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Recent Posts
- Spermageddon: Sperm is declining around the world
- Thorium nuclear bombs and reactors have too many challenges
- Who Killed the Electric Car & more importantly, the Electric Truck?
- President Carter’s energy solutions 1977
- Peak Menhaden
- Hemp for paper, textiles, the war on drugs, and more
- Why towns have a hard time adding EV, solar, heat pumps
- Building a national super grid in America
- The Mayflower from the book The Barbarous Years
- Deep Sea Oil
- Book review of “Livewired. The inside story of the ever-changing brain”
- The conveyor belt may be slowing down — Yikes!
- Battery Energy storage batteries (BESS) too complex to ever be commercial
- New war and energy alliances over next resource wars
- Book review of “Siege: Trump Under fire”
Author Archives: energyskeptic
Peak stainless steel
Steel and nickel aren’t on the critical mineral list, but nickel ought to be, since this study shows that there is a significant risk that stainless steel production will reach its maximum capacity around 2055 because of declining nickel production, … Continue reading
Posted in Infrastructure & Collapse, Mining, Peak Critical Elements
Tagged iron ore, nickel, peak steel, stainless steel
4 Comments
Medicare for All?
Preface. This is a 3-page review of a 34-page overview Congressional Budget Office report requested by congress on establishing a single-payer health care system. IMHO, I don’t see how this can possibly happen. How can a dysfunctional congress deal with … Continue reading
Cheddar Power
Preface. Oh how I love cheddar. When I hear that someone is a vegan I stare in disbelief. A life without cheese is a life not worth living, especially a life without cheddar. As a perpetually hungry child, if Mom … Continue reading
Pumped Hydro Storage (PHS)
Preface. This is the only commercial way to store energy now (CAES hardly counts with just one plant and salt domes to put more in existing in only 5 states). Though of course hydropower is only in a few states … Continue reading
Posted in Dams, Energy Production, Hydropower, Pumped Hydro Storage (PHS)
Tagged dams, energy storage, hydroelectric, NIMBY, PHS, Pumped hydro storage
15 Comments
The 10 countries with the most endangered species in the world
I don’t know whether to go to these countries to see these beautiful creatures before they’re extinct, or to spend my money on countries like Costa Rica and Tanzania that have set aside a quarter or more of their land … Continue reading
Posted in Biodiversity Loss, Deforestation
Tagged abortion, biodiversity, birth control, endangered species
3 Comments
The carbon trap by Paul Chefurka
Preface. We are caught in the carbon trap — we utterly depend on fossils that don’t have an electric replacement. Someday people will figure this out the hard way, but Chefurka compassionately points out that there is no one to … Continue reading
Posted in Human Nature, Interdependencies, Paul Chefurka
Tagged Carbon trap, Chefurka, fossils
13 Comments
How Much Oil is in an Electric Vehicle? by Nicholas LePan
LePan shows how plastics, made from fossil fuels, make up so much of a car, plus lighten the weight so the car can go further on gasoline. Since fossil fuels are finite, many assume we’ll just make them out of … Continue reading
Can concentrated solar power be used to generate industrial process heat?
Preface. The bright future of solar thermal powered factories, makes some important points about using concentrated solar power to generate heat: “…A large share of energy consumed worldwide is by heat. Cooking, space heating and water heating dominate domestic energy … Continue reading
Saudi oil infrastructure at risk from drone attacks
Preface. This NYT article was published 4 months ago, and its warning just came true. Quite prescient! Drones make it pretty easy to anonymously attack the thousands of miles of pipelines across the Arabian peninsula, oil tankers, pumping stations, and … Continue reading
Posted in Middle East, Oil & Gas, Peak Oil
Tagged attack, drone, infrastructure, oil
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