Keystone XL: An Objective View

It seems an eternity since we first learned of Keystone XL, the pipeline to bring tar-sands oil from the Canadian province of Alberta. At times, it sounds like people think this is a proposed pipeline. There are parts that are in the proposal stage, but there is nearly a 1000 miles of pipeline finished, including a completed branch that goes to southern Illinois.

All was going well until the pipeline made its way to Arkansas—that's when environmentalist made their stand. The details of why are boring, but it was something about the type of soil and that a spill from tar-sands oil would be environmentally worse than other oils. An alternative route was eventually found through the state. Obama brought in the EPA to look into the pipeline. This is where it now stands – the EPA and president refuse to give the go ahead.

2013 EPA RFS: The road to starvation

The EPA has finished finalizing the 2013 Renewable Fuel Standards(RFS). The biggest of those changes is to increase Ethanol content in gasoline. The current standard  requires all gasoline have at least 10% Ethanol. The new standard will raise this to 15%, and will now also include diesels.

Under the Energy Independence and Security Act (EISA) of 2007, the RFS program was expanded in several key ways:

• EISA expanded the RFS program to include diesel, in addition to gasoline;
• EISA increased the volume of renewable fuel required to be blended into transportation fuel from 9 billion gallons in 2008 to 36 billion gallons by 2022;
• EISA established new categories of renewable fuel, and set separate volume requirements for each one.
• EISA required EPA to apply lifecycle greenhouse gas performance threshold standards to ensure that each category of renewable fuel emits fewer greenhouse gases than the petroleum fuel it replaces.
  

The source for most of this Ethanol is soybean and corn—two main staples of our food supply. Each of those can be found in many of the processed foods we eat. Because of the USA's abundance of accessible fertile lands we produce much of the world's supply of food.

Government Subsidized Solar

I was just listening to an advertisement for solar panels to provided electricity for your homes. They are promising a cost as low as $100 annually for your electrical needs. They also said that the government would pay for almost half of the initial cost. I’m not sure how successful this company and others are, but I am greatly disturbed.

We once again have the government interfering in the free market. We have a lot of people with a surplus of cash or good credit having these solar systems installed only because they government is paying half the cost. This is great for the environment and those that can afford these panels, but what about the rest the people?

When a house switches to the government subsidized power system, that house goes off the grid. The more people that go off the grid, the less money the power companies have coming in to maintain systems. Yes, of course they will need less power generating plants. They will need less transmission lines as well. Eventually there might be enough houses on one side of town off the grid that it’s no longer economically feasible to maintain those lines. They can’t go up on prices to the remaining houses because of government price controls. If they were free to raise the prices to cover maintenance cost, a lot of people would no longer be able to afford the electricity.

Planes, Trains, and Automobiles

I was just writing the article  “Government Protection or Loss of rights?” and had the same nagging thoughts of why are they doing such stringent searches at only airports, and why aren’t terrorist attacking more? It would be too easy for terrorist to build bombs or to buy automatic weapons in which to open fire on innocent people at the malls. I then had an epiphany. I know that government and progressives always use misdirection. They are making me watch searches in airports when the ball is in the other hand.

In Europe many of the terrorist attacks have been to trains, yet in Europe they aren’t forcing such stringent security on trains. We have had attacks on trains in the USA, again very lax security even at the Metro in the nation’s capital. I had to ask, what am I missing?

We have the leftist environmentalist, which these days are all progressives because they can use global warming to further the progressive agenda. The debate whether global warming is real or not is unimportant, since the progressives will use the fear to their advantage.

Obama Shrugged

The line seems to be moving a little faster today,” Jane said to her friend.

Margo smiled and said, “I think so. We have been here only an hour and
we are almost to the door. Doesn’t the fresh bread smell so wonderful
today?”

She replied, “It smells delicious. I’m glad the government decided the
lactose and gluten free bread was suitable for us to eat. That will go
well with the beans.”

After Barack Obama’s forth term he was appointed the lifetime position
as President of the United States. Obama had promised to fundamentally
change America. He had passed universal health-care and to limit cost he
had, along with congress, taken over the farms so that all people ate
equally. All foods found to be unhealthy were banned. The medical board
decided which foods were the healthiest and would lower health-care cost.
Once the two women had purchased their bread and other supplies, they
headed home. It wasn’t long before they were walking into the
fifty-story apartment building. They smiled at the armed soldier
standing just inside. Margo asked her friend, “Can you believe that
people used to live in single family dwellings? That was so wasteful of
resources.”