You do not have to transport water energy, and it is free. Look at Norway, despite the fact it owns Statoil. Its own electricity is run 96 percent on water. Look at Switzerland and its water battery.
The problem with oil is not its burning, it is its destructive mining techniques that creates enormous methane leaks and causes earthquakes. It is referred to as Enhanced Oil Recover mining, which should rather be called Chemical Oil Recovery, where by they blow up the bedrock of which civilization stands and dissolve it with carbon dioxide.
If that were not bad enough, their use of fresh water in the deep earth made methane hydrates, which dissociated when they began fracking in shale because when you turn nice solid bedrock to synthetic methane gas and mush, it reduced density in earlier carbonate rock fields, and resulted in the major hydrate dissociating in our seas in 1972 that began global warming.
We are thrilled to announce the biography of Dr. Tim Ball, 'Everything reminds me of Tim'. By Marty Ball.
“A single person alone cannot sum up a life. Thank you to all the people who, through their own memories and relationships with him, helped us tell the story of Tim”
I was disappointed to hear Robert's announcement that he will be stopping production of the "Power Hungry Podcast". I realize that producing such a show requires considerable effort and doesn't provide the kind of income that speaking engagements and books and articles do, for me it was a unique opportunity to hear a variety of expert thought and opinion on climate and energy issues.
Perhaps if Robert introduces the paid Substack model he'll consider offering the Podcast to subscribers.
Our civilization is built on Oil. It will never be changed or eliminated as its our very life blood. Every effort to diminish it diminishes our economy. Large numbers of consumers are discovering the unsuitability of EV's for American life and geography. Even if large numbers of Nuke plants are finally built (that takes decades the way we do it now) Oil will remain essential.
As Kipling reminds us in his "Gods of the copybook headings?", reality will intrude sooner than the greenies expect. All those huge battery plants being built and EV plants partially built, are creating the conditions for serious economic fallout when they fail and they will. Just how much can an economy waste/misdirect resources before its catastrophic? There is already a massive misdirection of resources by Big Gov spending on insane programs. That's already set us up for a grim future.
I think this is a very valid set of sums to be doing, but I'm keen to get the numbers accurate so they won't be shouted down.
I'm not sure quoting gravimetric energy content of oil is valid because combustion engines - even gas turbines - are not 100% efficient, and only about 40% of that gravimetric energy gets converted into useful work for the airplane. Whereas I suspect when people talk about lithium battery capacity - for example 100 kWh - they are talking about useful energy and electric motors are very efficient - often 85-90%. So the relative useful density is not 80x, perhaps more like 40x. Still a massive difference, but as I say it's more about making the numbers defensible.
How about doing a more detailed look at this in a column ?
Add to that crucial density the massive portfolio of by-products produced by the same, from tar roads to ebony replacing plastics and you can really appreciate the way that it saves our consumption of off the shelf natural products like trees and fruits. Much better to move water, cultivate food and raise pigs than managing a natural commons that can't possible feed us all.
Robert I would like to reward you for the work that you do and though you want your message to reach the widest audience, putting the smallest fee on that you can, would mean some of us would feel less guilty for cheating you out of a couple of bucks.
Given that both men are Harvard educated lawyers, I wonder if Harvard is telling its students that the laws of physics can simply be repealed by legislative or jurisprudence action.
Great article. Nuclear has the highest energy density of any substance known to mankind and the best Energy Return on Investment, and is by far the safest energy source per KWh
A complete and total revamp of our energy infrastructure to accommodate nuclear for baseload would solve most of our problems.
Robert, perhaps you might send complimentary copies of this book to Messrs. Obama and Kennedy, as well as the countless other know nothings that seek to impose their idiotic fantasies upon the rest of us?
it's commonly estimated that around one-quarter to one-third of the oil produced globally is used for purposes other than combustion, such as manufacturing plastics, lubricants, and other petrochemical products.
Since the consumption of such products dictate standard of living if the whole world were brought up to our stand of living in North America it would take probably as much oil as is being produced today if none were used for combustion. So to responsibly address climate change the big oil companies should plowing their profits into the nuclear to synthetic fuel route.
Humans should have immense gratitude to oil and the companies which make it available. Of course the companies aren't perfect, but they're more than good enough. Instead, the mainstream demonizes them and hopes they get ended. Perverse doesn't come close. Another way of considering the density of uranium is per GRAM it contains the equivalent of 20 billion calories, if it were edible. Mind-boggling! A gift from exploded stars long ago ready for humans to use for millions of years.
I am 71 years old...old enough to have been educated when science was understood as the pursuit of truth. In high school, I remember my physics teacher explaining the processes of fission, and I was immediately interested in nuclear power and how it could be used in practical applications. E.g., our submarine navy is powered by nuclear energy. All it took was Three MiIe Island and Chernobyl to foment enough fear to take nuclear energy off the table. It should be on the top of our future of power generation for a host of reasons, beginning with power density. We're going to need more power going forward, and solar and wind will never get us to the utopian "net zero."
Bush really infuriated me with the “addicted to oil” comment. We’ve never been addicted to oil. We simply chose to use it because it is cheap, abundant, and easily transportable form of energy available. His other comment that I hated was that illegal immigrants were just “doing jobs Americans won’t do.” No they were doing jobs Americans won’t do for next to nothing. He did have one line that I think was well written by his speech writers: “The soft bigotry of low expectations.” 👍
You do not have to transport water energy, and it is free. Look at Norway, despite the fact it owns Statoil. Its own electricity is run 96 percent on water. Look at Switzerland and its water battery.
The problem with oil is not its burning, it is its destructive mining techniques that creates enormous methane leaks and causes earthquakes. It is referred to as Enhanced Oil Recover mining, which should rather be called Chemical Oil Recovery, where by they blow up the bedrock of which civilization stands and dissolve it with carbon dioxide.
