Author: GTD Group (Page 7 of 23)

A New Year’s Resolution: Personal Energy Journal

As stated in my book, America Needs America’s Energy:  Creating Together the People’s Energy Plan, America’s energy future is in our hands.  We can no longer wait for the government to rally us.  History has shown this will not happen.  The time has come for all of us, the people, to take control of our energy future here in America.  That starts with us keeping a Personal Energy Journal, which will assist us in planning and executing our personal energy plans.

The idea is to create your own personal energy plan for 2014 and years ahead based on the evaluation form in my book.  Based upon your evaluation, your goals will be written down and self-checked to see if you have met your goals by year end.  If not, you can either adjust your goals for the next few years or list the steps needed to achieve your personal energy goals in the near future.  You may want to include others in this initial planning stage, such as your family, your company, or your organization.

As you proceed with creating your Personal Energy Journal, you’ll find a lot of helpful background information in the first two parts of the book, including pros and cons of various energy forms currently available.  In addition, in the back of the book you will find a glossary of energy terms, suggested reading, and web links that offer further assistance.  But don’t count on what you have read in my book alone.  Do your homework.  The energy industry is moving forward in innovation and technological advancement, so try to stay current with the latest information available.

You will find that your Personal Energy Journal will become a part of your journey into understanding the need for the People’s Energy Plan, as well as a statement of your personal policy of striving for energy efficiency and environmental preservation.

Together we can create the People’s Energy Plan!  Go to www.peoplesenergyplan.com to join the effort.

Facebook:  America Needs America’s Energy with 8000 supporters plus and growing.  —   America Needs America’s Energy:  Creating Together the People’s Energy Plan!

Telling Our Energy Story!

Recently, I addressed the South Texas Wildcatters Association in San Antonio, Texas.  My message was “America Needs America’s Energy:  It is Time We Tell Our Story!”

It is Time to Tell Our Story:  Forty years ago, spring of 2014 will mark the founding of The International Society of The Energy Advocates which was established in Tulsa, Ok.   The Energy Advocates was founded in 1974 by a group of American oil executives in response to the 1973-74 oil embargo.  Today, as then, the organization believes that it is critical for those of us in the energy industry to rise to the challenge and make a difference when it comes to energy issues.

It is Time Tell Our Story:

– According to a recent IEA report, if current trends continue, America could become completely energy self-sufficient by 2030.  Much is to be credited to the shale plays which include the Bakken, the Eagle Ford, and the Marcellus.

– New research and technology has led America to have natural gas reserves of 2,200 trillion cubic feet which could provide 100 years of supply based on current consumption rates.

– Imports of oil are at a twenty year low.  In 2011 the US, after 50 years, became a net exporter of finished petroleum products.

– The oil and gas industry is making a tremendous impact.   Our energy industry for decades has provided energy security, provided jobs, and contributed funds for scholarships, for schools, for hospitals, and many other causes.

– According to an IHS study, the shale play alone has created over 2 million direct and indirect jobs.

– Natural gas is an energy answer that is available today.  We should definitely be putting it use now.  For years I have voiced my belief that natural gas reserves are critical to a strong US economy and is extremely important for America’s energy security.  Natural gas is an abundant, clean fuel that has many domestic uses—-from heating our homes to serving as an alternative to gasoline.  It is the bridge fuel to our country’s energy sustainability.

– Natural gas also holds promise for power generation.  About 22 percent of electric-generating capacity in America is currently natural gas—fired.   According to the EIA, natural gas usage rates for electricity generation grew 38 percent from 2001 to 2010.

– The energy industry has made great strides when it comes to “striving for energy efficiency and environmental preservation.”

The importance of the energy industry can be summed up by a statement by Dr. Irma Russell in the Tulsa Law Review “Without reliable energy, the world economy and world institutions would devolve to chaos”.

It is Time to Tell Our Story:  the American Energy Industry is making an impact in so many ways.  America Needs America’s Energy and America Needs a Strong American Energy Industry!  We, in the energy sector, should take pride in our efforts towards American Energy Independence!

Together we can create the People’s Energy Plan!  Go to www.peoplesenergyplan.com to join the effort.   Facebook:  America Needs America’s Energy with 8000 supporters plus and growing.  —   America Needs America’s Energy:  Creating Together the People’s Energy Plan!

Gabe Rozsa

gaberozsaGabe Rozsa
Managing Director, Prime Policy Group, Washington, D.C.
Air Date, December 15, 2013

Gabe Rozsa is a Managing Director at Prime Policy Group who specializes in energy, environment and infrastructure issues.

