Ch 8.3 - Energy
"We know what a world without fossil fuels looks like - we used to live in it. It was cold, poor, ignorant, starving, and backward." - Ross McKitrick
Narrative: Climate change is an existential threat. No other environmental issue even comes close. CO2 levels are too high and still rising. If we don’t take drastic measures soon humans are done for.
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a. Fossil Fuels
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"The State of California makes more money off a gallon of gas via taxation, than Exxon/Mobil does by producing it." - Unknown
"Imagine thinking oil and gas are subsidized. The reality is that oil and gas are one of the most heavily taxed industries in the world. After severance and product taxes, they're by far negative in net subsidies." - Unknown
"This year, government oil and gas revenues are set to make a new record of $2.5 trillion, according to Norway's Rystad Energy. For context, global GDP will be about $102 trillion. With high commodity prices, many governments produce over $50 per barrel. Two dollars are paid in taxes to governments for every dollar spent producing oil and gas. Against $2 trillion in global taxes on oil and gas production, you would need more than $2 trillion in subsidies to be "propping up" fossil fuels. They compare the supply cost of the product with the prices paid by users in the country and multiply that by the total consumption of the product. If the international price of gasoline is $4/gallon, but the price locally is $2/gallon, the explicit subsidy would be $2/gallon times the total gallons of gasoline consumed in that country for that year." - Unknown
"Here are five questions I wish Congress had asked Calpers:
1) What is the investment case that cutting fossil fuel production will increase Exxon shareholders’ returns?
2) Would CalPERS ever use its ownership in oil companies to artificially boost its green energy investments?
3) Where’s that $100 billion in new green investments coming from?
4) If CalPERS’ DEI practices ensure diversity of perspective, why does it only measure diversity of race and gender? Does it believe different races think differently?
5) If all this ESG investing is about making money, why are your returns so low?" - Unknown
"I suggest expunging 'fossil fuels' from your vocabulary in favor of hydrocarbons—a much better and more precise word." - Unknown
"If OIL is a FOSSIL FUEL? Explain the La Brea Tar Pits.
Petroleum in Latin = 'Rock Oil'" - Unknown
"Yes, Petrol. Not algaetrol. If fossil fuels, which include methane, come from rotting fish pooh - explain how Jupiter and Saturn are made of methane, and it rains liquid methane on Titan....." - Unknown
"Could it be that under pressure and heat in an anoxic environment, that methane molecules - one of the building blocks of the universe (common like water) are forced together to make chains like Octane ? Thus making Petroleum one of the most common universal substances. Hmmmmm.......
Could it be that back in 1700s the chemists that classified 'organic' molecules were both correct and incorrect at the same time - since Methane is the original organic molecule - that's clearly not organic at all." - Unknown
"The only proven alternatives to hydrocarbon fuels are poverty, cold, disease, and darkness. All other supposed choices are expensive fictions you can only indulge in if you have a lot of hydrocarbons." - Unknown
"Before the manufacture of petroleum products started in the 1850s, the lifespan from birth was just 38 years." - Unknown
"Modern civilization happened because of oil. No oil means living in caves. 1 Barrel of oil does 4.5 years of work equivalent. That means 4.5 years of a man's maximum work output. Without oil or coal or gas there would be no steel, cement, glass, fertilizer or mineral mining and smelting. Aluminum is made mostly with electricity but most of the machines are still run with diesel. There is no alternative to oil. Everything we're doing to solve our imaginary global warming problems are depleting our energy reserves as quickly as possible while depleting our finite mineral resources. When you feed your dog, you're in effect feeding it with oil." - Unknown
"$1 spent at McDonalds enables a 200lb person to walk 2 miles at 3mph
$1 spent at Exxon enables 4000lb to go 10 miles at 60mph
Fossil fuel is incredibly cheap compared to human energy
And pretty much the only thing we regularly consume that has been consistently deflationary" - Unknown
"As an oil industry worker, I can tell you that I only put up with the sh*t because there are no Karens, the guys I work with are savages which makes it fun and the pay is excellent. You nationalize this with a bunch of useless govt idiots trying to make it work, it will end over night and we'll be living in mad max world. I fancy my chances in that world, but blue haired Karens will be dishing out hand jobs for diesel in weeks." - Unknown
"They are trying to ban any form of energy that you can bottle up and store. This is a war on the prepared. Ask yourself why they would want people to be weak and unprepared for what is coming. Now would be the time to buy that extra 1000 gallon propane tank if you have the resources to do so." - Unknown
"If we aren't hearing the alarm bells, it's because we're deaf..." - Javier Blas, Bloomberg Opinion on tight gasoline and diesel inventories
"The only reserves I believe in is what is in the ground at the gasoline station" - Unknown
"Proven reserves is a biggest lie, it is a concept, which is designed to confuse and create assumptions about how limited oil on Earth. Reserves are based on current price vs price to extract, when price grows reserves- magically grow. Like the Chevron CEO said about 4 years ago, 'Seventy percent of the oil we know about today will never see the light of day.'" - Unknown
"Groceries: laundry soaps will be powders in square cardboard, no more using petroleum to make wastefully shaped plastic jugs, or shipping water or empty air space.
Milk: Moo milk will be at a premium for years until the herd ages out (or burger will be cheap), since diesel's used to raise and farm crops to feed the animals, then move milk to a packaging facility, then distribute the containers. Powdered milk will be the norm. (Get used to it now.)
Deliveries: Amazon prime will become amazon premium, where you pay monthly to only get the cloud-based services, no more free shipping.
