Night Watchman

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[gattaca]

Night Watchman

Once upon a time the government had a vast scrap yard in the middle of a desert.

Congress said, "Someone may steal from it at night."

So they created a night watchman position and hired a person for the job.

Then Congress said, "How does the watchman do his job without instruction?"

So they created a planning department and hired two people, one person to write the instructions, and one person to do time studies.

Then Congress said, "How will we know the night watchman is doing the tasks correctly?"

So they created a Quality Control Department and hired two people. One was to do the studies and one was to write the reports.

Then Congress said, "How are these people going to get paid?"

So they created two positions: a time keeper and a payroll officer, then hired two people.

Then

Congress said, "Who will be accountable for all of these people?"

So they created an administrative section and hired three people, an Administrative Officer, Assistant Administrative Officer, and a Legal Secretary.

Then Congress said, "We have had this command in operation for one year and we are $918,000 over budget, we must cut back."

So they laid-off the night watchman.

NOW slowly........let it sink in.

Quietly, we go like sheep to slaughter. Does anybody remember the reason given for the establishment of the DEPARTMENT OF ENERGY during the Carter administration?

Anybody? Anything? No?

Didn't think so!

Bottom line is, we've spent several hundred billion dollars in support of an agency, the reason for which very few people who read this can remember!

Ready??

It was very simple... and at the time, everybody thought it very appropriate.

The Department of Energy was

instituted on 8/04/1977, TO LESSEN OUR DEPENDENCE ON FOREIGN OIL.

Hey, pretty efficient, huh???

AND NOW IT'S 2012 -- 35 YEARS LATER -- AND THE BUDGET FOR THIS "NECESSARY" DEPARTMENT IS AT$24.2 BILLION A YEAR. IT HAS 16,000 FEDERAL EMPLOYEES AND APPROXIMATELY 100,000 CONTRACT EMPLOYEES; AND LOOK AT THE JOB IT HAS DONE!

(THIS IS WHERE YOU SLAP YOUR FOREHEAD AND SAY, "WHAT WERE THEY THINKING?")

34 years ago 30% of our oil consumption was foreign imports. Today 70% of our oil consumption is foreign imports.

Ah, yes -- good old Federal bureaucracy.

NOW, WE HAVE TURNED OVER THE BANKING SYSTEM, HEALTH CARE, AND THE AUTO INDUSTRY TO THE SAME GOVERNMENT?

Hello!! Anybody Home?

Signed.... The Night Watchman

[gattaca]

This is an oldie but goody, but got it via email again.

[JayGalt]

Very appropriate & new to me. Thanks for posting, I sent it around to my email list.

[trublu]

Laughing.....and crying.

[FreedomPoster]

Nightwatchman?

[eyeamok]

instituted on 8/04/1977, TO LESSEN OUR DEPENDENCE ON FOREIGN OIL.

34 years ago 30% of our oil consumption was foreign imports. Today 70% of our oil consumption is foreign imports.

YES I remember and bring it up and remind people occasionally. Most of what our Public Masters do is a result of the same type of reasoning.

[MosesKnows]

Today 70% of our oil consumption is foreign imports

Your media sources neglected to inform you of the outcome of the 2016 presidential election and the resulting improvements in American oil production.

I suggest you expand, considerably expand, your source of news.

[golux]

Some facts from the EIA:

In 2017, the United States imported approximately 10.14 million barrels per day (MMb/d) of petroleum from about 84 countries. Petroleum includes crude oil, hydrocarbon gas liquids, refined petroleum products such as gasoline and diesel fuel, and biofuels including ethanol and biodiesel. Crude oil accounted for about 79% of U.S. gross petroleum imports in 2017 and non-crude oil petroleum accounted for about 21% of gross petroleum imports.

In 2017, the United States exported about 6.38 MMb/d of petroleum to 186 countries, of which about 18% was crude oil and 82% was non-crude oil petroleum. The resulting net imports (imports minus exports) of petroleum were about 3.77 MMb/d.

The top five source countries of U.S. petroleum imports in 2017 were Canada, Saudi Arabia, Mexico, Venezuela, and Iraq.

Top sources and amounts of U.S. petroleum imports (percent share of total), respective exports, and net imports, 2017
million barrels per day
Import sources Gross imports Exports Net imports
Total, all countries 10.14 6.38 3.77
OPEC countries 3.37 (33%) 0.19
3.17
Persian Gulf countries 1.75 (17%) 0.01 1.73
Top five countries1
Canada 4.05 (40%) 0.87 3.18
Saudi Arabia 0.96 (9%) <0.01 0.95
Mexico 0.68 (7%) 1.08 -0.40
Venezuela 0.67 (7%) 0.06 0.61
Iraq 0.60 (6%) <0.01 0.60

Note: Ranking in the table is based on gross imports by country of origin. Net imports volumes in the table may not equal gross imports minus exports because of independent rounding of data.

The top five destination countries of U.S. petroleum exports in 2017, export volume, and share of total petroleum exports

Mexico—1.08 MMb/d—17%
Canada—0.87 MMb/d—14%
China—0.45 MMb/d—7%
Brazil—0.40 MMb/d—6%
Japan—0.35 MMb/d—5%

[Carl Vehse]

The Department of Energy was responsible under the Nuclear Waste Policy Act of 1982 to take possession in the 1990s of spent nuclear fuel currently stored in spent fuel pools at individual nuclear power plants through the country. The Department of Energy was also responsible to build, test, and operate a high-level nuclear waste repository to safely store that spent fuel.

From 1983 to 2014 a surcharge of 0.1 cent was collected for each kilowatt-hour of electricity produced by nuclear reactors to pay for all of these DOE fuel transport and repository activities That surcharge accumulated $31 billion.

Thirty-five years later the spent fuel is still at individual nuclear power plants. After a quarter-century of R&D, construction and testing of various sites, including the final choice at Yucca Mountain, the repository program was cancelled.

The $31 billion? Don’t bother looking for it in the DOE lockbox.

[BeauBo]

The situation with foreign oil dependency has changed dramatically in the last ten years, due to fracking.

I am not sure that we ever hit 70% dependence on imports, but we were over 50% for a long time.

In 2017, we produced 81% of our consumption (net of imports and exports) and Secretawry of the Interior Zinke projects US oil production to surge to 14 million barrels per day over the next two years (about 1.5 million increase per year).

Most of our imports now come from Canada and Mexico.

Of course these great outcomes are despite the Department of Energy, more than because of them, but we should update that old statistic to the new reality. The USA is now the world’s largest producer of oil, and the largest producer of natural gas.

[gattaca]

That’s a good point. I think this is old and making the rounds again.

[Vineyard]

Not sure if I want to rain on your parade....but ...here goes.

The Department of Energy does include nuclear power development (commercial nuclear power plants + R&D for new options....and the bungled storage of spent fuel.)

The Department of Energy is the cognizant authority for R&D of nuclear weapons. They provide the proper oversight for maintenance, repairs and upgrades to nuclear weapons.

The Department of Energy is the cognizant authority for Navy Nuclear Propulsion R&D. They provide oversight for the Navy’s nuclear power. (The Navy has a 4 star Admiral - NAVSEA 08 - who is ‘double-hatted’ - and leads the DOE Navy Nuclear Propulsion program.

SO - there are several programs that have a real purpose for existence - and if the DoE was to be eliminated - then the Navy Nuclear program would be moved under the Navy (but Congress wanted a degree of independence...which would be lost.) Same thing for the nuclear weapons - move it into Dept.of Defense - and accept the loss of some independence.