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California considers tripling number of refinery inspectors 41 PHOTOS

Posted on June 19, 2013 at 10:35 am by Houston Chronicle
41 PHOTOS
By Jaxon Van Derbeken
San Francisco Chronicle

San Francisco — California would nearly triple the number of oil refinery safety inspectors under a proposal on the governor’s desk that backers say would help close regulatory gaps that federal investigators found played a role in the fire at Chevron’s Richmond refinery last year.

One of more than two dozen budget-related bills — all expected to be signed by Gov. Jerry Brown by the end of the month — would require Cal/OSHA, the state’s main agency overseeing refinery safety, to make refineries in California pay for at least 15 new plant safety inspectors. Four more would be hired with existing funds.

Currently, the state has just seven inspectors. The added help would bring the total to 26 under the new budget. Still, even a beefed-up staff would likely struggle, critics say, given the huge task of assuring safety at the state’s 15 oil refineries and 1,600 other chemical processing plants.

“Tripling their staffing means a slightly larger fraction is going toward what is needed for safety — but it’s a step in the right direction,” said Greg Karras, staff scientist for the Communities for a Better Environment advocacy group.

Federal investigation: Board calls for tougher rules on refineries

A spokesman for Western States Petroleum Association said the trade group representing California’s major oil refineries “stands ready to work” with Cal/OSHA, the governor and the Legislature “to ensure that there continues to be a robust and well-trained” refinery safety effort.

In an interim report in April, federal investigators blamed the Aug. 6 fire — caused by the rupture of a corroded pipe and which sent 15,000 people to seek treatment for breathing problems — on weak state oversight that left Chevron free to simply monitor rather than eliminate corrosion risks at its crude oil unit.

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Summary of Weekly Petroleum Data for the Week Ending June 14, 2013

U.S. crude oil refinery inputs averaged over 15.5 million barrels per day during the week ending June 14, 2013, 294 thousand barrels per day above the previous week’s average. Refineries operated at 89.3 percent of their operable capacity last week. Gasoline production decreased last week, averaging 9.1 million barrels per day. Distillate fuel production decreased slightly last week, averaging about 4.7 million barrels per day.

U.S. crude oil imports averaged over 8.4 million barrels per day last week, up by 586 thousand barrels per day from the previous week. Over the last four weeks, crude oil imports have averaged over 7.8 million barrels per day, 1.3 million barrels per day below the same four-week period last year. Total motor gasoline imports (including both finished gasoline and gasoline blending components) last week averaged 556 thousand barrels per day. Distillate fuel imports averaged 87 thousand barrels per day last week.

U.S. commercial crude oil inventories (excluding those in the Strategic Petroleum Reserve) increased by 0.3 million barrels from the previous week. At 394.1 million barrels, U.S. crude oil inventories are above the upper limit of the average range for this time of year. Total motor gasoline inventories increased by 0.2 million barrels last week and are also above the upper limit of the average range. Finished gasoline inventories decreased while blending components inventories increased last week. Distillate fuel inventories decreased by 0.5 million barrels last week and remained in the lower half of the average range for this time of year. Propane/propylene inventories increased by 3.5 million barrels from last week’s revised total of 49.7 million barrels, and are in the upper half of the average range. Total commercial petroleum inventories increased by 6.8 million barrels last week.

Total products supplied over the last four-week

URL at talkstock

Autism Tied to Air Pollution, Brain-Wiring Disconnection

By Elizabeth Lopatto & Nicole Ostrow - Jun 17, 2013 10:01 PM MT

Researchers seeking the roots of autism have linked the disorder to chemicals in air pollution and, in a separate study, found that language difficulties of the disorder may be due to a disconnect in brain wiring.

Researchers from Harvard University’s School of Public Health found that pregnant women exposed to high levels of diesel particulates or mercury were twice as likely to have an autistic child compared with peers in low-pollution areas. The findings, published today in Environmental Health Perspectives, are from the largest U.S. study to examine the ties between air pollution and autism.

One in 50 U.S. children are diagnosed with autism or a related disorder, according to the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention. Children with autism may be unresponsive to people, become indifferent to social activity and have communication difficulties. A separate study from Stanford University and published in Proceedings of the National Academy of Sciences is the first to suggest that weak connections between brain regions for speaking and reward may be why.

