Friday, November 16, 1973. Transforming Alaska.

Today In Wyoming's History: November 16: 1973     President Richard M. Nixon signed the Alaska Pipeline measure into law.

The building of the Alaska pipeline was huge news at the time. There were those then who expressed concerns about the environmental costs, but by and large, in the midst of the oil crisis, it was looked at by Americans with a lot of hope and often compared to big prior endeavors, such as the Transcontinental Railroad.

The oil would forever change the economy of Alaska, as it also had already, and was continuing to do, in Wyoming.

Before the Oil. And after it? The economies of Wyoming and Alaska.

Skylab 4 was launched.

Wednesday, November 7, 1973. Congress overrides Nixon's veto of the War Powers Act.

 Congress overrode President Nixon's veto of the War Powers Act.

The resolution was a direct byproduct of the Vietnam War, with Congress feeling that it had basically been led into war without a proper chance to vote on troop deployments to the conflict, although it had voted on the murky Gulf of Tonkin Resolution.  The still relatively fresh Korean War was also in mind.

The Constitutionality of the act, which as been questioned, has never been tested by the Supreme Court.  So far, however, Congress and the President have generally complied with it, not wanting to test it, even though early on President's would note that they felt it to be unconstitutional.  This is discussed further with a link here:

November 7, 1973 – Congress Passes the War Powers Act

Nixon addressed the nation on "The Energy Emergency".

It's fair  to ask in a way if the "Energy Crisis" presented a lost opportunity.

Even in 1973, contrary to the way some would like to assert it, there were concerns in the scientific community about climate change.  When the Energy Crisis arose due to the Arab Oil Embargo there was a serious effort to look at alternative energy sources, although nothing like there is today, and it was coupled with a massive effort to increase the production of domestic fossil fuels.  Solar energy was looked at seriously for the first time.  A lot of thought was put into home solar.  Energy saving regulations, in regard to appliances, and fuel efficiency standards were put into place as well.

Had the government gone further, and moved towards home solar in a large-scale way, and undertook efforts then to look towards conversion to non emitting energy sources, we may well have avoided what we're looking at today.

The Cape Krusenstern Archaeological District in Alaska was designated.

About the location, the National Park Service notes:

Cape Krusenstern Archaeological District - Designated November 7, 1973

Cape Krusenstern Archaeological District contains the cultural remains of peoples who have inhabited these beaches for 5,000 or more years. Adjacent to the ridges on unglaciated uplands in the Igichuk Hills are surface deposits that extend the record backward to the time of the end of the Pleistocene. The beach ridges of Cape Krusenstern provide a broad, horizontal stratigraphy which includes virtually all phases of cultural history known in northwest Alaska.

Sunday, November 4, 1973. Driverless Sunday.

 

By Fotograaf Onbekend / Anefo - http://proxy.handle.net/10648/ac3c2404-d0b4-102d-bcf8-003048976d84, CC0, https://commons.wikimedia.org/w/index.php?curid=67727372

The Dutch ban on Sunday driving due to the fuel emergency went into effect.

Thursday, October 18, 1973. Creeping embargo and I go Pogo.

The IDF recrossing the Suez Canal.  The artillery pieces are M107's, a heavy US artillery piece much loved by the IDF. Amos1947, CC BY-SA 4.0 <https://creativecommons.org/licenses/by-sa/4.0>, via Wikimedia Commons

Saudi Arabia cut its oil production by 10% and threatened to halt all of its oil shipments to the United States unless the US halt aid to Israel.  The United Arab Emirates completely stopped shipments to the U.S.

The Chilean Army's Caravan of Death, led by General Sergio Arellano, arrived in Antofagasta and summarily executed 56 left wing prisoners.  Military Governor of Antofagasta, General Joaquin Lagos, resigned in disgust, which actually brought to an end the Caravan.

Walt Kelly, cartoonist who started his career with Disney and the created Pogo, died of a cerebral thrombosis.

Pogo often dealt with serious themes and famously coined the phrase "we have met the enemy and he is us", a phrase truer now than ever.  "I go Pogo" was a bogus election phrases making fun of Eisenhower's "I like Ike" that also was associated with the cartoon.

Wednesday, October 17, 1973. The Arab Oil Embargo begins.

OPEC having doubled prices the day prior, Arab oil producing nations, led by Saudi Arabia, now went further and cut production overall by 5% and then placed an embargo on the United States, the Netherlands, Canada, the United Kingdom, West Germany,  Japan, Rhodesia, South Africa, and Portugal.  Western oil producers Venezuela nor Ecuador refused to join the embargo.

This causes us to recall part of what we recently posted here:

Friday, October 12, 1973. President Nixon commences a transfer of military equipment that leads to a Wyoming oil boom.

Congressman Gerald Ford was nominated to be Vice President by Richard Nixon.  