Gabe most recently served as Environmental Counsel on the Republican staff of the House Science Committee and Staff Director of its Energy Subcommittee. In those roles, he assisted members of the Committee with the planning, preparation and staffing of hearings relating to a variety of energy and environmental issues, as well as work on comprehensive energy legislation, energy-related provisions of the 2002 Farm bill, authorizing legislation for the creation of the Department of Homeland Security, and providing counsel on a broad range of environmental, energy and science issues of interest to Committee Chairman Sherwood L. Boehlert (R-NY), a leader of the House Republican moderates.

Gabe previously served as Counsel to Republican Members of the House Public Works and Transportation Committee (renamed the Transportation and Infrastructure Committee in 1994). In that capacity, he advised Members on a variety of water related issues tied to Federal environmental and resource development programs.  During his more than nine years with the Committee, he served as a lead Republican counsel to the subcommittee during the last major reauthorizations of the Clean Water Act (1987) the Superfund hazardous waste cleanup program (1986) four major Army Corps of Engineers authorization bills (1986, 1988, 1990 and 1992), the Energy Policy Act (1992), the Oil Pollution Act (1990), the Robert T. Stafford Disaster Relief and Emergency Assistance Act (1988), as well as issues related to the Tennessee Valley Authority and the National Dam Safety Program.

Gabe also served in several capacities at the headquarters of the Corps of Engineers. During his tenure as the Assistant Counsel for Legislation in the Office of the Chief Counsel, he managed all legislative proposals of the Corps and Department of the Army relating to the agency’s civil works program. Previously, he served in the Directorate of Real Estate, where he was responsible for drafting legislation and assisting with administrative appeals relating to the Corps’ real estate responsibilities.

Gabe also previously served as a Senior Vice President to one of the largest Washington government relations firms. There, he provided a full spectrum of services, from providing comprehensive Washington representation on legislative and regulatory issues of importance to a variety of public and private sector clients.

He holds a Masters of Law in environmental law from the George Washington University, a Juris Doctorate from Washington University and a Bachelor of Arts degree from the University of Virginia. Gabe resides in Fairfax, Virginia with his wife, Daphne, and has three grown sons.

Earthquakes & The Oil and Gas Industry

My first real experience with an earthquake happened during a trip to Japan three years ago.  The magnitude of the earthquake was 6.3.  There had been tremors in central Oklahoma where I now live. So upon my return home from Japan, I decided to acquire earthquake insurance.

A year later, I experienced an earthquake in the US, not in California but in Oklahoma.  The quake was felt throughout a great part of the State.  The magnitude of the quake was 5.6/5.7.

According to the Oklahoma Geological Survey “the number of magnitude 3.0 earthquakes in Oklahoma has risen to an average of 40 per year since 2009, compared to only 3 recorded per year between 1975 and 2008.”

Currently it appears that the research/focus of the cause of the increase in earthquakes is not due to hydraulic fracturing and/or horizontal drilling but instead due to injection wells.

According to USA Today, Art McGarr of the US Geological Survey office has asserted that since an incident outside of Denver in the 1960s, geologists have known that deep injections of wastewater, placed in the ground can trigger earthquakes.

The Oklahoma Geological Survey has outlined a nine point practices checklist regarding injection wells.  Three of the nine points are listed, as an example:

-Fluid injections wells near known faults should be avoided.

-Fluid injection wells should be sited further from faults that are favorably oriented with either the regional or local stress field.

-Injection pressure should be checked as often as practical.  However, at a minimum, regular shut in, pressure fall-off tests should be conducted to measure formation pressure.

There is definitely the need for more information and more research. The oil and gas industry is taking the lead in supporting these research efforts.

Scientists are busy studying the earthquake “swarms” and hopefully, will be able to address the concerns especially about the question of “what can be done?”

America Needs America’s Energy!  Together we can create the People’s Energy Plan!  Go to www.peoplesenergyplan.com to join the effort.   Facebook:  America Needs America’s Energy with 8000 supporters plus and growing.  —   America Needs America’s Energy:  Creating Together the People’s Energy Plan!

Global Energy Resources

Global energy demand is expected to rise sixty-five percent by 2040 in comparison to 2010.   Therefore, there is expected to be a great demand for electricity and a great demand from the transportation sector.

It is estimated that there will be an additional 2 billion people worldwide by 2040.  With more people there will be the demand for more energy.  Natural gas and electricity are estimated to account for more than 60% of the world’s residential/commercial energy demand by 2040.

So what are some of the countries outside the US region doing when it comes to energy policies and development?

China produces most electricity (in absolute terms) from renewal sources, Iceland gets the largest percentage of its electricity from renewable sources, and the country with the most solar-powered capacity is Germany, according to the Wall Street Journal.

