Richard M. Stallman is glad Jobs is gone

[Lennart Sorensen]

On Fri, Oct 07, 2011 at 02:45:21PM -0400, D. Hugh Redelmeier wrote:
> Stallman did say that he wasn't glad he was dead, just glad he was
> gone.
> 
> GOING SERIOUSLY OFF TOPIC:
> 
> BTW, I had never seen his blog and didn't realize all the other issues
> he speaks about.
> 
>     06 October 2011 (Protesters Arrested)
> 
>     100 protesters against the planet-burning Keystone tar sand oil
>     pipeline were arrested in Toronto.
> 
>     This article omits the reason why this pipeline must be stopped:
>     because extracting and burning that oil will commit Earth to an amount
>     of warming that is catastrophic.
> 
> I hadn't actually heard this elsewhere (probably my fault).
> 
> "planet-burning" is an odd metaphor.  What do we burn that isn't part
> of our planet?
> 
> I don't know all the details, but my best guess is that
> 
> - we (humanity) will burn all we can get our hands on, sooner or
>   later.  So the tar sands* will be exploited.
> 
> - the pipeline to the gulf coast is "needed" because it is expensive
>   to build heavy oil upgraders and they already exist in that area to
>   handle Venezuelan (and Trinidadian?) heavy crude which is in decline

Given the weather they have in that area, it seems like a bad place
for them.

> - without the pipline, upgraders would be built in Canada and we would
>   capture more of the "value chain".  The output could be sold
>   anywhere, not just to the US gulf coast.
> 
> - the ability to sell anywhere seems to be valuable.  There are two
>   crude oil indices: WTI (based on West Texas crude) and Brent (based
>   on North Sea crude).  WT crude is cleaner and lighter and should
>   cost more than Brent, but Brent is currently US$23 more a barrel!
>   Apparently that's because of lack of transportation facilities (not
>   their cost)
>   <http://www.theglobeandmail.com/report-on-business/brent-vs-wti-a-crude-oil-smackdown/article2185001/>
>   Conveniently, most Canadian oil sells against the WTI benchmark
>   whereas we (in Toronto) pay for gasoline somewhat based on the Brent
>   benchmark -- not good for us.
> 
> So: building the Keystone XL pipeline is better for the US than it is
> for Canada.
> 
> * "tar sands" is a misnomer, but I've been using that term since the
> mid-1960s and I'm not going to change just for politics.  Technically,
> I think the stuff in the sand is bitumen.

Certainly seems that if they are going to bother with it they should
refine some of it closer to home and sell that instead.

-- 
Len Sorensen
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