Also on that day, President Nixon authorized Operation Nickel Grass, the airlift of weapons to Israel.

 

M60 tank being loaded as part of Operation Nickel Grass

The operation revealed severe problems with the U.S. airlift capacity and would likely have not been possible without the assistance of Portugal, whose Azores facilities reduced the need for air-to-air refueling.  The transfer of equipment would also leave the United States dangerously short of some sorts of military equipment, including radios, something that was compounded by the fact that the U.S. was transferring a large volume of equipment to the Republic of Vietnam at the same time.

This would directly result in the Arab Oil Embargo, which had been threatened. The embargo commenced on October 17.  

U.S. oil production had peaked in 1970.  Oil imports rose by 52% between 1969 and 1972, an era when fuel efficiency was disregarded.  By 1972 the U.S. was importing 83% of its oil from the Middle East, but the real cost of petroleum had declined from the late 1950s.

The low cost of petroleum was a major factor in American post-war affluence from the mid 1940s through the 1960s.  The embargo resulted in a major expansion of Wyoming's oil and gas industry, and in some ways fundamentally completed a shift in the state's economy that had been slowly ongoing since World War One, replacing agriculture with hydrocarbon extraction as the predominant industry.

We often hear a lot of anecdotal information about this topic today.  

In this context, it's interesting to note that petroleum consumption is not much greater today in the U.S. than it was in 1973, but domestic production is the highest, by far, it's ever been.  Importation of petroleum is falling, but it's also higher than it was in 1973, but exportation of petroleum is the highest it's ever been, exceeding the amount produced in 1973.  If experts are balanced against imports, we're at an effective all-time low for importation.  In effect, presently, all we're doing with importation is balancing sources.

People hate this thought locally, but with renewable energy sources coming online, there's a real chance that petroleum consumption will fall for the first time since the 1970s, which would have the impact of reducing imports to irrelevancy.  Any way its looked at, the U.S. is no hostage to Middle Eastern oil any more.

It turned out that Europe wasn't hostage to Russian hydrocarbons either, so all of this reflects a fundamental shift in the world's economy.

Price has certainly changed over time.

Juan and Isabel Person were sworn into office as the elected president and vice president of Argentina

Judge John Sirica ruled that the Senate Watergate Committee was not entitled to have access to President Nixon's tape recordings, but that the U.S. Department of Justice special prosecutor, Archibald Cox, could subpoena them as evidence.

Motorola Corporation's engineer's filed for a patent on the DynaTAC, the first hand-held cellular telephone.  It would be issued two years later and our long modern nightmare would accelerate.

The DynaTAC would not enter production until 1983.

The Mets took game four of the World Series against the A's.  I surely would have watched that on the television with my father.

Tuesday, October 16, 1973. Doubling the price of oil and false peace.

OPEC doubled the price of oil from $2.18/bbl to $5.12/bbl.  It didn't consult with the oil companies before doing so, and in some ways initiated in the modern, post, post World War Two, economy.

$5.12?  Yes, that's what it was.

That would be $33.75 adjusted for inflation.

The UK and Iceland came to an agreement to end the Cod War.

Henry Kissinger and Lê Đức Thọ were awarded the Nobel Peace Prize.  The North Vietnamese negotiation, however, did not accept it, stating:

However, since the signing of the Paris agreement, the United States and the Saigon administration continue in grave violation of a number of key clauses of this agreement. The Saigon administration, aided and encouraged by the United States, continues its acts of war. Peace has not yet really been established in South Vietnam. In these circumstances it is impossible for me to accept the 1973 Nobel Prize for Peace which the committee has bestowed on me. Once the Paris accord on Vietnam is respected, the arms are silenced and a real peace is established in South Vietnam, I will be able to consider accepting this prize. With my thanks to the Nobel Prize Committee please accept, madame, my sincere respects.

Friday, October 12, 1973. President Nixon commences a transfer of military equipment that leads to a Wyoming oil boom.

Congressman Gerald Ford was nominated to be Vice President by Richard Nixon.  

Also on that day, President Nixon authorized Operation Nickel Grass, the airlift of weapons to Israel.

 

M60 tank being loaded as part of Operation Nickel Grass

The operation revealed severe problems with the U.S. airlift capacity and would likely have not been possible without the assistance of Portugal, whose Azores facilities reduced the need for air-to-air refueling.  The transfer of equipment would also leave the United States dangerously short of some sorts of military equipment, including radios, something that was compounded by the fact that the U.S. was transferring a large volume of equipment to the Republic of Vietnam at the same time.

This would directly result in the Arab Oil Embargo, which had been threatened. The embargo commenced on October 17.  

U.S. oil production had peaked in 1970.  Oil imports rose by 52% between 1969 and 1972, an era when fuel efficiency was disregarded.  By 1972 the U.S. was importing 83% of its oil from the Middle East, but the real cost of petroleum had declined from the late 1950s.

