Oil Shipments by Rail, Truck, and Barge Up Substantially

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Most oil and petroleum products are moved to refineries and consuming areas by pipeline, which is both the safest and most economical means of transporting them. However, due to a shortage of pipeline capacity, more and more oil and petroleum products are being moved by rail, truck, and barge. Those shipments almost doubled in 2012, and they are continuing to increase to move crude oil from the shale formations in North Dakota and Texas, and oil sands in Canada to U.S. refineries. Between 2011 and 2012, oil delivered to refineries by trucks increased 38 percent, crude moved on barges increased 53 percent and rail deliveries quadrupled. Because the nation’s pipeline infrastructure has not kept pace with growing domestic oil production, the market has had to rely increasingly on alternative transportation options.

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etween 2005 and 2010, 96 percent of crude oil was transported by pipeline and tanker ships to refineries. Inland refineries are generally reached by pipeline since pipeline transport has relatively low costs and high capacity. For imports and offshore production, tanker ships have been the primary form of transportation for crude oil. But in 2011, these two transportation forms began to decline in market share, representing 93 percent of the market in 2012.[ia]

Between 2000 and 2010, truck and rail shipments have averaged just 1 percent of total shipments to refineries because they are less cost-effective options for moving crude. But, beginning in 2011, truck and rail volumes increased, and represented 3 percent of refinery shipments in 2012. Domestic barge shipments also increased, accounting for nearly 3 percent as well.

Because of the lengthy regulatory review process for expanding existing pipelines or building new pipelines, the transportation of crude oil and petroleum products has moved to rail and truck, which provide more flexibility because they can use existing infrastructure. Unless more pipeline capacity is built to deal with the increased domestic crude production, it is likely that these transportation modes will expand.

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Bill Maher Confesses: ‘Selling Pot Allowed Me to Get Through College’

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Photo Credit: Mediaite

Photo Credit: Mediaite

In an infographic from this week’s edition of Bloomberg BusinessWeek, Bill Maher admits to having been a pot dealer as a means to paying for college and start up his career in comedy.

bill maher confession

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CBO: Obamacare Individual Mandate Delay Would Save $35 Billion

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Photo Credit: Daily Caller

Photo Credit: Daily Caller

The House bill to delay Obamacare’s individual mandate would save $35 billion dollars, according to a Congressional Budget Office analysis.

After the Obama administration revealed it would not enforce the employer mandate — a requirement that large companies provide their employees health insurance — until January 2015, the House quickly passed a measure that would not only codify that delay, but put off the individual mandate by one year as well.

The CBO found that just a one-year delay of the individual mandate would save $35 billion over ten years. But the basic cost structure of the Affordable Care Act would remain intact.

“I never thought I’d see the day when the White House, this president, came down on the side of big business, but left the American people out in the cold as far as this health care mandate is concerned,” House Majority Leader Eric Cantor said.

Cantor’s message carried over even to some in the President’s own party. The “Fairness for American Families Act” is one of many Republican-dominated efforts to delay certain aspects of Obamacare, but this time it received bipartisan support: 22 House Democrats bucked their own party and voted for the bill, which President Obama vowed to veto.

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President Obama’s Over-the-Top Lobbying Push

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Photo Credit: Reuters

Photo Credit: Reuters

President Barack Obama’s putting the full powers of the presidency on display — and on the line — in a way he’s never done before.

In the past, critics have argued that Obama’s priorities, from gun control to climate change, have suffered for his unwillingness to fully engage Congress and the American public with all of the tools of his office. The standard arc: Obama makes a speech or two, sends the issue to Capitol Hill and then keeps his distance. If it passes, he takes credit. If it fails, he blames Congress.

Not this time.

The reason is simple: The path to a win in Congress, if it exists at all, is through lawmakers who now say they’re likely to vote no.

Already, the White House has ceded ground on its original use-of-force authorization language, settling for the reality that only a more narrow version could possibly pass. The White House whip count is bad enough that senior administration officials won’t share it publicly to make the case that they could win in either the Senate or the House right now.

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Obama Administration had Restrictions on NSA Reversed in 2011

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Photo Credit: AP

Photo Credit: AP

The Obama administration secretly won permission from a surveillance court in 2011 to reverse restrictions on the National Security Agency’s use of intercepted phone calls and e-mails, permitting the agency to search deliberately for Americans’ communications in its massive databases, according to interviews with government officials and recently declassified material.

In addition, the court extended the length of time that the NSA is allowed to retain intercepted U.S. communications from five years to six years — and more under special circumstances, according to the documents, which include a recently released 2011 opinion by U.S. District Judge John D. Bates, then chief judge of the Foreign Intelligence Surveillance Court.

What had not been previously acknowledged is that the court in 2008 imposed an explicit ban — at the government’s request — on those kinds of searches, that officials in 2011 got the court to lift the bar and that the search authority has been used.

Together the permission to search and to keep data longer expanded the NSA’s authority in significant ways without public debate or any specific authority from Congress. The administration’s assurances rely on legalistic definitions of the term “target” that can be at odds with ordinary English usage. The enlarged authority is part of a fundamental shift in the government’s approach to surveillance: collecting first, and protecting Americans’ privacy later.

