Green Gold?

I’ve been reading a lot about this subject lately, as it is easy to find by just typing in the keywords on a search engine. But the main reason I keep doing searches on the shale boom is because I’m always looking for good economic news, and the shale boom offers at least some faint hope for the fragile economy.  Not only can this boom produce sorely needed jobs, but also has already made significant headway in decreasing our dependence on foreign energy.   All I have to do is mention two words: “North Dakota”.  North Dakota, of course, is the epicenter of the energy boom here, and is a flourishing oasis in a job market that still resembles the Sahara Desert.  The boom there has been compared to the California gold rush of the mid nineteenth century, and what were once small, lonely prairie towns are growing into small cities centered on this energy revival.  If all goes well, North Dakota is a symbol of hope and the future of our country as a whole.  And there are other areas that are rich in shale oil and gas waiting to be fully tapped, although the jury is still out on the effect of the drilling processes on the environment.

All this news is bringing on a flashback to four years ago.  I have to admit that in early 2008, I was still clueless as to what was about to happen to the economy.  However, I drove about 20 miles each way to and from my job, so there was no way I could not notice the rapid spike in gas prices.  I also remember having seen an ad for a CNN special titled “Out of Gas: We Were Warned”.   I didn’t think much about it, to be honest, but the soaring gas prices were constantly reminding me of it.  I didn’t have a lot of worries at first, since I was in a position where I could absorb that price increase.  But I couldn’t help wondering when it was going to stop, and if this was just the beginning of something.   A few years before that, I overheard some friends talking about the world’s oil supply running out in the next 30 years.  Again, I was not overly worried, since my assumption was that hydrogen would replace gasoline as the main source of vehicle fuel long before oil supplies got short.   But I was fully aware that I was not any kind of scientist, and I was only basing that assumption on what little I knew and had heard.  Meanwhile, the price of gasoline continued to rise rapidly through the winter and into spring, so I decided to research this subject a little more on the internet.

I soon became familiar with the term “peak oil”.  I was shocked by what I found, even though I realized that everything I found on the internet needed to be taken with a grain of salt.  I started to wonder if my faith in science and hydrogen technology was misplaced.  There were several sites warning of what was waiting ahead, their conclusion being that sometime around 2005-06, the world’s oil production hit its peak, and from there on was in terminal decline.  There was no real solution, not hydrogen or anything else.  The time to prepare the infrastructure of the United States for a post-peak oil world had passed, and we were now stuck with the consequences.  The impact of peak oil would hit suddenly, and without warning gas prices would skyrocket out of control, and driving a car would become unaffordable to the average person.  I was just looking into one side of the story, but it seemed to confirm my suspicion that some kind of a structural shift had occurred, and that there was more than just worldwide demand, but also diminishing supply behind the unprecedented spike in gas prices.

I learned something else while I was researching peak oil.  I found that there was a vast reserve of shale oil right under the United States.   The possibility of tapping into this oil was dismissed by most peak oil doomers.  They pointed to a concept I learned called EROEI (Energy Returned On Energy Invested).  According to what I read, getting the oil from the ground would actually use more energy than what could be produced from the oil being extracted.  However, I don’t remember any mention being made of the process known as “fracking”.  If I remember right, most of the peak oil articles I read were from around 2005-06, right around the time of the technological breakthrough called hydraulic fracturing, for which fracking is a shorthand name.  So I wasn’t aware that even as I was reading those articles on peak oil, the Bakken shale boom in North Dakota may well have already been underway.

I have never been anywhere near North Dakota, so I can’t in any way speak about it from experience.  And I still don’t have a thorough knowledge of the Bakken shale boom, other than the news clippings I’ve seen.  But one thing I do know is that North Dakota has jobs in abundance where they are scarce just about everywhere else.  Some of the numbers I have read are unbelievable, including fast food workers making $20 an hour.  The major disadvantage of course is that North Dakota is hardly the most desirable place to live.  Subzero midday temperatures are not uncommon during this time of year, and the vast monotonous terrain is also likely to be unappealing to most people.   Added to all this is the lack of adequate housing to handle the huge influx of job seekers.  There are small dwelling units going up rapidly, but those who can’t find housing either have to risk their lives by sleeping in their cars in polar conditions or stay in the extremely expensive hotels and motels.  There doesn’t seem to be much there for anyone looking for excitement.  Since Williston seems to be the largest boom town, I decided to do a simple scan on Google Maps and on Flickr.  It looks like just a small town in the middle of a vast, endless prairie.  There may be something of water sports enthusiasts, since it lies near the Missouri River. The Rocky Mountains may also be within a few hours drive.  North Dakota is obviously thousands of miles away from either coast, and the nearest large body of water is the Great Lakes. 

