I Assume This Needs To Be Fact-Checked -- July 21, 2022

Link here.

Arctic Sea Ice Extent -- April 16, 2022

Link here. 

Got Snow? North Dakota -- April 13, 2022

Link here.

For newbies:

• although it gets cold, North Dakota is not known for lots of snow;
• this is April
• North Dakota needed the moisture badly due to drought conditions for past year;
• farmers got their spring wheat crop in before the blizzard
• all's good here
• it was worse in 1936
• nothing is so bad, it can't get worse

Boston's HIGH Today: Lower Than Its Record Cold Temperature For This Date -- ISO NE -- March 28, 2022

Folks may want to check ISO NE. Things move quickly so by the time you check, prices may have come down, but electricity has just spiked to $240 / MWh. Later: ISO NE has bern in the 8th decile all day. ISO NE will never get above the 8th decile.

So, what's going on?

From a reader: 

• I have done this quickly, so it may need to be fact checked ...
• A site said that 
• today, March 28, 2022, Boston temperature may reach 30 degrees at the airport in the afternoon. It did, if I read readings correctly, and 
• then drop to ~23 degrees near midnight.
• Thing is, WAY back in 1893, Boston hit 33 degrees for its-still-record low for this date, March 28.

Later:

• Looks like airport temp hit 32 degrees, and is turning downward.
• Still never reached - yet - the 33 degree mark which is the record low for this date.

Later, fact checked, from the same reader:

• Record low may actually be 11 degrees. 
• A site 'extreme weather' has Boston's low for March 28 at 11 degrees in 1923. 
• Next lowest is 20 degrees.

Now, the screenshots to catch this magic moment:

 

Machinery Is First Victim Of Sanctions -- Kamil Galeev -- March 26, 2022

Link here. Loss of machinery affects foreign components on all levels from microchips to bearings. Thus, sanctions are destroying:

• military industry;
• transport and communications lines
• production of consumer goods

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Bad Data

Antarctic: heat wave!

Apparently it's only "bad data" when it doesn't fit one's narrative.

Link here.

Global Warming In Check -- March 23, 2022

Today's milk carton photo: Greta. 

Link here.

Global Warming Hits The Bakken -- Noted By Reader -- Dozens Of Degrees Below Freezing -- Mid-March -- March 11, 2022

Link here.

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The Sports Page

NFL: it was said just a few months ago that Russell Wilson would never leave the Seahawks (or was that vice versa? Whatever). Well, it's being reported that Russell Wilson is headed to the Broncos.

 

NBA: Gregg Popovich one victory from setting all-time coaching wins record. 

Saturday Morning, Nothing To Do With The Bakken -- Global Warming And The Madagascar Drought -- December 4, 2021

I have ignored non-Bakken news this past week. Most of my posts have been on the Bakken this past week but it's time to put things in perspective with other non-Bakken news. I'm not sure how to do it: one long post with lots of stories, or stand-alone posts. 

I'm going to start with stand-alone posts, but may consolidate them later.

Let's start with global warming. I first heard this narrative on NPR radio yesterday -- I was blown away by the "honesty." Now today, none other than Bjorn Lomborg shows up with the same story on my twitter feed. 

Again, the English media is covering international stories not being reported by "our' own mainstream media. I was not aware that Madagascar was experiencing its worst drought ever with huge famine concerns. 

So, here's the link to Bjorn Lomborg and and the link to The Guardian.

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Global Lockdown: One Full Year -- The Year of the Plague

With that decrease in human activity, atmospheric CO2 should have dropped precipitously. It didn't another record set. From the NOAA. The US agency that carries the water for the US environmentalists. 

Notes From All Over -- Explaining Gasoline To Brandon -- November 17, 2021

BREAKING: on a down day for the market, AAPL just popped. 

Weekly EIA petroleum report: link here. Another yawner.

• US crude oil inventories down 2.1 million bbls; still 7% below five-year average;
• imports unchanged week-over-week; absolutely in line with four-week average;
• refineries still operating well below 90% of their capacity;
• jet fuel supplied was up 44% but that's against the plague year; what is the data compared to 2019?

Shot across the bow: Amazon will no longer accept the VISA credit card in the UK.