Logistics: Distribution will need to get much more efficient. We'll try to have computers do it, but things will change so fast the ai can't learn what we want it to in time. Human logisticians will be more popular than internet influencers." - Unknown, on what a diesel shortage would look like
"Military emissions account for more than the greenhouse emissions of aviation and shipping combined. If global militaries were a country, they'd be the 4th largest emitter. And yet military is excluded from climate targets & reporting. Our planet needs peace and demilitarisation." - Unknown
"Look at the pipeline projects that aimed at transporting gas to Europe. Nabucco (Azerbaidschan to Europe): cancelled. Katar/Arabian peninsula to Europe: blocked (Syrian crisis). East Med (Israel, Cyprus, Greece, Egypt) to Europe: cancelled, Southstream, Russia to Europe via Black Sea: cancelled. Northstream: destroyed: West Africa to Europe (blocked). Jamal (Russia to Europe): Deliveries stopped (response to sanctions), Sojus (Russia to Europe via Ukraine): Deliveries stopped (war). Bruderschaft (Russia to Europe via Ukraine): ?, Turkstream (Russia to Turkey/Balkans via Black Sea): Does not deliver to central and Western Europe. The biggest available gas deposits exist in Russia, the Arabian peninsula, Iran, Turkmenistan, China. The majority of smaller countries exporting gas is out of reach for Europe (Africa, Near and Middle East, Asia, South America). The only viable option remaining is the US." - Unknown
"Ideally, the U.S. should be interested in anything that brings more oil and gas online and stabilizes the market. Sure ... sure .... Nah ... the deep state doesn't like competitors in the gas industry. Not when it's getting such good prices supplying Europe after Nordstream." - Unknown
"Gosh, burn natural gas to heat water to make steam to turn turbines to turn generators that send electricity through wires that average 50% loss due to resistance to make heat is more costly than burning the natural gas locally for heat? Who would have guessed?" - Unknown
"If our power grids are vulnerable why ban gas stoves? Ohhh." - KelemenCari
b. Clean Energy
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"It's very hard to run a full-time grid on part-time power." - Unknown
"The idea of using the weather to run the electricity grid would have been laughed at by engineers from 100 years ago. The randomness of wind speed, connecting them when they’re miles apart, etc..." - Unknown
"Taken together, the grid has been called the largest machine in the world, comprising eleven thousand power plants, three thousand utilities, and more than two million miles of power lines. In practice, however, there are three separate U.S. grids, or self-contained interconnections of power production and transmission. These are the Eastern, Western, and Texas interconnections." - Unknown
”Wheel out. Get shorty. Fat boy.” - Trading strategies used to exploit the California power grid from the movie The Smartest Guys in the Room
"Wind and solar energy is not green energy. It's leprechaun energy. It's associated with the color green and there's always a pot of gold at the end of the rainbow you will never reach." - Unknown
“On wind energy, we get a tax credit if we build a lot of wind farms. That's the only reason to build them. They don't make sense without the tax credit.” – Warren Buffett
"For instance, a 3-MW wind turbine contains up to 4.7 TONS of copper. Onshore wind farms use approximately 7,766 lbs. (3.883 TONS) of copper per MW. Offshore wind farms use over 21k pounds per MW (10.5 tons). PER MW nameplate." - Unknown
"Did you know they have to 'jump start' those ****ers by using LOTS of electricity FROM THE GRID to get them rolling before they can start feeding power back ONTO the grid?" - Unknown
"Solar power systems use abt 5.5 tons of copper per MW (heat exchangers of solar plus wiring and cabling that transmits the electricity in PV cells). 262 GW of new solar installations between 2018 and 2027 in North America alone = 1.9 billion lbs. of copper." - Unknown
"For a 1 MW turbine, a typical slab foundation would be 15 meters in diameter and 1.5 to 3.5 meters deep. The foundation for turbines in the 1 to 2 MW range typically uses 130 to 240 m3 of concrete. Before Reuters took over Knight Ridder (Bridge Information Systems), the Knight Ridder wire news team had a slogan: first be right, then be first. Reuters appear to have a new slogan: make up shit and publish it." - Unknown
"Materials requirements per terawatt-hour (TWh) of electricity:
Solar Photovoltaic (PV) ☀️
‣ 4,050 tons/TWh of concrete
‣ 7,900 tons/TWh of steel
‣ 2,700 tons/TWh of glass
‣ 850 tons/TWh of copper
‣ 680 tons/TWh of aluminum
‣ 210 tons/TWh of plastic
Hydroelectric Power 🌊
‣ 14,000 tons/TWh of concrete
‣ 67 tons/TWh of steel
‣ 1 ton/TWh of copper
Wind 🌬️
‣ 8,000 tons/TWh of concrete
‣ 1,800 tons/TWh of steel
‣ 92 tons/TWh of glass
‣ 23 tons/TWh of copper
‣ 35 tons/TWh of aluminum
‣ 190 tons/TWh of plastic
Geothermal 🌋
‣ 1,850 tons/TWh of concrete
‣ 3,300 tons/TWh steel
‣ 2 tons/TWh of copper
‣ 100 tons/TWh of aluminum
Nuclear ☣️
‣ 760 tons/TWh of concrete
‣ 160 tons/TWh of steel
‣ 3 tons/TWh of copper
Natural Gas 🔥
‣ 400 tons/TWh of concrete
‣ 170 tons/TWh of steel
‣ 1 ton/TWh of aluminum" - Unknown
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