The low cost of petroleum was a major factor in American post-war affluence from the mid 1940s through the 1960s.  The embargo resulted in a major expansion of Wyoming's oil and gas industry, and in some ways fundamentally completed a shift in the state's economy that had been slowly ongoing since World War One, replacing agriculture with hydrocarbon extraction as the predominant industry.

We often hear a lot of anecdotal information about this topic today.  

In this context, it's interesting to note that petroleum consumption is not much greater today in the U.S. than it was in 1973, but domestic production is the highest, by far, it's ever been.  Importation of petroleum is falling, but it's also higher than it was in 1973, but exportation of petroleum is the highest it's ever been, exceeding the amount produced in 1973.  If experts are balanced against imports, we're at an effective all-time low for importation.  In effect, presently, all we're doing with importation is balancing sources.

People hate this thought locally, but with renewable energy sources coming online, there's a real chance that petroleum consumption will fall for the first time since the 1970s, which would have the impact of reducing imports to irrelevancy.  Any way its looked at, the U.S. is no hostage to Middle Eastern oil any more.

It turned out that Europe wasn't hostage to Russian hydrocarbons either, so all of this reflects a fundamental shift in the world's economy.

Price has certainly changed over time.

Juan and Isabel Person were sworn into office as the elected president and vice president of Argentina

Thursday, August 16, 1923. Antarctic Governor

With at least an element of hubris, Viscount Jellicoe, the Governor General of New Zealand, was designated the Governor of the Ross Dependency in Antarctica.

There is something so British about this, it isn't funny. . . or rather it is.

Jellicoe commanded the Royal Navy at the Battle of Jutland, the singular great naval battle of the Great War, which by any rational definition was a Royal Navy victory and which demonstrated, beyond that, that the the surface fleet of the Imperial German Kreigsmarine was an expensive waste of resources. So he was due his honors.

Still, Jellicoe nearly defines the high empire age, which started to dwindle following World War One.

More locally, headline use of "last rights" was incorrect, but the grief was genuine.

Sunday, August 12, 1923. Cuno resigns.

Wilhelm Cuno, who had been under heavy criticism in Germany, resigned as Chancellor.

The Tribune reported on the ongoing concern over gasoline prices, a perpetual American concern.

Subsidiarity Economics. The times more or less locally, Part XIV. And now back to our regularly scheduled programming.

 

June 5, 2023

Saudi Arabia is cutting its petroleum production by 1M barrels a day.

June 6, 2023

Ukrainian wheat prices have jumped.

June 9, 2023

Wyoming will divest itself of investments in China.

June 22, 2023

Ground was broken yesterday, after a decade and a half was expended on permitting on the Trans West Transmission project.  The event took place near Sinclair.\

June 27, 2023

Ford Motors is laying off salaried workers and engineers in order to save costs.

June 28, 2023

WYDOT approved a grant to Jackson to use Federal money to purchase EV buses.

June 29, 2023

Walgreens is closing 150 stores in the U.S.

In a tragedy, National Geographic magazine laid off its last remaining staff writers.

The magazine has been independent of the National Geographic Society since 2015, when it was sold to Fox.

Wyoming and Colorado Sign MOU Regarding Direct Air Capture

MOU outlines commitment to exploring direct air carbon dioxide capture (DAC) industry development

BOULDER, Colo.  – The State of Wyoming and State of Colorado announced today that they have signed a Memorandum of Understanding (MOU) regarding direct air capture (DAC) activity and development. The bipartisan inter-state agreement will focus on the DAC industry’s potential to complement existing and emerging industries and increase jobs and economic development in both states while simultaneously reducing carbon dioxide in the atmosphere. Governors Mark Gordon and Jared Polis announced the news during the Western Governor Association meeting today in Boulder, Colorado.

Direct Air Capture is a method of carbon dioxide removal (CDR) in which CO2 is removed from the air and then sequestered and stored to produce high-quality carbon removal credits or used for industrial applications, such as enhanced oil recovery or as a chemical feedstock for other products. The federal government has established several significant incentives and competitive grant opportunities to test and scale direct air capture technologies and projects. The mountain west is uniquely positioned to lead on these efforts, and this bipartisan agreement represents the first such multistate partnership in the county. 

The MOU outlines the partnership between the states through potential collaborations such as: applying for grants, identifying necessary infrastructure, defining carbon removal measurement standards, analyzing atmospheric CDR markets and their growth opportunities, identifying a process for resolving issues with cross-border CO2 sequestration, developing a commercialization pipeline for nascent technologies, and ensuring that local, tribal, and state stakeholders are empowered participants in shaping the future of this innovative technology and its significant economic opportunity. 

