Once again the Keystone Pipeline blew a gasket, this time in my old stomping ground. Washington, Kansas—not really near Kansas City as some news outlets will have you believe—is due north of Junction City on highway 36, close to the Nebraska border. In the little town where I was lad with acne and a flattop, our high school (Riley County High School) was in the same sports league as Washington, and I may have even played some music events there.
PBS reported that this spill is the largest in the history of the controversial pipeline. Canada-based TC Energy on Thursday estimated the spill on the Keystone system at about 14,000 barrels, or 588,000 gallons.
Zack Pistora, a lobbyist for the Sierra Club in Kansas, noted the spill in his state was larger than all of the 22 previous spills combined on the Keystone pipeline, which began operations in 2010. “This is going to be months, maybe even years before we get the full handle on this disaster and know the extent of the damage and get it all cleaned up.”
Unfortunately, the spill went into Mill Creek, an offshoot of the Little Blue River. And, of course, the oil pundits are not as concerned about the environmental impact as they are about how this will affect the OIL INDUSTRY. Tom Kloza, an Oil Price Information Service analyst, said that oil is now perceived as plentiful, and this mishap will not have any appreciable impact on gasoline or diesel prices. Prices at the pump will continue to drop a few cents a day, or even more, and that between Canadian imports and the Strategic Petroleum Reserve, the U.S. has enough crude to last more than three years at current demand.
Patrick De Haan, an analyst for GasBuddy, which operates a price-tracking app, said there is pressure to repair the pipeline quickly and keep refineries supplied, adding that “if it lasts more than a few days, that could spell trouble.”
We do love oil. And that heavy black viscous tar sand, evidently. In my lifetime, I don’t expect much change in the way we fornicate with fossil fuels. But I am encouraged for future generations with the announcement yesterday of a major milestone being crossed in the development of fusion energy.
NPR reported that For the first time ever in a laboratory, researchers were able to generate more energy from fusion reactions than they used to start the process. The total gain was around 150%. The achievement came at the National Ignition Facility (NIF), a $3.5 billion laser complex at Lawrence Livermore National Laboratory in California. For more than a decade, NIF has struggled to meet its stated goal of producing a fusion reaction that generates more energy than it consumes.
Politico reports that In theory, nuclear fusion could produce massive amounts of energy without producing lost-lasting radioactive waste, or posing the risk of meltdowns. That’s unlike nuclear fission, which powers today’s reactors. Swirling hydrogen isotopes are forced together under tremendous heat to create helium and energy for power generation. This is the same process that powers the sun and other stars. Hmmmm, Swirling Isotopes—good band name. Again, the practical use of this will most likely be underway after I’ve become a tree, but still, good news for the planet overall.
With a bit of a pivot and a plié, Mark Meadows’ texts have been released and there are exchanges with at least 34 Members Of Congress about plans to overturn the 2020 election. My favorite parts are where both Rep. Ralph Norman of South Carolina and Marjorie Taylor Greene wrote to Meadows hoping to invoke MARSHALL LAW! Yeehaw!
This is a former chief of staff to the president of the United States, who swore an oath to defend the Constitution of the United States, having text conversations to keep the losing candidate in power. You can read more at talking points memo dot com if you DARE!
And in some good news, even though the vast majority of House and Senate Republicans opposed the Respect for Marriage Act (surprise!), twelve of those critters got on board. For various reasons, Senator Shelley Moore Capito of West Virginia, Senator Susan Collins of Maine, Senator Joni Ernst of Iowa, Senator Cynthia Lummis of Wyoming, Senator Lisa Murkowski of Alaska, Senator Todd Young of Indiana, Senator Richard Burr of North Carolina, Senator Dan Sullivan of Alaska, Senator Thom Tillis of North Carolina, Senator Mitt Romney of Utah, Senator Rob Portman of Ohio, and Senator Roy Blunt of Missouri all voted Yes to pass the act. Most religious groups supported it with the exception of the U.S. Conference of Catholic Bishops and the Southern Baptist Convention.
I may not get to the Dispatch this week so I’ll leave you with some snaps from Faro, Portugal as we had some time waiting for our train to take us back to Lisbon and our flight home the next morning.
And now…
Fission, yes. And, more good news
https://www.nytimes.com/2022/12/14/climate/native-plants-lawns-homeowners.html
The hype around the fusion announcement is making me crazy. With massive amounts of infrastructure consuming huge amounts of electricity they shoved 2 megajoule of power into a tiny spot and got 3 megajoules out in a single in a single event over a fraction of a second. You'll notice they aren't using the more familiar "kilowatt hours" here because that energy didn't get converted into electricity which would have cut the power yield considerably (and 0.5 kilowatt hours in and 0.8 kilowatt hours out would have sounded much less impressive since it doesn't use "mega"). We don't need hope for some super technology to save the day decades from now so we can just keep doing what we're doing. We need people to change what they're doing now using what we already know how to do. Taking my chill pill now.