MUENCHHAUSEN, March 31, 2017

MUENCHHAUSEN

AN ELECTRONIC NEWSLETTER ABOUT ENVIRONMENT,

RENEWABLE RESOURCE TECHNOLOGY,

AND RELATED TOPICS

By BOOTSTRAP PRESS, INC.

BETHESDA, MD

JJGREENBARON(at)VERIZON.NET

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March 31, 2017

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WELCOME!
The Green Baron (TGB) welcomes one and all who take the time to read Muenchhausen. He aims to “tell it like it is” as much as possible, and avoid advocacy and ideological positions. There are enough of those to go around in other publications.
The Green Baron also welcomes comments from anyone who may read Muenchhausen. Please send comments to the e-mail address above.

PLEASE PARDON OUR ABSENCE

Please pardon the long absence of Muenchhausen from the blogosphere. Mrs. TGB and TGB have had something of a rough winter, which saw Mrs. TGB take a fall on late-season winter ice. She sustained a fracture of a front portion of her pelvic bone. If there was any mitigation, it was that the fracture was what doctors call “closed”, so that surgery was deemed to be unnecessary. She is currently in the slow but apparently steady process of convalescence and has been given three weeks of in-home physical therapy. Her fall took place March 15, she was at Suburban Hospital for two nights, and came home the evening of March 16.

SOME RANDOM CURRENT MUSINGS

TGB wants to muse a bit about current situations in which we find ourselves, especially given the change of government that took place January 20 of this year. Let us consider, in passing, several factors.

Coal industry and fracking. Readers of Muenchhausen and of other publications might recall that during the 2008 presidential campaign, then-candidate Barack Obama spoke about essentially closing down the coal mining industry and coal-burning power plants. He said quite flatly, “Your electricity rates must necessarily skyrocket.”

Well, TGB saw his electricity rates increase (although not as much as his telephone/Internet costs). But new sources of—yes, fossil—energy were brought on line through the process of hydraulic fracturing, also known as fracking. This process has helped temper increases in fossil-fuel prices, but it is not welcomed in many quarters. For example, New York and Maryland have instituted a moratorium on fracking, and it looks just about certain that Maryland will ban it altogether. Overseas, Scotland has levied an indefinite moratorium on the process (1).

Please do not misconstrue TGBs position. TGB would dearly love to see a world economy driven by energy from renewable sources. As he heard it said in 1974, during the height of the energy crunch of that year, “Using renewable energy is like living on investment returns. Using fossil energy is like living on your capital.” And he acknowledges progress, albeit slow, toward that goal. However, TGB would like to know by what scientific and engineering methods might this certainly worthy goal might be achieved.

Rescission of some regulations. Meanwhile, the current administration has rescinded, or is currently poised to rescind many of the regulations that have placed restrictions on coal mining and use. Several other environment/energy/climate-change agreements and regulations have been, are being, or are slated to be reversed or repealed. Salient among those are rules that grow out of the Paris Agreement on Climate Change. When TGB and Mrs. TGB are in better shape, TGB hopes to discuss some of these rescissions and other similar or related topics in greater detail.

“See you in court!” TGB will sign off for now, in the hope that soon he can post more issues of Muenchhausen with greater frequency than he has in the past. Meanwhile, he will make one prediction with confidence: The current and future rescission of environmental/energy regulations, as well as the permission to complete the Keystone XL Pipeline and operate Dakota Access—these are just a very few examples—will most surely be challenged in court. Moreover, the plaintiffs in these cases likely will be quite adept at judge- and jury-shopping (please excuse TGB’s mild cynicism). TGB also believes the court papers already are prepared and ready for filing on, say, a day’s notice. He also fears that there could well be demonstrations, some of which could turn ugly.

TGB wishes all of his readers, whoever and wherever they may be, a Happy Easter and/or Happy Passover, whichever may apply.

REFERENCES

1. www.greenpeace.org.

MUENCHHAUSEN Dec. 2, 2013, RE-POST 2

MUENCHHAUSEN 

AN ELECTRONIC NEWSLETTER ABOUT  

ENVIRONMENT, ENERGY, RENEWABLE
RESOURCE TECHNOLOGY,
AND RELATED TOPICS
By BOOTSTRAP PRESS, INC.
BETHESDA, MD 20817
JJGREENBARON(at)VERIZON.NET
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DECEMBER  2, 2013
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WELCOME!
The Green Baron (TGB) welcomes one and all who take the time to read Muenchhausen. He aims to “tell it like it is” as much as possible, and avoid advocacy and ideological positions. There are enough of those to go around in other publications. The Green Baron also welcomes comments from anyone who may read Muenchhausen. Please send comments to the e-mail address above.


