Tuesday, July 29, 2014 -- This Could Be A Very, Very Exciting Day For The Market -- This Is Not An Investment Site

Active rigs:

	7/29/2014	07/29/2013	07/29/2013	07/29/2013	07/29/2012
Active Rigs	194	179	179	179	207

RBN Energy: Tsunami of oil hitting Houston, much is posted below, but much more with graphics at the linked site:

The current capacity of incoming crude pipelines into the Houston refining region is about 1.4 MMb/d. By the end of 2015 that will have more than doubled to 2.9 MMb/d.

Add to these flows crude railed into new and developing unloading terminals as well as barges of Eagle Ford crude from Corpus Christi in south Texas and the prospects for congestion build up.

Foreign waterborne imports into Houston are falling as pipelines supply more refineries but in the process a lot of floating storage flexibility is being lost. Today we describe the Houston crude distribution system that could be overwhelmed by the new flows.

In Part 1 of this series covering the changing crude storage situation at the Gulf Coast – home to 50 % of US refining capacity. In Part 2 we began a deeper dive analysis of Houston area refineries to understand how important floating storage provided by waterborne crude imports can be. Our analysis showed that the typical imported waterborne barrel delivered to Houston refineries spent 17-20 days in transit. That floating storage period provides refiners with flexibility to withstand supply shocks such as refinery outages. We also calculated “storage days” for crude delivered to Gulf Coast region refineries at 32 in April 2014 - the same as the national average since 2011 but about 68 percent higher than other waterborne fed regions like PADD I (East Coast – 19 days) and 28 percent higher than PADD IV (West Coast – 25 days).

In Part 3 we compared that 32 storage days for the Gulf Coast as a whole with Houston area refineries where working storage is roughly 21 days if refineries run at 95 percent of capacity and 22.5 days if refineries run at the 5 year average 89 percent of capacity.

Today:

That’s a total of about 1.4 MMb/d capacity today and double that or 2.9 MMb/c capacity by the end of 2015 – on top of ongoing waterborne and rail unloading deliveries.

As we determined in the previous episode in this series, Houston already suffers from a shortage of available storage capacity to handle this flood of crude.

Once the pipelines reach close to capacity, the incoming flows will exceed refining capacity – even after planned additions, so some of that incoming crude will make its way to refineries outside the Houston area – probably in Louisiana.

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Easy Come, Easy Go

When something seems to good to be true, it probably is. The Dickinson Press is now reporting that the Obama administration has stopped processing all new applications for condensate exports. And that probably explains why the price of oil is down again today. I assume President Obama got back home after his trip to California, saw the paperwork on his desk regarding condensate exports, and phoned up the Commerce Department, and said, "hey, wait until after the elections, and by the way, why didn't you call me first on the earlier application approvals?" I assume the Keystone XL paperwork was under the condensate export paperwork. It's always something.

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The War On Coal

Three data points:

• the EPA will shut down the second-largest coal-fired power plant in the US, run by the Navajo Nation
• US is shipping record amounts of coal to Germany
• Arch Coal reports earnings today that beat estimates

The AP is reporting:

One of Germany's newest coal-fired power plants rises here from the banks of a 100-year-old canal that once shipped coal mined from the Ruhr Valley to the world.

Now the coal comes the other way.

The 750-megawatt Trianel Kohlekraftwerk Luenen GmbH & Co. power plant relies completely on coal imports, about half from the U.S. Soon, all of Germany's coal-fired power plants will be dependent on imports, with the country expected to halt coal mining in 2018 when government subsidies end.

Coal mining's demise in Germany comes as the country is experiencing a resurgence in coal-fired power, one which the U.S. increasingly has helped supply. U.S. exports of power plant-grade coal to Germany have more than doubled since 2008. In 2013, Germany ranked fifth, behind the United Kingdom, Netherlands, South Korea and Italy in imports of U.S. steam coal, the type burned in power plants.

And then the article quickly turns into an op-ed piece (LOL):

On the American side of the pollution ledger, this fossil fuel trade helps the United States look as if it is making more progress on global warming than it actually is. That's because it shifts some pollution — and the burden for cleaning it — onto another other country's balance sheet.

Last year, Germany's carbon dioxide emissions grew by 1.2 percent, in large part because the country burned more coal. German environmental officials say the recent boom in coal-fired power is making it harder for the country to meet its climate-protection goals, even as it has increased renewable energy and participates in a carbon market that has lowered emissions throughout Europe.

Activists put some of the blame on the U.S. and President Barack Obama.

