Unrest in Egypt

[Bob Gray]

Re: Unrest in Egypt

We don't have enough oil/coal etc domestically to support the American lifestyle. Following this example would require the US to drastically change. Communist!

We have plenty of coal. But, coal is scarey and icky. That's why coal use is being reduced, not because there isn't plenty.

 

[JF_Gophers]

Re: Unrest in Egypt

We don't have enough oil/coal etc domestically to support the American lifestyle. Following this example would require the US to drastically change. Communist!

Maybe it would force us to come up with alternate solutions. Crazy idea, I know.

Anti-Semite! The Jews have to retain control of a mountain or we'll never get Ruptured home! Heathen!

Why do they need our help, don't they have god on their side?

Stopping the sale of arms to dictators would crush American businesses and cost Americans jobs. Socialist!

We can continue selling drugs to our people to help offset the lost revenue. Plus gangs still need weapons.

Why do you hate America?

I hate being at war constantly for no reason. If we are going to keep committing to wars we should explore the nuclear option again.

 

[Kepler]

Re: Unrest in Egypt

We have plenty of coal. But, coal is scarey and icky. That's why coal use is being reduced, not because there isn't plenty.

Also, West Virginia is going to need something now that Robert Byrd has gone to the great earmark in the sky.

The day oil runs out will be a great day for civilization. The Saudis, the Iranians and Texas will all go belly up, and the Israelis will no longer have us by the balls. A pox on all four.

 

[BassAle]

Re: Unrest in Egypt

We have plenty of coal. But, coal is scarey and icky. That's why coal use is being reduced, not because there isn't plenty.

nothing icky about this

 

[bigmrg74]

Re: Unrest in Egypt

After alienating powerful tribes, Gaddafi's regime seems to be falling, but it is unclear who could fill vacuum.

 

[French Rage]

Re: Unrest in Egypt

nothing icky about this

To be fair, all-green is kinda tacky, so some diversity of color doesn't hurt.

 

[Priceless]

Re: Unrest in Egypt

Maybe it would force us to come up with alternate solutions. Crazy idea, I know.

Alternatives are evil, loony leftist ideas that will only destroy our economy!

Why do they need our help, don't they have god on their side?

He was on their side during the Holocaust, too.

We can continue selling drugs to our people to help offset the lost revenue. Plus gangs still need weapons.

True, but gangs don't offer us land/oil/water as collateral and they will never place large, multi-billion dollar orders.

I hate being at war constantly for no reason. If we are going to keep committing to wars we should explore the nuclear option again.

No reason!? 9/11! What are you, some kind of terrorist sympathizer?
Oh wait...nukes you say? Now you're talking!


Really Bob? If we stopped importing oil tomorrow we could burn enough coal to support our lifestyle?

I hope the smokestacks are high enough to reach outer space, or the atmosphere will look like Beijing on a good day.

 

[bigblue_dl]

Re: Unrest in Egypt

Maybe it would force us to come up with alternate solutions. Crazy idea, I know. the lost revenue.

You can't just magically come out with a solution. It takes time. I know, my work right now is based on creating energy from alternative fuels, tons of resources are being poured into this stuff as it is. If it was that easy to develop new technologies we'd all be be taking an evening drive in our flying Fords to Pluto to get an after dinner ice cream cone.

 

[Priceless]

Re: Unrest in Egypt

After alienating powerful tribes, Gaddafi's regime seems to be falling, but it is unclear who could fill vacuum.

I bet it's going to be scary Muslims. Why can't more Muslims be blue-eyed blond-haired white guys, like Jesus?

 

[Bob Gray]

Re: Unrest in Egypt

Really Bob? If we stopped importing oil tomorrow we could burn enough coal to support our lifestyle?

I hope the smokestacks are high enough to reach outer space, or the atmosphere will look like Beijing on a good day.

I don't have the time to bring you up to speed on pollution control technologies. Trust me, they exist, at least in the U.S. (not speaking for China though). You're using a pretty obvious scare tactic here. Try something a little more subtle next time. More people will fall for it.

According to the EIA, we have roughly 234 years worth of coal left. And that's based on the currently designated recoverable coal reserves of 263 billion short tons. The total estimated coal out there in the U.S. estimated at 4 trillion short tons. But, hey, we're almost out of the stuff if you say so. And no, I'm not going to take the time to explain to you how coal is defined into various categories of reserves.

