Home » Energy (Page 132)
Category Archives: Energy
The Energy Crisis During the Panic of 1873
The Energy Crisis During the Panic of 1873 Humans are not the only species to get viruses. A real energy crisis hit the United States that began in 1872 and expanded into 1873, which contributed to the Panic of 1873. This was a flu virus they called distemper that shut down the US economy by […]
What Oil’s Troubles Mean to the Rest of Us
What Oil’s Troubles Mean to the Rest of Us To the extent that stock prices reflect expectations of future value, investors don’t like the prospects for oil, and oil’s demise signals muted prospects for economic growth. Exxon-Mobil (XOM) was removed from the Dow Jones Industrial Average this past August, ending a run that began when […]
GREEN ENERGY DOUBLE-TALK BEGINS: First Major Oil Producer Announces Deadline to End Oil Extraction, But There’s A Catch
GREEN ENERGY DOUBLE-TALK BEGINS: First Major Oil Producer Announces Deadline to End Oil Extraction, But There’s A Catch According to the Washington Post article published yesterday, Denmark was the first major oil-producing country to announce a deadline to end oil extraction. While this may sound like a “Victory” for the Green Energy Movement, there’s a […]
On Fabric (aka Fossil Energy is Indistinguishable from Magic)
On Fabric (aka Fossil Energy is Indistinguishable from Magic) I recently purchased a 6 piece queen sheet set for my bed and marveled at how something so useful, and so difficult to make myself, could be so inexpensive, costing only $30, or about 2 hours of my labor at minimum wage. I did a little digging […]
Peak Oil is Suddenly Upon Us
Peak Oil is Suddenly Upon Us A year ago, if anyone in the petroleum business had suggested that the moment of Peak Oil had already passed, they would have been laughed right off the drilling rig. Then 2020 happened. Planes stopped flying. Office workers stayed home. “Zooming with the grandkids” replaced driving to see family. A […]
Humans Left Sustainability Behind as Hunter-Gatherers
Humans Left Sustainability Behind as Hunter-Gatherers Many people believe that humans can have a sustainable future by using solar panels and wind turbines. Unfortunately, the only truly sustainable course, in terms of moving in cycles with nature, is interacting with the environment in a manner similar to the approach used by chimpanzees and baboons. Even […]
Low prices batter oil industry (and later the rest of us)
Low prices batter oil industry (and later the rest of us) It is a sign of the times that the largest oil company in the world, Saudi Aramco, the state oil company of the Kingdom of Saudi Arabia, must borrow money to pay its shareholder dividend. I have written about the twice-delayed and often troubled initial public […]
How Rethinking Affordable Homes Connects with the Climate Fight
How Rethinking Affordable Homes Connects with the Climate Fight First in a five-part series exploring the case for a Green New Deal for Housing. Experts in Canada and beyond see overlapping solutions to two crises: housing affordability and climate change. This series talks to more than 20 of them. Illustration for The Tyee by Nora Kelly. Earlier […]
Offshore wind turbines: Expensive, risky, and last just 15 years
Offshore wind turbines: Expensive, risky, and last just 15 years Blade Damage During Land Transport Preface: The Department of Energy high wind penetration plans require a lot of offshore wind. But is it possible, affordable, or wise to do this? Corrosion leads to a short lifespan of just 15 years. To reduce […]
Turning the clock forward
Turning the clock forward The next stop in my tour through my book A Small Farm Future is Part I, which begins with a long chapter outlining ten crises that one way or another seem set in the coming years to thoroughly upend the world we’ve known. As I see it, these crises are such that for good […]
Horgan Seems Fine with Muzzling the True Site C Watchdog
Horgan Seems Fine with Muzzling the True Site C Watchdog The independent BC Utilities Commission demanded answers on risks and was brushed off. The independent BC Utilities Commission posed tough but ignored questions to BC Hydro about constructing Site C on unstable ground. Photo: BC Hydro. BC Hydro has, in a Trumpian gesture, brushed off the […]
Renewables must help pay for transmission and their energy storage backup of fossil power plants
Renewables must help pay for transmission and their energy storage backup of fossil power plants Preface. Wind and solar advocates don’t include transmission and backup costs in their net energy calculations. But without fossil backup, the electric grid will come down due to lack of storage. There is almost nowhere left to put pumped hydro […]
The Invisible oiliness of everything
The Invisible oiliness of everything Preface. Even a simple object like a pencil requires dozens of actions to make and dozens of objects that took energy to make. This is why it is unlikely wind, solar, or any other contraption that make electricity, have a positive return of energy, or energy returned on energy invested. […]
Greenwash
Greenwash An operation of fossil fuel giant ExxonMobil near Chicago, USA [Richard Hurd, Flickr CC BY 2.0] The harm caused by the climate crisis has become undeniable – and terrifying. The floods, storms and raging fires, and the death and displacement they bring, have contributed to a global upwelling of concern and demands on governments to […]
