Showing posts with label offshore drilling. Show all posts
Showing posts with label offshore drilling. Show all posts

Monday, September 12, 2011

Quickies




A round-up of news items, articles, columns and blog posts that caught our attention this past week or so.





A San Diego Chargers to Los Angeles update:

Forbes magazine figures the Chargers would be worth at least $200 million more upon moving to Los Angeles. If that’s all it is, though, it probably doesn’t happen.

Unless that number is comically conservative, there would not appear to be enough financial incentive for Dean Spanos to justify an exit fee, a relocation fee and a new partner/landlord with a significant stake in his football franchise.

Trouble is, that projected $200 million bump may well be comically conservative. There may be too much easy money to be made in the nation’s No. 2 market for Team Spanos to continue to seek stadium traction in San Diego after nearly a decade of inertia.

Also, would the Spanos family accept 60% vs. full ownership of the team selling 40% to AEG, the stadium developers? With family patriarch, Alex Spanos in old age and failing health, the factor that no one seems to be talking about is the Spanos' willingness to sell Alex's 36% share to avoid the death tax. As we originally reported, this deal remains too good to not happen.





Would SDG&E's Sunrise Powerlink, the massive transmission line under construction in East County, have prevented Thurday's county-wide blackout here in San Diego?

A resounding maybe.





So, the media covered the President's gaffe regarding Abraham Lincoln and the Republican Party during his jobs speech last Thursday night? Oh, you better believe they covered it.

Also, the same media outlets that fact-checked a similar gaffe made by Mike Huckabee back in 2008 can't be bothered to do the same due diligence this time around.





Here's B-Daddy with some thoughts on the President's jobs speech:

•Where's the bill? The President, as usual, did no heavy lifting. He demanded that Congress take action, but where is the bill he proposes? Legislation usually requires, well, legislation, as in legal prose.

•Where's the money?

•Roads and bridges? Really? This worked so well in the first stimulus package. Good luck getting the projects past the increasingly zealous EPA.

•Congress gets the blame for the lack of jobs? Whose party decided that healthcare was more important for the first two years of the administration. Nice tone. Way to encourage Republicans to work with you. Bottom line this was a campaign speech. Now we know Obama's campaign game plan, blame the Republicans.

Read more at the link.

Do you know what we found lacking in the jobs speech? It's pretty basic stuff. We do it quite well as a matter of fact. And as opposed to the green jobs mirage, it actually does provide very well-paying jobs and the best part of it may be that we keep finding more and more of it.



Of course, we're talking about drilling for oil and natural gas. The stuff is there, so let's go get it!



San Diego mayoral candidate and tea party fave, Carl DeMaio hitching his candidacy to public employee pension benefit reform?

The petition to do just that is still about 30,000 signatures short of qualifying for the June 2012 ballot and the deadline is October 14.

The two other Republicans in the race, Nathan Fletcher and Bonnie Dumanis have come onbard favoring the ballot initiative (Democrat and union hack, Bob Filner is opposed) but belatedly so. This has been DeMaio's baby from the get go, so, yeah, his bid for the mayor's office largely depends upon getting this on the ballot and ultimately succeeding.



Shane Atwell on the Great San Diego Black-out:

Every time there's an outbreak of salmonella or even speculation of some minor crisis in an unregulated market, the statists come out of the woodwork to discuss 'market failure' and the need for more regulations. But when a heavily regulated industry fails--an industry who's regulations were supposed to make it cheaper, more efficient and safer--those statists are silent.

Our own thoughts and observations, here.


And finally...

...The Cardiff Kook, the much-derided and much made-over surfing statue up the coast from us a few miles gets its 9-11/FDNY make-over.

Wednesday, February 16, 2011

Is that a threat or a promise?

The news out of California's state capitol:


Democratic lawmakers on Monday explained just how widespread budget cuts will be in California if the Legislature or voters do not extend temporary tax hikes to help close a $26.6 billion deficit. California would have to allow oil drilling to be expanded off the coast of Santa Barbara; end class-size reduction efforts in kindergarten through third grade; reduce wildland firefighting; and stop support for various public safety programs, according to a memo drafted by the nonpartisan Legislative Analyst's Office at the request of Democratic lawmakers.
(italics, ours)

Thanks, guys... that made this decision that much easier. After all our bitching and complaining, all it took to start drawing more of that black sticky stuff out of the ground was just a few decades of statist-fueled Sacramento incompetence.

Tuesday, May 19, 2009

Hey... they asked. (UPDATED)


(UPDATE #1): the lengths we will go to help the Governor with the deficit and provide helpful suggestions on truly alternative energy sources...

With California facing a huge budget deficit, officials at the state Department of Finance saw an opportunity to resurrect a contentious proposal for oil drilling off the coast of Santa Barbara as a way to boost revenue and potentially bring $1.8 billion into state coffers over time.


(here endeth the update)

The U.S. Department of Energy has a new agency called the Advanced Research Projects Agency – Energy. They are soliciting ideas for the research and development of transformational energy-related technologies. By their definition, transformational technologies are those that "disrupt the status quo".

Hmm… Do you know what energy-related technology certainly fits the definition of disrupting the status quo? Off-shore drilling, that’s what. Now, give us our damn grant money.

Wednesday, September 24, 2008

Let's not go uncorking the Champagne just yet...

Democrats to let offshore drilling ban expire

Good news…

(House)Democrats have decided to allow a quarter-century ban on drilling for oil off the Atlantic and Pacific coasts to expire next week, conceding defeat in a months-long battle with the White House and Republicans set off by $4 a gallon gasoline prices this summer.


Not so good news…

While the ban on energy development will be lifted if the Senate goes along with the House action, it doesn't mean any federal sale of oil and gas leases in the offshore waters - much less actual drilling - would be imminent.

The Interior Department's current five-year leasing plan includes potential leases off the Virginia coast but probably would not be pursued unless the state agrees to energy development. And the state is unlikely to do so without Congress agreeing to share federal royalties with the state.
(ed.: Nor would any state for that matter)


Since its now painfully obvious we are not going to farm our way out of this energy crisis, we’ll take solace that things have at least moved off of top-dead-center with respect to doing something concrete in addressing the energy crisis.

Please click on link for more details on the business of making legislation in all its sausage-making glory.