Plains. PADD 2 pipelines transport most Canadian
exports, and its 25 refineries (combined capacity of 4.3 MMb/d) are, in
many cases, significant consumers of heavy and light crudes from the
Great White North.
Today’s blog puts the focus on PADD 3 and the critical role it plays
in balancing crude oil and refined products markets. Of the ~10 MMb/d of
refinery capacity in PADD 3, 5.5 MMb/d is situated in the Texas Gulf
Coast sub-district (dark-teal area in Figure 1 below) with an additional
3.4 MMb/d in the Louisiana Gulf Coast region (light-blue area). That
means ~90% of the entire PADD’s refining capacity is situated along the
Gulf of Mexico, and these refineries aren’t there for the pristine
beaches or the good weather. Their position gives them access to major
crude oil import docks. That’s a major difference between PADD 3 and the
noncoastal PADD 2, which relies heavily on feedstock from other
regions, especially Canada.
Figure 1. PADD 3 Refinery Map and Refinery Capacities. Source: RBN
Note: Colored Circles Indicate Refinery Locations
This was the lede for part one of this series:
PADD 1 — the East Coast — represents about 31% of total U.S.
consumption of refined products (and 37% of its population) but is home
to just 5% of U.S. refinery capacity. With only minimal in-region crude
oil production, PADD 1 refineries are almost entirely dependent on
imported and domestic inflows of both crude oil and products like
gasoline, diesel and jet fuel. In the early years of the Shale Era,
large volumes of domestic crude were railed or barged to these
refineries, but in recent years they’ve again become largely reliant on
imports from OPEC, Canada and other foreign sources. In today’s RBN
blog, we’ll look into PADD 1’s changing crude oil and refined products
supply and demand balance.
Figure 1. U.S. PADD Map and Product Supplied for Finished Petroleum Products by PADD. Source EIA
The U.S.’s Atlantic Coast, stretching from picture-perfect coastal
towns in Maine to the tropical Florida Keys, is the home of New York
City’s iconic skyline, Philadelphia’s historic landmarks, and Atlanta’s
vibrant nightlife — and more than 125 million people, almost all of them
relying on refined products for many aspects of their lives. The East
Coast also represents the first of five Petroleum Administration for
Defense Districts (PADDs; colored regions in Figure 1). Created in World
War II to manage the country’s refined product demand, PADDs now serve
the purpose of regionalizing data. PADD 1 (blue region in map on left
side of Figure 1 above) is further divided into three regional
groupings: PADD 1-A (New England; light-blue area in Figure 2 below),
PADD 1-B (Central Atlantic; medium-blue area), and PADD 1-C (Lower
Atlantic; dark-blue area).
Figure 2. Map of PADD 1 Sub-Districts and Refineries. Source: RBN
