“Ben” Gasified
Wow, so Enstar is about to lower the costs to heat my house by a whooping $2.00 a month. Talk about a dew drop in the bucket. But there is more to it then what the company’s spokesman is willing to divulge. So here is my take on the rebate. Enstar serves a population base of approximately 125,000 paying customers. And for some reason or another, SEMCO Energy - the parent company of Enstar based out of Michigan - it insisted on hiring Ben Stevens as a member of the board of directors. While he was still an Alaska state senator! That was so until Ben found himself being interviewed by the FBI. So my calculator provides this simple mathematical multiplication outcome. A 125,000 customer base times a $2.00 rebate times a 0.56 energy equalizer index equals $140,000 dollars. So maybe, just maybe that is what it cost to have Ben stick around – influence pedaling. Big daddy’s influence I am talking about, especially when it comes to energy regulations which to us rate-payers is nothing short of strangulation. And I am sure that the boardroom boredom Ben put up with for a fee, it most likely paid off handsomely in some obscure appropriations bill signed by daddy and the Billy Goat. And since Ben’s bonus was a business expense, it is a burden placed upon the customers. Wherein you and I get to give in. So this rebate may be a means to re-coup some illegal gratuity grandstanding. Why can’t they just be honest with us and tell the truth when stealing from us gets government oversight scrutiny? All in all, the rebate doesn’t amount to beans as the value of natural gas has seen a skyrocketing abuse approaching a 30% increase, in just the past year. And it has been more of the same for the last 3-years. Then what is really happening to allow such a pilferage of my hard earned payola? It is nothing short of a conspiracy. See, the gas in Cook Inlet had always been affordable. Made so early on when the gas wells and pipeline infrastructure was subsidized affordable by tax breaks written into the oil & gas tax code – both state and Federal. And good for them and good for us, as grandfather rights ruled the means by which subsidizing could be amended. Basically, leave well enough alone! So we were safe, for awhile. But then somebody in their infinite wisdom decided it was worth the risk to abandon proven reserves for more costly new exploration. So it meant the new gas would fall under a completely different slate. The latter is what the energy gurus use to define the cost of energy. And remember this, Enstar does not own any natural gas, it just transports the gas for others, like Concho-Phillips and Unocal and Marathon. But when the energy titans increase the price of energy, the transporters feel it also necessary to raise prices. Saying the transported gas is more precious so it has to cost more in efforts to deliver it to the consumers! And it really amounts to increases for no other reason then monkey-see, monkey-do greed mentality. So with the new wells and new pipelines down in the inlet, it meant an entire new ballgame. When at the same time, the cheap old gas remains stuck below ground. Now the new gas falls under the Henry Hub indexing method of wallet extraction. It is this simple. Energy is sold by its BTU content. Natural gas maintains a well known energy content whereas crude oil does not. There are many unknowns with the “Black Gold”, so it offers a means to add a penny here and a penny there. In the end, the true cost of the goop is over inflated. So wisdomers realized that if natural gas could be tied to West Texas Intermediate crude oil indexing, it meant a whale of a bonanza! That is what is behind the Henry Hub index. It follows a simple equation that marries the price of natural gas with the price of crude oil. So it is a way to richen the pot. It should have never been allowed, as gas and oil are in reality two completely different commodities. Like mentioned before, natural gas is just that, natural. It doesn’t need any additional conditioning. I can take my Coleman stove up to a well in Prudhoe Bay and in no time flat be boiling water, from the gas. So there existed no known ways and means to richen the exploited plant and animal remains extracted in the gaseous state. But once it was deemed all in the same with respect to energy, it then so conveniently falls automatically under the indexing formula. In a 2006 study by our very own DOE - a.k.a. Department Of Enlightenment - it was proven that natural gas is now tied to the price of crude oil, with a slight deviation called the equalization index. Crude oil controls the indexing. Bottom line, we were screwed. It is so profitable that the gas is more desirable then crude oil, as the equalization index disallows rapid price fluctuations. So as crude oil swings a dollar here and then a dollar there, the indexed gas remains a solid and stable investment. A lucrative investment at that! And as soon as the titans figure out how to liquefy this gas and control its behavior so it remains a liquid at standard conditions of temperature and pressure, it will be signora “black gold”. What’s that I hear from down Nikiski way? Its already been done. Really, it is called the “White Crude Project”, wherein natural gas is converted into crude oil. It follows an old German conversion process. See, it then fetches the same price as crude oil, about 5% greater then natural gas in its virgin state! So this is what happens when this country has representation that is not at all interested in the people’s welfare over that of the special interests. The fact that our so-called leadership allowed this to happen is proof that politicians are indeed corrupt. The sad thing about it, somebody is making a very healthy profit over this shenanigans. And it never should have been allowed to happen way up here in Alaska. Ben screwed us. Ted screwed us. Don screwed us. Frank screwed us. And I am sure that MoanaLisa is well on her way to screw us some more. See, our gas comes from the inlet right to our front-door. It doesn’t come close to the “Hub”, which is located down in Louisiana. It is in itself a completely different commodity onto its own. And you really cannot blame Enstar, as it is “Big Oil” providing more of the same crap. But when an outfit like Enstar engages in hiring state representation like Ben Stevens, there can only be one realization, abuse. With a capitol A, a capitol B, a capitol U…..Wow, 2-bucks a month back in my wallet for a rainy day! Feels like I have “BEN” GASIFIED.