“There isn’t a lot of data to strongly point at what are the root causes of the social deficits in children with autism,” Daniel Abrams, a postdoctoral research fellow at Stanford University in California, said in a telephone interview. “We think it has this important motivation and reward component to it.”

The cause of autism isn’t known, though genetic factors are thought to be important, according to the National Institutes of Health.

Previous Findings

The link to air pollution was initially made in 2006 by a group led by Gayle Windham at the California Department of Health Services. Another study, published in November 2012, also found links between air pollution and autism.

“People were skeptical” of the initial report from Windham’s group, said Marc Weisskopf, an

Another Hybrid Wind Power Plant Opening in Germany

Jun 18 2013 Published by Karl-Friedrich Lenz under European and German energy law

From this tweet by the always excellent Energiewende Germany I learned about an article titled “Hydrogen plant starts storing wind energy in Germany“.

As is clear from the title, this is another project to use wind energy in times where demand can’t keep up with supply to make some hydrogen from water. That is the future for storage of surplus renewable energy, since the existing infrastructure can store massive amounts of hydrogen gas.

The German existing gas infrastructure could handle storage of up to 200 TWh, which is much more than the about 30 TWh an electricity system of 100% renewable would need. But to get that capacity, people need to start building these kind of plants that store electricity from wind or solar as hydrogen. We still have a decade or two to go until renewable gets to 100%, but it is still a good idea to start early.

Enertrag has opened the first plant like this in 2011. At the time with a capacity of only 500 kW. The new plant reported on in that article has 2 MW. And it is operated by E.ON, one of the “big four” German utilities that used to show no interest in renewable energy and leave the investment in the sector to citizen projects.

As the article notes, only about 50% of the energy from the surplus electricity can be stored in hydrogen.

But that is of course not a problem. In the many time slots where demand can’t keep up even now, the electricity would be wasted anyway. And in the few time slots without wind and solar available (the occasional cold November night) that stored energy will have a very high value on the market.

Over this weekend, many countries in Europe saw negative electricity prices, with France and its inflexible nuclear plants reaching minus 4 cent per kWh. People were paid good money if they used electricity, helping to reduce the supply overload. In such a tim

Forecast: Cost Of PV Panels To Drop To $0.36/Watt By 2017

June 19, 2013 Nicholas Brown

The cost of photovoltaic solar panels is expected to drop another 36 cents per watt by 2017, according to new research by cleantech market research firm GTM Research.

While this drop in solar panel prices will help to make solar affordable to more people, which will increase the size of the solar market, this ongoing cost reduction means much more than that.

Currently, solar panels are backed up by natural gas and various other types of power plants on the electricity grid. However, solar panel costs of $0.36 per watt make it more feasible to install additional solar panels to back each other up instead of using any other type of power plant (for off-grid setups), reducing the need for batteries.

For example: If you need 1,000 watts of power, and your 1,000 watt solar panel generates only generates 50% of its capacity (500 watts) due to cloudy weather, that can be compensated for by using two of those 1,000 watt panels instead of one, so you could still draw 1,000 watts from that 2,000 watt (nameplate capacity) array.

As long as the solar panel array is generating more current than is being drawn from it, there is no power disruption or power fluctuation (provided that voltage regulation is used).

Each 1,000 watt panel would cost $360 without factoring in installation costs, but they would last about 6 times longer than batteries.

Assuming the batteries required are charged at their recommended rate, they would end up costing $1,980 and they would have to be replaced more frequently than the extra solar panel — plus, there is an installation fee for the batteries as well, except for DIY people.

Suddenly, that $360 sounds good. Even after factoring in the fees required to install that extra panel, it is likely still much cheaper than expe

Graph of the Day: Why the fossil fuel industry hates renewables

By Giles Parkinson on 18 June 2013

This article follows on from our story yesterday on Alinta, and the complaint by CEO Jeff Dimery that wind energy is “undermining the running regime of exiting thermal generation assets”. There is no doubt that it is. But while some could argue whether this is a good thing (early retirement of ageing polluting assets in a clean energy transition) or a bad thing (stranded assets, loss of value), it seems that it is inevitable as the world transitions to an energy system based around renewables.

This series of graphs – taken from an expansive presentation of energy data collected by Germany’s Franhofer Institute for Sustainable Energy – gives some insight into why the owners of fossil fuel plants hate this scenario. The growing impact of wind farms and solar panels in Europe, and in Germany in particular, are having a massive impact on energy markets – and the impact is very much more an economic one than a technical one. The same is true in Australia, as we discussed yesterday.