With all that is going on in North Dakota, I am wondering about what will happen where I live, in Pennsylvania.  I live in the Philadelphia area, which does not lie above the Marcellus shale deposits in the Central and Western parts of the state, but of course is much closer to those regions than to North Dakota, and maybe the Marcellus shale boom will rub off on our area.  I don’t know how economically tied in we are with other regions of the state, but I think we could benefit in some way.  There has been much speculation and hope, but now, in just the last few days, I have been hearing news that the boom may not be as big as expected.  There are reports that the number of actual jobs created was exaggerated, and also that Chesapeake, one of the largest companies, is shifting its investment away from the “dry” gas areas such as Central Pennsylvania, and toward the liquid gases that lie more to the western part of the state and in Eastern Ohio.  The hydraulic fracturing practices have apparently produced a glut of dry natural gas, which will likely remain cheap for years.  Now, the operations have shifted to the more profitable liquid gas to the west.

I didn’t watch the annual State of the Union address last night.  For things like that, I prefer to get a recap on the internet or in the newspaper.  But President Obama made sure to tout the energy boom, and the impact it is having.  It is giving me some hope.  Maybe this is the light at the end of the tunnel.  Maybe it can be exported and go a long way to erase the huge trade deficits we have been facing.  Maybe it can take a huge bite out of the high unemployment in this country.  It has already greatly reduced our dependence on foreign energy.  All I can do is hope that time will prove these hopes to be justified.

First Year of the Cat

Back in the summer of 2004, my brother Mark moved back in the house temporarily.  He was in transition, since he was looking to buy a house and planning to get married the next year.  I don’t remember him taking a lot of stuff in with him, but one thing he brought with him would need special attention: his cat Buddy.  I also understood that the cat would probably stay with us once Mark found a house and moved out.  His fiancée already had two cats, and adding one more was a little too much.  Since I loved cats I didn’t mind keeping Buddy once Mark was settled in his new place.  It had been a while since we had any pets, so it took a while to get used to having a cat around the house again.

I also realized that because of Mark’s job and the fact that he was looking for a house and planning to get married, he was not going to be around a whole lot.  It was understandable given his situation.  My father sometimes said that he hardly noticed Mark had moved in with us.  When he said that, I had to say that one thing for sure was that his cat had moved in with us.  He was also a little hesitant to take Buddy in, even though he too liked cats.  But he knew that I had a way with cats and would want to take care of Buddy if Mark couldn’t, so he didn’t object to keeping him.  We got to know the cat and he got used to us while Mark was by necessity absent most of the time. 

The first problem that arose was my father’s choice of cat food.  He was not a grandfather yet, but he spoiled the cat in a grandfatherly way.  Mark had Buddy on a strict diet and made it clear to us that we were to give him only one scoop of diet cat food a day, and nothing else.  I didn’t want to go against Mark’s wishes, but my father felt it was a good thing to give him something different for a treat, which happened to be cans of Fancy Feast moist food.  My gut feeling was confirmed soon, because once we gave Buddy the Fancy Feast, he didn’t want anything else.  He would still eat some of the IAMS diet food, but only when there was no Fancy Feast for a while. He had previously been quiet and keeping to himself, but now he was constantly meowing for the moist food, especially early in the morning.  We got used to not being able to do anything in the morning before giving Buddy his Fancy Feast.

At first, we would hide the cans from Mark, and clean out the food dishes before he came home, but he eventually found out.  I tried to let him know that I didn’t approve of the Fancy Feast, but my father insisted on giving it to him.  Of course Mark didn’t like it, but by then it was too late.  Once cats have the moist food, they don’t want anything else.  In Mark’s words, Fancy Feast is like crack to cats, and from what I saw, that description is fairly accurate. 

After about six months of living with us, Mark brought his new house and moved out.  Buddy stayed behind with us as expected, and he was our cat now.  It took a while, but by that time Buddy was used to his new surroundings, and began to warm up to us.  Since I was now the human father figure in his life and had a way with cats, he developed a liking to me.  I realized it shortly after Mark moved out. Buddy liked sleeping in different spots around the house, and he also liked laying in my laundry basket whenever it had freshly cleaned clothes in it.  I remember one time as I was lying in my bed, he was making his way into the room and about to jump into the basket and get his hair all over my clean clothes.  I saw him and said hi, and after looking at me for a second, he jumped up into the bed with me and slept there.  At that time, I knew I had won his trust and was now his best friend.

