Guest post by David Middleton
19 January 2012
Obama clean energy ad airing in Va.
A new ad from President Barack Obama’s re-election campaign that touts his energy and ethics record began airing in Virginia this week even as Republican blasted him over a decision to reject a permit for a proposed oil pipeline from Canada.
The 30-second spot (see below) makes a case that Obama’s policies have promoted clean energy jobs and reduced the nation’s dependence on foreign oil while enduring unfounded attacks funded by wealthy energy industry officials.
[…]
This campaign ad is nothing but a collection of falsehoods.
Falsehood #1: “Secretive oil billionaires attacking President Obama”… The Koch brothers (and the oil & gas industry in general) have been anything but secretive in their attacks on President Obama.
Falsehood #2: The ad implies that President Obama has created 2.7 million “clean energy industry” jobs.
The 2.7 million figure is purportedly cited from a Brookings report. The report said that there currently are 2.7 million jobs in America that “produce goods and services with an environmental benefit.”
The clean economy, which employs some 2.7 million workers, encompasses a signifi cant number of jobs in establishments spread across a diverse group of industries. (Page 4)
The report says that the “clean economy establishments added half a million jobs between 2003 and 2010.” So… Obama didn’t even “create” half a million “clean energy jobs.” He didn’t even create half a million clean economy jobs. The Brookings report refers to “clean economy” not “clean energy” jobs. The vast majority of the “clean economy” jobs are not in energy… And almost all of those jobs were created before Obama took office.
More than 82% of the “clean economy” jobs listed in the report have nothing to do with energy production…
Waste Management & Treatment … 386,116 … 14%
Public Mass Transit … 350,547 … 13%
Conservation … 314,983 … 12%
Energy Saving Building Materials … 161,896 … 6%
Regulation & Compliance … 141,890 … 5%
Professional Environmental Services … 141,046 … 5%
Organic Food & Farming … 129,956 … 5%
Recycling & Reuse … 129,252 … 5%
Green Consumer Products … 77,264 … 3%
Green Building Materials … 76,577 … 3%
HVAC … 73,600 … 3%
Sustainable Forestry Products … 61,054 … 2%
Recycled Content Products … 59,712 … 2%
Green Architecture … 56,190 … 2%
Air & Water Purification … 24,930 … 1%
Green Chemical Products … 22,622 … 1%
Total … 2,207,635 … 82%
Falsehood #3: The ad implies that President Obama somehow played a role in the increase in US domestic oil production over the last few years… That is beyond ridiculous! The plays and prospects from which the production growth was derived were worked up, leased, drilled and plumbed-up for production over the last decade or more. The effects of Obama’s disastrous anti-drilling policies won’t show up in production data for quite some time.
Obama’s anti-drilling policies began in 2009 and were ramped up in 2010. This is either the most amazingly arrogant lie to ever come out of this President’s mouth or an example of his incredible ignorance of the oil & gas industry and energy in general.
The increase in US oil production has come from two main sources:
1) Shale plays like the Bakken.
The Bakken shale play has mostly been developed on private property. Very little of the shale plays have been developed on Federal lands – And the Obama administration has actively sought to further restrict development on Federal lands. Apart from the EPA, regulation and obstruction of these sorts of plays are mostly in the hands of State gov’ts.
2) Deepwater Gulf of Mexico discoveries.
The deepwater discoveries that have been brought on line over the last three years were discovered long before Obama took office… Many were discovered while Clinton was still in office. Construction and installation of the production facilities began long before Obama took office. On top of that, much of the increase in production was the result of the ongoing recovery from hurricanes Rita (2005), Katrina (2005) and Ike (2008).
Over the last two years, the Obama administration has almost paralyzed operations in the Gulf of Mexico with an unlawful permitorium and has aggressively tried to hamper the shale plays with fraudulent EPA attacks on fracking and unlawful efforts to make BLM lands unavailable…
This is all anyone ever needs to know about President Obama’s views on energy…
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While a little unusual I don’t see the article as too far off topic. obama is making some absurd claims about energy, including green energy, at the same time he and his henchmen are attempting to significantly change our country in the name of CAGW.
If nothing else classify it under Puzzling Things In Life. I’d have to crawl right out of my skin in disgust if I were that dishonest with myself and others.
Hilarious! What a gufe! Actually, its dependence is 120% on imports!!
Who knows how they manage to waste or give away that extra 20%!
Super-losers, meet Adolfo, your admirer.