When it comes to global trade, the energy exports and imports have historically been a vital part, in fact for more than a century.  Countries rely on the trade of oil, coal, natural gas, chemicals.

P. R. China is moving ahead of the US as a purchaser of Middle Eastern oil.  At the same time the US is moving ahead to be the largest combined producer of oil and natural gas surpassing Russia.

A part of the world greatly needing economic success is Africa.  In fact, according to Foreign Affairs magazine, “new sources of oil and gas could inject close to $3 trillion into the economies of some of Africa’s poorest and least developed nations”.

It was not too long ago the T. Boone Pickens stated, “we are now spending half a trillion dollars on foreign oil, importing 62 percent of the oil we use, and we haven’t had the leadership in DC to do anything about it.  We’ve got to move to other sources of energy.  But we’ve gotten way behind, and will continue to pay the fiddler.”  Though this statement was addressed to the US citizen, the question about addressing energy policy is at the forefront of every country that is planning for economic growth and security.

India is continuing its frantic quest for energy.  A friendly environment for oil and gas ventures remains when it comes to local exploration.  India is still far behind where it needs to be to achieve energy independence which is the country’s goal.

In 2010 India consumed 3.2 million barrels of oil per day.  The nation’s resource base is substantial, but the country relies on imports for most of its energy use.  The Oil and Gas Journal reports that as of January 20111 India had approximately 5.7 billion barrels of proven oil reserves, the second-largest amount in the Asia-Pacific region after China.

Despite this position, India was the world’s fifth largest net importer of oil in 2010 with more than 2.2 million barrels per day, or about 70 percent of it consumption imported from the Middle East.

There is the world’s quest for energy.  And America needs to Lead:  America Needs America’s Energy!

Together we can create the People’s Energy Plan!  Go to www.peoplesenergyplan.com to join the effort.   Facebook:  America Needs America’s Energy with 7000 supporters plus and growing.  —   America Needs America’s Energy:  Creating Together the People’s Energy Plan!

Dot Rhyne

Dot Rhyne
Founder & President Brand Talkers & with Chevy Music Showcase

Brand Talkers specializes in creative campaign and content development, designed to get people talking about brands, to drive deeper engagement and positive revenue impact. Whether working with a client company direct or serving as a strategic partner to ad agencies, Brand Talkers works hard to help brands cut through the clutter and be heard and felt in a way that is sure to get people talking (and buying)!

Mission:

To be a trusted resource for clients wanting to grow revenues and market share through unique, customer focused marketing concepts, supported with kid glove service and careful attention to campaign management and execution.

Dot Rhyne is the Founder & President and is based in Edmond, Oklahoma – serving clients in Oklahoma, Missouri, Kansas and Texas.

State Policies

Several State energy policy leaders from across the US met in Oklahoma City for the annual State Policy Network’s Energy Summit.

There were four challenges addressed at the summit that are facing the States.  The challenges being fracking, renewable energy mandates, the climate change challenge to States and my assigned subject at the summit to address was “the significance of Federal and State energy policies on private sector decision-making and State economics”.  Among the agenda speakers were Steve Everly, Director of Energy in Depth, Washington, D.C. and John Eick, Legislative Analyst, with the American Legislative Exchange Council, Washington, D.C., and Nick Lori, Economist with the Heritage Foundation, Washington, D.C.

Fracking, (hydraulic fracturing), has been a technology used since the 1940s.  There have been over 1 million wells that have used this technology.

Over the past few years, the combination of horizontal drilling and fracking has been more and more common.  The first horizontal well was drilled in Texas in 1929.

There has been a concern regarding the environment using both technologies together.  Hydraulic fracturing, in particular, is raising concerns for the safety of the environment.

Regulations and ordinances are at the forefront of debate whether it is city or State.   Many have incorporated within their policies energy sustainability plans.

Renewable Energy Mandates are at the forefront of discussion.   Most of the focus has been and will be on solar and wind for the near future.  It is interesting to note that wind power was the biggest source of new generating capacity in the US.  It is also interesting to note that New Jersey is among the top five solar-power capacity States as most of us would probably list States like California and Arizona.

Though “green jobs” has been vocalized as the economic changer, the big story continues to be in the oil and gas energy patch where jobs are in demand.

Climate Change, as the Wall Street Journal reported on October 1, 2013, “between 1998 and 2012 the global economy more than doubled in size—to some $71 trillion in GDP from $30 trillion.  That’s the good news.  Over the same period the world pumped more than 100 billion tons of carbon dioxide into the atmosphere.  That is supposedly the bad news.  Yet global surface temperatures have remained essentially flat.  That’s the mystery:  If emitting CO2 into the atmosphere causes global warming, why hasn’t the globe been warming?”  Bottom-line, the environment is important to each of us and we will all strive for energy efficiency and environmental preservation with sound regulations, ordinances and policies.