 

[aparch]

Re: Unrest in Egypt

nothing icky about this
...

Once we strip mine the earth, then we can coat it in 6" of asphalt!

 

[huskyfan]

Re: Unrest in Egypt

use more coal. it's organic!

 

[Bob Gray]

Re: Unrest in Egypt

use more coal. it's organic!

longterm, it's renewable!

 

[Priceless]

Re: Unrest in Egypt

According to the EIA, we have roughly 234 years worth of coal left.

That's if consumption of coal remains flat at 2008 levels. They estimate that if it increases .6% per year, it will last 146 years. But my question was do we have enough coal to support our lifestyle if we stopped importing oil. Considering we use ~ 11 million barrels of imported oil each day, I'm going to guess all the coal we have wouldn't last very long if we suddenly needed it to fulfill the role of coal.

Of course, all those marvelous pollution control technologies you speak of won't cost the coal companies an extra cent in profit, so they would willingly use them.

 

[leswp1]

Re: Unrest in Egypt

Does this mean we will go back to steam engines? Is this why Obama is pushing the new high speed rail

 

[mookie1995]

Re: Unrest in Egypt

nothing icky about this

wierd pix in this months Nat Geo about knocking off mtn peaks to get the black stuff.

 

[Patman]

Re: Unrest in Egypt

Does this mean we will go back to steam engines? Is this why Obama is pushing the new high speed rail

He did say he wanted energy to be very expensive... nice things he wants for us. He doesn't want things to be better... he wants things to be morally correct.

----

Are we having an energy discussion without the "nuclear" word? sure, it doesn't solve gasoline... but dirt cheap energy would surely induce different solutions for society.

 

[Tundra]

Re: Unrest in Egypt

Libya: I think all he got is his elite guard under his son and family around 2000-10000 troops although it's supposed to have the best equipment and mechanized. And supposedly about 1000 mercenary. I'm guessing most merc will bail if they don't get extra pay guarantee and you have to wonder about mid-level officer loyalty in those units.

http://www.reuters.com/article/2011/02/26/us-libya-protests-idUSTRE71G0A620110226

Gaddafi's own people seemed close to forcing him from power, although it is hard to assess the relative strengths of forces, which include irregular, tribal loyalists and militias backing Gaddafi and regular army units now gone over to the rebels.

I think we need an uprising in our state from corrupt politicians and corrupting oil companies. I'm totally amazed at the amount of political pressure our oil industry is putting on now to get oil subsidy.

governor-state legislature-paid commercials. Oil companies need tax subsidy (worth $2billion/yr) supposedly so they can drill small marginal fields to keep the pipeline busy and "create jobs".

Oil companies and politicians are all saying they can't drill even after oil price rose from $40 in 2009 to $100 today. Unless they get tax breaks.

Maybe these marginal fields should be left alone till they can be drilled without state subsidy. When oil hits ???/barrel.

 

[Patman]

Re: Unrest in Egypt

Unless they get tax breaks.

Tax breaks are stopping them from drilling in the Gulf?

 

[Bakunin]

Re: Unrest in Egypt

Here's the solution to oil importation:
- switch to electric cars (more efficient than internal combustion, zero emissions from the cars themselves, and some percentage of that power will be renewable via wind/solar)
- increase the use of natural gas (we have a lot of it, prices are low, and companies continue to find more of it)
- increase the use of nuclear (and come up with some agreeable solution to the waste problem)
- increase R&D on synthetic oil production (algae, etc)
- increase R&D on making coal mining/burning as clean as possible since we have a massive amount of it
- drop the dumb*** tariffs so we can import Brazil's ethanol (if we want this as part of the solution as we transition to electric vehicles) rather than relying on our idiotic and wasteful corn-based approach
- raise gas taxes considerably to push both consumers and car manufacturers away from low fuel efficiency vehicles

And btw, I think the price point for profitable oil exploration in deep water wells + oil sands is somewhere in the $80 / barrel range. The problem is that oil prices are extremely volatile, and these projects costs massive sums of money. It'd suck for the companies involved to spend a billion dollars or more developing a field in 5000 feet of water only to find oil prices have dropped back into the $75 / barrel range by the time the production comes on-line. If prices stabilize at $100 for an extended period of time (>2 yrs), you'll see a lot more investment in exploration as companies fight to produce as much as they can with the higher profit margins.