Here Come De Judge, Here Come De Judge -- February 13, 2017

Reuters:

• nation of laws
• Judge James Boasberg of the US District Court, Washington, DC, rejected legal challenge from North Dakota's Standing Rock Reservation and South Dakota's Cheyenne River Reservation
• only 1,110 feet left to construct
• another lawsuit from same groups yet to be heard by same court

Did I Read This Correctly? It Took The State Department Four Years To Review A 3-Mile Section Of An Existing Pipeline? -- February 13, 2017

Updates

October 17, 2017:  after five years of study, the US State Department finally reached a decision -- a permit was approved for a 3-mile section of pipeline.

The State Department has granted Enbridge Energy a presidential permit for the final piece of its project to boost the capacity of its Alberta Clipper oil pipeline.

Calgary, Alberta-based Enbridge has been operating the pipeline, formally called Line 67, since 2010. The company upgraded its pumping stations in 2014 and 2015 to nearly double its capacity to 800,000 barrels per day.

But Enbridge needed the permit for the 3-mile segment that crosses the U.S.-Canadian border near Neche, North Dakota. After nearly five years of review, the State Department said Monday that issuing the permit serves the national interest.

Enbridge has been running Line 67 at full capacity by using a short detour into a parallel pipeline for crossing the border.

Line 67 carries Alberta crude across Minnesota to Superior, WI.

Original Post

This is what I posted earlier:

Alberta Clipper, story here, with byline from Bismarck, ND, data points:

• four-year review
• Enbridge Energy Partners
• process began in 2012
• goal: to transport 800,000 bopd on an existing 3-mile section of pipeline on the company's Alberta Clipper pipeline 
• carries tar sand oil from Canada across northeastern ND and northern Minnesota to Superior, WI 

This is the rest of the story (linked above):

• Alberta Clipper, AKA "Line 67" was completed in 2009
• $1 billion project
• the company wants permission to expand its current capacity on the line where it crosses the international border from 450,000 bopd to 800,000 bopd  
• while waiting for approval, the company has been rerouting the additional bbls through a 1960s-era pipeline along the same route for three (3) miles
• that pipeline already has a presidential permit
• if the permit is approved by the US government, the Alberta Clipper would transport the additional oil without being re-routed, and the old pipeline would be rebuilt

Pipeline news is tracked here; at that link one can link to pipelines that interest me. The latter link was robust during the early Bakken boom (Bakken 1.0) but since then I have not kept it updated.

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Filloon: Harstreet Oil -- A Permian Story

 Story at SeekingAlpha.

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The Literature Page

Ruskin's Venice, Robert Hewison, c. 1978, 2000

A coffee-table book, less than 70 pages thick -- a very, very nice biography and art appreciation book: John Ruskin's life and his passion for Venice.

The author was the Slade Professor of Fine Art at Oxford University for 1999 - 2000. John Ruskin was first elected to that same post in 1869. He resigned the appointment ten years later, in 1879, but then resumed the Slade Professorship in 1883. He died in early 1900.

Born in 1819.

Victorian England: June 20, 1837 - 22 January 1901.

Quickies:

• at a young age, fell in love with Venice
• researched, drew, painted Venice
• his "hero" J. M. W. Turner, the water colorist
• unrequited loved for Adele Domecq, who spurned his advances
• strange relationship with women
• friendship with the pre-Raphaelites
• first wife, Effie; marriage of six years never consummated; wife ran off with Ruskin's friend (Millais)
• holiday with pre-Raphaelite John Everett Millais, Glenfinlas, Scotland; it was there that Effie fell in love with Millais 
• in his 40's falls in love with a teenager; geographically-separated romance; ends in sadness; the teenage, mentally unstable, died "insane," 1875
• Ruskin himself, highly religious in early life, turned away from religion; his teenage girlfriend thought he might be a pagan; he did turn to spiritualism to try to bring his teenage girlfriend back to life
• Ruskin suffered frequent and long episodes of insanity in later age
• as he aged, his personal disappointments multiplied
• continued to love Venice to the end of his life

The wiki bio is very, very good, but interestingly does not mention his insanity (word search for madness, insanity, mental was unsuccessful).

Most famous books: Modern Painters; and, The Stones Of Venice.

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Too Many Books, Too Little Time

The Political Page, T+24 -- February 13, 2017

Updates

February 22, 2017: protest camp must be evacuated. This is latest picture how environmentalists treat sacred land:

Original Post

 
How native Americans at Standing Rock Reservation treat their land. From The Washington Post.

“We’re still in the fight,” Dayrider said. “And we’ve accomplished something amazing. We woke the world up by showing how the oil companies treat the land and the people. We’re still standing. We’re still fighting.”

To compare how the activists treated sacred ground and how oil companies treat public and private land, see this post.  At the link, follow the links to some striking photos and video.

From The Washington Post, "today" at the Reservation:

The pads in the Williston Basin.

