Preface. Unconventional US (and some Canadian) fracked tight oil was over 90% of how oil production increased after conventional oil peaked in 2008, but US fracked oil peaked in 2018 (and consequently all world oil, both conventional and unconventional also peaked then). Only the Permian shale basin is not in decline yet.
Preface. I don’t know of a book or article that better explains fusion and why fusion is so difficult and far from being commercial. Or ever commercial for that matter. Except for hydrogen bombs.
Preface. This book is about the history of the town of Cobalt and would make a great horror movie — the disease, filth, poverty, poor wages, racism, and destruction of the environment — the biodiversity, fresh water and more.
Preface. I have many posts at energyskeptic on the myriad reasons the grid will fail or disrupted in the future. Climate change is causing droughts and reservoirs too low to generate much hydropower, and nuclear plants must shut down if they can’t be cooled as well.
Preface. California’s economy and population relies on one of the most extensive and costly infrastructure systems in the world. This includes thousands of miles of roads, highways and railroads, nearly 200 large water reservoirs of varying capacity, miles of canals, oil refineries, waste water treatment facilities, the second largest hydro-power production in the United States, over 12 of the nation’s largest oil reservoirs, hundreds of airports, thousands of bridges, and sea ports that deal in over $200 billion in trade a year.
As goes California in climate change, so goes the nation, since this is where a quarter of the nation’s food is grown, the ports that handle 40% of imports and 30% of exports and much more. Continue reading
Preface. Anyone who thought the recent headlines about a “Nuclear Fusion Breakthrough” were true, might be surprised to know that most media left out one or more of the following important information:
Preface. Hope springs eternally for Fusion. I’ve come to see press releases about fusion breakthroughs as mostly a way to get more startup investment or government funding.
The Buttery (2021) excerpt is mainly to show you how impossible it is to explain the technical challenges without a PhD in nuclear engineering. Nate Hagens calls the future “The Great Simplification” when high levels of complexity, precision, supply chains, energy and more won’t make fusion, semiconductors, computers, or even toasters possible.
A post that better explains fusion and why it has failed so far (and probably forever) in plain language is Fusion: Book review of “Sun in a Bottle”
I could overwhelm you with world-wide trillions of tons of mining waste and how China has rendered 20% of its farmland too toxic to grow crops (BBC 2014), but let’s just zoom in on one mine in Arizona. In 2022, 13 years after the Rosemont Copper Mine near Tuscon, AZ was proposed in 2009, was finally shut down after strong opposition.
Preface. After Hurricane Katrina damaged oil and gas infrastructure, oil prices shot up. Below are excerpts from news stories in 2005 when President Bush, an oilman, openly discussed the U.S. energy dependence.
Preface. This post contains excerpts from two Department of Energy documents and one about large geomagnetic storms and how they would affect Large power transformers (LPT) and the U.S. electric grid. They are key essential critical infrastructure to keep the electric grid up, and enormous, up to 800,000 pounds making them expensive and hard to deliver. And vulnerable to supply chain failures because the largest ones are not made in the U.S.
If large power transformers are destroyed by a geomagnetic disturbance (GMD) electromagnetic pulse (EMP), cyber-attack, sabotage, severe weather, floods, or simply old age, parts or all of the electric grid could be down in a region for 6 months to 5 years.