The first two sets of graphs represent the electricity output in Germany in weeks 3 and 4 of 2013, from January 14 to January 27. This is the way the fossil fuel generators would like the market to be. Demand is constant, the nuclear and brown coal generators operate with minimal variability, and even black coal generators enjoy relatively stable demand (and revenue) for most of the working week.

Gas is switched on and off as demand fluctuates (mostly between day and night), and the contribution of hydro, wind and solar is minimal. This mixture of baseload, peak load and some variable renewables is the way that most energy markets have worked for the past few decades.

Now let’s fast forward to just a few weeks ago. These next two graphs (below) tell us what happened in weeks 22 and 23, from May 27 to June 9. Germany’s 33GW of solar PV is now powering up, and larger fluctuations of wind pow

States warn EPA: Don't let lawsuits force new regulations

By Julian Hattem - 06/18/13 06:01 PM ET

A bipartisan group of state attorneys general are warning environmental regulators not to let threats of lawsuits force the release of new rules for carbon emissions from power plants.

Officials from 21 states sent a letter to acting Administrator of the Environmental Protection Agency (EPA) Bob Perciasepe claiming that threats to sue the agency for delaying the rules have "no legal merit" and should be ignored.

"Appropriate process should not be subjugated, and effective policymaking cannot be forced to fruition, by threatening litigation," the attorneys general write.

The signers fear that threats from 11 states, the District of Columbia and three environmental groups will force the EPA to issue delayed power plant emissions standards, a practice termed "sue and settle." Republicans and business groups claim that the tactic has allowed environmental organizations to force rushed regulations that are developed as court settlements behind closed doors.

In April, the states, D.C. and the environmental organizations separately notified the EPA that they were prepared to sue the agency within 60 days over delay of the rules.

The EPA proposed carbon emissions standards for new power plants last April, but has not yet finalized the rules. Climate advocates also want EPA to require standards for currently operating plants.

In their letter, the 21 attorneys general refute the other states' claims and assert that the EPA is only required by the Clean Air Act to update its standards "if appropriate."

"We therefore request that EPA refrain from allowing petitioners to unduly influence the policymaking process via settlement negotiations," they write.

This week, the states and environmental groups announced that they were delaying their lawsuits in response to indications that the White House will unveil a major climate change plan in July.

Attorne

US to open direct peace talks with Taliban

By Jeremy Herb - 06/18/13 08:21 PM ET

The Obama administration will open direct peace talks with the Taliban in Qatar in the next few days.

The startling announcement Tuesday came the same day four Americans were killed during a rocket attack at Bagram Air Field, outside of Kabul.

U.S. and NATO forces handed over the lead on combat operations in Afghanistan to Afghan security forces separately on Tuesday.

President Obama, who has made ending the decade-long Afghanistan War a priority, sought to tamp down expectations for the talks, while Republicans greeted the announcement with skepticism.

“This is an important first step toward reconciliation, although it is a very early step,” Obama said at the G-8 summit in Northern Ireland on Tuesday. “We anticipate there will be a lot of bumps in the road.”

Sen. Lindsey Graham (R-S.C.), however, argued the U.S. should not begin talks until the Taliban have been militarily defeated and the Obama administration has clearly defined its post-2014 U.S. troop presence.

“Talking to them now, before we make a commitment about a post-2014 footprint, is giving them a wrong signal,” Graham told reporters Tuesday. “The best way to talk with the Taliban is ensure them you will defeat them on the battlefield, and they’re not assured of that.”

Obama, who just weeks ago vowed to turn the page in the U.S. “war on terror,” said the process would not be “easy or quick” and would be pursued “in parallel with our military approach.”

“We, in the meantime, remain fully committed to our military efforts to defeat al Qaeda and to support the Afghan National Security Forces,” Obama said.

Officials emphasized talks would take place between the Afghanistan government and the Taliban, with the U.S. playing a side role.

