WHAT DO UMBRELLAS, BASKETBALLS, GOLF BAGS, AND DEODORANT HAVE IN COMMON!

(Google News, Lee Jackson Think Stock, Frazer Chronicle)

 

Surprise, surprise, surprise, umbrellas keep us dry, basketballs can be dribbled and shot, golf bags hold several different types of sticks that whack a little white ball around, which also comes from this substance, as well as deodorant, which helps to make us smell good, and although they aren’t related…..they in fact are…..related, the all come as waste products from petroleum. Yep, there are actually 6000 products that can trace their existence directly from petroleum, black gold…..Texas tea, betcha didn’t know that one!

 

One 42-gallon barrel of crude oil creates 19.4 gallons of gasoline, and the rest, more than half of every barrel is a building block of all sorts of products that we daily use without as much as a thought of where they came from. Shaving cream, toothpaste, dishes, telephones, bandages, and even footballs are part of the 6000 products of petroleum. Come on, vitamin capsules from petroleum, there has to be a typo.

 

One would never have guessed it…..right, well, not exactly, if a person stops and thinks about how our system works, it stands to reason that manufacturers are going to squeeze every drop of production that they can get for their dollars. Geez-- even pillows can be traced to petroleum.

 

Petroleum products seemingly are going to be with us for the foreseeable future, so I suppose we’d better start figuring out the best way to produce the stuff…..right? I’m not sure laying a production pipeline through the middle of the United States is the best way to approach the project, at least until the people responsible for laying the pipeline are researched. No way, Aspirin tablets too.

 

I figured maybe the best way to check out the top venders of such a project might be the people that stood to make the most money from their efforts. It’s kinda like the man said, “follow the money,” and in this case it stood to be true. I’ve unearthed some interesting facts, figures, and recent histories. It figures, hand lotion also comes from petroleum, no wonder my hands are dryer then a bone.

 

There is a feeling by some experts that the Keystone XL will begin operation as quickly as later this year, despite environmental objections. We here in Wisconsin saw firsthand the power of environmental objects to an environmentally sensitive project, in this case an open pit iron mine in northern Wisconsin. The result of the protest…..the mining company got every concession to the rules that they wanted. This can’t be right…..perfumes also from petroleum…..bummer.

 

According to Think-Stock’s Lee Jackson, Canadian Natural Resources, Conoco Phillips, Deere & Company, Exxon Mobil Corporation, Netherlands based refiner and chemical company Lyondell Basell Industries, Quanta Services, Valero Energy, Quantis Services, and of course TransCanada Corporation who is spearheading the Keystone XL, all stand to make millions upon millions of dollars. Don’t you dare say it…..lipstick from petroleum too.

 

The buzz on the hill is that President Obama is being pressured from all sides to, and in fact Paul Ryan’s budget is tied in with an approval of the project. As the pressure mounts for the president to create more jobs and boost a stagnate economy, it seems only a formality before the Obama camp comes on board, and approves a rather controversial project. The hell you say, percolators also come from Texas tea, I’d have never guessed.

 

 

 

 

THESE COMPANIES ARE BIG, AND GETTING BIGGER

I’m sure some of you haven’t even heard of some of these companies, I know I haven’t, but most a big, getting bigger, and according to Lee Jackson and Think Stock don’t even need the additional windfall that will come from the Keystone XL project.

 

Valero Energy Corporation based out of San Antonio is a relatively newcomer to the oil and gas business, founded in 1980, the company serves North America and the Caribbean, employs more than 22,000 with revenues totaling $125.987 billion dollars.

 

ExxonMobil, reorganized in the fall of 1999, is located in Irving, Texas, serves worldwide, employs more than 82,000 with revenue listed at $486,429 billion. ExxonMobil has a total of 12 subsidiaries, making it difficult to track the environmental record of the company.

 

Deere & Company, producer of heavy equipment is the oldest corporation that is involved with the Keystone project. John Deere employs more than 55,000 worldwide with revenue totaling $26.005 billion. The possibility of John Deere Corporation running into environmental pollution problems stems from their 14 U.S. factories and their 20 foreign manufacturing sites around the world.

