The Energy Thread

[Bo Diddley]

With the US on the verge of energy independence, how will our foreign policy change? I'm hoping we can extract ourselves from the Middle East soon.

[falafel]

With the US on the verge of energy independence, how will our foreign policy change? I'm hoping we can extract ourselves from the Middle East soon.

Nah, just means we can melt the sands if we want.

[Uncle Ted]

Energy Department says US is now world’s top oil producer

The United States is pumping record amounts of oil, vaulting over Russia to become the world’s biggest producer of crude.


The Energy Information Administration said Thursday that the U.S. produced more than 11.3 million barrels a day in August, a 4 percent increase over the old record set in July.


Russia’s energy ministry estimates that country pumped 11.2 million barrels a day in August. OPEC reports Saudi Arabia pumped 10.4 million barrels a day.


It’s the first time since 1973 that the U.S. leads the world in oil production.
[...]

https://www.apnews.com/e0b44d8dade84303bac92e0b49a7dbb3

LOL @ Russia and Saudi Arabia!

[Katy Lied]

PGE declaring bankruptcy in light of the determination that the recent CA fires were due to faulty infrastructure and PGE power lines sparking fires. Ironically, during earlier ages when the spectre of nuclear accidents raised its head, the government passed a law protecting utilities from damages in excess of $2 billion due to nuclear failure. At the time, no one ever thought that a regular ol' fire could cause equivalent damage.

[The_Tick]

PGE declaring bankruptcy in light of the determination that the recent CA fires were due to faulty infrastructure and PGE power lines sparking fires. Ironically, during earlier ages when the spectre of nuclear accidents raised its head, the government passed a law protecting utilities from damages in excess of $2 billion due to nuclear failure. At the time, no one ever thought that a regular ol' fire could cause equivalent damage.

And yet they are going to request a rate increase, again, to allow them to recoup losses.

[Jeff Lebowski]

Fascinating article in Quillette about energy.

https://quillette.com/2019/02/27/why...ve-the-planet/

tl;dr summary: Renewables have major environmental impacts, are inefficient, limited feasibility, etc. The cheapest and safest energy source, and the one with by far the lowest carbon footprint is nuclear.

That stupid Green New Deal includes phasing out nuclear. That is the exact opposite of what we should be doing.

[PaloAltoCougar]

Fascinating article in Quillette about energy.

https://quillette.com/2019/02/27/why...ve-the-planet/

tl;dr summary: Renewables have major environmental impacts, are inefficient, limited feasibility, etc. The cheapest and safest energy source, and the one with by far the lowest carbon footprint is nuclear.

That stupid Green New Deal includes phasing out nuclear. That is the exact opposite of what we should be doing.

Jane Fonda did far more damage to the U.S. with that stupid (but admittedly entertaining) movie The China Syndrome than she did during her Hanoi Jane phase. We could achieve close to a fossil fuel-free energy system more quickly and much less expensively than what the Green New Deal seeks to implement.

[beefytee]

Speaking of Nuclear I read an interesting article about molten salt reactors recently:

http://blogs.discovermagazine.com/cr...lear-reactors/

the liquid nature of the fuel meant that they could potentially build molten salt reactors that were cheap enough for poor countries to buy; compact enough to deliver on a flatbed truck; green enough to burn our existing stockpiles of nuclear waste instead of generating more — and safe enough to put in cities and factories. That’s because Fukushima-style meltdowns would be physically impossible in a mix that’s molten already. Better still, these reactors would be proliferation resistant, because their hot, liquid contents would be very hard for rogue states or terrorists to hijack for making nuclear weapons.

[Mormon Red Death]

Speaking of Nuclear I read an interesting article about molten salt reactors recently:

http://blogs.discovermagazine.com/cr...lear-reactors/

Wasn't this mentioned in super freakonomics?

Sent from my ONEPLUS A6013 using Tapatalk

[Pelado]

Speaking of Nuclear I read an interesting article about molten salt reactors recently:

http://blogs.discovermagazine.com/cr...lear-reactors/

Cool article. Thanks for sharing.

[Katy Lied]

Last week, the city of San Francisco made a long awaited bid to take over part of the area’s grid from the utility that currently controls it, the embattled Pacific Gas & Electric. To date, SF has offered $2.5 billion for the PG&E assets. The move has been rumored for sometime now and upon announcing it, City Attorney Dennis Herrera explained the rationale, saying: "There has been a lack of investment in infrastructure over the course of the last decade by PG&E, and that is, and was, motivated primarily by pursuit of profit. That's not something that San Francisco is going to be pursuing. We're not interested in profit. We're interested in providing safe affordable power to ratepayers rather than trying to make sure that stockholders are getting some great rate of return on their investment."

ahahahahahahahahaha

"Municipalized." That's the city equivalent of Nationalized. Yeah, the plan is that the City will run PGE and divert its dividends from stock owners to ratepayers. What will actually happen is that stock holders will switch to being bond holders and realize higher gains associated with the riskier bonds that the City will need to issue to buy PGE.

ahahahahahahahahaha

[Flystripper]

ahahahahahahahahaha

"Municipalized." That's the city equivalent of Nationalized. Yeah, the plan is that the City will run PGE and divert its dividends from stock owners to ratepayers. What will actually happen is that stock holders will switch to being bond holders and realize higher gains associated with the riskier bonds that the City will need to issue to buy PGE.

ahahahahahahahahaha

nailed it

[wapiti]

ahahahahahahahahaha

"Municipalized." That's the city equivalent of Nationalized. Yeah, the plan is that the City will run PGE and divert its dividends from stock owners to ratepayers. What will actually happen is that stock holders will switch to being bond holders and realize higher gains associated with the riskier bonds that the City will need to issue to buy PGE.

ahahahahahahahahaha

I can't blame the city. Those highly regulated utilities are just raking it in.

[The_Tick]

So...who in California is possibly having their power shut off for the next 3 days? You know...so that PG&E can help us keep forest fires down. (See limiting liability in the dictionary....)

What a bunch of MFers.

We are being told that we may be sent home at noon from work when they cut power. To be able to go home and sit in a home....with no power.

[creekster]

So...who in California is possibly having their power shut off for the next 3 days? You know...so that PG&E can help us keep forest fires down. (See limiting liability in the dictionary....)

What a bunch of MFers.

We are being told that we may be sent home at noon from work when they cut power. To be able to go home and sit in a home....with no power.

It may affect us. This is the biggest mess I have ever seen from them. The PG&E website with outage maps is only working sporadically because they apparently didn't think very many people would try to look at the maps. And the weather here, at least, is not hot or windy. Our building just warned us that we might be without power as of noon.

Great.