TROMSO, Norway (Reuters) – U.S. Secretary of State Hillary Clinton boards a research ship on Saturday to tour the Arctic, where big powers are vying for vast deposits of oil, gas and minerals that are becoming available as the polar ice recedes
Isn't that swell? Who needs those stupid polar bears anyway?
From an article a day or two earlier:
(Reuters) - Secretary of State Hillary Clinton will assert U.S. interest in the Arctic, where the prospects for abundant oil, gas and new trade routes has been likened to a modern-day gold rush, when she visits the region on Saturday....
Norway has moved its military operational headquarters into the Arctic Circle, China has development plans for Iceland and countries, including Russia, are laying claim to exploration rights in the once pristine Barents Sea.
President Romney will surely want to add some more nuke power to our arsenal if we are going to have to fight Norway as well as the as the regular commies abroad besides the liberals at home.
Some old news hot off the presses:
Ancient methane being released by Arctic melt
31 May 2012
Scientists have reported finding thousands of sites in Greenland and Alaska where ancient methane gas is bubbling into the atmosphere, possibly with great ramifications for global warming. A team from the University of Alaska at Fairbanks (UAF) used ground and aerial surveys to identify around 150,000 locations of seepage at partially ice-covered Arctic lakes.
Why wait for all that methane to be put into the atmosphere? We are expanding efforts to mine methane nodules.
Even the Valhalla of clean energy is looking more intently at fossil fuels.
Icelandic Orka Energy to collaborate more closely with Sinopec on geothermal development
Sinopec Group is China’s largest petroleum and petrochemical company and the fifth largest company in the world according to the Fortune Global 500 for 2011. Its main operations are related to the production and distribution of oil, gas, coal and other sources of energy, along with a variety of related operations and various chemical industries.
Well maybe the coming new masters of the world will be even better than our old colonial masters looking longingly at Iceland's oil deposits along with importing geothermal power with the longest power cables in the world currently being planned.
Britain's Energy Minister Charles Hendry is heading to Iceland to look at thermal energy which could help replace the UK's dwindling North Sea oil and gas resources.
Hendry is heading to Rekjavik in May to look at how thermal power could be harnessed with high-voltage electrical cables stretching across the northern Atlantic Ocean to bring low carbon power to the UK.
Not to mention digging into Iceland's purported petroleum deposits that haven't been swiftly developed:
Iceland to start drilling for oil
Posted on 02 September 2008.
The Icelandic government has offered 100 licenses to companies to start exploring for oil off the country’s northeastern coast.
Iceland could stand to benefit from potentially vast oil and gas reserves claimed to exist within the Dreki region.
It should be no secret to anyone in the world who has been the number one promoter of dirty energy warming the planet? I would now include the fine folk in Canada with the U.S. so that it becomes an all America thing. Finally we stand united with our northern neighbors that many Americans can't find on a map.
Politicians are politicians. They bend with the wind. To blame politicians for pushing dirty energy and stalling clean energy is akin to castigating coyotes for eating sheep. Let's look at the bad people shall we?
For that you will need to go below the fold to see my picks.
I suppose it's possible you don't want to stuff your mind and computer with the fantastic Geothermal Library online
The Geothermal Resources Council in the U.S. launches the GRC Online Library.
The library “contains approximately 33,000 records on all aspects of geothermal energy, including exploration, reservoir engineering, power plant design and operation, direct use, geothermal heat pumps, regulatory issues, energy policy, energy markets, news briefs, and more. We provide article-level citations to: all GRC Transactions (1977 to present), all GRC Special Reports, numerous feature articles and news briefs from the GRC Bulletin (1973 to present), corporate and academic technical reports, journals, and books.
That frightened me too. Me and my computer are already in advanced stages of decay and need no acceleration.
This very abbreviated international geothermal power report in .pdf format may still be too much for some but maybe this won't be so much large as distasteful:
The global geothermal power market continued to grow substantially in 2011-12, outpacing the US geothermal market by a noticeable margin.
It would surely be nearly impossible to get more diplomatic than that. Canada, which has funded much of what geothermal power development there is in the U.S. has none of its own but is far more interested in pushing the dirtiest petroleum on earth. Even the Sierra Club probably wouldn't do that.
The Sierra Club you say? Pushing dirty energy?
Well what would you call coal? I call it dirty. Compared to waste what would you call it? I would call it &^%$% dirty.
For those who want to keep their waste and burn coal instead, the massive Manomet study in .pdf format is here for your enjoyment and thrills.
Please note that there are some who see a more tenuous connection between Manomet and the Sierra Club than myself though they are, of course, biased. :-) There do seem to be many dissatisfied Sierra Clubbers with the direction the national group has taken and I applaud those.
Those pushing puny, expensive, intermittent [sometime energy] sun and wind to the top of the heap for clean energy have done their bit along with Big Oil and Ol' King Coal and T. Boone Pickens' clean [heh heh] natural gas to assure a warmer planet, bless them all.
Not that I have real strong opinions one way or another you know. :-)
Best, Terry