Interesting Items 03/13

Howdy all, a few Interesting Items for your information. Enjoy –

In this issue:

  1. Oz Energy
  2. Deniers
  3. Soros
  4. Conoco
  5. Lindemuth

  1. Oz Energy. The latest example of the logical conclusion of a government’s journey down the primrose path of energy production by moonbeams, unicorn flatulence, pixie dust and wishful thinking AKA “renewable energy” comes out of Oz, where energy decisions over the last decade or so are coming home to roost.  There have been moratoriums on natural gas exploration, premature closures of coal plants (Oz has LOTS of high quality coal) and a move to replace that production with wind and solar.  Things are to the point where the Energy Market Operator is predicting energy shortages in New South Wales, Victoria and South Australia in the summer of 2018 – 2019 unless something major is done.  Note that today, there is a significant export of natural gas business from Oz.  That production is about to drop due to the moratoriums on exploration for new production.  The shortage is forecast to continue for at least five years through 2024 unless something is done.  While Oz has significant natural gas and coal, green influenced politicians have constructed obstacle after obstacle after obstacle to the point where those resources can no longer be affordably produced.  This is the future the greens have in mind for us – dark and cold.  https://wattsupwiththat.com/2017/03/09/green-craziness-deepening-aussie-energy-crisis/
  1. Deniers. “Deniers” are the epithet of choice for the glo-warmers going after the skeptic side of the discussion.  If they can’t win on the merits of the argument, then calling names to make the opposition simply shut up works just as well.  What better technique than to tie those of us who don’t think mankind is causing the next great global climate catastrophe with those who believe there was no Nazi holocaust of the Jews?  It turns out that the skeptics are not the only deniers out there.  Wind turbines / wind farms are not the benign eco-friendly constructs their advocates claim they are and sell them as.  They emit infrasound and low-frequency (audible) noise – infrasound / low-frequency noise (ILFN).  This is defined as sound below 20 hz.  It turns out that IFLN causes adverse human health effects.  The sonic radiation tends to be amplified within some types of structures and sensitivity to it increases over time.  These problems have been known to the industry and the US government since the 1980s.  Measurements of noise associated with wind turbines typically measure higher frequencies and not the lower ones so the really awful impacts are mostly unknown and not measured.  They also are conducted outside rather than inside neighboring buildings.  Distance from active wind turbines needs to be greater than 2 km to start to minimize the effects.  What are the effects?  Headaches, nausea, vertigo, tinnitus, anxiety, hopelessness, depression, popping ears.  These effects are well known and widely reported.  The Israelis used low frequency noise for crowd control for years.  Effects on the targets include nausea, confusion, blurred vision, vertigo, headaches, tachycardia, heightened blood pressure, pain and ringing in the ears, difficulties with memory, concentration, anxiety, depression, irritability and panic attacks.  All these can be yours when your favorite government at any level chooses to plop a wind farm down on the lot next to yours.  Michigan State University sound engineers explain that the low frequency noise induces resonant vibrations in liquids, gasses and solids.  And a human body (in the words of a Star Trek Next Generation first season alien) is little more than an ugly bag of water.  There is a lot of money riding on governments choosing not to tighten regulations on the wind industry, so wind turbine advocates and their supporters in governments do everything humanly possible to minimize the reported problems.  Another negative effect is the flicker of sunlight through the blades as they turn.  It has long been known that a properly timed strobe light can trigger a seizure.  Indeed, this was a game that Soviet bomber crews used to play with American jets that intercepted them decades ago.  So, with wind energy, the sainted renewables, we get everything – unreliable energy, highly variable, dirty power, very expensive electricity, generation that has a huge footprint requiring large areas of land to construct, the massive injection of rare earth elements into the biosphere, and best of all significant health issues on neighboring humans due to low frequency vibrations caused by the propellers of the wind generators – all in the name of saving the planet from CO2.  As this goes on, we are well past the point where the solution (in this instance, wind) is worse than the disease (injection of CO2 into the atmosphere).  https://wattsupwiththat.com/2017/03/08/science-deniers-in-the-wind-industry/
  1. Soros. Our boy George Soros has been busy since his chosen candidate and party were defeated last November.  As with before the election, he continues to fund groups that practice street theater, mayhem and other techniques that will end up getting Trump a larger majority in his reelection bid in 2020.  The Women’s March, and Day Without Women protests were funded by the usual suspects on the left.  Soros and his Open Society Foundation donated $246 million to 100 of the 544 organizations listed as partners of the Women’s March on January 21.  These donations were made over the period 2010 – 2014.  These protests as with most things out of the left these days were not spontaneous, though they pretended to be.  Rather they were organized, planned and executed.  Big winners of Soros’ largesse were the ACLU with $37 million, Human Rights Watch at $32 million, and Planned Parenthood at $21 million.  No word about how much Soros and his foundation made from licensing the design and sale of pussy hats.  In related news, there is an ongoing investigation role by Bretibart into Soros’ activities in Europe.  This has started making his life over there more difficult, with the government of Hungary going after Soros funded NGOs.  Legislation is moving through its legislature to limit the way NGOs operate in Hungary.  Similar legislation passed Israel’s legislature last year.  Anti-Soros sentiment has been rising in several European nations over the last couple years.  These include Poland, Romania, Serbia, Bulgaria and Slovakia.  Soros support of the Muslim invasion of Europe is triggering much of the pushback.  Breitbart’s reporting on hacked documents from Soros’ Open Society Foundation US operation is providing significant information on the scope and far reaching impact of his activities.  http://www.breitbart.com/big-government/2017/03/08/breitbart-vs-soros-news-agencys-investigations-causing-problems-billionaires-european-operations/
  1. Conoco. To a man with a hammer, the entire world looks like a nail.  When you elect a governor who has spent his entire legal career suing oil companies, he will default to threats, fines and bullying when he can’t get his way.  Tribal members of Nuiqsut on the Alaskan North Slope have long used environmental and cultural concerns to gouge blackmail money from the oil and natural gas producers in the Kuparuk and satellite oil fields.  It is a game they have been playing for nearly half a century.  Unfortunately for them, the old game gets a bit harder to play when there is a glut of oil worldwide.  There was village opposition to an exploratory well some 3 mi north of the village expressed at a December meeting with village elders.  Thus, Conoco decided to delay the new well.  The State of Alaska, ever vigilant for an opportunity to harass, humiliate and otherwise worsen the business climate for oil and natural gas producers released a decision Feb. 17 to pressure Conoco into drilling the well immediately if not sooner.  The leverage the state believes it has is based on executing the state lease.  Natural Resources Commissioner Andy Mack, who used to moonlight as a committed green before Governor Bill Walker appointed him issued an 18-page decision laying out a strict drilling schedule leading to production within five years.  Mack also demands $12.5 million in performance bonds, and $1.5 million to reimburse the state for money it would have made had it put the lease up for competitive bid.  Not a word by Mack or his department on the hostage taking by village elders in Nuiqsut.  This one will be interesting to watch as Conoco is already working on its 2017 – 2018 drilling schedule.  Now here is the funny part:  Per the article referenced below, producers near Nuiqsut have failed to produce leases near the village.  Mack’s demands were also bundled in a rejection of Conoco’s request to add an additional 9,100 acres to the unit.  Sounds like Nuiqsut is chasing off yet another producer which thinks there is oil on their lease and rather than working with them, Walker’s henchman is using the lease to hammer them into submission.  That’s going to get a lot of new oil in TAPS, won’t it (/sarc) ?  Conoco had until March 12 to formally ask Mack to reconsider his decision.  https://www.adn.com/business-economy/energy/2017/03/07/state-dials-up-pressure-on-conocophillips-after-it-delays-controversial-exploration-project/

