1. seed
  2. Burning the Midday Oil

Burning the Midday Oil

By milhayser on January 10, 2012.

Not one to let physical and economic reality get in the way of a good one-liner, Newt Gingrich recently remarked that the United States could "open up enough oil fields in the next year that the price of oil worldwide would collapse." But as Sharon Astyk reports on Casaubon's Book, it can take years to develop such resources. And, as demonstrated by the hurdles that have tripped up the proposed Keystone XL pipeline, getting far-flung crude to the right refineries can be a logistical nightmare. Sharon says that most of the interred oil "won't be economically viable to extract or move," and would probably end up in China anyway. Meanwhile, on Class M, new research shows "that the global climate may not be as sensitive to rising atmospheric CO2 levels as everyone has assumed." In fact, the median rate of temperature increase may be about 20% less. James Hrynyshyn writes, "the lower estimate implies we have one or two more decades than previously thought to play with before hitting the 2 °C mark, which is where most estimates say the bad stuff kicks in." Also on Class M, James reports that Canada will withdraw from the Kyoto protocol, which despite increased emissions from the U.S. "will meet its modest goals."

Tags
Climate
Kyoto Protocol
oil

More like this

Hungry, Hot & Crowded
On Casaubon's Book, Sharon Astyk asks if we can stomach a new kind of cuisine— in case, you know, a massive volcanic eruption wipes out all our staple grains. Instead of wheat, corn and rice, "we probably would begin getting comfortable with acorn pancakes and turnip stew with taro dumplings."…
Shocker! Newt Gingrich Doesn't Understand Oil
Sadly, he's not alone, which is why this is worth debunking. Gingrich's sense that oil fields can be brought rapidly online, and his "we beat the Nazis and went to the moon so we can do this" statements reflect the general cultural misunderstandings about how oil is extracted that are endemic in…
Energy Irony: Trans Canada Wants 15 Billion From Obama
Governments, and the people, should be filing law suits against the energy industry for causing the imminent collapse of civilization as we know it. But instead, the opposite is happening. From Reuters: TransCanada formally seeks NAFTA damages in Keystone XL rejection TransCanada Corp is formally…
Copenhagen Update
Tensions are mounting in Copenhagen over the so-called "Danish text," a draft agreement that would allow developed countries such as the United States and China to emit nearly twice as much carbon per capita as "third world" or developing countries. Meanwhile, scrappy island nation Tuvalu stood…