There is the tendency to create policies, ordinances and regulations based upon fear rather than on sound research and education.  There definitely needs to be the sound balance of proceeding with energy development and at the same being concerned about implementing proper environmental guidelines.

The public-private partnership is needed.   An energy industry can move in an efficient manner if we have consistent paths to move forward and not be hindered.  America Needs America’s Energy!

Together we can create the People’s Energy Plan!  Go to www.peoplesenergyplan.com to join the effort.    Facebook:  America Needs America’s Energy with 7000 supporters plus and growing.  —   America Needs America’s Energy:  Creating Together the People’s Energy Plan!

Security in the New Energy Landscape

Security in the New Energy Landscape is the title of a recent published study by the Business Executives for National Security Energy Council.  The purpose of the study is to assess the geostrategic impact of the unconventional oil and gas revolution.

Edward Blessing of Blessing Petroleum, Dallas, TX, a good friend of mine, co-chaired the study.

Ed has been a speaker and panelist several times at the International Energy Policy Conference, www.energypolicyconference.com which I have chaired each year since 1992.

Ed and his co-chair, the Honorable Thomas White of DKRW Energy state, “Recent revelations of the scope and accessibility of US oil and gas resources have sent tremors through the world’s energy markets, fundamentally shifting international energy politics.  Markets are realigning as the United States imports less foreign energy every year.  In fact, the United States holds the potential to export energy worldwide.  This new energy reality will ripple across the American public policy spectrum, boosting the economy and strengthening national security.  With the global economy continuing to depend on foreign fuels, the United States will assume a new level of geopolitical importance.  In assuming this status, the United States must reassess certain core tenets of its domestic and foreign policy”.

The study highlights that it is definitely the technology driving the boom along with the shale deposits found throughout the United States.  International shale development will also become a key energy factor.

Key market trends and effects are addressed including global energy demand and the role of US oil and gas, infrastructure shortcomings, and considerations for the export of natural gas and crude oil.  Factors that could negatively impact the energy industry are regulatory and tax policies.

The study states, “the US shale boom is unique, from its origins to its tremendous global implications…the combination of accessible geology, cost-effective technology, and a robust support and investment system fostered a new industry not replicable anywhere else in the world…New jobs are invigorating the America economy and the US might even maintain being an exporter for the first time in decades.”

I believe the most important statement to take from this study is “the world now treats the US as an energy producer, assigning it even greater geopolitical significance.  Yes, America Needs America’s Energy now more than ever!

Together we can create the People’s Energy Plan!  Go to www.peoplesenergyplan.com to join the effort.    Facebook:  America Needs America’s Energy with 7000 supporters plus and growing.  —   America Needs America’s Energy:  Creating Together the People’s Energy Plan!

Hugh Aynewsorth

hughaynesworthHugh Aynewsorth
Author of November 22, 1963: Witness to History
Air Date, September 8, 2013

Hugh G. Aynesworth was born in Clarksburg on 2nd August, 1931. After attending Salem College, he started in 1948 as a newspaperman in West Virginia and later worked in Arkansas, Kansas, and Colorado prior to joining the staff of the Dallas Morning News in 1960.

Aynesworth covered the assassination of President John F. Kennedy. Over the next few years he investigated the links between Lee Harvey Oswald and the Federal Bureau of Investigation and reported on the trial of Jack Ruby. Aynesworth was also one of the first people to interview Marina Oswald.

When Joachim Joesten published his book, Oswald, Assassin or Fall Guy? in 1964, Aynesworth reviewed it for the Editor and Publisher: “If you would listen to this one, he would have you thinking that Lee Harvey Oswald was a polite little misunderstood youth who just got mixed up in the wrong company…Oh how terrible, says Joesten (an ex-German who became a U.S. citizen in 1948 and must wonder why), poor little Lee Harvey was the victim of a ruthless plot headed by Dallas police leaders, District Attorney Henry Wade and his staff and a few “bad guys” from the FBI. Joesten further states that Oswald was an agent of both the FBI and the CIA (how’s that for a 24-year-old who couldn’t spell “wrist”?). It’s the same old tripe with some new flavoring.”

Aynesworth was a strong supporter of the “lone assassin theory” and led the attacks on Mark Lane and his book on the Warren Commission, the pioneering Rush to Judgement (1965). He wrote that “Mark Lane is the troublemaker who spent two days in Dallas in January on his investigation and now pretends to be an expert on all aspects of the weird tragedy.”