Ms Merkel shuts down Germany's nuclear energy program, turns back to coal, and now the activists blame Mr Obama for sending coal to Germany. How precious. I can't make this stuff up. No wonder Mr Obama has decided to step away from geo-politics and simply go golfing. I would do the same thing. 

These German activists blaming the US for their (German) carbon footprint almost makes them eligible for the Geico Rock Award, but they have a better chance for the annual Darwin Awards.

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Politics

It looks like SecState Kerry is getting beat up pretty badly. Everyone is piling on, opining on why Kerry is failing. I would hate to miss the opportunity. The two big reasons he is failing:

• his speech on global warming in Tel Aviv was misinterpreted; the locals thought it was a "code" warning them what the surface temperature in Israel is going to be when Iran gets their nuclear missile(s)
• he thought he was POTUS, able to walk on water (oh, a reader just told me it was someone else, not POTUS, who actually walked on water)

But the #1 reason he's failing:

• the Israeli blockade of the Gaza beach did not allow him to get a Putin-like athletic photo-op of him (Kerry) sail surfing

By the way, it appears Kerry has moved his sail company to Ireland to escape US corporate taxes. (Sort of like home-porting his yacht in Rhode Island instead of his home state of Massachusetts to avoid state taxes.) I can't make this stuff up.

July 1, 2014 -- First Day Of Third Quarter -- Chesapeake's Spinoff Starts Trading Today; Slawson Exercises Option To Acquire 50% Interest In SSN Well In Stockyard Creek

Active rigs:

	7/1/2014	07/01/2013	07/01/2012	07/01/2011	07/01/2010
Active Rigs	188	192	215	172	129

RBN Energy: the US southeast -- epicenter of US gas industry. This is really an incredible story. Of course, the Obama administration will tell them they did not build that, but considering the federal obstacles put in place, it is quite remarkable what private enterprise and free market capitalism is doing in Louisiana. RBN Energy has another great series, this time on the transformation of the natural gas industry in the southeast.

With U.S. natural gas production continuing to hit all-time records, the big question for the gas market is demand. Where is all that gas going to go?  Well, we are pretty sure that most of the supply growth will be absorbed by the triad of new gas fired power generation, industrial demand and exports.   The funny thing is that most of the volumes associated with these demand sources are located in one region – the southeastern U.S., with a heavy concentration of demand in Louisiana, home of the Henry Hub.  This shift is turning what was a major supply area into an epicenter of natural gas demand, with the need for extensive new transportation paths into, rather than out of, the region.  Today, we explore the implications of this transformation.

Historically Louisiana has had many roles in the natural gas market. It has long been a supply state, with significant onshore and offshore production.  Cheap natural gas encouraged the development of major petrochemical and other industries along the Mississippi River corridor, across the Gulf Coast region and elsewhere.  And Louisiana has functioned as a conduit, funneling gas from Texas, New Mexico and other states to pipelines feeding the Southeast and Northeast. 

But a few decades back, all that market activity ground down to a crawl. Louisiana onshore and offshore production started a long, slow decline in the 1970s.  Regulatory and supply problems hit the market and prices started to increase.  Many of those industrial facilities closed up shop and moved overseas.  Increasingly Louisiana’s gas market role became more focused on that of a conduit, and a major pricing point with the selection of the Henry Hub as the delivery point for the NYMEX futures contract.  In the mid 2000s there was a brief spurt of new production growth from the Haynesville in Northwest Louisiana, one of the highest profile early shale plays.  But Haynesville’s dry gas and expensive wells eventually fell victim to low gas prices, and those production volumes started to decline as well.

Chesapeake's spin-off begins trading under ticker symbol SSE today. Today, all things being equal, CHK should open lower.  Those holding CHK will receive one share of SSE (Seventy Seven Energy) for every 14 shares of CHK.

Update on NRG, a familiar story we are seeing in the market this year:

NRG Yield completed its previously announced acquisition of three Right of First Offer assets from NRG Energy for $349 mln in total cash consideration; raises FY14 Pro-Forma Adjusted EBITDA guidance:

• As a result of the completed acquisition, NRG Yield is raising its full-year 2014 Pro-Forma Adjusted EBITDA guidance to $410 mln, from $292 mln, and Cash Available for Distribution guidance to $140 mln, from $115 mln. The company is also reaffirming 2nd quarter Adjusted EBITDA guidance of $75 mln and CAFD guidance of $22 mln.
• Primarily driven by positive year to date results and the closing of the first ROFO transactions, the Company is now targeting an annualized dividend of $1.50 per share by the 4th quarter of 2014, which represents a 25% increase to NRG Yield's initial annualized dividend of $1.20 per share. 
• Further, with a pipeline of nearly 2.1 GW of assets identified by NRG as being eligible for drop-down and giving effect to the pending acquisition of the 947 MW Alta Wind portfolio, NRG Yield is also raising its 5-year target dividend per share compound annual growth rate to 15-18% from 10-15%.

