What would happen if we actually relied on "green energy"?? (generation, global warming)
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You live in the PNW, so do I. What percent of North America lives in the PNW? Where is your empathy, man?! People in South West deserts can't go in the backyard and drop a 75' Douglas Fir. Nor do they have to. But I am finally getting with the program. The political will isn't there to go against the entrenched oil interests. So we won't. Status quo until it isn't and we have to move on Iran's oil resources and touch off WWIII.
H
Canada and the U.S. have more than enough Oil to last 200-300 years easy. Heck oil maybe be even more abundant then we thought... All we have to do in North America is develop and mature our Reserves and Infastructure and we are set.
I mean Canada and the U.S. have it all the only other nation that has more than us is Russia and Europe is learning that maybe deling with Russia for all their natural gas needs is not that great of a deal compared to dealing with us for our Natural Gas.
Heck I see the EU approving a major under sea Natural Gas line from North America to the EU in the not too distant future just to ensure they get a steady supply from a stable westren ally... Instead of Russia who have a habit of shutting off the flow of Gas to Europe in the winter to jack up the price.
"..the sky will open, the light will come down, celestial choirs will be singing, and everyone will know we should do the right thing, and the world will be perfect!”
- from Hillary Clinton, mocking Obama's speeches back in 2008
She forgot rainbows, unicorns and fart gas would have the sweet smell like roses.
Canada and the U.S. have more than enough Oil to last 200-300 years easy. Heck oil maybe be even more abundant then we thought... All we have to do in North America is develop and mature our Reserves and Infastructure and we are set.
I agree. Let's not even try. If we wait long enough the earth will make new oil. It only took 2.5 billion years to cook down the first batch.
H
Is there a chance that we could develop some better sources of power than burning coal and oil in one hundred or more years? We sure don't have anything to replace them now but some fools have taken in the message of Prince Barack and the UN about green power. Do you have any idea how much oil lies below our surface. How about being the biggest coal producer in the world?
Nuclear is a green energy compared to petroleum for transportation. Natural gas is far cleaner and more abundant then oil for transportation needs, but because of the oil lobby, we can't even switch to that.
Out here in the sticks we thought that most drilling is done by oil people even for natural gas which we have lots of.
Going green means a lot more than just getting off oil.
Homes used to be built facing north/south with porches (passive solar). You don't see that anymore do you ?
Wood stoves for winter heating. Metal roofs are a no-no in subdivisions.
Good old gravity septic systems have given way to the newer aerobic ones requiring electricity and chemicals.
There's more to a green movement than just getting off oil. And that "movement" is just not happening.
Every damn appliance you buy has a clock. I keep my small applicances unplugged because of it so I have blinking 88:88's all over the house when I do plug them in or turn them on. That's a slow drain and waste of electricity.
We need a new roof and my wife insists it must be metal. Of course, I insist on white because our outbuildings have white metal and it doesn't fade like colored does.
My sons heat by wood that they cut themselves and will someday go to metal rooves, also. I sure am glad we don't have new structures.
We get more wind farms in the state and new ones are continuously being built but they take time and new lines to carry the power.
It is nice to be out here in the sticks knowing that we have natural gas, oil, wood, and electricity to have power from.
No question we need oil, coal, NG for the time being but that is most definitely a losing proposition for the future. We are competing with countries like China for limited supplies that will only reduce the resources available.
Except for two things you are overlooking, China's population is huge compared to ours and they have far less domestic resources than we do. The perception that the US has some kind of shortage of fossil fuels is a fallacy, there is maybe two nations that can be truly energy independent based on fossil fuels well into the next century, the US and Russia.
Based on recent EIA estimates we have about 120 years worth of coal and that is conservative estimate.
It is impossible to know exactly how much coal there is, because it is buried underground. But we can make estimates.
"Total resources" is our best estimate of the total amount of coal, including undiscovered in the United States. Currently, total resources are estimated to be about 4 trillion short tons.1 Total Resources includes several categories of coal with various degrees of geologic assurance and data reliability.
But not all coal is feasible to mine. The Demonstrated Reserve Base2 is the sum of coal in both measured and indicated resource categories of reliability, representing 100% of the in-place coal that could be mined commercially at a given time. EIA estimates the Demonstrated Reserve Base to measure 486 billion short tons.
"Estimated Recoverable Reserves" include only the coal that can be mined with today’s mining technology, after accessibility constraints and recovery factors are considered. EIA estimates there are 261 billion short tons of U.S. recoverable coal reserves, about 54% of the Demonstrated Reserve Base.
Based on U.S. coal consumption for 2010, the U.S. recoverable coal reserves represent enough coal to last 249 years. However, EIA projects in the most recent Annual Energy Outlook (April 2011) that U.S. coal consumption will increase at about 1.1% per year for the period 2009-2035. If that growth rate continues into the future, U.S. recoverable coal reserves would be exhausted in about 119 years if no new reserves are added.
Those coal reserves can be used for liquid fules and would be much cheaper than conventional oil right now, the only reason there is no private investment in this is because of the volatile oil market. Coal to liquid fules tech will be used in the future.
The number being thrown around for natural gas is 100 years, I haven't researched it enough but the fact is it's a lot.
There is plenty of other resources like oil shale, these alternative to conventional oil may not be as cheap but it's better than nothing at all.
Quote:
About Oil Shale
While oil shale is found in many places worldwide, by far the largest deposits in the world are found in the United States in the Green River Formation, which covers portions of Colorado, Utah, and Wyoming. Estimates of the oil resource in place within the Green River Formation range from 1.2 to 1.8 trillion barrels. Not all resources in place are recoverable; however, even a moderate estimate of 800 billion barrels of recoverable oil from oil shale in the Green River Formation is three times greater than the proven oil reserves of Saudi Arabia. Present U.S. demand for petroleum products is about 20 million barrels per day. If oil shale could be used to meet a quarter of that demand, the estimated 800 billion barrels of recoverable oil from the Green River Formation would last for more than 400 years1. More than 70% of the total oil shale acreage in the Green River Formation, including the richest and thickest oil shale deposits, is under federally owned and managed lands. Thus, the federal government directly controls access to the most commercially attractive portions of the oil shale resource base.
Colorado and Utah have as much oil as Saudi Arabia, Iran, Iraq, Venezuela, Nigeria, Kuwait, Libya, Angola, Algeria, Indonesia, Qatar and the United Arab Emirates combined.
Out here in the sticks we thought that most drilling is done by oil people even for natural gas which we have lots of.
Fracking, learn it, love it, know it.
It is the future, a hell of a lot more then drilling wells thousands of feet below the oceans surface.
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when I do plug them in or turn them on. That's a slow drain and waste of electricity.
