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- Admiral Rickover 1957: Energy Resources & Our Future
- The Green New Deal is not a solution for the real problem: Overshoot
- A transition from fossil fuels to renewables could take a century – if it ever happens
- Electrifying freight trains in the U.S. is a bad idea
- Why Nuclear Power can’t replace fossil fuels
- Energy, Water, & Climate Change are interdependent
- Why fusion power is Forever Away
- Climate Change dominates news coverage at expense of other existential planetary boundaries
- Excerpt from “The Geopolitics of Resource Wars”
- Homes & Buildings
- Book Review “The Outlawed Ocean” by Ian Urbina
- Underestimating the Challenges of Avoiding a Ghastly Future
- Motherboards: too complicated to make after oil
- “More and More and More” one of the best books on energy ever written
- The staggering destruction of knowledge by Christians in the Roman Empire
Author Archives: energyskeptic
Fusion: Book review of “Sun in a Bottle”
Preface. I don’t know of a book or article that better explains fusion and why fusion is so difficult and far from being commercial. Or ever commercial for that matter. Except for hydrogen bombs.
Posted in Fusion, Nuclear Books, Nuclear Waste
Tagged bomb, fission, fusion, H Bomb, hydrogen, nuclear power, radiation, Teller, tritium
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Book Cobalt: The Making of a Mining Superpower
Preface. This book is about the history of the town of Cobalt and would make a great horror movie — the disease, filth, poverty, poor wages, racism, and destruction of the environment — the biodiversity, fresh water and more.
Posted in Energy Books, Mining
Tagged cobalt, hazardous waste, mining, pollution
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EV charging not possible when restricted or grid down
Preface. I have many posts at energyskeptic on the myriad reasons the grid will fail or disrupted in the future. Climate change is causing droughts and reservoirs too low to generate much hydropower, and nuclear plants must shut down if … Continue reading
Posted in Electric Vehicles, Electrification, Energy Climate Change
Tagged climate change, electric grid, electric vehicle, EV, heat wave
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The Impact of Climate Change on California: 8th Largest Economy, 40% of U.S. Shipping
Preface. California’s economy and population relies on one of the most extensive and costly infrastructure systems in the world. This includes thousands of miles of roads, highways and railroads, nearly 200 large water reservoirs of varying capacity, miles of canals, … Continue reading
Posted in Sea Level Rise
Tagged airports, california, climate change, infrastructure, ports, railroads, roads, sea level rise, wildfire
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Fusion at Lawrence Livermore National Laboratory
Source: The target chamber of LLNL’s National Ignition Facility, where 192 laser beams delivered more than 2 million joules of ultraviolet energy to a tiny fuel pellet to create fusion ignition. Lawrence Livermore National Laboratory. Preface. Anyone who thought the … Continue reading
Posted in Fusion, Nuclear War
Tagged fusion, ignition, laser, LLNL, nuclear weapons, weapons lab
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Fusion: Tokamak Obstacles
Source: Sparkes M (2022) Korean nuclear fusion reactor achieves 100 million°C for 30 seconds. New Scientist. Preface. Hope springs eternally for Fusion. I’ve come to see press releases about fusion breakthroughs as mostly a way to get more startup investment … Continue reading
Opposition to mining will prevent a green transition to renewables
Source: Bare (2012) Environmentalists win review of two more plants near Rosemont copper mine. Arizona Capitol times. I could overwhelm you with world-wide trillions of tons of mining waste and how China has rendered 20% of its farmland too toxic … Continue reading
Posted in An Index of Best Energyskeptic Posts, Mining
Tagged copper, mining, renewables, supply chain
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President George W. Bush energy policy & hurricane Katrina
Preface. After Hurricane Katrina damaged oil and gas infrastructure, oil prices shot up. Below are excerpts from news stories in 2005 when President Bush, an oilman, openly discussed the U.S. energy dependence.
Posted in Energy Policy & Politicians, Hurricanes, U.S. Congress Energy Policy
Tagged energy, energy policy, hurricane, oil, President Bush
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The electric grid could be down for years if LPTs destroyed
Large Power Transformer Source: ABB Conversations (2013) Preface. This post contains excerpts from two Department of Energy documents and one about large geomagnetic storms and how they would affect Large power transformers (LPT) and the U.S. electric grid. They are … Continue reading
550,000 abandoned mines, $50 billion to clean the worst ones
Preface. Below are excerpts of a US House 2010 congressional hearing on cleaning up abandoned mines. Abandoned mines can cause soil erosion, heavy metal contamination (i.e., cyanide, lead, arsenic, mercury, uranium), and acid drainage that threatens thousands of streams and … Continue reading