Update on Samson Oil & Gas:

Samson Oil & Gas provides weekly operations update: Co announces an update on the infill development plan for North Stockyard is to drill 8 middle Bakken wells and 8 Three Forks wells.

COMMENTARY

• Slawson has exercised its option to acquire 50% of Samson's interest in the Billabong well following the successful conclusion to the drill pipe recovery workover. 
• Frontier Rig 24 has drilled to kick off point of 10,813 feet and is tripping out of the hole to pick up the curve drilling assembly on the Bootleg 7-14-15TFH well. The rig will then skid to Bootleg 6-14-15TFH well to drill the surface and intermediate holes. 
• Drilling operations have been completed in the Bluff 1-11 well. Preliminary planning for two cased hole tests has been completed and will be presented to the working interest owners for their consideration.

Disclaimer: this is not an investment site. Do not make any investment decisions based on anything you read here or anything you think you might have read here. 

Before we get to the top story in the WSJ, just a reminder with regard to ObamaCare:

The law doesn’t contain specific language about which denominations or religions would qualify for an exemption, but it does specify that individuals belonging to religious groups for exemptions if they have religious beliefs opposed to health insurance or medical treatment. These kinds of exemptions exist for other federal programs, and there are rules for determining who qualifies.

Based on who has obtained exemptions from other federal programs like Medicare and Social Security, it looks like the Amish would qualify, as would Mennonites.

The Wall Street Journal

US Supreme Court makes religious exception to ObamaCare.

Mr Obama to bolster border security. Helloooo! The horse is already out of the barn. Whatever. Apparently immigration reform known as "open borders" not working so well. My hunch is we will see a US High Commissioner on Refugees named in the not-so-distant future, probably after the news cycle ends on a Friday night in the dog days of August. The last thing the administration needs to see is the video of multiple human tsunamis flooding the borders of a) Texas, b) New Mexico, and c) Arizona. By the way, that's why the feds are trucking, busing, and flying these new immigrants to New York state, California, and Minnesota. No doubt any immigrant placed in a "detention" camp will be eligible for reparations once the paperwork for citizenship is started. Just to be clear: none of this was in The Wall Street Journal, except that bit on Mr Obama plans to bolster border security.

US pending home sales surge 6.1%. A gauge of pending home sales jumped in May, the latest evidence that the US housing recovery began to regain its footing this spring. I guess all those college graduates are finding jobs and buying homes. Whatever.

California cities cracking down on water use. Businesses such as golf courses and lawn care are seeing revenue dry up due to water restrictions.

Setting up a patchwork of fracking-free zones, New York state's highest court said communities can ban fracking.

The next man to be thrown under the VA bus? A former CEO of Procter & Gamble to be named next secretary of the Department of Veterans Affairs.

US Supreme Court: some workers can avoid union fees. This was a narrow ruling but it opened the door to more litigation.

GM recalls 8.5 million more cars. Previously reported, but the number keeps changing; it started at 8.2, then went to 8.4 last night; now up to 8.5 million.

North Dakota's latest fracking opportunity: managing flaring. A huge opportunity for entrepreneurs and investors.

Devon will sell some non-core assets to Linn Energy for $2.3 billion as the company continues to shift from gas to oil.

The Los Angeles Times

I missed a great screenshot. Earlier this morning, the top story was the "unrest" in Iraq. A sub-headine bullet suggested that civil war could break out in Iraq. Say what? I almost had another nominee for the 2014 Geico Rock Award, but interestingly enough, the LA Times has removed that sub-headline text. I guess the managing editor pointed out to the writer that, yes, indeed, there was a civil war already going on in Iraq. The Iraq story is still the headline story but the focus is on Baghdad's Shiite Muslim milita's re-emergence which is "giving US pause."

Many California community college students need four years to graduate. And I assume that's after many have taken an extra year of pre-college (remedial) studies to qualify for admission.

Hillary Rodham Clinton calls Hobby Lobby ruling a "slippery slope." Not providing increased security for our Libyan ambassador after his pleas for more protection was probably a "slippery slope" also. But what does it matter (her words, not mine)?