“Wyoming is a longtime leader in carbon management practices and policy,” said Wyoming Governor Mark Gordon. “We believe direct air capture could complement efforts for point-source carbon capture and the related infrastructure. Colorado and Wyoming each have pieces of the puzzle necessary to develop a carbon removal market and industry. Together, we have a powerful combination of assets, infrastructure, policy, markets, people, geology and mindsets that are needed to accelerate the development of the industry. This agreement focuses on working together on the most important questions related to DAC, including measurement standards that work to create more transparency in markets and benefits to communities.”

“This exciting bipartisan partnership builds upon our nation-leading work in Colorado to achieve 100% renewable energy by 2040 while adding good-paying jobs. I am proud to partner with Gov. Gordon on this innovative work that benefits both Colorado and Wyoming as we continue to find creative ideas and common-sense solutions in the fight for clean air that won’t just benefit Colorado and Wyoming, but the entire world,” said Colorado Governor Jared Polis. 

The MOU highlights the combined assets, infrastructure, policy, markets, resources and geology that make the region a strong contender for developing a direct air capture industry. Wyoming has world-class carbon capture, use and sequestration (CCUS) assets, including permanent geologic storage – in addition to existing infrastructure, manufacturing and energy workforce. Colorado has been developing a policy environment to evaluate the regulatory, economic, technological, and research opportunities in the carbon dioxide removal and direct air capture area and is home to the world’s second-largest operating DAC facility. 

This agreement builds on further regional collaboration between Wyoming and Colorado with Utah and New Mexico to develop the Western Interstates Hydrogen Hub. This existing partnership will mobilize  billions of dollars of investment in clean hydrogen infrastructure, another emerging technology to reduce pollution and continue the West’s leadership on global energy solutions.  

For more information, read the Memorandum in full.

June 30, 2023

UW is receiving a Federal grant for nuclear chemistry research.  The grant is in the amount of $300,000.

A headline:

Sriracha prices soar amid ongoing supply shortage linked to droughts

July 3, 2023

In an effort to cause prices to rise, Russia is cutting petroleum production by 500,000 bbls per day.

July 12, 2023

Inflation has fallen to 3%.  Historically, while it's perfectly possible to have even lower inflation, or deflation, that's a pretty good rate.

That we allow for government induced inflation through monetary policy is inexcusable, however.

The official aim is for 2%:

Why does the Federal Reserve aim for inflation of 2 percent over the longer run?

The Federal Open Market Committee (FOMC) judges that inflation of 2 percent over the longer run, as measured by the annual change in the price index for personal consumption expenditures, is most consistent with the Federal Reserve’s mandate for maximum employment and price stability. When households and businesses can reasonably expect inflation to remain low and stable, they are able to make sound decisions regarding saving, borrowing, and investment, which contributes to a well-functioning economy.

For many years, inflation in the United States has run below the Federal Reserve’s 2 percent goal. It is understandable that higher prices for essential items, such as food, gasoline, and shelter, add to the burdens faced by many families, especially those struggling with lost jobs and incomes. At the same time, inflation that is too low can weaken the economy. When inflation runs well below its desired level, households and businesses will come to expect this over time, pushing expectations for inflation in the future below the Federal Reserve’s longer-run inflation goal. This can pull actual inflation even lower, resulting in a cycle of ever-lower inflation and inflation expectations.

If inflation expectations fall, interest rates would decline too. In turn, there would be less room to cut interest rates to boost employment during an economic downturn. Evidence from around the world suggests that once this problem sets in, it can be very difficult to overcome. To address this challenge, following periods when inflation has been running persistently below 2 percent, appropriate monetary policy will likely aim to achieve inflation modestly above 2 percent for some time. By seeking inflation that averages 2 percent over time, the FOMC will help to ensure longer-run inflation expectations remain well anchored at 2 percent.

1% would be better.  0 would be even better.  Very difficult to achieve.

And in actuality, with a labor demand that exceeds employment, a slight deflation, over a decade, would be nice.

July 13, 2023

A study published in Joule maintains that ending fossil fuel use will impact the net worth of only the very wealthy.

Swiss voters have voted to reach net carbon zero by 2050.

July 16, 2023

Hollywood actors and writers are on strike, something that could carry on forever as far as I'm concerned, given the overall negative affects the industry has had.

July 19, 2023

Wheat prices have jumped 8% due to Russia pulling out of the Black Sea grain shipment arrangement.

July 20, 2023

NON-ENERGY MINERALS ON PUBLIC LANDS ARE A SIGNIFICANT CONTRIBUTOR TO ECONOMIC ACTIVITY AND JOBS

July 22, 2023

Fiat Chrysler Automobiles lost its renewed legal battle seeking to keep Mahindra & Mahindra Ltd. from selling the redesigned Roxor off-road vehicle in the US.