“The government says, ‘We’re not targeting U.S. persons,’ ” said Gregory T. Nojeim, senior counsel at the Center for Democracy and Technology. “But then they never say, ‘We turn around and deliberately search for Americans’ records in what we took from the wire.’ That, to me, is not so different from targeting Americans at the outset.”

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Some See Biblical Visions of Doom in Syria Trouble

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Photo Credit: Florida Today

Photo Credit: Florida Today

The deadly violence percolating half a world away in Syria and the warnings of a possible U.S. attack have some people not only looking ahead to what might happen in the coming days — but also looking backward into ancient, apocalyptic prophecies in the pages of the Old Testament.

In recent weeks, some dire prophecies have turned up on websites, in book stores, as the subject of Bible studies and in sermons by some Christians and others who see a link between the old passages and modern-day events in Egypt, Libya and Syria.

“Behold, Damascus is about to be removed from being a city, and will become a fallen ruin,” reads Isaiah 17, a passage some Christians say they believe details a horrific event that leaves the city uninhabitable and leads to worldwide tribulation and the second coming of Christ.

Damascus is the Syrian capital and one of the world’s oldest cities.

Another passage in Isaiah 19 deals with civil war in Egypt and the rise of a “fierce king.”

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Early Turnout Strong in Colorado Recall Effort on Gun-Control Legislation

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Picture - Colorado_recallColorado residents go to the polls Tuesday to vote on whether to recall two state senators who supported stricter gun laws in the aftermath of two 2012 mass shootings.

The recall vote effort appears to be the strongest backlash to such state votes — considering Democratic-leaning Connecticut, Maryland and New York passed similar legislation without resulting in a recall effort getting on a ballot.

Gun rights advocates launched the recall initiative against Colorado Senate President John Morse and Sen. Angela Giron because they voted for stricter gun laws, including limiting the size of ammunition magazines and requiring universal background checks.

Early voting in Colorado’s first legislative recall elections has been strong so far.

A spokesman for the clerk’s office said turnout was similar to that on a busy day during a presidential election.

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WATCH: Mark Levin discusses The Liberty Amendments at Reagan Library with Q&A

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Photo Credit: CNS News

Photo Credit: CNS News

Mark Levin recently returned to the Reagan Presidential Library in Simi Valley, California to talk about his new #1 New York Times bestselling book, The Liberty Amendments.

Levin begins his work, “I undertook this project not because I believe the Constitution, as originally structured, is outdated and outmoded, thereby requiring modernization through amendments, but because the opposite–that is, the necessity and urgency of restoring constitutional republicanism and preserving the civil society from the growing authoritarianism of the federal Leviathan.”

In the interview at the Reagan Library, Levin quotes George Mason, who in September 1787, only days before the close of the Constitutional Convention, identified the danger of the document only giving Congress the power to initiate amendments to the Constitution. Mason believed, “no amendments of the proper kind would ever be obtained by the people, if the Government should become oppressive,” which would likely be the case over time.

The Framers voted to change Article V (regarding the amendments process) to make provision for the states to propose new amendments to the Constitution without congressional approval. By a vote of two-thirds of the states, a convention can be called to adopt new amendments, which must then be ratified by three-quarters of the states before becoming the law of the land.

Levin argues we have reached a place in our history (foreseen by Mason) in which the federal government has become so pervasive and oppressive that it is a threat to our liberty and the American way of life.

Among the amendments he sees as essential to restoring freedom are term limit amendments on Congress and the Supreme Court, as well as ones to limit federal taxing and spending authority, to curtail the power of the federal bureaucracy, to narrowly define Congress’ authority under the Commerce Clause, to return power to the state legislatures to choose their U.S. Senators, to restrict eminent domain authority, and to require proper photo identification to vote in all the states.

Watch the discussion.

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107-Year-Old Arkansas Man, Monroe Isadore, Killed in Shootout with S.W.A.T.

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Photo Credit: THV11

Photo Credit: THV11

A 107-year old Pine Bluff man died Saturday after a shootout with officers and S.W.A.T. members. The Pine Bluff Police Dept. released the following information about the incident on Saturday evening.

“On September 7, 2013, at approximately 4:25 p.m., Officers of the Pine Bluff Police Department responded to a disturbance at 1411 W. 16th.

When they arrived, they were able to determine that an Aggravated Assault had occurred against two people at the residence. The suspect, Monroe Isadore (M, 107 years old), had pointed a weapon at them. The officers had the two victims leave the residence, for their safety, and approached the door to the bedroom where Isadore was supposed to be.

When officers announced themselves, Isadore shot through the door at them. No officer was hit or injured by the gunfire…

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Gay Inmates in California Can Get Married

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Photo Credit: derekskey

Photo Credit: derekskey

With the demise of Proposition 8 — the gay marriage ban — gay inmates in California can get married to their same-sex partners, the Associated Press has reported.

In an August 30 memo, state prison officials stated that due to the recent U.S. Supreme Court ruling that “effectively invalidated” Proposition 8, they “must accept and process applications for a same-sex marriage between an inmate and a non-incarcerated person in the community, in the same manner as they do between opposite sex couples.”

In case you didn’t notice the wording, there is a caveat in that statement…

While a gay inmate can marry a person who is not jailed, two gay inmates cannot get married.

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