By Golly Barack is absolutely right in his SOTU speech. Now that more than 13 million people are out of work and government debt stands at a record high of $15.2 trillion, up from $10.6 trillion when he took office, it is clear that exactly what we need is some economic fairness.
Since there are still a few wealthy people left in the USA (1 in 100 or so) who have survived the destruction of the economy: clearly it is high time that they got screwed along with everyone else.
The logic is impeccable.
Wonder if Bill Clinton helped him write that SOTU? Whew, I thought Bubba Clinton had the longest one, but now I don’t know. Anyway, we have a dozen more Solyndras coming down the pike and he wants to double that by the sound of it.
Alex the skeptic says:
January 24, 2012 at 6:00 am
Nothing at all to stop you from flying over here in November and voting.
You don’t need to provide any sort of evidence you are an American citizen to vote in most places. In fact, you should be able to vote early and often in places like Chicago.
Thanks for the post David and Anthony. I already know that if Obama’s lips are moving he is lying. But Romney and Gingrich are no better. If you really want hope and change you are going to have to go with Ron Paul.
crosspatch says:
January 24, 2012 at 1:12 am
Quite an interesting link. I hope this turns out to be that there is even more recoverable oil in Monterrey than EIA thinks (which is the case with the Bakken field, or so it seems). But of course, Barack the Usurper will indeed try to prevent folks from drilling there. His energy policy is nuts.
And by the way, yes, since Australian electoral politics is occasionally covered, it is fair, especially with the lies that Barack the Usurper has told in 2008 as well as now, for someone like David Middleton to point those things out for all of us to learn. Garethman, put a lid on it.
Oh the Video is not so favorable for the Americans ………http://sandyyadav.com/
climate policy equals energy policy in the U.S. its all poly-sci thanks Anthony, this is great stuff!
Larry said I hope this turns out to be that there is even more recoverable oil in Monterrey than EIA thinks (which is the case with the Bakken field, or so it seems). But of course, Barack the Usurper will indeed try to prevent folks from drilling there.
Larry, with all due respect, but the Monterrey (and Bakken) “recoverable oil” you are talking about is in fact at this point in time not “recoverable” at all. It’s embedded in rock, and oil companies simply have not found any thechnological way to extract it in any economically “recoverable” way. Not to mention that in the case of Monterrey, this rock is also situated under water, which makes it even harder. None of that has anything to do with American energy policy, not anything with Obama as president.
It appears that Obama became the victim of simple ad hominems here on WUWT, without sort of reason of any sort of common sense about reality.
When you find an economical way to extract oil from oil shale rock, you let us know, OK ?
The EIA projected, before Obama, that between 2010 and 2035 US offf shore oil production would rise 40% This did not include increases in natural gas, shale oil production, or developing additional oil reserves in Alaska. Obama has acted to hinder every bit of this development.
He has created many new jobs however. He created jobs tracking our US loans to Mexico and Brazil to develope their oil reserves. Jobs to assemble wind mills manufactured in China, assemble mirriors made in china for geo engineering space programs, employ folk to sale assult rifles to Mexican drug lords, increase pay for postal workers via arming them, lending a new meaning to the phrase, “going postal. This being the first step in creating a national security force as large and well funded as our military, / Launder money for green peace, / Artic expeditions to row to the pole. / Study anything and everthing, as long as it could be related it to man caused CAGW / Print trillions of dollars, for districts that do not exist, / Promote the golfing industry / Expand the role of NASA to include outreach for Muslims. / Create well over 100 new federal departments for the health industry. Increase of employment in the EPA to pass more laws to increase all energy costs.
Please feel free to add to the list.
Unfortunatel his green jobs have in all likely cost many more jobs then created, as well as raising the cost of energy to all, including those who can least afford it.
Jack Simmons says:
January 24, 2012 at 8:43 pm
“Alex the skeptic says:
January 24, 2012 at 6:00 am
As a non-USA , EU citizen, I believe that whatever happens in the US effects so much the rest of the world that we should have the right to vote in US presidential elections.
Nothing at all to stop you from flying over here in November and voting.
You don’t need to provide any sort of evidence you are an American citizen to vote in most places. In fact, you should be able to vote early and often in places like Chicago.”
======================================================================
And Alex, if you happen to die of a heart attack on the way over, don’t let that stop you from getting in a few votes before they fly your body back home.