The lawsuit claimed the designed trespass on protected elements of the Jeep.  I don't know the details of the suit, but the Roxor is pretty clearly a Jeep externally, and more particularly the old CJ-5.

July 28, 2023

Supreme Court rules in favor of Mountain Valley Pipeline  

Or;

Supreme Court rules in favor of Mountain Valley Pipeline

Thumbs Up Emoji Costs Canadian Farmer $82,000

August 3, 2023

Sales of Bud Light have fallen 10%.

August 4, 2023

Saudi Arabia extended production cuts.  U.S. oil prices are at a nine-month-high.

August 8, 2023

Two out of three of the major credit rating entities have downgraded the US rating from AAA+ to AAA. This occured to the lunacy of current American politics and the high U.S. debt.

And, locally:

Environmental Groups Lose Appeal Of Wyoming 3,500 Gas Well Project at Jonah Field

Last prior edition:

Subsidiarity Economics. The times more or less locally, Part XIII. The Economic Doomsday Clock

Saturday, July 28, 1923. President Harding falls ill.

President Harding cancelled visits to Oregon and Yosemite National Park as he was ill with what was believed to be ptomaine poisoning.  He remained in bed in a special locomotive car.  

Secretary of the Interior Herbert Work did address a crowed at Grants Pass, Oregon, stating:

It comes about that during our last day at sea many of us were attacked by a temporary indisposition, not due to seasickness but to food put up in a can. I will not say what the item of food was, for thereby I might depress the value of the canned product.

The Tribune noted that Harding was on board the train, but as this was likely a morning edition, it didn't report his illness.  This was not the case everywhere.

Friday, July 20, 1973. The death of Bruce Lee.

Actor and martial artist Bruce Lee Bruce Lee ( 李小龍) born Lee Jun-fan, (李振藩) 32 years of age, died from an allergic reaction to the meprobamate, the active ingredient in the painkiller Equagesic.

Bruce Lee from publicity photo for Fists of Fury.

Lee retains a cult following today, although I'm not part of it.  He is widely regarded as the greatest martial arts practitioner of all time.

Lee was born in San Francisco, and therefore could claim U.S. citizenship, although his family returned to Hong Kong immediately before the outbreak of the war n the Pacific.  His father was a famous Cantonese opera singer.  He was of mixed Chinese and European ancestry.  He left a wife and two children.  His son Brandon Lee would follow his footsteps and would tragically die when a firearm being used as a prop was loaded with improperly made dummy rounds.  His daughter Shannon is an actress, singer, and businesswoman.

Japan Air Lines Flight 404 was hijacked by the Japanese Red Army and the Popular Front for the Liberation of Palestine.  It would eventually be flown to Benghazi were the passengers were released and the 747 blown up.

Muammar Gaddafi announced his resignation as the leader of Libya following the failure of his plans to unite the country with Egypt.  He'd get over the resignation and reverse it three days later, following his cabinet's announcement that they'd also resign.  

Efforts to form a larger Arab republic centered on Egypt have existed since World War One with serval putative efforts to establish it.  Egypt itself was the most powerful and significant Middle Eastern state up until 1973, when the importance of oil, which Egypt has little of, began to eclipse it. 

Subsidiarity Economics. The times more or less locally, Part XII. Holding back the tide.

February 14, 2023

Freshman Congressman Harriet Hageman introduced the companion bill to a doomed bill introduced in the Senate by Cynthia Lummis, which provides:

117th CONGRESS

1st Session

H. R. 543

To prohibit the President from issuing moratoria on leasing and permitting energy and minerals on certain Federal land, and for other purposes.

IN THE HOUSE OF REPRESENTATIVES

January 28, 2021

Ms. Herrell (for herself, Mr. McCarthy, Mr. Scalise, Mr. Westerman, Mr. Gosar, Mr. Newhouse, Mr. Moore of Utah, Mr. Crawford, Mr. Young, Mr. Owens, Mr. McKinley, Mr. Sessions, Mr. Brady, Mr. Stauber, Mr. Stewart, Mr. Tiffany, Mr. LaMalfa, Mr. Curtis, Mr. Lamborn, Mr. McClintock, Mr. Roy, Mr. Smith of Nebraska, Mr. Reschenthaler, Mr. Calvert, Mrs. Bice of Oklahoma, Mr. Baird, Mr. Mooney, Mr. Rosendale, Mr. Hern, Mrs. Boebert, and Mr. Amodei) introduced the following bill; which was referred to the Committee on Natural Resources, and in addition to the Committee on Agriculture, for a period to be subsequently determined by the Speaker, in each case for consideration of such provisions as fall within the jurisdiction of the committee concerned

A BILL

To prohibit the President from issuing moratoria on leasing and permitting energy and minerals on certain Federal land, and for other purposes.

Be it enacted by the Senate and House of Representatives of the United States of America in Congress assembled,

SECTION 1. SHORT TITLE.

