Category Archives: 3) Fast Crash

The case for a fast, rather than a slow one. Most societies crashed in 20 years or less. There has never been or will be again a crash like ours, where the world of 7 billion people became utterly dependent on a non-renewable source of energy — fossil fuels.

Just 16,000 catenary trucks (out of 5.6 million) would use 1% of California’s electricity generation

Posted on August 22, 2015 by

Preface. We must electrify trucks since fuel from oil, coal, and natural gas is finite, and biomass doesn’t scale up.  Without transportation, electricity contraptions like wind turbines, solar facilities, and nuclear power plants can’t be built. A wind turbine, for … Continue reading →

Posted in Electric & Hydrogen trucks impossible, Trucks: Electric | Tagged , , , , , , , , | 2 Comments

When will the Alaska pipeline turn into an 800-mile-long Popsicle?

Posted on August 15, 2015 by

[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 →

Posted in Flow Rate, Threats to oil supply | Tagged , , | 8 Comments

Rising oil prices and dependence on hostile regimes — the urgent case for Canadian oil

Posted on July 7, 2015 by

[Sullivan has an interesting overview of the instability in the Middle East, which could lead to an oil shock quickly along with the economic and sky-high prices that entails. He also mentions “peak oil” and its implications, a term rarely … Continue reading →

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Economic peak shale natural gas and oil from yet another bank & Wall Street scam

Posted on June 22, 2015 by

[ “Shale drillers companies are struggling to pay $235 billion of high-yield, high-risk debt taken on during the past 3 years of the U.S. shale boom. Shale drillers have consistently spent money faster than they’ve made it, even when oil … Continue reading →

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Peak oil sands, low EROI, high debt, limited pipeline and refinery capacity

Posted on June 22, 2015 by

Peak tar sands, a.k.a. oil sands Techno-opmtimists claim that technology will enable nasty, sour, gunky, expensive, difficult unconventional oil to fill in the gap of declining conventional oil. Conventional oil is declining too quickly for unconventional to match But that’s … Continue reading →

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Implications of declining EROI on oil production 2013 by David J. Murphy

Posted on June 20, 2015 by

[ To “see” declining EROI and the end of cheap energy, check out these photos of The Tallest structure ever moved by Mankind, a Norwegian natural gas offshore platform ] Murphy, David J. December 2, 2013. The implications of the … Continue reading →

Posted in EROEI Energy Returned on Energy Invested, Net Energy Cliff, Other Experts | 1 Comment

The electric grid, critical interdependencies, vulnerabilities: U.S. House hearing 2003

Posted on June 20, 2015 by

[ Related articles: Russian hackers suspected in attack that blacked out parts of Ukraine How the weapon works (pdf): CRASHOVERRIDE Analyzing the Threat to Electric Grid Operations The EMP Commission estimates a nationwide blackout lasting one year could kill up … Continue reading →

Posted in Blackouts, Cascading Failure, Congressional Record U.S., CyberAttacks, EMP Electromagnetic Pulse, Interdependencies | Tagged , , , , , | Comments Off on The electric grid, critical interdependencies, vulnerabilities: U.S. House hearing 2003

Admiral Rickover 1957: Energy Resources & Our Future

Posted on June 16, 2015 by

Preface. I’ve shortened and reworded this speech. All of Admiral Rickover’s speech is prescient and important, a few paragraphs: “We live in what historians may some day call the Fossil Fuel Age. Today coal, oil, and natural gas supply 93% … Continue reading →

Posted in An Overview, By People, Dependence on Oil, Energy Slaves, Limits To Growth, Military, Nuclear Waste, Other Experts, Overpopulation, Overshoot, Peak Oil | Tagged , , , , | 3 Comments

The difference between depletion and decline rate in oil fields

Posted on June 9, 2015 by

Notes from 26 page: Höök, M., Davidsson, S., Johansson, S., Tang, X. 2014. Decline and depletion rates of oil production: a comprehensive investigation. Philosophical Transactions. Series A: Mathematical, physical, and engineering science, 372 Depletion rate is the rate that the … Continue reading →

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Hirsch, R.L. Mitigation of maximum world oil production: shortage scenarios

Posted on June 6, 2015 by

Notes from: Hirsch, R.L., 2008. Mitigation of maximum world oil production: Shortage scenarios. Energy Policy, 36(2): 881–889.  World GDP Growth & World Oil Production Growth Have Tracked For Decades:   A 1% change in current world oil production equates to … Continue reading →

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