Oh, here it is. I was wrong. Yes, we have another nominee for the 2014 Geico Rock Award. Shasahnk Bengali is reporting that "nearly 60% of Iraqis killed in June are civilians. The fierce Sunni (the peacful ones) Muslim insurgency that led to the deadly month threatens to plunge Iraq back into civil war." I honestly thought that's what we had in Iraq, a civil war, although I have to agree, it's more akin to an uncivil war. And to think this all began with George W. Bush the crusades back in the 12th century.

CLR Applies For Crude Oil Export Permit -- June 4, 2014

Active rigs:

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Active Rigs	190	189	214	171	121

RBN Energy: imagine there is no oil export bill -- impact on refining. These are important stories to watch to see how the tea leaves are floating. I don't expect to see any meaningful change in US oil export laws in my investing lifetime.

The Wall Street Journal

Fed officials growing wary of market risk.


ECB anxious over US fines on banks. If I get a chance, I will get back to this story. It says a lot. In another story, ECB seen ready to tackle Europe's low inflation. Really?

Five states that launched health exchanges under ObamaCare are in for a shock: the cost of fixing their sites. And the five states are ... drum roll ... Maryland, Massachusetts, Minnesota, Nevada, and Oregon. There is an interesting story line there -- except for Nevada, they were the front-runners in the race to push a US national health system. Minnesota keeps showing up on the wrong lists.

EPA's 30-30 plan pinches states unevenly. Blame Podesta. I was curious who wrote the rules -- I posted that observation just a day or so ago. Behind EPA's cost estimate.

US auto sales surged in May.

ATT sells $2 billion in bonds; 30-year bonds to yield 1.40 percentage points more than comparable US Treasurys, for a yield of around 4.8%. Or you buy the company directly and get 5.2%.

Disclaimer: this is not an investment site. Do not make any investment decisions based on what you read here or what you think you may have read here.

The Los Angeles Times

Republicans are leading key legislative races, early returns show.

DUI driver, pulled from deadly crash with beer in pocket, gets 6 years of free medical care, three meals a day, and a personal man-cave. What's not to like.

Two people killed when Ambrak train hits car in Oxnard. That's more people killed by a quasi-government railroad than by all the crude oil derailments in the US. Will Amtrak need to slow down? LOL. Any slower, and the rules of classical physics suggests Amtrak will have to travel backwards.

Long Beach polling place runs out of ballots during evening voting. They weren't prepared for the union buses coming in from East L.A.

Original Post

Every weekday morning I have a standard North-Dakota-active-rig post, an RBN-Energy link, and a quick look at the day's Wall Street Journal, Los Angeles Times, and other headline stories. In the past two days I have not posted notes from the WSJ or the LAT; I have just been too busy.

As before, this post will be a place holder for tomorrow morning's post, assuming the sun comes up, my wife's sets the alarm correctly, and I have a wi-fi connection.

First note of note. Reuters is reporting that Harold Hamm has applied for an oil export license:

Continental Resources has asked the U.S. government for a permit to export crude oil it produces in North Dakota and hopes approvals will be granted for the industry as a whole, a company executive said on Tuesday.

You have to love this bit of trivia:

Stephen Bradley, the vice president of oil marketing for Continental, the leading producer in North Dakota's Bakken field, said the Department of Commerce has been weighing the company's request for several months, Argus Media reported.

I'm not holding my breath on this one.

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Second note of note, the June, 2014, Oasis corporate presention, a PDF file. This deserves a stand-alone post; if I remember, I will do that. There's a bit of trivia that I bet no one has picked up on, but it's an important piece of trivia if accurate.

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A reader sent me this story. Because it mentioned Magnum Hunter and the Bakken, I've included it here. bizjournals.com is reporting that Magnum Hunter is more focused on the Marcellus/Utica right now than the Bakken due to better infrastructure in the northeast. 

Houston-based Magnum Hunter Resources Corp. (NYSE: MHR) thinks it could soon take the throne as owner of the most productive well in the Utica shale play. Magnum Hunter's well is only the second in the Utica shale in West Virginia. (Chevron Corp.  drilled the first in Marshall County earlier this year).

It’s located on the Steward-Winland pad in Tyler County, just east of Marietta.

“We think this well is on the equivalent of (Rice Energy Inc.'s Bigfoot 9H) well,” Gary Evans, Magnum Hunter’s CEO, told CNBC host Jim Cramer June 2. “We’ll be fracking that well over the next 30 to 45 days.”