ALBERTA OIL WILL GO SOMEWHERE. . .
. . .but perhaps not to Texas, as originally planned.

The way things look to TGB, pipelines will more likely be built from the Alberta oilfields toward the Vancouver, BC area on the west, and St. John, New Brunswick on the east coast. As TGB has said before and will say again (and again), the oil from the sands of northern Alberta will be produced. Question: Does it come to US, or does it go to Asia and Europe?


Incoming tidal bore, Bay of Fundy, Canada (1).


Rafting on the Bay of Fundy tidal bore. 
It can briefly make a river flow backwards (2)

It could be instructive to watch the video in Reference 2.

The establishment of an oil port in or near St. John, NB, could be a bit problematical. St. John is on the Bay of Fundy, famous (or perhaps notorious) for some of the largest trough-to-crest tide ranges in the world. Such large tide ranges, though perhaps not quite as great, may be encountered on the west coast of France, the English Channel, and perhaps the Yellow Sea side of South Korea. The main feature of the Bay of Fundy is that the tide comes in almost all at once, in the form of a true tidal wave or "bore". This might present serious challenges to the design and construction of port facilities. For example, ports in western France and Britain, are equipped with floating docks. However, on the Bay of Fundy, where the tide often comes in as shown above, very rapidly, the challenge to an oil port could be especially marked. The design must be made to counter possible fuel-line breaks from a rapidly incoming tide. In addition, the range of a spring tide, when the New Moon is aligned with Earth, can be as great as 50 feet or 15.24 meters.

As to the Keystone XL Pipeline, if he were a gambling man, TGB would bet against its being completed in the US. The matter likely would be studied to death. Or, if it is approved by the cognizant federal authorities and President Obama, TGB is confident that there are batteries of opposing lawsuits just waiting to be filed, and that many judges would grant at least a "temporary" stay on construction for a variety of reasons.

The TransCanada Corporation is keen to build the Keystone XL Pipeline, actually to complete its final link from the northern Midwest to Texas. But the company's patience has its limits. In a future posting, TGB might summarize a letter to The Washington Post, written by the chief executive officer (CEO) of TransCanada.

CAMPAIGNS AGAINST "FRACKING"

The technology of hydraulic fracturing or "fracking" has led to the United States becoming decreasingly dependent on imports of hydrocarbon fuels from unreliable or unfriendly sources. There are, however, individuals and groups that oppose this practice. Some of these comprise certain countries that stand to suffer decreased oil and gas revenue, and TGB has heard of their governments' support of lawsuits that seek to ban the practice. In other cases, numerous Hollywood and TV celebrities and domestic environmental activists have the same goal. One major goal is to force the conversion almost entirely to renewable sources of energy, regardless of how wrenching the effort may be to the population until the engineering problems involved can be resolved (if at all). The fracking technology is in wide use now, but do not discount the possibility that a series of judicial decisions could bring the practice to the proverbial screeching halt.

OIL PORT FOR TURKMENBASHI?

 
Turkmenbashi, a port on the Caspian Sea.

Turkmenbashi, in the Republic of Turkmenistan, is a port on the east shore of the Caspian Sea. During Soviet times, when Turkmenistan was an "SSR" of the Soviet Union, the port was known as Krasnovodsk. Given that Turkmenistan is has ample oil and mineral resources, there are moves afoot to construct a major oil port in Turkmenbashi. Turkmenbashi is directly across the Caspian Sea from Baku, the capital of the Republic of Azerbaijan, which itself contains major oilfields.

A major problem with the Caspian Sea, even though it is large, is that it is landlocked. It is fed mainly by the Volga and Ural Rivers from the north, and the Gorazde (border of Turkmenistan and Iran) from the east, but it has no outlet. Thus if, for example, a spill occurs at an oil or chemical facility--and one almost has to happen some time--any resulting pollution remains in the Caspian Sea. Protecting this inland sea against major contamination, especially given that much oil extraction takes place on and off the Caspian's west shore, presents a huge challenge, one that TGB hopes ultimately is not insurmountable.

METEOROLOGICAL WINTER
TGB bids all welcome to meteorological winter, which began December 1.

REFERENCES
1. http://www.bayoffundy.com/about/tidal-bore/
2. http://www.bayoffundy.com/articles/ride-a-10-feet-wave/


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Posted By Blogger to Muenchhausen at 12/02/2013 05:22:00 PM