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Surprise of the day! Out in Los Angeles, two new rail extensions and yet, Metro ridership declined again last year! This is truly amazing, and absolutely counterintuitive. The mainstream press has led me to believe that use of public transportation was increasing out in Los Angeles. Apparently not true. Data points:

• two light-rail extensions to Azusa and Santa Monica opened last spring (2016)
• the extensions connect the eastern and western reaches of Los Angeles County for the first time in decades
• six months later, voters approved Measure M, by a large margin (72%): to increase their sales tax to expand the transit network again
• a red-letter year for public transportation with one exception: ridership
• trips taken on LA's sprawling bus and rail system dropped again by nearly 6%
• subway and light-rail boardings increase by 4% -- but not enough to cancel out a decline in annual bus ridership -- falling 9% -- the lowest in more than a decade
• since 2009: four new rail extensions, at a cost of more than $4 billion
• since 2009: rail ridership soared 21%; but bus trips -- which represents much more ridership, dropped 18%
• apparently LA's bus problems are mirrored in other US large cities

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Lake Mead ...

... continues to rise (a dynamic link).

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Blogging

Over the weekend, doing some blogging with my assistant on the iPad doing some research.

Market And Energy News, T+24, February 13, 2017

The Market Close

 Apple shares close at all-time high. 

S & P 500 tops $20 trillion as Wall Street trades Trump.

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Early Afternoon Trading

Dow Jones Industrials: up almost 200 points. This is absolutely insane. In a good way. 

NYSE:

• new highs, 228: the banks; CNP, Deere, Honda, Norfolk Southern, Tallgrass Energy Partners,
• new lows, 4 -- yup, just four

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Mid-Morning Trading

The Dow Jones Industrials average is up 133 points, now over 20,400. This is clearly more than anticipation of "tax breaks." This is all about the Trump administration believe in making America great again, and it's not just based on "tax cuts":

• cheap, accessible energy
• foreign leaders beating a path to Washington to look for investment opportunities in the US
• regulatory relief (especially in bank stocks)
• tax breaks (only a small part of all of this)
• ObamaCare -- whatever happens -- won't cost corporations more
• immigration policy will have counterintuitive effect on minimal wages: all things being equal, by the end of 2017, certainly by 2018, we should see significant increase in average wages being paid in US
• the "make-up" of the Federal Reserve Board will change in the next few months 
• BREXIT; FREXIT?; Greece crumbling; Venezuela crumbling; bonds in Germany returning negative rates

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 It Only Took Four Years

Alberta Clipper, story here, with byline from Bismarck, ND, data points:

• four-year review
• Enbridge Energy Partners
• process began in 2012
• goal: to transport 800,000 bopd on an existing 3-mile section of pipeline on the company's Alberta Clipper pipeline 
• carries tar sand oil from Canada across northeastern ND and northern Minnesota to Superior, WI

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US Crude Oil Production Forecast

 
With all the talk about the Permian recently, let's see what the EIA forecasts. Today, via Twitter, from 
EIA:

In addition, the following graphic was posted by the EIA earlier this year, August 22, 2016:

Note the amount of dark blue (Bakken) vs the Wolfcamp (blue).

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The Opening: Since the election: $2 trillion added. Dow easily hits 20,330. Up 2,000 points since the election.S&P hits a record high, 2,322. NASDAQ hits record high, 5,752.  Another triple-digit jump on the Dow today? [Yup, a few minutes later, up 103 points, though it has dropped back a bit.]

NYSE:

• new highs, 184 in early trading: banks across the board; CNP, Deere, 
• new lows, 0.

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Futures

Futures: suggest opening at all-time high for all three indices. Again.

OPEC: must be in a world of hurt. Asking non-OPEC producers to decrease production. Story here.

Wind: North Dakota becoming a powerhouse. Story here.

Texas is the leader in producing wind energy -- last year, it became the first state to surpass a capacity of 20,000 megawatts. Of the 41 states that have wind farms, North Dakota ranked fourth in terms of installation of wind energy.

Here Come De Judge, Here Come De Judge, T+24 -- February 13, 2017

Active rigs:

	2/13/2017	02/13/2016	02/13/2015	02/13/2014	02/13/2013
Active Rigs	36	41	137	188	183

RBN Energy: more Houston crude distribution infrastructure on the way.


Scott Adams: good example of our two-move reality. 


DAPL (again): here come de judge, her come de judge. "Full story" here. Judge, apparently, to hear case today. From The Bismarck Tribune:

A federal district court judge has denied a temporary restraining order sought to stop drilling of the Dakota Access Pipeline across the Missouri River/Lake Oahe.

Judge James E. Boasberg denied the order following Monday afternoon’s hearing in U.S. District Court in Washington, D.C., and required the pipeline company to provide updates Feb. 21 and every Monday thereafter on when oil will begin to flow through the river-crossing pipe.