Blog: Dermot Cole
Baffled Barton, the smug Texas congressman
Published Friday, April 24, 2009
A Texas congressman who is mighty pleased with himself claims he “baffled” the Nobel Prize-winning Secretary of Energy with a basic question about where oil comes from.
What's really baffling is that Joe Barton doesn't understand that the geologic history of Alaska is complicated.
In a Congressional hearing I watched Wednesday on C-SPAN, Republican Barton tried to stump Energy Secretary Steven Chu and disprove global warming in six seconds.
Barton wants the world to know about this exchange, so he posted it on YouTube and bragged about his brilliance.
He put a slide at the start of the video, “Where Does Oil Come From? Question Leaves Energy Secretary Puzzled.”
The video can be found at http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=pgKepHebKRc&feature=channel_page
Here is the exchange:
BARTON: Dr. Chu, I don’t want to leave you out. You’re our scientist. I have one simple question for you in the last six seconds. How did all the oil and gas get to Alaska and under the Arctic Ocean?
CHU: This is a complicated story but oil and gas is the result of hundreds of millions of years of geology and in that time also the plates have moved around. And so, it’s a combination of where the sources of the oil and gas . . .
BARTON: Isn’t it obvious that at one time it was a lot warmer in Alaska and on the North Pole? It wasn’t a big pipeline that we’ve created in Texas and shipped it up there and put it under ground so we can now pump it up and ship it back?
CHU: No, there are continental plates that have been drifting around throughout the geological ages.
BARTON: So it just drifted up there.
CHU: That’s certainly what happened. It’s a result of things like that.
Barton was so proud of himself, he sent a message by Twitter to his followers, “I seemed to have baffled the Energy Sec with basic question - Where does oil come from?”
In fact, Chu gave a good off-the-cuff response about what geologists say are the key factors in the formation of oil deposits. It is true that the story of how oil formed in Alaska, where the land came from and how warm it once was in the Far North is a great deal more involved than was reflected by Chu's answer.
A physicist, he received the Nobel Prize in 1997 not for his knowledge of geology, but for his research on how laser light can be used to trap atoms.
•In Scientific American, Roger Anderson of the Lamont-Doherty Earth Observatory a Columbia University wrote about why oil and gas is found in such heavy concentrations in the Arctic and desert regions.
Plate tectonics determines the location of oil and gas reservoirs and is the best key we have to understanding why deserts and arctic areas seem to hold the largest hydrocarbon reserves on earth.
But there are other important locations of large reserves: river deltas and continental margins offshore. Together, these four types of areas hold most of the oil and gas in the world today.
For his complete answer, go to http://www.sciam.com/article.cfm?id=why-is-oil-usually-found
Joe Barton is a moron. He just kicked the ball into his own net, and now he's celebrating..... What a bonehead.
umm dermot, ya might want to do some more research, The paleogeographic location of the northslope was still pretty north 70 Million years ago.
There were dinosaurs then and it was warm, very warm.
The logic that since it was warm before "man's influence" so "man's influence" is not important of course is arse. Contact Paul J. McCarthy for real info. on the paleogeopgraphic location of the north slope.
fs - great line! Almost as good as the 'born on third base' line.
Blame it on the "dinosaur killer asteroid" that struck the Yucatan Peninsula Mexico 65 million years ago. Yep, think that some Texas politicians still got a ringing in their ears from that blast. (BIG SMILE)
Don't forget to use the word "theory" when discussing hydrocarbon formation. There is more than one.
Each day we learn more about the size and extent of the November Election mistake...
we have elected fools who have hired and appointed more fools to do very foolish things...
I also watched this on CSPAN. During the same congressional hearing, neither the Energy Secretary or the EPA Administrator had any estimate on how much the Renewable Energy bill would cost in terms of an increased fuel tax. The question was asked whether it could be as high as $1.00 gallon. Neither would comment. They also couldn't explain why nuclear or hydro were not included in the Renewable Energy bill.. America production is going to take a nose dive with this Administration. Get used to riding bicycles
For those that are interested, ConocoPhillips posted their last quarter economic performance.
http://www.conocophillips.com/newsroom/n...
http://www.chron.com/disp/story.mpl/busi...
By the way 3 million years ago it was warm on the northslope of alaska (hemlock trees grew there.) 45 million years ago it was so warm there were palm trees growing on the coast of the arctic ocean. In terms of plate motion, those 45 million year old palm trees were growing not far from where they were discovered today.
The guy from texas wasn't using logic in his discussion, but even a broken clock is right twice a day,
-jab
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