This Act may be cited as the “Protecting Our Wealth of Energy Resources Act” or the “POWER Act”.

SEC. 2. PROHIBITION ON MORATORIA OF NEW ENERGY LEASES ON CERTAIN FEDERAL LAND AND ON WITHDRAWAL OF FEDERAL LAND FROM ENERGY DEVELOPMENT.

(a) Definitions.—In this section:

(1) CRITICAL MINERAL.—The term “critical mineral” means any mineral included on the list of critical minerals published in the notice of the Secretary of the Interior entitled “Final List of Critical Minerals 2018” (83 Fed. Reg. 23295 (May 18, 2018)).

(2) FEDERAL LAND.—

(A) IN GENERAL.—The term “Federal land” means—

(i) National Forest System land;

(ii) public lands (as defined in section 103 of the Federal Land Policy and Management Act of 1976 (43 U.S.C. 1702));

(iii) the outer Continental Shelf (as defined in section 2 of the Outer Continental Shelf Lands Act (43 U.S.C. 1331)); and

(iv) land managed by the Secretary of Energy.

(B) INCLUSION.—The term “Federal land” includes land described in clauses (i) through (iv) of subparagraph (A) for which the rights to the surface estate or subsurface estate are owned by a non-Federal entity.

(3) PRESIDENT.—The term “President” means the President or any designee, including—

(A) the Secretary of Agriculture;

(B) the Secretary of Energy; and

(C) the Secretary of the Interior.

(b) Prohibitions.—

(1) IN GENERAL.—Notwithstanding any other provision of law, the President shall not carry out any action that would prohibit or substantially delay the issuance of any of the following on Federal land, unless such an action has been authorized by an Act of Congress:

(A) New oil and gas leases, drill permits, approvals, or authorizations.

(B) New coal leases, permits, approvals, or authorizations.

(C) New hard rock leases, permits, approvals, or authorizations.

(D) New critical minerals leases, permits, approvals, or authorizations.

(2) PROHIBITION ON WITHDRAWAL.—Notwithstanding any other provision of law, the President shall not withdraw any Federal land from forms of entry, appropriation, or disposal under the public land laws, location, entry, and patent under the mining laws, or disposition under laws pertaining to mineral and geothermal leasing or mineral materials unless the withdrawal has been authorized by an Act of Congress.

1. Can't pass the Senate

2.  Would be vetoed if it actually passed both houses, when there's certainly not enough votes to override a veto.

So why do these things?

February 20, 2023

Golden moves on path to all-electric in new buildings: To meet its #climate goals, this #Colorado city of 20,000 needs to crimp #methane combustion. It could require all-electric in new buildings by January 2024

February 23, 2023

SNAP, the Federal Supplemental Nutrition Assistance Program, ends this month.

NPR is laying off 10% of its workforce.

March 3, 2023

A Gold and Copper mine will open in Laramie County in 2025.

The United States Post Office is buying 9,250 electric vans from Ford.

March 13, 2023

Silicon Valley Bank collapsed Friday after a comment by a major investment broker regarding it.  The Federal Government is not going to "bail out" the bank, which has accounts by many wealthy investors.

President Biden is proceeding to authorize the Willow drilling project inside the National Petroleum Reserve-Alaska, despite protests over the proposed action.

March 28, 2023

Renewables produced more energy than coal last year.

Coal checked in at 20%, down from 50% in 2007, and it's declining.

This is no surprise here, we've noted the timeline of coal long ago:

Coal: Understanding the time line of an industry

April 2, 2023

It's the end of coal in the state.

Rocky Mountain Power has announced that nine of its eleven power plants will be using gas, rather than coal, by 2030.

And, once again:

Coal: Understanding the time line of an industry

As is to emphasize it, one of the remaining coal-fired plants will be Glenrock's Dave Johnson, where a third wind generating facility is going in.

April 3, 2023

Saudi Arabia and Dubai, and other OPEC countries, are cutting back oil production through the balance of the year.

April 13, 2023

The Biden Administration's proposed emissions standards will require 2/3s of all automobiles to be electric by 2032.

April 25, 2023

Fly Casper Alliance lobbies for city subsidy.

A new Natrona County Advocacy Group, Fly Casper Alliance, is seeking $50,000 from the City of Casper to help secure the present Delta (Sky West) flight to Salt Lake City.  The flight already receives subsidies from Natrona County, but this one time payment is hoped to help continue to secure the flight.

Related thread:

Delta receives a subsidty to continue serving the Natrona County International Airport

May 10, 2023

The big economic news right now, of course, is that the country is racing towards its debt limit, at which point it will default on its debts.

