Author Archives: energyskeptic

Livestock diseases, Science Mag Review of “Arresting Contagion”

Science 17 April 2015: Vol. 348 no. 6232 p. 294 DOI: 10.1126/science.aaa7672 The fever on the farm Arresting Contagion Science, Policy, and Conflicts over Animal Disease Control Alan L. Olmstead and Paul W. Rhode Harvard University Press, 2015. 477 pp. … Continue reading

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Pedro Prieto on Population

[I haven’t always agreed with Pedro about population, but I think he’s right now. It’s too late to do anything about overshoot, and we probably could have never done anything about it because we are animals. Though still, it is … Continue reading

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The Banking system is a House of Cards

Lynn Parramore. April 21, 2015. Our Banking System is a Giant House of Cards. Money & Banking. It Could Fall On You. Anat Admati teaches finance and economics at the Stanford Graduate School of Business and is co-author of The … Continue reading

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David Hughes: Has Well Productivity Peaked in the Nation’s Largest Shale Gas Play, the Marcellus?

[This is big news since other major plays have already peaked.  It looks like the Marcellus is on Hughes predicted by 2018 peak with the latest data published] Has Well Productivity Peaked in the Nation’s Largest Shale Gas Play? By … Continue reading

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Natural Gas limits: 20-40% of recoverable resources are low EROI Sour Gas

SBC. October 2014. Factbook Natural Gas Factbook. SBC Energy Institute                           There are 855 trillion cubic meters (tcm) of technically recoverable resources, which means that regardless of cost … Continue reading

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Coal or Biomass & Coal to Liquids: CTL, DCL, & CBTL technology

Gray, D., et al. August 1, 2012.  Topic Paper #8 Production of Alternative Liquid Hydrocarbon Transportation Fuels from Natural Gas, Coal, and Coal and Biomass (XTL). National Petroleum Council Background With national energy security still being a dominant concern because … Continue reading

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Better truck fuel efficiency to delay the end of the oil age

NAS. 2010. Technologies and Approaches to Reducing the Fuel Consumption of Medium- and Heavy-Duty Vehicles (National Academy of Sciences Study) This free, 251 page document is one of the best I’ve seen on the myriad ways trucks could double their … Continue reading

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New land converted to cropland to grow biofuel crops equal to 34 coal-fired power plants

Summary of article below: Between 2008 and 2012 over 7 million acres new land, much of it grasslands, were converted to croplands, damaging native ecosystems, and mimics the extreme land-use change that led up to the Dust Bowl in the … Continue reading

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Petroleum council urges Arctic oil to offset declining production in lower 48

The U.S. should immediately begin a push to exploit its enormous trove of oil in the Arctic waters off of Alaska, or risk a renewed reliance on imported oil in the future, an Energy Department advisory council says in a … Continue reading

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All Electric Trucks. Probably not going to happen. Ever. Why not?

There are “forms of transport that cannot be electrified — heavy-duty trucks and planes… Even if the electricity problem can be solved, it won’t address the needs of planes, trucks, ships and some industrial heating that cannot be electrified” (Long). … Continue reading

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