It's a bit hard to tell from the story what Magnum really thinks about the Bakken. I track all Bakken operators at the "Snapshot" tab at the top of the blog.  According to Magnum Hunter's June, 2014, corporate presentation, the company is still bullish on the Bakken, having about 97,000 net acres, some developed, some undeveloped.

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Natural gas killing nuclear energy -- New York Times -- this make the newspaper a candidate for the 2014 Geico Rock Award.

But natural gas is starting to replace nuclear power, which can be seen as wiping out about 10 percent of the savings, because a reactor has a carbon footprint of nearly zero. Last year the owners of five reactors announced they would retire them. Some had mechanical problems or political opposition; some did not. But all were challenged by the drop in prices on the wholesale market, driven down by natural gas. And several other reactors are losing money and could close this year.

Yup.

Japan found out the hard way what a nuclear disaster could do. Germany didn't wait to find out. Germany eschewed natural gas, also -- went back to coal.  This article conveniently forgets to mention that inconvenient truth -- Germany returning to coal.

Speaking of which, speaking of coal, I'm reading the new book published this year by The New Yorker, The 40s which should show up at this link, although the link might be dynamic and might change: http://www.newyorker.com/the40s.

There's a New Yorker article on the "Berlin airlift" re-printed in that book. It is the essay that everyone should read if interested in the airlift. Really well written. Slightly less than 2/3rds of everything airlifted was coal; slightly more than 1/3 was food. The one or two percent that made up the difference included meat, cheese, and chocolate, the top three most coveted items after coal. The Germans love coal. It probably was not difficult for them to give up on nuclear energy.

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Remember the Range Resources story in Texas. Texas Railroad Commission says fracking not the culprit. 

Thursday Morning Non-Bakken Stories; ObamaCare's Geico Rock Award Nominee; Random Update, Cape Wind

With the news coming out of the Europe the past few days and the president appearing tired, and his options severely limited, the tea leaves suggest the whole response to Putin's actions in the Crimean could spiral out of control for both the world, and for President Obama. I'm an inveterate optimist, but the "stuff" coming out of the G-7 meeting should have us worried. I hope one year from now, the collective "we" isn't asking, "why didn't we just let Putin take Kiev?" -- 9:23 p.m. central time, March 26, 2014; to be posted in the a.m.

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I don't know whether to laugh or cry. This guy is so far behind the curve, one wonders...ah, yes, another nominee for the Geico Rock Award. I can't believe this guy wrote the book, and I can't believe The New York Times published the story. The lede:

Here’s a prediction: By 2025, “fewer than 20 percent of workers in the private sector will receive traditional employer-sponsored health insurance.” The source of this claim? Dr. Ezekiel J. Emanuel, in his just-published book, “Reinventing American Health Care.”

Dr. Emanuel is an accomplished oncologist, medical ethicist and academic (and contributing opinion writer to The New York Times). And, of course, he’s no stranger to politics: He helped craft the Affordable Care Act as a health policy adviser to the Obama administration, when his brother, Rahm, now the mayor of Chicago, was chief of staff. The book is a full-throated defense of the law (its subtitle: “How the Affordable Care Act Will Improve Our Terribly Complex, Blatantly Unjust, Outrageously Expensive, Grossly Inefficient, Error Prone System”).

In it, Mr. Emanuel argues that in the next two or three years, “a few big, blue-chip companies will announce their intention to stop providing health insurance. Instead, they will raise salaries substantially or offer large, defined contributions to their workers. Then the floodgates will open.” He says that few small businesses will join the SHOP exchanges set up for them and that most of those that offer coverage are even more likely than big companies to drop it, since those who employ fewer than 50 workers face no mandate to offer it in the first place, which Mr. Emanuel thinks is fine.

"....in the next two or three years, “a few big, blue-chip companies will announce their intention to stop providing health insurance...." Say what? I've been posting this since, like, forever. Those "few small companies"? Here's a partial list: IBM, GE, Trader Joe's, UPS, cities and states. 

"Mr Emanuel thinks is fine." Hypocrite.

ObamaCare: saved Corporate America.

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Random Update Of Cape Wind

Look at all the foreign investors. Cable will start being laid by the end of this year; turbine construction next year; and on-line, 2016. Some of the investors:

• French bank Natixis
• Netherlands-based financial services provider Rabobank
• The Bank of Tokyo-Mitsubishi UFJ
• Danish Export Credit Agency, also known as EKF
• PensionDanmark

Jim Gordon may not get a Nobel Peace Prize but it looks like he could be a candidate for the Prize in Economics.