My father started to notice that too.  He also noticed something I wasn’t totally aware of, and that was that Buddy was going everywhere I went.  After coming home from work and feeding Buddy, I would sometimes take a nap, and I came to expect him to make his way back up to my room and sleep with me there.  I just got used to having a cat sleeping with me, and got used to sleeping on one side of the bed.  But he was going other places I went inside the house, too.  When I was downstairs on the computer in the front room, he would find a spot nearby and sleep there.  When I got home from work, he would either be waiting for me, or would show up soon after I arrived.  Not all cats are like that with all people, but again, since I had a way with cats and some dogs, and since I was his main caretaker, he was now around me most of the time.  It has been several years now, and Buddy is still here, although he is older and slower that he was before.

The Wrestling Revolution that was Televised

A revolution occurred on January 23, 1984.  It happened in Madison Square Garden when 10 year ring veteran Hulk Hogan won the WWF title for the first time, although for the time being that revolution was contained to the world of professional wrestling.  And even within wrestling, it was still limited mostly to the Northeastern United States, although WWF President Vince McMahon had nationwide and global plans underway.  Exactly six months later, on July 23, another event took place that, as far as I know, was the first practical attempt by McMahon to cross professional wrestling over into popular culture.  It was actually via a women’s title match featuring the longtime champion known as the Fabulous Moolah and her challenger, a young Texan named Wendi Richter, who Moolah had earlier trained for the business.  The match was broadcast on MTV and established what was known as the Rock and Wrestling Connection, a phenomena that was short lived but served its purpose in setting the WWF on its way to becoming the world’s largest and ultimately only major league wrestling promotion.

At the time, professional wrestling was still masquerading as a sport, but this would soon change.  Once McMahon took over the WWF from his father, he made clear his intention to monopolize the wrestling industry.  In his quest to do so, he would soon drop all pretenses of marketing his product as a legitimate sport, and instead offer his package under the heading of “sports entertainment”.  It seemed MTV was the perfect vehicle to do so, since his aim was to turn his major players into rock star-like figures.  MTV would also give his show a national audience, primarily among young teens, and therefore open a nationwide market for him.  It was clear after this that he wanted to change the landscape of professional wrestling.  Until then, wrestling was regionalized, with the promoters all respecting each other’s territorial boundaries.  McMahon was about to dismantle that honor system among promoters and expand beyond his territory, which was the Northeastern United States.  He had already begun to make the moves toward that goal before Hogan won the title.  Although the Northeast was a lucrative market, he had bigger plans.

The story leading up match itself began on a flight to Puerto Rico.  Cyndi Lauper was an up and coming singer and wrestling fan who met WWF manager Lou Albano on that flight.  The meeting resulted in Albano being asked to appear in the video for her single “Girls Just Want to Have Fun”, which soon topped the Billboard Hot 100.  Albano would appear in several more of her videos, producing a string of hits that brought Lauper her fleeting superstardom.  Perhaps to return the favor, she was written into one of the WWF story lines.

Rowdy Roddy Piper, a future wrestling legend, began the buildup by promising for several weeks to have Lauper on his Piper’s Pit interview segment.  First Albano appeared claiming to be her manager and responsible for her success.  Next, David Wolff, her actual manager (and boyfriend at the time) denied Albano’s claim.  Finally Cyndi herself came on as promised, and when the manager subject was brought up, she made clear that it was Wolff and not Albano.  Then Captain Lou, being Captain Lou, walked on, insisted that Lauper credit him with all her success, and added in some derogatory comments about women in general.  An altercation ensued, and soon after that, Lauper issued a challenge to Albano.  They would each pick a female wrestler to manage, with Albano picking Moolah, and Lauper choosing Richter.  Richter defeated Moolah and became champion.  Shortly after this, Albano publicly apologized and began working with Lauper to raise money for MS research.  By the end of the year, he had made a “face turn”.

Before long, however, the whole Rock and Wrestling Connection became a distant memory.   The term itself would be forgotten, although celebrities would continue to be featured at major WWF events.  Most of its key players faded from view not long after.  Cyndi Lauper soon moved on and left wrestling behind.  Wendi Richter dropped the title back to Moolah a year later, and left the WWF shortly after that, angry over the way it was done.  Albano retired from the WWF two years later.  But the juggernaut that was set in motion rolled on.  WrestleMania and several annual pay-per-view events quickly became the norm.  As the show evolved, the wrestling action itself often took a back seat to the shtick, as McMahon began to attach cartoonish gimmicks to his stars.  That brief moment in time in 1984 didn’t last long, but the transition of wrestling from a cult niche market to pop culture phenomenon had begun.  And although it took a lot longer, McMahon was eventually able to absorb his major competition and make the WWE, as it is now called, the only major wrestling promotion in America, with the smaller operations now serving as a kind of farm system.