Power Line: Shale Oil To Be Developed, But Not Here
I have a great idea for increasing our oil reserves 100-fold within 24 hours! Vote Republican in November. (Assuming that the weak-kneed Republicans vote correctly on January 4, 2009!!)
This is an important point: the US having 3% of the world's oil reserves is part fact (oil in ground) and part regulation (oil we are ALLOWED to access).
We know the oil is in the ground in many locations. The US Geological Survey has established that (even in its extraordinarily conservative methodology). Kudos for good science.
Now we just need to purge the Democrats from Congress that prevent us from being the Middle East Oil Supply Killer that we have the potential to be.
What would happen to world politics if the barrel price of oil fell to $45 with little chance Middle East politics would change that? What if most of the money for oil extraction stayed in the US? What if the Saudis, Venzeulans, and Russians made far less profit margins? What would the US State Department's job be?
Palestinian terrorists with less money. Poorer Wahabiists in Arabia. Impoverished Russian politicians. Chavez with no bank account. Wealthier Americans, Europeans, Japanese, Chinese, Malaysians, Australians, Africans (outside of Nigeria), Dhubai subjects.
Which world would you prefer to live in?
Sunday, August 17, 2008
Monday, August 11, 2008
Loss of wind causes Texas power grid emergency | U.S. | Reuters
Loss of wind causes Texas power grid emergency | U.S. | Reuters
This is an old story by this point, but it is enough to scare me off windmills as a good source of stable, steady energy source. I wouldn't mind if we have batteries or electricity storage capacity to even out the distribution of electricity. But we don't. Solar and wind have peak production times and no-production times. Not natural gas. Not coal. Just shovel more coal and you have more electricity. Regardless of the whims of mother nature.
The secret to wind power is that you need to have natural gas or coal on emergency backup. One estimate that I heard suggested that it needs to use nearly 90% of the energy that using natural gas and coal as the primary source.
Ten percent is nothing to sneeze at, but why waste billions of dollars to make low marginal savings that could be spent on increasing the fossil fuels efficiencies?
This is an old story by this point, but it is enough to scare me off windmills as a good source of stable, steady energy source. I wouldn't mind if we have batteries or electricity storage capacity to even out the distribution of electricity. But we don't. Solar and wind have peak production times and no-production times. Not natural gas. Not coal. Just shovel more coal and you have more electricity. Regardless of the whims of mother nature.
The secret to wind power is that you need to have natural gas or coal on emergency backup. One estimate that I heard suggested that it needs to use nearly 90% of the energy that using natural gas and coal as the primary source.
Ten percent is nothing to sneeze at, but why waste billions of dollars to make low marginal savings that could be spent on increasing the fossil fuels efficiencies?
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