Energy crisis, EU and UK:

• coal power plants are running at full tile in parts of Europe and enjoying a rare bout of profitability. Link here.
• oil pipeline from Russia to Europe closed "temporarily" for repair. Link here.

Apple: will now allow self-repair. Link here.

Autos: the big three -- Tesla, Rivian, Lucid. Link here.

Global warming: won't affect the well-being of humans. Period. Dot. IPCC. Link here.

$1.25-Tree: Dollar Tree raised all prices to $1.25. Link here.

The new reality: link here.

• Uber has no cars ...
• Airbnb has no real estate ...
• Rivian has no cars OR revenue.

BRIC: flashback to  2001. Link here. 

Let's go, Brandon. Let's investigate this: 

One day Algeria stops the gas pipeline via Morocco into Spain. Another day Germany say it needs more time to approve Nord Stream 2 gas pipeline. And another Belarus stops temporarily the Druzhba oil pipeline from Russia into Europe. All spontaneous; no politics involved, mind you.

Amazon: no one has this set in stock -- not even Lego -- but Amazon does. Link here.

Target blinks: will mimic Walmart -- will absorb costs; will not pass them on to consumers. Huge.

Final trades, Halftime Report: Paypal, Apple, Dick's Sporting Goods, Pfizer.

*****************************
Get Out The Popcorn

Brandon is using two "gasoline spreads" to try to make his case:

• the unfinished gasoline - finished gasoline spread
• finished gasoline -- gasoline at the pump spread

And, Brandon, of course, to keep it simple, combines it into one spread:

• the price of unfinished gasoline -- gasoline at the pump spread.

Today, his speech writers noted that the spread between the cost of unfinished gasoline and the price at the pump is widening. LOL. 

Explaining the jargon: the EIA at this link.

Econ 101:

• getting from unfinished gasoline to finished gasoline: value added (think potato chips: cost of the potato vs the wholesale price of potato chips)
• getting from finished gasoline to gasoline at the pump:  wholesale to retail (think potato chips: wholesale to retail)

This is not rocket science.

Let's tackle just one data point: getting from finished gasoline to gasoline at the pump.

What does that require.

Well, let's see what the EIA says at the linked article:

Blending terminals are more numerous and widely dispersed than petroleum refineries, and they have equipment for filling tanker trucks that transport finished motor gasoline to retail outlets.

Yup, there it is. Finished gasoline has to be trucked to the retail service station. What do we have right now? Yup, that's right. A trucking and a trucker shortage. 

This shouldn't be too hard to explain, even to an octagenarian. Perhaps two PowerPoint slides.

 But there's a much, much bigger story here.  

The fact that Brandon is dithering on this whole issue, taking no action except asking for an investigation, tells me one of two things is going on, and most likely it's a combination of the two.

First: he has no options to affect the price of gasoline in the near term (the holiday season).

Second: the Brandon administration has two competing factions. On the one hand, the ideologists love this, want the price of gasoline to spike, driving Americans to EVs and get off fossil fuels (not gonna happen); and, the realists who want Brandon to take real action, like opening the SPR, to bring down prices, even if it's only temporary. 

The fact that he is trying to bring down the price of gasoline with speeches and not taking tangible actions suggests he is dithering, unable to accept the recommendations of either of the factions in his White House.

Get out the popcorn.

Later, November 18, 2021, link here: the Reuters analyst questions who is advising Brandon ... to me it looks like debate between two parties in the White House --

Re-Posting As A Stand-Alone -- It's That Important -- November 15, 2021

Before we re-post it, a reminder: COP26 legitimized coal as the transitional fuel. John Kerry, China, India, and some two-hundred countries ratified that -- that coal would be needed, and that zero-net emissions would be a goal for .... 2070. 

Now, re-posting this as a stand-alone post:

COP26: wow, wow, wow. This is simply amazing. I was the first (feel free to fact check me on that) to suggest that COP26 was the high point in the global warming fad. I need to find the Hunter S Thompson quote along the same line. LOL. But I digress. I posted immediately following benediction of COP26 that the global warming movement had reached its high point and would not recede. Well, well, well, look at this. A reader just sent me this. Others are now suggesting the same thing, the link is here:

By the way, that Hunter S Thompson quote:

So now, less than five years later, you can go up on a steep hill in Las Vegas and look West, and with the right kind of eyes you can almost see the high water mark — that place where the wave finally broke, and rolled back.”

