The Blue State

Not to Worry, It's Only 42 Thousand Gallons of Crude Oil

In my opinion here is another fine example of government officials BS'ing thepublic. Forty Two thousand gallons of crude oil is happily cruising down a rivertowards a lake that supplies drinking water. The officials say "they're notsure of the extent of contamination" and a spokeswoman for the Dept. of EnvironmentalQuality says "the spill isn't expected tohave an impact on the water-supply intakes located below the surface at thesouth end of the lake. She says oil tends to float on the surface of the water,so the quality of water taken from below the surface of the lake should not beaffected." Personally I don't think you can put forty two thousand gallonsOF water in a river and it not have an impact of some sort.

COFFEYVILLE, Kan. (AP) - Forty-two thousandsgallons of thick crude oil are nearing an Oklahoma lake that supplies water fordrinking and recreation.

The oil spilled from the Coffeyville Resourcesrefinery in Kansas on Sunday into the Verdigris River. It has been floatingdownstream toward Oologah (OO'-luh-gah) Lake, about 30 miles northeast of Tulsa

Officials say a lot of the oil slick remainson the surface and is visible. They're not sure of the extent of contamination.

A spokeswoman for the Oklahoma Department ofEnvironmental Quality says the spill isn't expected to have an impact on thewater-supply intakes located below the surface at the south end of the lake. Shesays oil tends to float on the surface of the water, so the quality of watertaken from below the surface of the lake should not be affected. Thestory is here... (but this is all there is at this link.)

Then we can go down the list of all the things NOT to worry about:

 
• None of the oil reached Oklahoma's Lake Oologah, a source of drinking    water for Tulsa and other communities, Oklahoma environmental officials said    Wednesday.
 
• Some workers at the refinery and the fertilizer facility already are    returning to work. Others have been told to remain at home until contacted    by their supervisors to return.
 
• Lipinski says the company is working closely with city, state and federal    agencies engaged in mitigating the environmental impact of the loss and is    actively reaching out to those people affected.
 
• On Tuesday, the U.S. Environmental Protection Agency, EPA, was helping the    Coffeyville Police Department to conduct air quality tests for potential    hazards
 
• At least 1,000 people have been displaced from their homes throughout    southeast Kansas, says the Kansas adjutant general's department
 
• The Kansas Department of Health and Environment, KDHE, is distributing    tetanus vaccine to prevent the illness in people who have come in contact    with the floodwaters
 
• Health officials are warning residents to stay out of the flood waters due    to sewage, hazardous materials, and other contaminants. Individuals should    contact their nearest health department for a tetanus vaccine if they have    had a recent, significant injury or if they have entered the water and have    not had a tetanus vaccination in the past 10 years.
 
• The EPA advises people returning to property that may be contaminated with    oil and other contaminants to wear work boots, open doors and windows for    ventilation, and avoid taking oil-contaminated items to non-contaminated    locations. Read    this complete article here...

We all know accidents can happen, but when you look at the list of all the"agencies" working on this one, it is similar to Katrina's crack teamsof crack heads. And when fish, birds and other wildlife start popping up dead,or with more eyes and legs then they really need, then they will create afew more committees to investigate the new situation.

A few more emergencies like this and "we're in big troublemister"...ya see, all our federal funds are a little tied up right nowhelping democratize the world.

And besides, what's the worse that could happen? I ain't no tree hugger!

Reid questions timing of oil refinery maintenance

The average gallon of gasoline in the United States is now up to $3.07 -- a 20 cent increase in just the last two weeks.  Just last month, Exxon reported that profits were up 10% in the first quarter of 2007.

So what is going on?  Harry Reid has his own opinion:

"It's outrageous ...Isn't it interesting every year about this time,a refinery goes down for repairs," said Senate Democratic Leader HarryReid of Nevada.

Actually, it is quite puzzling.  Why would oil companies conduct refinery maintenance at this time of the year, just weeks before Memorial Day weekend, when millions of families across the country will take to the roads?

This kind of maintenance limits supply and helps drive up prices.  Could that be why the Bush Administration ordered oil companies last September, just two months before the election, to delay all refinery maintenance?  It really makes you think.

Exxon profits set U.S. record

Even though Exxon Mobil's profits declined by four percent during the last quarter of '06, they still set a yearly profit of $39.5 billion, which is an all-time record for any U.S. company.  The Boston Globe has the raw numbers:

The 2006 profit topped the previous record, also by Exxon Mobil, of$36.13 billion set in 2005. The record earnings amounted to roughly$4.5 million an hour for the world's largest publicly traded oilcompany, which produces about 3 percent of the world's oil.

It also equals the approximate gross domestic product -- a measure ofall goods and services produced within a country in a given year -- ofcountries like Ecuador, Luxembourg and Croatia.

Also eyepoppingwas   Exxon Mobil's revenue, which rose to $377.64 billion for the year,surpassing the record $370.68 billion it posted in 2005.

Part of Exxon's success came as a result of crude prices reaching $78 a barrel over the summer.  The sharp decline of natural gas prices in the fall and winter might explain some of the reason why Exxon's profits fell four percent in the fourth quarter of 2006.

Exxon's holdings expected to surpass Microsoft

We have all read the reports: Exxon made $8.4 billion in the first quarter of this year, while at the same time as prices hover around $3.20 per gallon and in some places even greater.

But even that is not enough for Exxon.  As the Wall Street Journal reports today, Exxon's cash holdings are at $31.9 billion -- projected to surpass Microsoft as the richest American company:

Thanks to soaring oil prices and record earnings, global energy titan Exxon MobilCorp. appears to be on track to amass a cash mountain even taller thanMicrosoft's. That would give Exxon, the world's biggest company bystock-market value, bragging rights to one of the largest cash piles ata nonfinancial company.

Exxon's bank still isn't as big as Berkshire HathawayInc.'s. Neither is Microsoft's. But Berkshire boss Warren Buffettdoesn't pay out dividends or repurchase stock. Had Exxon followed thesame policy in the past three boom years, its cash pile would be aboutdouble that of Berkshire. Instead, Exxon these days pays out more than$2 billion a month to shareholders.

Despite such an outlay, Exxon's total cash hit $31.9 billion at the endof March, compared with $28.6 billion at the end of 2005, according tofigures filed late last week with the Securities and ExchangeCommission. That puts Exxon within reach of Microsoft's cash andshort-term investments of $34.8 billion at the end of March. Exxon'scash doesn't include $4.6 billion it has set aside related to theappeal of a court case. Berkshire had cash and equivalents of nearly$43 billion at the end of March, giving it the largest cash holding fora nonfinancial company, according to research provider Capital IQ.Banks, insurers and other financial firms, by definition, are huge cashcompilers. (A number of Berkshire-owned companies are financial firms,but Berkshire also owns consumer-goods makers and other types ofcompanies.)

On top of that, oil companies such as Exxon are currently getting billions in subsidies in this year's budget.