“The core of this process is not going to be the U.S.-Taliban talks — those can help advance the process — but the core of it is going to be negotiations among Afghans, and the l

Critics challenge Obama administration’s plan for natural gas exports

Posted on June 18, 2013 at 3:55 pm by Jennifer A. Dlouhy

Pipelines run from the offshore docking station to four liquefied natural gas (LNG) tanks at the Dominion Resources Inc. Liquefied Natural Gas facility in Cove Point, Md. A domestic natural gas boom already has lowered U.S. energy prices while stoking fears of environmental disaster. Now U.S. producers are poised to ship vast quantities of gas overseas as energy companies seek permits for proposed export projects that could set off a renewed frenzy of fracking. (AP Photo/Matt Houston, File)
Pipelines run from the offshore docking station to four liquefied natural gas (LNG) tanks at the Dominion Resources Inc. Liquefied Natural Gas facility in Cove Point, Md. (AP Photo/Matt Houston, File)

Lawmakers and energy industry representatives were critical of the Obama administration’s approach to natural gas exports on Tuesday, with at least one trade group accusing the government of violating federal law in reviewing applications to sell the fossil fuel overseas.

At issue is the Energy Department’s decision last December to give priority to companies that had already launched a pre-filing process with the Federal Energy Regulatory Commission as part of their bids to build facilities to liquefy natural gas so it can be shipped overseas. The Energy Department is vetting those export applications individually; FERC’s role is evaluating the physical facilities.

Companies need both approvals to build the export terminals and start selling gas to countries that don’t have free-trade agreements with the United States. So far, just one firm — Houston-based Cheniere Energy — has cleared both hurdles, for its Sabine Pass liquefaction project in southwest Louisiana.

The goal of the Energy Department’s approach was fairness, insisted Christopher Smith, the assistant secretary for fossil energy, during testimony before a House subcommittee Tuesday.

“W

China 'Hair Stockings' May Help Scare Off 'Perverts,' Everyone (PHOTO)

The Huffington Post | Posted: 06/17/2013 4:18 pm EDT | Updated: 06/18/2013 2:14 pm EDT

This might be the strangest way of keeping aggressive men at bay, but we have to give it major points for being clever.

"Super sexy, summertime anti-pervert full-leg-of-hair stockings, essential for all young girls going out," @HappyZhangJiang describes the item on China's popular microblogging service, Sina Weibo.

They remind us somewhat of the less playful, more functional "anti-rape" lingerie developed recently by three engineering students in India. That garment is wired to deliver an electric shock to sexual attackers and can send an alert message, with GPS coordinates, to the attacked woman's friends and family.

The idea behind the hair stockings, we're guessing, is that lewd gropers wouldn't come anywhere near you. Tongue-in-cheek, but inventive nonetheless.

huffingtonpost

House passes controversial late-term abortion ban

By Pete Kasperowicz - 06/18/13 06:45 PM ET

The House voted Tuesday to impose a nationwide ban on abortions after 22 weeks of pregnancy, over Democratic objections that the bill represents a dramatic attempt by Republicans to restrict abortion rights.

As expected, the vote fell out mostly along party lines. The Pain-Capable Unborn Child Protection Act was passed in a 228-196 vote — just six Democrats voted for it, and six Republicans opposed it.

With limited exceptions, the legislation would ban the abortion of a fetus younger than 20 weeks old, or at 22 weeks of pregnancy under a different measuring system. The ban would be backed by possible fines against doctors, as well as prison sentence of as many as five years.

[color=#00CC00][b]As controversial as the bill is, however, today's House vote likely ends the process in Congress, as the Democratic Senate is not expected to consider it at all. President Obama threatened to veto the measure on Monday.[/b][/color]

Debate on the bill was tense on the House floor from the start, when Democrats asked why Rep. Marsha Blackburn (R-Tenn.) — who does not sit on the bill's committe of jurisdiction — was managing the bill. Judiciary Committee Chairman Bob Goodlatte (R-Va.) said it's acceptable under the rules of the House to allow "appropriate" people to manage the bill.

But several Democrats suggested it's because the sponsor of the bill, Rep. Trent Franks (R-Ariz.), made the controversial comment last week that rape usually doesn't result in pregnancy. Franks is on the Judiciary Committee, but he never spoke about his own bill during the hour-long debate.

They also said it was because Republicans have no women on the committee of jurisdiction and wanted to put a woman's face on the bill; Republicans never answered that charge.

Democrats said the lack of any input from women on the committee showed in the final product, and argued that the final bill is based on

Top industry lobbyist says US oil and gas production could grow even more

Posted on June 18, 2013 at 12:23 pm by Harry R. Weber

American Petroleum Institute chief Jack Gerard said Tuesday that U.S. gas prices and the unemployment rate would be higher if not for the tremendous growth in oil production in America over the last few years.