In May, 1967 Aynesworth published a critical article of Jim Garrison in Newsweek: “Garrison’s tactics have been even more questionable than his case. I have evidence that one of the strapping D.A.’s investigators offered an unwilling “witness” $3,000 and a job with an airline – if only he would “fill in the facts” of the alleged meeting to plot the death of the President. I also know that when the D.A.’s office learned that this entire bribery attempt had been tape-recorded, two of Garrison’s men returned to the “witness” and, he says, threatened him with physical harm.”

Assassination of John F. Kennedy Encyclopedia

Jim Garrison responded to this article in his book, On The Trail of the Assassins (1988). He argued that: “As for the $3,000 bribe, by the time I came across Aynesworth’s revelation, the witness our office had supposedly offered it to, Alvin Babeouf, had admitted to us that it never happened. Aynesworth, of course, never explained what he did with the “evidence” allegedly in his possession. And the so-called bribery tape recording had not, in fact, ever existed.”

James DiEugenio has argued: “With the work of the Assassination Records Review Board, many more pages of documents have been released showing how tightly bound Aynesworth was with the intelligence community. It has been demonstrated that Aynesworth was – at the minimum – working with the Dallas Police, Shaw’s defense team, and the FBI. He was also an informant to the White House, and had once applied for work with the CIA. As I have noted elsewhere, in the annals of this case, I can think of no reporter who had such extensive contacts with those trying to cover up the facts in the JFK case. And only two come close: Edward Epstein and Gerald Posner.”

As well as the Dallas Morning News Aynesworth has worked for Newsweek and the Washington Times. Books by Hugh Aynesworth include The Only Living Witness (1983), Wanted for Murder (1990), Murderers Among Us: Unsolved Homicides, Mysterious Deaths and Killers at Large (1994), The Vengeful Heart (2000), Ted Bundy: Conversations with a Killer (2000) and JFK: Breaking the News (2003).

40 Years Later…

The 21st Annual Energy Policy Conference/Summit, was held in Tulsa at the Hyatt Regency Hotel on October 17th forty years to the day of the Arab Oil Embargo that has since made a major impact on the US energy industry and our economy.  In addition to global and domestic energy policies and issues being addressed, two areas were of specific focus:  taxes and regulations.

The reason I founded the conference in 1992 and continue to chair the annual event is that it brings stakeholders together from not only the energy sector but also concerned citizens, representatives from government, agriculture, education, business, students and others.

The tax panel was moderated by Tulsa Mayor Dewey F. Bartlett, Jr.   The panelists were Chad Warmington, President of the Mid-Continent Oil & Gas Association, Mike McDonald, Co-Owner of Triad Energy, Inc., and Bruce Heine, Director of Government Affairs for Magellan Midstream Partners.

US Congressmen James Lankford, Jim Bridenstine and Mike Pompeo addressed energy policy issues.

Oklahoma Corporation Commissioner Patrice Douglas provided a legislative update.

Oklahoma Corporation Commission Chairman Patrice Douglas stated “coal is what they’re talking about now, but they’re coming after natural gas”.

The regulatory panel was moderated by Bob Tippee, Editor of the Oil and Gas Journal, Houston, Tx.  The panelists were Kurt Abraham, Executive Editor of Gulf Publishing Co./World Oil magazine, William Yeatman, Energy Policy Analyst of the Competitive Enterprise Institute, Steve Higley, Outreach Director for American Fuel and Petrochemical Manufacturers, and Joe Craft, CEO and a Director of Alliance Resource Partners, LP.

Bob Tippee stated, “The Environmental Protection Agency is getting ready to regulate greenhouse gases in the same way it just clobbered coal.”

Oklahoma State Attorney General Scott Pruitt presented the conference with a litigation update.

Eight 2013 Energy Visionary Awards were presented at the conference:  Alliance Resource Partners CEO Joe Craft, leadership award; Helmerich & Payne CEO Hans Helmerich, lifetime achievement; Love’s Travel Stops, corporate leadership; Hutchinson Oil Co., corporate development; Oklahoma Energy Resources Board, education; Darlene Wallace of Columbus Oil Co., industry achievements; and the “Exploring Energy” radio show hosted by Shawn Wilson and Nathan Brewer, outstanding media.

Next year’s conference date and location will be announced in December.

America Needs America’s Energy now more than ever!  Together we can create the People’s Energy Plan!  www.peoplesenergyplan.com

Facebook:  America Needs America’s Energy with 7000 supporters plus and growing.  —   America Needs America’s Energy:  Creating Together the People’s Energy Plan!

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