There have only been a handful of "experiences" that have greatly affected me. One was my visit to Shiloh, recently. The other was this quote from Hunter S Thompson, which I first read back in 2002, I believe. I'll have to check the dates. 

FWIW -- November 13, 2021

Link here.  

You Mean Arctic Cooling Is NOT Due to Covid-19? September 3, 2021

I'm waiting for Dr Fauci to weigh in but right now, BBC is reporting that the Arctic cooling we are now seeing is not due to Covid-19.

On another note, not one word about Afghanistan in past two days. As a reminder:

Hypocrisy Begins Here -- July 10, 2021

So many attendees flew in by private jet to Sun Valley, Idaho, to hear about climate change, the air space from as far away as Michigan and Canada had to be temporarily closed. 

From the Daily Mail:

Memo to self: get out map to see where Idaho is in relation to Michigan. Maybe they meant Montana.

************************************
Saturday Night In A Galaxy Far Away And Long Ago

Norway Going Green? Never Mind; Energy Blog Of The Day -- July 2, 2021

Norway flips-flops: first it pivoted to green energy, now it backpedals to fossil fuel. LOL. Link to Felicity Bradstock. This is a huge and important study. Again, we're starting to see the widening gap between those who see reality and those who got caught up in the "moment." 

From the linked article:

Despite announcements last year that it is striving for net-zero carbon emissions by 2050, Norway has now said it will go full steam ahead in its oil ventures over the coming decades. While neighboring Denmark plans to end all North Sea operations by 2050, Norway, Western Europe’s largest oil producer, continues to offer exploration and production contracts to several companies, as it intends to develop its already well-established oil industry further. 

In a white paper, Minister of Petroleum and Energy, Tina Bru, stated that “The main goal of the government’s petroleum policy - to facilitate profitable production in the oil and gas industry in a long term perspective - is firmly in place.” 

This week, Norway’s oil majors announced they would be developing four oil and gas discoveries, at a cost of $1.69 billion, to increase output in the country’s existing oil fields. 

Equinor and Aker BP hope to tap into Norway’s remaining oil resources while demand is high, as after 50 years of oil production around half of the country’s oil reserves are yet to be pumped.  

The Kristin South project, which includes the Lavrans and Kristin Q discoveries, is awaiting ministry approval and is projected to have an output of 58.2 million barrels of oil equivalent over the field's lifetime. 

Equinor will operate the Kristin field, commencing production in 2024 and 2025. Petoro, Eni (-0.89%), and TotalEnergies (-0.39%) all have a stake in the field.  

Earlier this month, Norway awarded four new licenses in the Norwegian Sea and three in the Barents Sea, in frontier Arctic areas, to seven companies. One of the Ministry of Petroleum and Energy’s key concerns is maintaining steady employment in the country, with around 200,000 jobs currently directly and indirectly linked to oil and gas.

Putting the Bakken in perspective: note that the Lavrans and Kristin Q discoveries are projected to have an output of around 60 million boe over the field's lifetime. The Bakken: that much oil in less than sixty days. 

So, back to the main story line. After announcing the country was going "green," someone must have run the numbers and noted that "green" won't work. So, back to fossil fuel. Gotta love it. And now that President Biden has ceded the Arctic to Russia, Denmark, and Norway, the latter needs to get crackin'.  

By the way, I wonder if President Biden understands this:

While Norway is leading the way in green energy at the national level, many are criticizing its high level of oil exports, which are anything but carbon friendly.

As country leaders talk of a ‘green transition’, it has not been overlooked that Norway still relies heavily on its oil and gas revenues even if looking to make the switch to renewables at home. 

Norway’s ambitious carbon-cutting targets do not consider the emissions from the oil and gas that it sells to other countries, meaning it could still achieve net-zero without curbing its fossil fuel production.

The bigger story here: Norway's faux environmentalists know that their exports contribute to CO2 emissions (FWIW) which tells me they are not truly concerned about global warming.