Gerard asserted during a meeting with the Houston Chronicle editorial board that keeping those measures from worsening is as important as creating a jobs boom and reducing pump prices.

“Think of what the unemployment rate would be if we didn’t have the job growth we are already seeing,” Gerard said. “We need to put it in context and think how much worse it would have been if not for what has been happening over the last four or five years.”

EIA: US daily crude supply could surge to 10M barrels by 2040

During his eight years in the White House, former President George W. Bush invoked a standard refrain during each of his State of the Union addresses: America is way too dependent on foreign oil.

In his 2005 address, at a time when the unemployment rate was at 5.2 percent and the country had just come off a year in which 2.3 million new jobs were created, Bush said enacting his pro-energy industry policies was “essential to expand this economy and add new jobs.”

Eight years later, the U.S. is producing record amounts of oil, energy firms are expanding their operations and the country is on a path to one day in the not too distant future becoming energy independent. Yet, the unemployment rate is at 7.6 percent and the country, through the first five months of the year, is on pace to add only about 2 million jobs in 2013.

Eagle Ford: Carrizo Oil & Gas hikes oil production projections

Gerard argued that there exists today a great opportunity to make the promises of the past come true. He urged the current administration to stand with the industry, rather than against it.

“If you want to see the energy performanc

What price of corn is needed to make ethanol blends competitive?

Wednesday, June 12, 2013

By SCOTT IRWIN AND DARREL GOOD

Department of Agricultural and Consumer Economics, University of Illinois

URBANA, Ill. — We and others have written extensively about the impending ethanol blend wall. The blend wall is defined as the maximum amount of ethanol that can be consumed in the domestic motor fuel market if ethanol blending is limited to 10 percent of total motor fuel consumption.

The blend wall becomes an issue when the implied RFS mandated requirement for renewable or conventional biofuels consumption exceeds the size of the blend wall.

Technically, there is not a mandate for conventional biofuels consumption. There is a mandate for total consumption of biofuels and a mandate for consumption of advanced biofuels.

Since advanced biofuels have generally not been economically attractive, consumption of those fuels has not exceeded the mandate so that the difference between the total and advanced mandate has been met with conventional biofuels, almost entirely corn-based ethanol. It is this difference that is thought of as the mandate for conventional biofuels.

Routes

As we have noted before, there are a number of pathways for meeting the RFS mandate for biofuels consumption when the implied mandate for conventional biofuels exceeds the blend wall.

These include: use blending credits (in the form of Renewable Identification Numbers, or RINs) accumulated from previous discretionary blending to meet current year blending requirements; borrow against future blending requirements to meet current year blending requirements; discretionary blending of advanced biofuels; or expand consumption of higher ethanol blends in the form of E15 or E85.

The use of blending credits was an attractive alternative for meeting blending requirements that exceeded the blend wall until the price of RINs credits exploded beginning in January this year.

In addition, the supply of RINs cre

Dem. Rep.: Rape 'not so bad' to GOP

By Elise Viebeck - 06/18/13 01:38 PM ET

A leader of the House Pro-Choice Caucus suggested Tuesday that Republicans don't have strong feelings against rape.

The remark came as Rep. Louise Slaughter (D-N.Y.) criticized the GOP's proposed ban on late-term abortions ahead of a House vote on the measure.

Slaughter slammed Republican members of the House Judiciary Committee, all men, who rejected a rape exception to the bill during its markup last week.

"I'm of the opinion now … that if you really were to question all of them, that there is a sort of continuity of thought that rape is really not so bad and that the likelihood of getting pregnant is small," Slaughter told a press conference.

Slaughter alluded to controversies on rape and abortion that dogged the GOP in 2012, such as former Senate candidate Todd Akin's (R-Mo.) remark that victims of "legitimate rape" rarely become pregnant.

Rep. Trent Franks (R-Ariz.), the bill's sponsor, also came under fire from Democrats last week when he said that the "incidence of rape resulting in pregnancy [is] very low."

The House is preparing to vote on the late-term abortion ban, which would punish doctors who terminate pregnancies after 22 weeks.

The version approved by the Judiciary Committee on Wednesday only allowed exceptions for women whose lives are in danger.

Additional protections for some rape and incest victims were quietly added by the Rules Committee last week at the behest of GOP leadership.

If passed, the legislation would be the strongest congressional move against abortion rights in a decade.

GOP members of the Judiciary Committee shot down the proposed rape exception during markup because it did not include a requirement that women report the crimes against them.