Lindemuth. When you elect a racial separatist as your LtGov, you are going to get a government that puts the interests and needs of his chosen race (Alaska Natives) over the interests of everyone else in the rest of the state.  Alaska has been fighting a rear-guard action against a rolling repeal of ANSCA and ANILCA, legislation that extinguished all special rights for Alaska Natives in return for land ownership and the creation of the native corporation system here in Alaska.  Unfortunately, it is a lot like trying to sweep water with a broom.  The water moves a lot during democrat administrations at the federal and state levels, as the feds start conferring special status on tribal members and create tribes out of whole cloth.  The state files the requisite lawsuits in opposition.  If there is a democrat governor, those lawsuits are either dropped entirely (Katie John) or negotiated into a loss for the State of Alaska by the Attorney General appointed by the democrat governor (Ahtna).  Latest example of this is an ongoing negotiation over a right of way designation across some Ahtna Native Corporation land near Glenallen, Alaska.  One of the real problems we have here in Alaska is the lack of roads.  If you divide the number of square miles of Alaska by the number of linear miles of roads, you end up with about 45 square miles of Alaska served by every linear mile of road.  The next closest state is Wyoming at 3 square miles per mile of road.  So, roads up here are very, very valuable.  Existing roads, trails and access routes are protected at the state and federal level by a variety of methods.  One is the RS-2477 historic right of way designation.  This one has Ahtna trying to remove the state right of way designation and convert it to a 17-B which would not allow access to anything off the actual roadway.  What is at the end of the road?  Better yet, what is along the road?  Salmon fishing along the Klutina River to Klutina Lake.  The historic right of way designation allows 100’ either side for a right of way, including camping fishing and other outdoor activities.  The 17-B allows you to turn a vehicle around but nothing else.  If Ahtna gets its way, they grab a salmon rich river for their exclusive use.  Walker Attorney General designee Jahna Lindemuth has been negotiating with the corporation on the 2008 case. There is no small amount of fear that she is well on her way to giving away the store much like the Walker administration did when Interior wanted to start putting native lands into federal trust creating defacto reservations and Indian Country last year.  Happily, Lindemuth has not yet been confirmed by the legislature and she got to answer some very pointed questions at a confirmation hearing last week.  This case is important as it is one of the clearest of a bunch of similar claims cases making their way through the state courts system.  If she settles here, she then sets the precedence to settle them all in the same way.  Her response to the legislators was that she didn’t want to go to court because she was afraid she would lose.  No, I am not making that up.  http://mustreadalaska.com/senators-lindemuth-fight-win/

More later –

– AG

2 thoughts on “Interesting Items 03/13”

  1. I’m hoping more govts, especially ours, begin to go after Soros. I’m still scratching my head as to why he’s been able to create as much mischief as he has to date without any significant pushback. He’s a world-class oxygen thief.

Leave a Reply to Electric Cancel reply

Your email address will not be published.

This site uses Akismet to reduce spam. Learn how your comment data is processed.