It's So Much Fun Pulling Activist Environmentalists' Chains; The Fourth Nominee For The Geico Rock Award; Effort To Solarize Burleigh County, North Dakota

California today (google -- photograph of oil rigs in California fracking near Bakersfield):

 

The photo above is California today (Kern County). Activist environmentalists are worried about OXY USA's plans to develop the Monterey Shale:

“If we go in the direction of North Dakota, the consequences for California would be devastating,” said Patrick Sullivan, a spokesman for the Center for Biological Diversity, which sued to invalidate government lease sales for drilling. ’’We’re determined to protect water, wildlife and public health.’’  -- from Bloomberg, February 15, 2014.

Contrast the California photo today (above) with the Vern Whitten aerial photos of the Bakken.

California should be so lucky to "go in the direction of North Dakota." Something tells me Patrick Sullivan has never been to North Dakota.

Patrick Sullivan: the fourth nominee for the Geico Rock Award for 2014.

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California Blue

California Blue, Roy Orbison   *************************************

Whenever I see "non-profit organization," I ask to see the equivalent of the "carfax": I want to see the salaries of the top six executives and what family members are on the payroll. A non-profit group wants to solarize Burleigh County. I assume the executives are not working for free.

Natural Gas Infrastructure -- Third Nominee For This Year's Geico Rock Award

This is the third nominee for this year's Geico Rock Award: Scott DiSavino and Edward McAllister over at Reuters. They report a story with this headline: winter exposes weakness in US natural gas supply network.

When one reads this story, it almost sounds like something that would be occurring in a banana republic somewhere else in the world, certainly not in the nation that sent the first man to the moon, and safely back; and did that several times. 

I assume folks like Jane Nielson, Algore, and William Ernest McKibben could offer an explanation of how this happened.

A Second Nominee For The Geico Rock Award -- A Day For The Birds

It looks like we have a second nominee for the Geico Rock Award: a University of Jamestown biologist. The biologist has concerns about golden eagles in the Killdeer Mountains being electrocuted by a proposed transmission line through the area. This is the first time I have heard concerns for any birds from this North Dakota biologist. North Dakota competes, among the other 49 states, for bragging rights in the number of wind farms that are directly in the fly ways of migratory birds.

The Dickinson Press is reporting:

Biologists are concerned that a proposed power transmission line that would skirt the southern Killdeer Mountains in western North Dakota could disrupt nesting habitat for protected golden eagles.

A research biologist said the eagles around the Killdeer Mountains are of special concern because they exhibit rare paired hunting and group hunting behavior, never before documented in golden eagles.

Marguerite Coyle, an assistant biology professor at the University of Jamestown who has studied the golden eagles since 2002, said placement and construction of the power line could disturb nesting sites. She’s also concerned eagles could be electrocuted or be killed by striking the lines in flight.

Not one mention of all the wind farms in North Dakota. Nada. Nil. Zilch. 

The last line of the article is no longer entirely accurate. The last line:

Eagles have been protected by federal law since 1940.

Not really. Under President Obama, the Interior Department granted 30-year blanket immunity to wind farm developers whose turbines have killed any protected birds.

The hypocrisy is striking. The Geico Rock Award nomination rightly deserved. But the competition is likely to be tough this year. 

As long as we are on the subject of birds flying into wind turbines, the placement of these two headlines in The Los Angeles Times this morning was priceless:

I captured the screen shot at 5:13:13 this a.m. I was reading the iPad in bed when I saw it. I immediately jumped out of bed to get it on the MacBook Pro. I'm glad I did. Sometime between then and now (less than four hours later) the story on whooping cranes has been removed. Even the LA Times editor noted the "problem."

Neither story, by the way, mentioned the controversy over wind farms and migratory birds.

First Nominee For The 2014 Geico Rock Award

Nominees for the 2013 Geico Rock Award were (for those who might have forgotten):

• US State Department analysts
• Publisher of The Dickinson Press

... and the award goes to the publisher.

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The first nominee for the prestigious award for 2014: US Secretary of Energy.

The Dickinson Press is reporting:

The energy boom of the past decade that has boosted oil and gas production in the United States has outpaced the development of critical infrastructure to transport the raw and refined materials, U.S. Energy Secretary Ernest Moniz said Thursday (January 30, 2014).

Based on an existing photograph of the Energy Secretary, it appears his previous stint was as guitarist for Freddy Mercury's Queen.