Wow, so Enstar is about to lower the costs to heat my house by a whooping $2.00 a month. Talk about a dew drop in the bucket. But there is more to it then what the company’s spokesman is willing to divulge. So here is my take on the rebate. Enstar serves a population base of approximately 125,000 paying customers. And for some reason or another, SEMCO Energy - the parent company of Enstar based out of Michigan - it insisted on hiring Ben Stevens as a member of the board of directors. While he was still an Alaska state senator! That was so until Ben found himself being interviewed by the FBI. So my calculator provides this simple mathematical multiplication outcome. A 125,000 customer base times a $2.00 rebate times a 0.56 energy equalizer index equals $140,000 dollars. So maybe, just maybe that is what it cost to have Ben stick around – influence pedaling. Big daddy’s influence I am talking about, especially when it comes to energy regulations which to us rate-payers is nothing short of strangulation. And I am sure that the boardroom boredom Ben put up with for a fee, it most likely paid off handsomely in some obscure appropriations bill signed by daddy and the Billy Goat. And since Ben’s bonus was a business expense, it is a burden placed upon the customers. Wherein you and I get to give in. So this rebate may be a means to re-coup some illegal gratuity grandstanding. Why can’t they just be honest with us and tell the truth when stealing from us gets government oversight scrutiny? All in all, the rebate doesn’t amount to beans as the value of natural gas has seen a skyrocketing abuse approaching a 30% increase, in just the past year. And it has been more of the same for the last 3-years. Then what is really happening to allow such a pilferage of my hard earned payola? It is nothing short of a conspiracy. See, the gas in Cook Inlet had always been affordable. Made so early on when the gas wells and pipeline infrastructure was subsidized affordable by tax breaks written into the oil & gas tax code – both state and Federal. And good for them and good for us, as grandfather rights ruled the means by which subsidizing could be amended. Basically, leave well enough alone! So we were safe, for awhile. But then somebody in their infinite wisdom decided it was worth the risk to abandon proven reserves for more costly new exploration. So it meant the new gas would fall under a completely different slate. The latter is what the energy gurus use to define the cost of energy. And remember this, Enstar does not own any natural gas, it just transports the gas for others, like Concho-Phillips and Unocal and Marathon. But when the energy titans increase the price of energy, the transporters feel it also necessary to raise prices. Saying the transported gas is more precious so it has to cost more in efforts to deliver it to the consumers! And it really amounts to increases for no other reason then monkey-see, monkey-do greed mentality. So with the new wells and new pipelines down in the inlet, it meant an entire new ballgame. When at the same time, the cheap old gas remains stuck below ground. Now the new gas falls under the Henry Hub indexing method of wallet extraction. It is this simple. Energy is sold by its BTU content. Natural gas maintains a well known energy content whereas crude oil does not. There are many unknowns with the “Black Gold”, so it offers a means to add a penny here and a penny there. In the end, the true cost of the goop is over inflated. So wisdomers realized that if natural gas could be tied to West Texas Intermediate crude oil indexing, it meant a whale of a bonanza! That is what is behind the Henry Hub index. It follows a simple equation that marries the price of natural gas with the price of crude oil. So it is a way to richen the pot. It should have never been allowed, as gas and oil are in reality two completely different commodities. Like mentioned before, natural gas is just that, natural. It doesn’t need any additional conditioning. I can take my Coleman stove up to a well in Prudhoe Bay and in no time flat be boiling water, from the gas. So there existed no known ways and means to richen the exploited plant and animal remains extracted in the gaseous state. But once it was deemed all in the same with respect to energy, it then so conveniently falls automatically under the indexing formula. In a 2006 study by our very own DOE - a.k.a. Department Of Enlightenment - it was proven that natural gas is now tied to the price of crude oil, with a slight deviation called the equalization index. Crude oil controls the indexing. Bottom line, we were screwed. It is so profitable that the gas is more desirable then crude oil, as the equalization index disallows rapid price fluctuations. So as crude oil swings a dollar here and then a dollar there, the indexed gas remains a solid and stable investment. A lucrative investment at that! And as soon as the titans figure out how to liquefy this gas and control its behavior so it remains a liquid at standard conditions of temperature and pressure, it will be signora “black gold”. What’s that I hear from down Nikiski way? Its already been done. Really, it is called the “White Crude Project”, wherein natural gas is converted into crude oil. It follows an old German conversion process. See, it then fetches the same price as crude oil, about 5% greater then natural gas in its virgin state! So this is what happens when this country has representation that is not at all interested in the people’s welfare over that of the special interests. The fact that our so-called leadership allowed this to happen is proof that politicians are indeed corrupt. The sad thing about it, somebody is making a very healthy profit over this shenanigans. And it never should have been allowed to happen way up here in Alaska. Ben screwed us. Ted screwed us. Don screwed us. Frank screwed us. And I am sure that MoanaLisa is well on her way to screw us some more. See, our gas comes from the inlet right to our front-door. It doesn’t come close to the “Hub”, which is located down in Louisiana. It is in itself a completely different commodity onto its own. And you really cannot blame Enstar, as it is “Big Oil” providing more of the same crap. But when an outfit like Enstar engages in hiring state representation like Ben Stevens, there can only be one realization, abuse. With a capitol A, a capitol B, a capitol U…..Wow, 2-bucks a month back in my wallet for a rainy day! Feels like I have “BEN” GASIFIED.
CopyRight 2007 – Dixie Productions/MSK Media/Eagle Rock Press
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