The Monterey Shale is primarily onshore and it is a well-established play…
The only new thing is the application of horizontal completions and multi-stage fracking. The new technologies have vastly increased the recoverability of the oil in shale formations like the Bakken and Monterey.
We’ve been economically extracting oil from shale* for over 100 years. The Bakken, Monterey and Eagle Ford oil shales have become much more economically attractive because of the new drilling and completion technologies. (*Technically speaking, most shale plays are comprised of a combintation of shale, fine-grained sandstone, siltstone and marl.)
Even the Green River oil shale could be economically developed, if the gov’t would get out of the way. The Green River formation oil shale has more than 1 trillion barrels of recoverable oil just in the Piceance Basin of Colorado.
There are at least 1.8 trillion barrels of undiscovered technically recoverable oil in just the Green River formation… DOE
Oil shale deposits like the Green River formation (technically a marl) are currently economic at sustained oil prices of $54/bbl, possibly as low as $35/bbl… DOE
Shell estimates that they could be producing 500,000 barrels per day from the Picenance Basin with a very small footprint using an in-situ recovery process, summarized by Rand here…
Assuming a 12-yr lead time to reach the production growth stage, it will take ~30 years to reach 3 million barrels per day. If production continued to grow at a rate of 1 million BOPD every 5 year, oil shale production from just the Piceance Basin could reach 15 million BOPD by the end of this century.
The hydrocarbon characteristics of the the oil shales of the Green River formation in the Piceance Basin are superior to those of the Athabasca oil sands. The hydrocarbon areal density is about 13 times that of the Athabasca deposits. The Green River hydrocarbons are not technically “oil;” it’s a form of kerogen. But, for or refining purposes, it’s oil. It will be booked as oil, just like the Athabasca tar sand oil is. It’s a high-grade refinery feedstock…
“Kerogen can be converted to superior quality jet fuel, #2 diesel, and other high value by-products.”
Canada is currently producing ~ 1 million barrels of oil per day from Athabasca oil sand deposits. They expect to increase that to 2 million barrels per day over the next decade. The Green River oil shale deposits in the Piceance basin could easily outperform Athabasca within a decade and with a much smaller environmental footprint.
Athabasca oil sands are currently economically competitive with the OPEC basket. Green River formation oil shales are superior, by a wide margin, to Athabasca oil sands. The Green River oil shales would yield 100,000 bbl of 38° API sweet refinery feed per 160,000 tons of ore & overburden. Athabasca oil sands yield 100,000 bbl of 34° sweet refinery feed per 430,000 tons of ore & overburden. The unconventional oil is actually very light and very sweet; the OPEC Basket is actually heavier (32.7° API).
Athabasca is economically competitive now. Green River could be economically competitive now. Peak oil my @ur momisugly$$!
The only obstacles to US energy security are environmental
terroristsactivist and the US government.See this publications for further reading on oil & gas shale plays:
Review of Emerging Resources: U.S. Shale Gas and Shale Oil Plays
“Falsehood #3: The ad implies that President Obama somehow played a role in the increase in US domestic oil production over the last few years… That is beyond ridiculous! The plays and prospects from which the production growth was derived were worked up, leased, drilled and plumbed-up for production over the last decade or more. The effects of Obama’s disastrous anti-drilling policies won’t show up in production data for quite some time.”
So, irrespective of who gets the credit, we now have more oil and we are in a recession, presumably using less as a result, so why are prices for petroleum products up in our “free market” system?
David Middleton, thank you for your response above to Rob Dekker. I hope that you can offer more information in the future on oil and other energy sources. This is a very relevant topic to the climate issues usually discussed here at WUWT. What makes it relevant is the fact that the CAGW issue was created to control the energy sources and suck on government grants. Since the oil (petrolium) and coal recources are the primary targets that makes those very relevant.
Knowledge will lead to a greater understanding and acceptance of the recovery procedures utilized. A blog dedicated to energy resource extraction operated by someone like Anthony Watts and in the same manner would likely have far reaching effects in the political world when the populace have the facts and not just the ‘green propaganda’ that is so ‘well’ presented by the media.
There will be cries that WUWT should only cover ‘climate’ by those who want to avoid sunlight on the overall picture. To that I would suggest that if you don’t want to read it, then don’t click to expand on it. You still have that personal choice.
I look forward to your future presentations.
Global demand is not down, OPEC spare production capacity has been declining and the US dollar has been steadily devalued since late 2008.
It’s hilarious to watch him try to speak without a teleprompter. He has to stop and think about every word he says, there is simply no stream of thought. What a moron.