 

ConocoPhillips has its worldwide headquarters at Houston Energy Corridor in Houston, Texas, and is under the watchful eye of Ryan Lance, the Chairman  & CEO. Under his direction the company produces petroleum based products throughout the world with revenues reaching more than a quarter trillion.

 

ConocoPhillips was reorganized and created through a merger of Conoco Incorporated and Phillips Petroleum Company in August 2002. Today the company provides employment to more than 29,000 people, and deals exclusively with oil and gas and numbers its customers worldwide.

 

TransCanada Corporation, located in Calgary, Alberta Canada, employs more than 4,200, is in the natural gas and power generation business. TransCanada lists 7 wholly owned pipelines that total more than 100,000 miles and is affiliated with subsidiary pipelines that total 6,000 miles here in the U.S.

 

The company also lists 17 conversion facilities, with 4 located here in the United States, that produce energy from natural gas or oil. The company is currently involved in 56 separate eminent domain lawsuits against landowners in Texas and South Dakota who have refused to give permission to the company to build the Keystone pipeline on their land.

 

Canadian Natural Resources employs more than 5,000 at its Calgary headquarters, with gross income of $16,173 billion. C.N.R. also operates offices in Alberta, British Columbia, Saskatchewan, as well as international offices in Gabon, Cote d’Lovire, and Aberdeen, Scotland.

 

Quantis Services is an industry leader in providing specialized services including infrastructure, design, maintenance, and repair for every type of infrastructure. Quantis has offices in 40 states, field operations across the country and Canada. Quantis has a total of 17,800 employees as is located in Boston, Massachusetts.  

 

Finally LyondellBasell Industries, a chemical polymers company which is headquartered in Rotterdam, Netherlands, boosting revenues of more than $51 billion dollars, with total overall employees of more than 14,000 produces its products in no less than 28 sites in the United States and 25 additional sites around the world.

 

MY POINT IS SIMPLE, IT’S LIKE CHILDS PLAY

Organizations like the eight that I’ve just listed have a combined workforce of more than 230,000 and a gross income of more than a trillion dollars annually. These figures reflect an industry with a gross income of more than some emerging 3^rd. world countries.

 

The 230,000 workforce figure can be likened to twice the size of Green Bay, all working around petroleum producing facilities with little regard to the environment that they occupy. How could they, in today’s atmosphere of deadlines and bottom line results.

 

Accidents, oil spills, pipeline ruptures, and the abrasive sand oil that flows through many pipelines in not only the United States, but Canada as well all are a constant threat to the environment where pipelines are located.

 

Between January 2010 and February 2011 there were nine major pipeline explosions that resulted in 18 deaths, 13 injuries and 85 destroyed homes in the United States. I had no idea, and I’ll bet you didn’t either. Here’s the list:

January 5, 2010, Jackson, Mississippi

January 6, 2010, Barksdale Air Force Base, 1 death.

June 7, 2010, Jackson County, Texas, 1 death, 8 injured

June 29, 2010, Pocasset, Oklahoma, 3 injured

September 9, 2010, San Bruno, California, 8 deaths, 38 homes destroyed

February 8, 2011, Houston, Texas, 1 death

February 9, 2011, Allentown, Pennsylvania, 5 deaths, 47 homes damaged

February 10, 2011, Hanoverton, Ohio

 

Over 5,000,000 barrels of oil have been spilled across the country over the past 20 years, and of course that doesn’t include derrick platforms in the Gulf of Mexico, or oil tanker wrecks along our coastlines. Of course we need petroleum products to enhance and maintain our lifestyle.

 

In fact I’m a proponent of petroleum products as well as coal, natural gas and even atomic reactor power; it just needs to be done with a weathered eye towards safety not only for people, but our precious environment that we depend on for so many products.

 

I am in total amazement at the products that are directly linked to the production of fossil fuel…..like 85% through the burning of oil and natural gas. Here is a short list of some of the products:

C.D. Players

Skis

Putty

Dentures

Refrigerators

Vaporizers

Ice Cube Trays

Parachutes

Soap

Shoe Polish

Toilet Seats

I can’t imagine being without most of these products, well maybe skies and parachutes I could do without.

HAVE A NICE DAY