Update 7-19-16: for future reference, his inmate number is 13523-059. His middle initial is A, for Alexander. Age 40 as of summer 2016.
Update 10-23-18: Mr. Graves is still at Victorville Medium I FCI with an unchanged release date of 12/24/2043. Just 25 years and a couple months to go. His current age is 42, which means he will be 67 years old on his scheduled release date.
I’m not quite sure I understand why he would be at a medium security prison. I obviously don’t understand these things, but seems to me that a drug distribution conviction and five trafficking convictions would land him in a higher security facility.
6 pumpjacks in Sept. ’15 about ready to get working. Photo by James Ulvog.
Lots of transitions going on in the oil industry, particularly Saudi Arabia. I have a bunch of articles to discuss on energy. Will try to get caught up.
Shipwreck standing on the beach with the sea in the background. Margarita Island. Venezuela. Photo courtesy of DollarPhotoClub.com
Things are bad and likely to get far worse for the people living in Venezuela. More reports of looting are appearing in news stories. Read between the lines on the comment from a mayor who says that dogs and cats are disappearing from the streets.
Article reports on several specific stores being looted with comments there have been many more in the last two weeks. There is so little food and when available it is expensive. More people are slipping into severe hunger. Widespread looting is the expected next step in the collapse of the country.
The mayor of Chacao in Caracas said the cats and dogs in the city are disappearing. Pigeons as well. That is traditionally a sign of famine.
Poor people are skipping meals because they can’t afford what little can be found, and what little they can afford comes with the additional price of standing in line all day.
FWS calculates killing 4,200 of the above birds per year will not put the species in danger. Photo courtesy of DollarPhotoClub.com
Proposal from the Fish and Wildlife Service would allow 30 year permits for ‘incidental taking’ of bald eagles and golden eagles. A few other articles provide more news on the damage from unreliable energy.
Some graphs to show the value of oil produced in North Dakota.
First, the value of production by year from 2010 through December 2015.
To show the impact of volume, next is a graph of the volume of production for the year from 2003 through 2015.
Finally, to see the impact of drop in prices is a graph of the value of monthly production from January 2010 through February 2016. Based on information through mid-April, February was the low point in oil prices. There has been an uptrend since then.
Unreliable energy near Palm Springs, CA. Notice turbines are facing many different directions as indicator of low, irregular output. Photo courtesy of DollarPhotoClub.com
Renewable energy sources are unreliable because the output is variable and unpredictable. They also require massive subsidies to underwrite installation and production. Here are a few articles I’ve noted that describe the economic and environmental damage from unreliables.
Residential solar power only works because of massive subsidies. Federal taxpayers must provide subsidies through federal tax credits, state taxpayers must provide subsidies through state incentives, and electricity users must provide subsidies through net-metering. If any subsidy goes away, the economics of residential solar collapse.
Article makes the point one more time: unreliable renewables only with heavy subsidies. When Nevada announced plans to cut back the massive cross-subsidy from other consumers, solar installers closed up shop in the state.
Here’s why. Look at the payment given to solar-customers for electricity their site produces but doesn’t use:
Well-earned long term housing Keith Graves will occupy for a several decades. Photo courtesy of DollarPhotoClub.com
The Bureau of Prisons reports an expected release date of December 24, 2043 for Keith Graves (register number 13523-059).
If you have been following my blog, you recall Mr. Graves was convicted on five counts of human trafficking, one count of drug distribution, and one count of drug possession.
His well-earned sentence was 33 years, 9 months.
Mr. Graves was a key player in a documentary titled The Overnighters, which covered Williston and the oil boom in the Bakken. We now know that Mr. Graves conned the producer and the pastor featured in the documentary along with a large number of women whom he trafficked.
The soon-to-be condition of working light bulbs in Venezuela. Photo by James Ulvog.
One old joke and two new ones:
What did socialists use before candles? Electricity.
Before tree leaves? Toilet paper.
Before the telegraph? Telephone and email.
Was planning to hold on to this post for a while, but the bad news is piling up too fast. Need to print this while it is still of readable length.
Bonus question for the day: What economic system is in place in Venezuela that is producing these results?
4/15 – Yahoo News – In Venezuela, no toilet paper and now lousy phone service– The government distributes dollars as it wishes. It has not provided enough dollars to telephone companies and cable companies for them in turn to pay their providers. As a result several international telecoms have cut off long-distance services to the country. In addition vendors providing cable channels are cutting their services because they haven’t been paid.
As a result, telephone service is deteriorating and the number of channels available on cable TV is dropping.
Horizontal drilling and hydraulic fracturing have turned the energy world upside down. The massive transition isn’t over. A few articles on the massive benefits of fracking. Part 1 of this discussion here.
Pointing out news that is not news to anyone who has paid attention to the energy business in the recent years, article explains the current volatility is currently disrupting and will continue to disrupt many producers. A lot of producers will go out of business. Keep in mind that the drilling rigs, equipment, and especially the oil under the ground will not vaporize as a result. The know-how to more efficiently drill more productive wells more quickly more cheaply will be around a long time.
Article explains a cited book which makes the point that the shale revolution is just getting started. The improved efficiency producing higher output in the last two years has brought many producers to the point where they can be productive in the $30 or $40 range.
The technology has increased to the point that if prices rebound to slightly higher levels than where they are now would make it possible to bring horizontal drilling and hydraulic fracturing into conventional oil fields and produce increases there.
The net effect of all these amazing advances is that shale oil will put a cap on how far oil prices can rise. As prices go up a whole bunch of undrilled locations become lucrative.
My rough graph above shows the lousy accuracy of Dr. King’s 1956 projections of natural gas production in the US.
Dr. M. King Hubbert fell in with a fellow named Howard Scott, whom Prof. Priest calls
a magnetic charlatan.
Mr. Scott dreamed of a glorious time in which scientists and engineers would run the world through a powerful Technate or Technocracy Inc. As I havementioned before, I’m not sure if this authoritarian system was more fond of fascism or communism, but it certainly was authoritarian. My inclination is this tended toward fascist, meaning our betters would let us peons own private property but they would tell us what we can do with our property and how we can live.
Dr. King was apparently not a very nice person. The review highlights Dr. King’s approach to knowledge:
It was not enough for him to be right. Someone had to be humiliated in the process. Mr. Inman appears uninterested in pondering the mixture of arrogance and resentment that shaped Hubbert’s personal interactions.
That Dr. King had an overabundance of arrogance is visible if you read through his 1949 and 1956 papers.
Horizontal drilling and hydraulic fracturing has turned the energy world upside down. The massive transition isn’t over. A few articles on resilience of the industry.
Oh, and a university report showing no ground water contamination from fracking will be kept from public view. Why? Actual research results contradict the researcher’s stated agenda.
Same article. Different agenda. Different headline.
On to the article…
One County Commissioner says the current facility will be sufficient if it’s upgraded. Airport Director says upgrades to comply with FAA standards would be something in the range of $240M to $350M. At best it would cost as much to upgrade the current facility as it would to build a new airport.
Another county commissioner says the airport is not needed “right now” and therefore shouldn’t be built.
Big implications from a few minor shipments of crude. Also, the OPEC+Russia meeting over the weekend did not result in any agreement to hold production at current levels.
4/19 – Bakken.com – Bakken crude sold as export first time since ban lifted– Not a big story by itself but the implications are huge. Hess Corp. shipped the first-ever load of 175K barrels of Bakken crude to an unspecified European refinery.