Anthony’s frustration is palpable, and completely understandable. Folks simply need to do two things:
1. Use Firefox as their browser
2. Download the Greasemonkey mod
Not sure why more folks don’t seem to do this.
For those on here that insist this should just be a science blog: It is a political machine waging the global warming war on us. You have to address the politics. That is how this carbon footprint propaganda won over Europe. Joseph Goebbels would be proud of what has been produced in the name of saving the planet from CO2. Nice work Herrr Mann und Herr Gore.
“So, irrespective of who gets the credit, we now have more oil and we are in a recession, presumably using less as a result, so why are prices for petroleum products up in our “free market” system?”
It’s quite simple; oil is bought on sold in dollars. The dollar (as are most currencies) are volatile due a number factors (record low interest rates, an explosion of liquidity in recent years, and record public debt). Speculators, therefore constantly heg thier bets against currency inflation by purchasing and selling commodities (gold, oil, wheat, corn, etc…). Refined gasoline also faces additional uncertainty because of EPA regulations and localized supply chain bottlenecks. In my own neck of the woods, unleaded gas went from $3.19 a gallon on New Years to $3.70 a gallon by 13 Jan 2012, back down to $3.30 on the 25th of January.
JP says:
January 25, 2012 at 11:44 am
“So, irrespective of who gets the credit, we now have more oil and we are in a recession, presumably using less as a result, so why are prices for petroleum products up in our “free market” system?”
“It’s quite simple; oil is bought on sold in dollars. The dollar (as are most currencies) are volatile due a number factors (record low interest rates, an explosion of liquidity in recent years, and record public debt). Speculators, therefore constantly heg thier bets against currency inflation by purchasing and selling commodities (gold, oil, wheat, corn, etc…). Refined gasoline also faces additional uncertainty because of EPA regulations and localized supply chain bottlenecks. In my own neck of the woods, unleaded gas went from $3.19 a gallon on New Years to $3.70 a gallon by 13 Jan 2012, back down to $3.30 on the 25th of January.”
But the government says there is little or no inflation! Oh, I forgot, fuel is not in the “market basket” along with food, housing and other necessities. Sorry, but in addition to the speculators and decling dollar and OPEC production issue, I believe that the oligopoly in the oil industry also allows price fixing without any need for illegal communications to establish the price. Even when the price of crude goes down gasoline and heating fuel does not. There is always an excuse for why supply and demand is not working. There are plenty of liars in the corporate world to go along with those in government. I have seen it at the board room level and know it for a fact.
Rob Dekker
I concur with David. I worked in the early 70’s at Meeker CO. For fun, we’d sit around campfires lined with shale. When it got hot enough, it would burn. What’s stopping development is the requirement to do it in situ, and without harming the ground water. If the memories of open pit coal mining from the 1800’s weren’t conjured up by emotional nay-sayers, it could be strip mined and revegetated to near original condition at the price David showed.
Abject nonsense.
The “oil industry” has zero direct control over oil & gas prices. We can only affect supply. When prices are high, we make more money and we spend more money trying to increase our production. When prices are low, we make less money and are forces to curtail spending.
Prolonged low natural gas and high oil prices have caused Chesapeake Energy to redirect CapEx from dry gas plays to oil or liquid-rich gas plays…
This is text book supply and demand.
More abject nonesense.
The prices may not go up and down on the same day; but they are highly correlated.
Even more abject nonsense.
I’ve been in the oil industry for 31 years, the last 5 as a VP, and I’ve never seen anything to indicate that unethical, dishonest, illegal or corrupt business practices were the norm.
Well that Obama propaganda clip showed a number of solar cell installations, which he is in favor of.
There was not a single Solyndra installation that Obama squandered 535 million of taxpayer’s dollars on. And he should fire energy secretary Chu, as totally incompetent. NOBODY who knows even the most rudimentary concepts of photo-Voltaic solar energy collection and conversion, would even take as a free gift, one of those Solyndra PV arrays to use up what valuable solar energy collection space s/he may have.
Solyndra was a science/engineering scam a long time before it became a financing, and political skullduggery scam; and Chu should have known that and advised against giving Solyndra one brass razoo of taxpayer money.
With regards to comment by George E. Smith.
Chu is not even the beginning of the incompetent appointments by the Obama administration.
Can you name a single position the has been filled by someone competent or worthy of the position. The list would be short indeed.