The whole idea of a debt limit was to put a cap on Congress' ability to borrow too much money. The problem is it didn't work out that way.  Sort of like a spending limit on a credit card, it just caps off the debt, but the problem is, unlike a credit card, when you go to present it to the person you are buying something from, your credit isn't declined.  You get the thing anyway, and then later just don't have the ability to pay for it.

So it works instead, like buying a house, for example, or a car, you couldn't afford.

In order to really have teeth, there'd have to be a third body, like the CBO, treasury, or something, that would just nullify bills authorizing spending over the limit.  Or, rather, a court would have to declare, before things were spent, that there was a freeze on spending as Congress didn't have the statutory authority to make the spending.  

A balanced budget amendment to the Constitution, frankly, would work significantly better.

It does serve to cause the spending entities to have to get together, but they don't do it honestly.  Basically what we have going on is something akin to a couple at a banquet who have overspent arguing whether they should take the Bud Light off the table, while they're leaving the Dom Pérignon on.  Or, rather, it's like a husband that has a job as Mini Mart clerks, but the education of PhDs, arguing about racking up bills rather than going out and getting a better paying job.

If we don't get this fixed by June 1, the country is going into a massive economic crisis.

To add to that grim situation, the negotiations are in the hands of 1) one politician who is so old that he can recall when he went to U.S. Grant's kindergarten recitals, and 2) one politician who is so beholding to Trumpist "Club For Growth" Kool-Aid drinkers that he stinks up a room before he gets there.

If you worked at a company run this way, you'd look for a new job.  If you lived in a family run this way, you'd be looking for your own apartment.

This also serves, we might note, to recall the Jeffersonian warnings about democracy (and yes, we are a democracy, don't give me that "but we're a republic" crap, which is just what that line is, crap).  Jefferson warned that once the country ceased to be agrarian, the government would fail, as at that point it gave rise to feeding the mob.

The history of modern democracies has so far demonstrated that fear to be wrong, but it has also taken real crises in order to address largess.  The German democracy, for instance, beat up by the hyperinflation of Weimar era and the brutality of World War Two keeps a tight reign on its finances. The Japanese democracy, hit hard by the Japanese decline of the 1970s, does the same.

So far, the American democracy has shown no such tendency.  Congress won't address entitlements, which it must, won't address gigantic defense spending, which it must, and won't address raising taxes, which it must.

In that context, again, it's like a couple employed as Mini Mart clerks, both with PhD's, who are standing outside their apartment yelling each at each other about whether to upgrade the stereo on the Tesla they can't afford.

May 13, 2023

Mining sector jobs grew more than any other sector of Wyoming's economy last year, by 9.1%. This in spite of dire warnings by, well, folks like me.

UW's employees will be receiving a pay raise.

Ford Motors will no longer put AM radio in its vehicles.  Any of them.  Many other manufacturers are pulling theirs from electric vehicles.

May 15, 2023

Trump apparently said in his Town Hall on CNN that unless the Administration agreed to major cuts, the Republicans should take the country into debt default, a totally wreckless position that would destroy the savings of his constituency. 

Trump himself was responsible for major additions to the deficit.

Biden and the Republicans are set to meet again on Tuesday. Perhaps this slow motion process is part of his strategy, but its yet another example of government that is as slow as molasses.

May 16, 2023

The local paper is eliminating an edition, going to three print editions per week only and wiping out personal home delivery in favor of mail.

May 21, 2023

Nothing is being done about the debt ceiling while President Biden is at the G7. He gets back today.

If the US ends up with Trump again, this sort of behavior will be a lot of the reason why.

Footnotes:

Subsidiarity Economics. The times more or less locally, Part XI. The Waiting for a Train Edition

Tuesday, May 1, 1923. When LA had derricks.

Signal Hill, California.   May 1, 1923.  It's part of Los Angeles.

Photo taken at, or of members of, the American Forestry Association, May 1, 1923.

1923   Frances Beard became State Historian.  Attribution:  Wyoming State Historical Society.

Thursday, April 19, 1923. Oil leasing.

Life magazine, capitalizing on the Egyptian craze then in vogue due to the discovery of Tutankhamen's tomb, issued its famous Egyptian number issue, which we post here via Reddit's 100 Years Ago today sub.

The Tribune had a banner headline on an issue that was actually important to Wyomingites, state oil leasing.

Friday, April 2, 1943. Bulgaria says Не (no) in response to a German Bitte and the Little Big Inch

King Boris III of Bulgaria told German Foreign Minister Joachim von Ribbentrop that Bulgaria would not surrender its Jewish population to Germany.

Tsar Boris.

Tsar Boris, as he was also known, was on dangerous ground and he knew it.  He stuck to his position however and refused until his death later that year to yield on sending Jewish Bulgarians to the Germans.  Bulgaria ultimately conscripted Jewish men for labor on roads, but to some degree at least this seems to have been a pretext to help prevent their deportation.

