The Keystone Pipeline

Recently the Obama administration rejected the Keystone Pipeline. This is not a totally bad event. First, the Republicans tried to force the administration's hand by putting an artificially rushed on the dead line for the issue. It was moving forward, but the opposition party is forcing the administration to make a hurried decision that would not be to the liking of some of its supports; environmentalists and labor are on opposite sides on the pipeline.

The problem with the situation is that the pipeline might cross the Ogallala aquifer in Kansas and Nebraska. The aquifer is a gigantic underground lake, which that part of the country depends upon for water. A lot of agriculture is depended upon this water; our food supply is depended upon it.

Now the recent history of  the oil companies abuse of  the environment is quite stark. BP did a job on the Gulf, which still needs a lot of work. The coast may never be restored to its previous state. BP is certainly getting tired of spending money to fix what they have done. There have been other oil spills that are still causing problems.

A small event occurred at a refinery in Denver, which polluted the water under their plant recently. It was not a big spill, and the aquifer is small, and the refiner needs the water for their own use. However, it is felt that is going to take several years to fix; an aquifer is a matter that takes time to fix.

The Ogallala aquifer being huge and deep would be very hard to fix. So taking a little time to look at the situation is needed. The oil companies are not good at planning; they do do not hold priorities of others as high as they hold their own priorities,so they need to let some outside experts look at their plans. There too much to loose, if something goes wrong...and it will.

The Oil Industry

NPR recently had a story on the amount of oil that is being imported into this country. (Here is the story.) It is interesting that the relative amount of oil the US imports has gone down from about 60% back during George W. Bush's administration to about 49% now, and the predictions for the future is that the amount of oil this country imports is going to continue decreasing for the foreseeable future. Now I am not totally certain what caused the transition. A part of it could be the high prices for gasoline that the country has been experiencing. The high prices have encouraged new exploration and production methods for oil that might not have been as profitable when prices are lower. The higher prices would also influence demand in that people would be buying less gasoline.

There is another story that I want to look at on this subject. It seems that about 60% of the federal lands that are being lease are neither producing oil nor under developed for oil production. They are just sitting there unused. (Here is the store.)

The problem I have with these revelations is that you would expect from all the noise the oil industry has been making about need for more areas opened; they want such areas as the Artic Wildlife Refuge and areas adjacent to National Parks opened to drilling. I don't feel that the oil companies can be trusted, when they present their needs. They always are seeking to control more than what they need.

More on Nuclear Energy

Today it was revealed that the Japanese are afraid that the one of the containment buildings may have been damaged by the earth quake. They are at a loss to explains where all the very radioactive water in the basement of the building except for it to be from the core.

Now this seems to make some of the questions that were asked the Congressional hearings a couple of weeks ago a little ridiculous. One question was why do everyone keep coming back with questions about safety? The short answer to that is that we keep finding new things that need to be considered. Nothing is ever completely known. It is part of the human condition.

Another question that arose out of these hearings was the subsidising of the other alternative energy sources. It was pointed out that they have been subsidised since the Jimmy Carter administration. Nuclear power has been subsidised since the Harry Trueman administration. (The Nuclear Regulator Administration is as much an advocacy group as it is a regulatory one. One of reason for being is to show that nuclear energy is safe. The problem is that the Commission has always operated from the point that it is safe,and the public only needs to be informed of this. It is not proactive in its actions to be checking that their might be issues that have arisen.) So when the cost of the methods of production, the expense of the various safety issues must be addressed. (When a wind-mill goes bad and explodes, how may square miles of land around the mill are not usable for year? Zero...you go in with a bulldozer, and pull down the wreckage, and the land is ready again. This is not the case with a nuclear power plant.)

So just because things seemed to be complete some time ago, does not mean that new questions can arise, and when they do they need to be addressed.

Nuclear Power Continued

The problems at the Japanese Nuclear Plants continues. How the problem developed is clearer though. The reactors were not damaged by the earthquake. The three reactors that were operating at the time of the quake were shut down. The problem is that even when the nuclear fission has been stopped the material remains very hot. There needs to be consistent supply of coolant to keep the rods from getting too hot, and melting themselves. Since the reactors have shut down, the power needs to come in from the outside or the pumps need to be powered by diesel or other fuel. The tsunami took out the diesel pumps and the in coming power lines.

At this time though, Japan needs to get their reactors under control. However, the US needs to take a look at their situation. Are there reactors that are in problem areas of this country? In the past the question that was usually asked was would the containment building be able to prevent a radiation leak. However, now the back-up systems now need to be check to see if they would be able to perform if there was a situation.

Nuclear Power

In the past few years Nuclear Power has been experiencing a regeneration in its support. With global warming, it has been coming back into favor as an alternative to fossil fuel as a method of generating electricity. There were even indications that t here might be permits for the building of new ones.

That was until the recent Japanese earthquake damaged some of their power plants. It must be admitted that the earthquake was one of the more sever quakes in history, the results are frightening. At the moment there are four units that are in danger of a melt down, if it has not already happened.

This has brought the question of the safety of these plants to the surface. Now the plants that are having problems are old, but that does not mean that the new ones that might be constructed in the future have the problems addressed. These are questions that are too important to be ignored. (Also the safety of the old plants should be considered in the light of the current developments in Japan.)

Finally, is a nuclear disaster really something that needs to be added to another devastating disaster? Why not avoid these problems in the first place?