If that were not bad enough, their use of fresh water in the deep earth made methane hydrates, which dissociated when they began fracking in shale because when you turn nice solid bedrock to synthetic methane gas and mush, it reduced density in earlier carbonate rock fields, and resulted in the major hydrate dissociating in our seas in 1972 that began global warming.
https://www.steynonline.com/12856/a-sennight-of-steyn-september-25-october-1
Book: ‘The Deliberate Corruption of Climate Science’
Book: ‘Human Caused Global Warming, the Biggest Deception in History’
https://www.technocracy.news/dr-tim-ball-on-climate-lies-wrapped-in-deception-smothered-with-delusion/
https://www.technocracy.news/tim-ball-the-evidence-proves-that-co2-is-not-a-greenhouse-gas
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=qOEFQDcT_lM
Tim died Sept 24th 2022
We are thrilled to announce the biography of Dr. Tim Ball, 'Everything reminds me of Tim'. By Marty Ball.
“A single person alone cannot sum up a life. Thank you to all the people who, through their own memories and relationships with him, helped us tell the story of Tim”
Find it now at Barnes & Noble :
https://www.barnesandnoble.com/.../everythi.../1144993389...
I was disappointed to hear Robert's announcement that he will be stopping production of the "Power Hungry Podcast". I realize that producing such a show requires considerable effort and doesn't provide the kind of income that speaking engagements and books and articles do, for me it was a unique opportunity to hear a variety of expert thought and opinion on climate and energy issues.
Perhaps if Robert introduces the paid Substack model he'll consider offering the Podcast to subscribers.
Our civilization is built on Oil. It will never be changed or eliminated as its our very life blood. Every effort to diminish it diminishes our economy. Large numbers of consumers are discovering the unsuitability of EV's for American life and geography. Even if large numbers of Nuke plants are finally built (that takes decades the way we do it now) Oil will remain essential.
As Kipling reminds us in his "Gods of the copybook headings?", reality will intrude sooner than the greenies expect. All those huge battery plants being built and EV plants partially built, are creating the conditions for serious economic fallout when they fail and they will. Just how much can an economy waste/misdirect resources before its catastrophic? There is already a massive misdirection of resources by Big Gov spending on insane programs. That's already set us up for a grim future.
I think this is a very valid set of sums to be doing, but I'm keen to get the numbers accurate so they won't be shouted down.
I'm not sure quoting gravimetric energy content of oil is valid because combustion engines - even gas turbines - are not 100% efficient, and only about 40% of that gravimetric energy gets converted into useful work for the airplane. Whereas I suspect when people talk about lithium battery capacity - for example 100 kWh - they are talking about useful energy and electric motors are very efficient - often 85-90%. So the relative useful density is not 80x, perhaps more like 40x. Still a massive difference, but as I say it's more about making the numbers defensible.
How about doing a more detailed look at this in a column ?
Add to that crucial density the massive portfolio of by-products produced by the same, from tar roads to ebony replacing plastics and you can really appreciate the way that it saves our consumption of off the shelf natural products like trees and fruits. Much better to move water, cultivate food and raise pigs than managing a natural commons that can't possible feed us all.
Robert I would like to reward you for the work that you do and though you want your message to reach the widest audience, putting the smallest fee on that you can, would mean some of us would feel less guilty for cheating you out of a couple of bucks.
Great article. Too bad it isn't required reading in Schools and colleges
Given that both men are Harvard educated lawyers, I wonder if Harvard is telling its students that the laws of physics can simply be repealed by legislative or jurisprudence action.
Great article. Nuclear has the highest energy density of any substance known to mankind and the best Energy Return on Investment, and is by far the safest energy source per KWh
A complete and total revamp of our energy infrastructure to accommodate nuclear for baseload would solve most of our problems.
Robert, perhaps you might send complimentary copies of this book to Messrs. Obama and Kennedy, as well as the countless other know nothings that seek to impose their idiotic fantasies upon the rest of us?
Oil is not our tyrant, it is our servant.
it's commonly estimated that around one-quarter to one-third of the oil produced globally is used for purposes other than combustion, such as manufacturing plastics, lubricants, and other petrochemical products.
Since the consumption of such products dictate standard of living if the whole world were brought up to our stand of living in North America it would take probably as much oil as is being produced today if none were used for combustion. So to responsibly address climate change the big oil companies should plowing their profits into the nuclear to synthetic fuel route.
Humans should have immense gratitude to oil and the companies which make it available. Of course the companies aren't perfect, but they're more than good enough. Instead, the mainstream demonizes them and hopes they get ended. Perverse doesn't come close. Another way of considering the density of uranium is per GRAM it contains the equivalent of 20 billion calories, if it were edible. Mind-boggling! A gift from exploded stars long ago ready for humans to use for millions of years.
I am 71 years old...old enough to have been educated when science was understood as the pursuit of truth. In high school, I remember my physics teacher explaining the processes of fission, and I was immediately interested in nuclear power and how it could be used in practical applications. E.g., our submarine navy is powered by nuclear energy. All it took was Three MiIe Island and Chernobyl to foment enough fear to take nuclear energy off the table. It should be on the top of our future of power generation for a host of reasons, beginning with power density. We're going to need more power going forward, and solar and wind will never get us to the utopian "net zero."
Bush really infuriated me with the “addicted to oil” comment. We’ve never been addicted to oil. We simply chose to use it because it is cheap, abundant, and easily transportable form of energy available. His other comment that I hated was that illegal immigrants were just “doing jobs Americans won’t do.” No they were doing jobs Americans won’t do for next to nothing. He did have one line that I think was well written by his speech writers: “The soft bigotry of low expectations.” 👍