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Recent Posts
- Self-driving cars in San Francisco cause accidents, congestion, and more
- “Star Wars” missile defense won’t stop incoming nukes
- Lab-grown meat is energy intensive – and up to 25 times worse for the climate than beef
- The Biblical Revelations, critical thinking, and how this affects us today
- Why the U.S. is ignoring nuclear winter in nuclear policies & strategies
- Oil choke points vulnerable to war, chaos, terrorism, accidents, & piracy
- Nuclear weapons must be reduced or we risk nuclear winter
- Fusion is already running out of fuel
- Peak Oil is Officially Here! World oil production peaked November of 2018
- Wood, the fuel of preindustrial societies, is half of EU renewable energy
- Rare Earth updates: recent research on why complex & intelligent life are rare in the Universe
- Book review of “Chip War” and the Fragility of microchips
- The tremendous material and energy toll of the digital economy
- Nuclear attack on U.S. could kill 90% of Americans
- What percent of Americans are rational?
Category Archives: Energy
Why Canadian oilsands will not help solve the energy crisis
Preface. I posted this back in 2011, but it is all still true, and a lot more can be said about them in my additional posts here. The Canadian oil sands are reputed to be the 3rd largest oil reserve … Continue reading
Posted in Energy, Hazardous Waste, Pollution, Tar Sands (Oil Sands)
Tagged energy, hazardous waste, oilsands, pollution, tarsands
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World Peak Uranium Production
Preface. The World Nuclear Association estimates 90 years are left. Today 67,500 tonnes of uranium are consumed a year world-wide and production in 2020 was 47,731 tonnes (WNA 2021). Sounds a bit peakish, thank goodness for stockpiles and the infinite … Continue reading
Posted in An Index of Best Energyskeptic Posts, Battery - Utility Scale, CAES Compressed Air, Electric Grid & Fast Collapse, Gen IV SMR reactors, Natural Gas Energy Storage, Nuclear Power Energy, Nuclear spent fuel fire, Nuclear War, Nuclear Waste, Peak Uranium, Pumped Hydro Storage (PHS)
Tagged CAES, natural gas, nuclear power, nuclear reactor, nuclear waste, peak uranium, phosphate, PHS
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David Fridley, LBNL scientist, on why alternative energy won’t save us
Preface. I’ve sought out David Fridley’s insights since I first met him in the Oakland Peak Oil group that formed in 2004. That group eventually dissolved, but David’s expertise is still sought out by many of us following energy decline. … Continue reading
Posted in Alternative Energy, An Overview, EROEI Energy Returned on Energy Invested, Net Energy Cliff
Tagged alternative energy, David Fridley, EROI, renewables
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Dozens of reasons why solar power can’t replace fossil fuels
Preface. Last update 2024-5-9. All solar (and wind) do is add to the giant bonfire of burning fossil fuels — which still provide two-thirds of the power for the electric grid. Electricity is just a fraction of how we use … Continue reading
Posted in Alternative Energy, CSP with thermal energy storage, Photovoltaic Solar, Recycle, Recycling, Solar, Solar EROI, Subsidies
Tagged china, EROI, fossil fuels, greenhouse gases, orbiting solar, PV, solar, subsidy, toxic chemicals
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SMR / Gen 4 nuclear reactors less safe & create even more toxic waste
Preface. With climate change getting all the press and the coming energy crisis virtually no coverage, pro-nuclear forces are strongly pushing new nuclear plants as a way to lower CO2 emissions and deliver reliable power (but only baseload, they … Continue reading
Posted in Gen IV SMR reactors, Nuclear Waste
Tagged modular reactors, Natrium, nuclear power, nuclear waste, PWR, SMR, sodium
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Why do Natural Gas & Oil cost so much?
Preface. Below are excerpts from U.S. House & Senate hearings where various speakers made the case that due to tight fracked gas & oil the United States had 100 or 200 or even 250 years of Energy Independence ahead. For … Continue reading
Posted in Natural Gas, Oil & Gas Fracked, Peak Natural Gas, U.S. Congress Energy Independence
Tagged congress, energy independence, house, natural gas, oil, senate
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Can we eat enough fried food for biodiesel to keep trucks running?
Fatberg from London sewer If the U.S. can’t make enough biodiesel from plants, then the question becomes: Can we step up our fast-food game? Can we eat more French fries? Biodiesel is already made from used cooking oil (11.5% of … Continue reading
Posted in Biodiesel, Farming & Ranching
Tagged biodiesel, fast food, fatberg
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Why it is hard to replace diesel with biodiesel
Biodiesel is the great hope, our main hope, the only renewable fuel of all the many options, and the closest to the diesel essential for rail, trucks, and ships to do the actual work of civilization. The U.S. produces over … Continue reading
Posted in Biodiesel, Food production, Oil, Peak Biofuels, Peak Food, Transportation, Water
Tagged biodiesel, diesel, EROI
1 Comment
Corn for ethanol & soy for biodiesel tremendously destructive
The Green Gold Rush to make biodiesel has begun in earnest in California. It would not be profitable without subsidies from LCFS credits, federal RIN D5 credits, and Blenders Tax Credits at $3.32 a gallon, which is enough to cover … Continue reading
Posted in Biodiesel, Peak Food, Pesticides, Soil, Water Pollution
Tagged aquifer depletion, biodiesel, corn, erosion, ethanol, pollution, soybeans, topsoil
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Limits to Growth: Natural gas fertilizer that feeds 4 billion of us
Preface. In chapter 4 of my book “Life After Fossil Fuels: A Reality Check on Alternative Energy“, I explain how it came to be that fertilizer is made out of natural gas, using the energy of natural gas, and why … Continue reading
Posted in Life After Fossil Fuels, Limits To Growth, Natural Gas, Peak Food, Starvation
Tagged agriculture, food, peak food, peak natural gas, starvation
1 Comment