Rex Tillerson’s Impact On European Energy

Trump 43 Comments

Jonathan Hoogendoorn;

What do both energy and global security stand to gain or lose from a leader like Tillerson? The CEO brings the obvious ties to and understanding of Vladimir Putin’s Russia to the office, a point of view from which Washington might benefit. Relations with Russia plummeted throughout the Obama administration, and Trump’s team will have their work cut out for them. Those at the top of the global energy sector must conduct their business through keen political insight, something Mr. Tillerson has certainly obtained. This deep understanding of political tension in Europe could be a needed asset, but his likely view of politics through a business lens (Mr. Tillerson has no political experience) could also introduce a conflict of interest to a foggy bottom, affecting the profitability of the energy sector as a whole.
Fruitful energy relations between Europe and Russia are paramount. After the recent energy crises caused by Russia’s halting of gas flow through Ukraine, Europe awoke to its dependence on Russian resources. From this point there arose a divide in willingness to expand deals with Russia, leading to the highly controversial Nord Stream line(s), which provide a direct natural gas line from Russia to Germany. There continues to be a divide over whether Europe should continue expansive deals with Russian energy companies.


John Bolton is probable Deputy Secretary.

The Sound Of Settled Science

Climate Cult Unsettled Science 26 Comments

No growth stimulation of Canada’s boreal forest under half-century of combined warming and CO2 fertilization

Considerable evidence exists that current global temperatures are higher than at any time during the past millennium. However, the long-term impacts of rising temperatures and associated shifts in the hydrological cycle on the productivity of ecosystems remain poorly understood for mid to high northern latitudes. Here, we quantify species-specific spatiotemporal variability in terrestrial aboveground biomass stem growth across Canada’s boreal forests from 1950 to the present. We use 873 newly developed tree-ring chronologies from Canada’s National Forest Inventory, representing an unprecedented degree of sampling standardization for a large-scale dendrochronological study. We find significant regional- and species-related trends in growth, but the positive and negative trends compensate each other to yield no strong overall trend in forest growth when averaged across the Canadian boreal forest.

Via @ClimateAudit — if warming doesnt stimulate northern forest growth, dendro reconstructions of past temperature by Mann, Briffa etc are worthless. No surprise

#Rigged

2016 Bill's Wife Political Animal 30 Comments

Hillary County;

Voting irregularities in Detroit have spurred plans for an audit by Michigan Secretary of State Ruth Johnson’s office, Elections Director Chris Thomas said Monday.
State officials are planning to examine about 20 Detroit precincts where ballot boxes opened during the recount had fewer ballots than poll workers had recorded on Election Day.
“We’re assuming there were (human) errors, and we will have discussions with Detroit election officials and staff in addition to reviewing the ballots,” Thomas said.
The Detroit precincts are among those that couldn’t be counted during a statewide presidential recount that began last week and ended Friday following a decision by the Michigan Supreme Court.
The recount problems were the worst in Detroit, where discrepancies meant officials couldn’t recount votes in 392 of the city’s 662 precincts, or nearly 60 percent. State law that bars recounts for unbalanced precincts or ones with broken seals.
Democrat Hillary Clinton overwhelmingly prevailed in Detroit and Wayne County.

In one precinct the ballot box contained only 50 ballots. The poll book showed 306 were counted.

We Don’t Need No Stinking Giant Fans

Alternative Subsidy 15 Comments

Telegraph;

Britain’s increasing reliance on “intermittent” renewable energy means that the country is facing an unprecedented supply crisis, a senior Ofgem executive has warned.
Andrew Wright, a senior partner at Ofgem and former interim chief executive, warned that households could be forced to pay extra to keep their lights on while their neighbours “sit in the dark” because “not everyone will be able to use as much as electricity as they want”.

In The Mail

Books 6 Comments

“The war in Iraq has followed her to Colorado.”

A new book by SDA supporter Bill Greenwood. Check it out here.

Update from Bill — “It won’t be on sale until some time in January. If it gets enough nominations, it will get a slot in Amazon’s promoted publications. If it doesn’t get a promo slot, it’ll still go on Amazon at the end of the nomination period.”

More Pavilions At Volkfest

More Pavilions At Folkfest Religion Of Submission 2 Comments

Meet Berlin’s new Senatskanzlei;

“In August she complained that in political discourse, German national law and Sharia law are always presented as contradictory to each other, and said ‘Everyone talks about Shariah, but hardly anyone knows what Sharia means.’ Remarking that Sharia exists ‘largely to govern the relationship between God and man,’ Chebli said Sharia law was ‘absolutely compatible’ with Germany.”

And if not now, then later. More here.

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