Author Archives: energyskeptic

M. King Hubbert and the future of peak oil by Kurt Cobb

Preface. M. King Hubbert predicted that if we were unable to replace fossil energy with water, nuclear and solar power, that we would go back to an agrarian existence (Hubbert MK (1949) Energy from Fossil Fuels. Science). That is how … Continue reading →

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Should America Export Oil? Senate hearings 2014-2015

[ There are excerpts from two senate hearings on exporting crude oil below. Much of the testimony is either from industries that will make money off of exports, or industries that will lose money because they use (cheap) oil as … Continue reading →

Posted in U.S. Congress Energy Independence | Tagged , , | 1 Comment

Because we’ve stuffed staggering numbers of cows on factory farms we live in a cow toilet

[ Book review of “Cowed: The hidden impactof 93 million cows” by Alice Friedemann   www.energyskeptic.com  author of “When Trucks Stop Running: Energy and the Future of Transportation”, 2015, Springer] Hayes, Denis and Gail. 2015. Cowed: The Hidden Impact of 93 … Continue reading →

Posted in Antibiotics, Biodiversity, CO2 and Methane, Pollution, Soil | Tagged , , | 1 Comment

Detecting Food Stamp Fraud

[ The number of Americans on food stamps has been trending up for years, in August 2012 it was 15% of Americans, 47,102,780 people. The Supplemental Nutrition Assistance Program (SNAP), has quadrupled in cost since 2001, and doubled in cost … Continue reading →

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How are energy storage batteries coming along? U.S. House hearing 2015

[ My favorite quotes from this U.S. House of Representatives session: THOMAS MASSIE, KENTUCKY. I want to say this has been a very enlightening hearing, and it confirms my personal experience, which is batteries are not sexy. Buckets of acid … Continue reading →

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Energy as a weapon: Implications for U.S. policy U.S. House hearing 2006

[ My favorite quotes from this session: Mr. Lynch: E.F. Schumacher said in 1964: “There is no substitute for energy: the whole edifice of modern life is built upon it. Although energy can be bought and sold like any other … Continue reading →

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Tax reform & federal energy policy: incentives to promote energy efficiency. U.S. Senate hearing.

[ By far the best strategy to cope with energy decline is to prepare by making homes, businesses, appliances, vehicles, and so on more energy efficient.  If it turns out that renewable energy has too low an EROI to sustain … Continue reading →

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Gail Tverberg: Why peak coal, oil, and natural gas will all happen at the same time

China: Is peak coal part of its problem? by Gail Tverberg,  OurFiniteWorld.com  | Jun 20, 2016 The world’s coal resources are clearly huge. How could China, or the world in total, reach peak coal in a timeframe that makes a … Continue reading →

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Why studies come up with different Energy Returned on Invest (EROI) results: can it be fixed?

[ There are many issues with biofuels beyond their trivial to negative energy return on investment (EROI). In Peak Soil I point out that current industrial farming techniques are destroying topsoil about 15 times faster than pre-fossil fuel economies — … Continue reading →

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Murphy & Hall 2011 Adjusting the economy to the new energy realities of the second half of the age of oil

[ Below are excerpts from this 5 page paper, slightly rearranged, go here to see all of the text, figures, and tables.   Alice Friedemann   www.energyskeptic.com  author of “When Trucks Stop Running: Energy and the Future of Transportation, 2015, Springer] Murphy, … Continue reading →

Posted in Charles A. S. Hall, EROEI Energy Returned on Energy Invested, How Much Left | Tagged , , | 2 Comments