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- 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”
- Why do people vote for Trump?
- Book review of “Pandemic Politics: The Deadly Toll of Partisanship in the Age of COVID”
- The evolution of the Republican party from 1960 to 2024: from moderate democracy to extreme authoritarianism
- Why some people are conservative and others liberal
- Book review: Bring the War Home: The white power movement & paramilitary America
- Book review: How Democracies Die
- Book Review “Conservatives without Conscience” by John Dean
- Book review of “The Power Worshippers. Inside the dangerous rise of religious nationalism”
- Fox news estranges millions of families and instills hate and fear in its cult members
Category Archives: Energy
Another reason to think oil production probably peaked in 2005
[ In this Kurt Cobb post, Texas oilman Jeffrey brown explains why the story of oil production growth from 2005 to 2014 is probably wrong, because the increase came from lease condensate, not oil. If this is true then Brown … Continue reading
Posted in How Much Left, Kurt Cobb, Peak Oil
Tagged condensate, oil
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The periodic table limits battery development
Preface. My book, When Trucks Stop Running, makes the case that civilization ends when trucks stop running. The replacement for diesel fuel that everyone expects, especially because Elon Musk has told them it’s on the way, are battery electric trucks. … Continue reading
U.S. taxpayers lose billions from Powder River Basin bad lease deals and undervalued coal
According to the Center for American Progress: For decades the Bureau of Land Management (BLM) has run a fundamentally noncompetitive leasing program, which has been a boon to industry. Since 1990, 96 of the 107 coal-lease sales held by the … Continue reading
Posted in Coal, Congressional Record U.S., Corruption & Finance
Tagged BLM, coal, leases, powder river basin, production
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New Alaskan strip coal mine for China, there go the salmon
McGrath, M. 2015-11-25. The Alaska fishing village taking on ‘Godzilla’. BBC News Image copyright Pete Niesen [See original article for details, what follows is reduced and most pictures removed] Alaska is a vast wilderness of natural beauty. But it also … Continue reading
Why U.S. Is Running Out of Gas (Time magazine 2003)
Donald L. Barlett & James B. Steele. July 21, 2003. Why U.S. Is Running Out of Gas. Time Magazine. Inflated oil prices and natural gas shortages are wiping out jobs and savings, thanks to three decades of bungled energy policy. … Continue reading
Posted in Natural Gas, U.S. Congress Energy Policy
Tagged cafe standards, conservation, energy policy, natural gas
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Tilting at Windmills, Spain’s disastrous attempt to replace fossil fuels with Solar PV, Part 1
Book review by Alice Friedemann at energyskeptic of “Spain’s Photovoltaic Revolution. The Energy Return on Investment”, by Pedro Prieto and Charles A.S. Hall. 2013. Springer. Conclusion: the EROI of solar photovoltaic is only 2.45, very low despite Spain’s ideal sunny … Continue reading
When will the Alaska pipeline turn into an 800-mile-long Popsicle?
[Below are excerpts on the Alaskan pipeline from Rust: The Longest War by Jonathan Waldman. This is a great book, yet leaves so many possible rust stories uncovered, that I hope Waldman writes Rust II (or any other topic — … Continue reading
Utility, large-scale battery energy storage
Hodson, H. July 25, 2015. Power to the people. NewScientist. Demand for electricity varies every second, minute, hour, day, and season. Production is easy to provide from always-ready natural gas and coal. But as we move towards a 100% renewable … Continue reading
Posted in Energy Storage
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A review of life cycle assessments on wind energy systems by Simon Davidsson 2012
[below is a very short excerpt of this 22 page paper, I was interested in how much recycling can contribute to a high EROI but there are many other important points made in this paper] Davidsson, S., Höök, M., Wall, … Continue reading
Posted in Wind EROI
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The crude oil export ban: Helpful or hurtful 2015 House hearing
House 114-22. April 14, 2015. The Crude oil export ban: Helpful or hurtful? House of Representatives. [ Excerpts from the 73-page transcript of the hearing follow ] Ted Poe, Texas. The United States is now the largest crude oil producer … Continue reading
Posted in Threats to oil supply, U.S. Congress Transportation
Tagged export oil
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