The bill's new language outlines rape and incest exceptions to the abortion ban as long as the crimes are reported.

Supporters argue that the 22-week ban is necessary because fetuses can f

States, green groups delay lawsuit amid Obama climate rumors

By Ben Geman - 06/18/13 09:12 AM ET

States and environmental groups are delaying litigation to force carbon emissions rules for power plants, citing reports the White House will soon unveil plans to address climate change.

“Due to public reports that the President will be announcing major action on climate change very soon, the Attorney General has decided to postpone a lawsuit on this matter for a short period of time,” said Melissa Grace, spokeswoman for New York State Attorney General Eric Schneiderman.

New York is one of a dozen states and cities that on April 17 threatened to sue the Environmental Protection Agency in as few as 60 days.

The litigation would be aimed at forcing completion of delayed rules, floated in draft form more than a year ago, that would set emissions standards for new power plants.

The cities and states also want the EPA to carry through on its commitment in a 2010 legal settlement to require carbon standards for existing power plants.

Other states that jointly threatened to sue with New York included Massachusetts, Oregon, Washington state and New Mexico.

Three green groups — the Natural Resources Defense Council (NRDC), the Sierra Club and the Environmental Defense Fund (EDF) — that issued a similar 60-day lawsuit threat have also held back, at least for the moment.

“NRDC's reason for holding off is that we want to see what the administration announces,” said David Hawkins, the NRDC’s director of climate programs, in an email Tuesday. An attorney with the EDF said the group is awaiting news from the White House.

“We are not filing suit today, although we are carefully considering all of our options for next steps. And we are certainly awaiting the President’s announcement of his blueprint for climate progress with keen interest,” said Megan Ceronsky, an attorney with the EDF, in an email.

“With Congress’s failure to lead and our communities hard-hit with dro

Obama administration set to defend LNG export reviews

Posted on June 18, 2013 at 9:31 am by Jennifer A. Dlouhy

Christopher Smith, acting assistant secretary for fossil energy at the Department of Energy, speaks on current government research on oil and gas during the Offshore Technology Conference at Reliant Park Thursday, May 9, 2013, in Houston. ( Brett Coomer/Houston Chronicle )

Lawmakers and energy industry leaders will scrutinize the Obama administration’s handling of applications to export U.S. natural gas during a congressional hearing Tuesday. (See below for live coverage)

A major issue: Whether the Energy Department should be giving greater priority to companies who have inked agreements, secured financial commitments and filed with federal regulators as part of their bids to build massive multi-billion-dollar facilities to liquefy natural gas so it can be shipped overseas.

So far, the Energy Department has pledged to individually review the applications to export natural gas to countries that don’t have free-trade agreements with the United States, following an order it established in December. That order gave preference to companies that had begun a pre-filing process with the Federal Energy Regulatory Commission.

But the Energy Department’s process has drawn criticism both from companies that believe their export applications should be considered sooner, because they are further along in the FERC review process, as well as firms that had not entered the pre-filing process with FERC before the order was set last year. Still others insist the Energy Department should be moving more slowly in considering applications to export liquefied natural gas, lest widespread foreign sales of the fossil fuel hike prices domestically.

Christopher Smith, the assistant secretary for fossil energy, is set to defend the process when he testifies before a House subcommittee Tuesday morning.

“The Department of Energy is committed to moving this process forward as ex

Victoria Justice Releases New Single ‘Gold’ — Listen

Mon, June 17, 2013 3:41pm EDT by hlavery

Check out Victoria’s latest track and tell us what you think: Is this the perfect summer song?

Victoria Justice released her first official single “Gold” during On Air with Ryan Seacrest on June 17, and we think it’s the perfect summer jam! The former Victorious star has us hooked with this fresh and catchy son, and we especially love her wise words for a certain boy in the new song. She sings: “Hey, boy, watcha gonna do. If you want me like I want you, then man up and make your move. I’m gold, gold.”

It sounds like Victoria knows exactly what she what she wants: “I know you inside out, so I’m asking now. Take a chance on me. How much clearer can I be?” This summer, the Nickelodeon star will be on the Summer Break Tour with Big Time Rush — so she has some time to break out more new songs! We can’t wait to hear what else she has coming up on her album! So HollywoodLifers, what do YOU think about Victoria’s new single? Let us know what you think!

WATCH: Victoria Justice New Single ‘Gold’

hollywoodlife