Jonah  Goldberg, the ‘brilliant’ columnist who proclaimed not too long ago that oil and gas were the “True” green fuels, is criticising President Obama for saying we need all available fuels, pursuing nuclear as well as fossil fuels and alternatives such as wind and solar. Goldberg maintains that Obama blocked the Keystone XL pipeline and his policies are responsible for high gas prices now. Jonah is playing fast and loose with the truth. First, it is pretty well known that financial firms, speculating on future oil prices, are responsible for the high cost of gas at the pump. I don’t think the president has been buying oil futures. (Anyone with evidence that he is doing this let me know.) The president stopped the pipeline to allow an evaluation of the proposed route which passed through sensitive areas in which a pipeline spill could seriously harm a vital aquifer. Just a week ago he lifted the block and allowed the start of the lower end of the pipeline. As for not embracing cap and trade, that program does not take greenhouse gases out of the atmosphere. It just lets big polluters buy credits from a clean industry so they can pursue business as usual. Germany has tried cap-and-trade and found that the system was easily scammed.

News flash.Housing collapse, gasoline prices spur migration into cities. Duh! There are other factors like young singles delaying marriage and the greying of America whose populations may prefer being closer to walkable urban centers. The latest census shows a great many urban areas are gaining population. 

Not even a little bit. On April 5 of 2012 a McClatchy Newspaper article claimed that financial speculators are gambling on oil prices much like they did on subprime mortgages bringing down the entire financial world in 2007, according to Michael Greenberger, professor of law at Maryland University and former federal regulator of financial markets. Republican presidential candidates are all too ready to blame Obama for $4.00 gas but it is pure political negative baloney. This speculation could bring to a halt the current recovery and lead to a deepening of the recession which finally seems to be responding to some of the things that Obama, did such as rescuing the auto industry and bailing out some of the financial institutions, all of which prevented a much worse economic crisis. They always seem to forget that George W. Bush bears the major blame for the 2007 melt-down. Presidents from Bill Clinton back to Ronald Regan can also share some of the blame by allowing the gutting of a lot of the financial regulations that help prevent financial disasters like that of 2007

Yes and no. Back in the day of Thomas Edison and Geoerge Westinghouse they each favored different types of electrical power for transmission over long distances. Edison favored direct Current (DC) and George Westinghouse favored Alterenating Current (AC). Edison was forced to admit that DC would lose power only a mile from the point of generation. AC was chosen the form of power transmission as it lost very little over many miles. Nearly all  major power producing systems from coal to fuel oil and natural gas generate DC power. The  problem with AC was it had to be converted back to DC for use by machines causing a substantial loss of power.

Emissions of Methane are known to be 20 times more potent than CO2 as a greenhouse gas, far exceeding estimates for gas drilling and production, according to scientists with the National Oceanic and Atmospheric Administration. The study, focused in Weld County, Colorado, is home to 20,000 gas wells. Four percent of the methane produced by these wells is lost to the atmosphere. That’s double what was originally thought. Methane accounts for roughly 10% of greenhouse gas emissions nationwide. Leaks during the drilling, production and transmission of natural gas are the greatest source accounting for about a third of all man-made methane emissions. Researchers also found surprisingly high emissions of benzene, a carcinogen, and other pollutants.