Bulgaria, which did pass anti Semitic laws, had participated in the war as a German ally only to the extent of the war against Yugoslavia.  It wisely refused to declare war against the Western Allies or the Soviet Union, much to the irritation of Hitler.  Tsar Boris untimely death seems to have been due to the stress of dealing with the Germans, although it remains an open question if he was poisoned under orders of the Germans.

Sarah Sundin reports:

Today in World War II History—April 2, 1943: US War Production Board approves construction of the “Little Big Inch” pipeline to take refined oil from Texas to the northeast states.

We discussed the Big Inch earlier. 

Monday, April 2, 1923. Easter Egg Rolling, Oil Swindlers, Bad Debt Shooting, Japanese portrait.

The annual White House Easter Egg Rolling event occured.

The news of the day declared there to be oil stock swindles and a local shooting.  A New York crime waive was declared broken.
 

Two young ladies were photographed in Nippon.

They were sisters Matsu Miyoko 松美代子 ten year old and Matsu Shizue 松静枝 eight year old.

Tuesday, March 6, 1973. Oil Price Controls

Oil pump jacks, Teapot Dome, 1973.

Today In Wyoming's History: March 6: 1973   President Richard Nixon imposed price controls on oil and gas.

This from our companion blog, although It's not entirely accurate the way it's stated.  Price controls had actually come in during 1971 in order to combat inflation.  On this day in 1973 the Cost of Living Council issued Special Rule No. 1, which imposed price controls after the "controls" had become voluntary.

Nixon era price controls would prove to be a spectacular failure, and this one in particular failed to grasp that petroleum supplies now included large scale importation, something well beyond American control.  This would prove to be the case in the upcoming fall, when OPEC would put in place an embargo on the export of oil to the United States, something that would have an enormous impact on the state's economy.

The fact that efforts at price controls went back to 1971 is telling.  It's common to assume now that rampant inflation in the early 70s began when the price of oil skyrocketed following the Yom Kippur War, but in fact they were already rising at the start of the decade.  In no small measure, this was due to the Johnson Administration's "guns and butter" economic strategy of the 60s, in which the United States attempted to pay for the Cold War military, the Vietnam War, and a massive increase in social spending without disrupting the economy.  Cynics would note that inflation, which started in the 60s, helped reduce the actual cost to the government of such programs, which it did, but whether somewhat intentional or not, the economy simply could not endure it.

1973 Spring Training commenced with games played in the majors with designated hitters, in the American League, played for the first time.

Famous author Pearl S. Buck died at age 80.  Her work is most famously associated with China, where she had lived for many years.

Monday, March 5, 1923. Reds.

The Soviet Union, which claimed to respect the rights of nations, delivered a protest note to Finland over Finland's negotiations with the League of Nations over Karelia, which should have been Finland's.

Soviet barbarity would later assure that it ended up in the USSR, and then later in Russia.  A general Soviet policy of Russification, which settled lands with Russians, means that Karelians, a Finnic people, are now minorities in Russian Karelia.

On the same day, Lenin wrote Stalin on a personal matter.

Dear Comrade Stalin:

You have been so rude as to summon my wife to the telephone and use bad language. Although she had told you that she was prepared to forget this, the fact nevertheless became known through her to Zinoviev and Kamenev. I have no intention of forgetting so easily what has been done against me, and it goes without saying that what has been done against my wife I consider having been done against me as well. I ask you, therefore, to think it over whether you are prepared to withdraw what you have said and to make your apologies, or whether you prefer that relations between us should be broken off.

Respectfully yours,       

Lenin 

Lenin's wife was one Nadezhda Krupskaya, who was also a Bolshevik and very active in party affairs.  She's long out live her husband, dying in 1939, just before the start of World War Two.   

She managed to survive Stalin's purges, even intervening to attempt to save some condemned Reds.  No doubt her status as the wife of the original Red dictator insulated her from such attacks.

It's widely asserted that Nadezhda wasn't Lenin's only love interest, and that French Communist Inessa Armand was his mistress.  This is hard to prove, however, even though it is flatly asserted as being the case in many histories referencing Lenin.  They had met in France while Lenin was living there, and she came to Russia following the Revolution.  Becoming overworked in Revolutionary Russia, Lenin urged her to go to the Caucasus for a holiday, which was suffering from an epidemic and which still had armed opposition to Communism. Supposedly, Lenin was unaware of this.  She contracted cholera there and was buried in a mass grave at the Kremlin Wall Necropolis, being the first woman to be accorded this dubious honor.

Igor Sikorsky, who felt Soviet barbarity, incorporated the Sikorsky Aero Engineering Corporation in the U.S.

The state of Washington got around to adopting an official flag.

It's incredibly boring.

It's original appearance:

Still boring.

Casper read of railroads to be built, $1.00 gasoline, and the dangers of ardent wooing.