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Texas Is About to Create OPEC’s Worst Nightmare

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Re: Texas Is About to Create OPEC’s Worst Nightmare

#91

Post by nradov »

rcMgD2BwE72F wrote: post #68
nradov wrote: post #35

Earlier quoted context omitted.

Natural gas is an alternative to oil for long distance transportation, although both are still fossil fuels. Progress is being made on algae biofuels. If electricity gets cheap enough it can be used to make synthetic hydrocarbon liquid fuels.

But again, if electricity is cheap enough, why not electric trains like we do in Europe? Or hydrogen if you need some energy storage on board? See http://www.imeche.org/news/news-article/could-hydrogen-train... I bet that this would be much better for the environment than algae.

Short range commuter rail will be electrified in some places like Caltrain.

http://www.caltrain.com/projectsplans/CaltrainModernization/...

Hydrogen is probably a dead end. It's too bulky, hard to handle, and the energy efficiency is terrible. Most hydrogen fuel today is produced from natural gas, which is just stupid.

Re: Texas Is About to Create OPEC’s Worst Nightmare

#92

Post by ancientworldnow »

rcMgD2BwE72F wrote: post #43
pathseeker wrote: post #23

Earlier quoted context omitted.

America now produces enough oil that cutting off Saudi Arabia wouldn't be any kind of energy crisis. The only reason to be nice to tolerate their journalist murders at this point is for military strategic advantages in the middle east.

>for military strategic advantages in the middle east. Really? As a European, I feel much closer to Iran's history and culture than Saudi Arabia's. My understanding is that the US chose a side a long time ago (cf. ARAMCO foundation) and decided to go "all in", even if it goes a long way against its interest. And things are getting worse with time.

Saudi Arabia has a much larger budget to spend on arms deals (the real US interest) and allying with Iran would anger Israel who the US considers an important ally (for tech, geopolitical, military, and electoral college reasons).

Re: Texas Is About to Create OPEC’s Worst Nightmare

#93

Post by stjohnswarts »

rcMgD2BwE72F wrote: post #81
goatlover wrote: post #65

Earlier quoted context omitted.

It’s also not as economical. If your competitor uses shipping that’s weeks faster and more reliable, then you’re not staying in business long.

At some point, we'll make shipping companies pay for their heavy externalities ( https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Externality#Negative ) and we'll have to choose between slow, clean and cheap or fast, dirty and expensive.

Shipping (boats onna water) aren't the 90% problem to solve, that is all on land. You solve that before you worry about the other 10%

Re: Texas Is About to Create OPEC’s Worst Nightmare

#94

Post by stjohnswarts »

liftbigweights wrote: post #18
lykr0n wrote: post #5

Texas is in a funny place. They are pumping oil like crazy, but they are building wind like crazy as well. Look at the City of Austin and the amount of renewables year over year: https://data.austintexas.gov/Utilities-and-City-Services/Gen... You can see a real-time chart of energy mix here: https://austinenergy.com/ae/about/environment/renewable-powe... Most days renewables are 50% of electricity consumes. I pay a b…

> Texas is in a funny place. They are pumping oil like crazy Texas had always pumped a lot of oil. Texas was the oil capital of the world for a long time before saudi arabia came around. > but they are building wind like crazy as well. That's because one of the wealthiest men in the world has been a big fan of wind energy. http://www.nbcnews.com/id/19231397/ns/us_news-environment/t/... > I could easily see Texas bein…

Now if we would only take on smart modern nuclear reactors, but I'm afraid the greenies in the USA will keep killing that and eventually we'll be buying advanced modular nuclear power from the Chinese in about 10 years.

Re: Texas Is About to Create OPEC’s Worst Nightmare

#95

Post by stjohnswarts »

Kaveren wrote: post #7

I'm hopeful that America can further lessen our dependence on Saudi Arabia as much as possible through this. Alas, the alliance is based around a lot more than just oil, and the Saudi vision is to shift away from oil reliance, but I'll gladly take a chink in the armor. > "Global oil demand has so far absorbed the extra U.S. crude barrels, limiting the impact on prices" This slightly curbs my optimism.

It's far more about politics than it is oil. If we lose Saudia Arabia to China/Russia the US influence in the middle east will be nil and then there will be 0% chance of democracy, just more more Dictatorship.

Re: Texas Is About to Create OPEC’s Worst Nightmare

#96

Post by protomyth »

rcMgD2BwE72F wrote: post #37
pathseeker wrote: post #27

Earlier quoted context omitted.

> Texas is in a funny place. They are pumping oil like crazy, but they are building wind like crazy as well. There isn't really anything contradictory about that. Oil has a vastly different set of use-cases than wind energy. There are no electric alternatives for most long distance transportation, which is a huge chunk of our energy consumption. Gaining independence from OPEC by supporting local oil extraction while…

>There are no electric alternatives for most long distance transportation, which is a huge chunk of our energy consumption. What about trains?

Texas has plenty of cargo trains with a pretty sophisticated setup.

There are currently at least two groups trying to do passenger trains between Austin, Dallas / Fort Worth, and Houston. I'm not sure what they want for Federal or State money.

Re: Texas Is About to Create OPEC’s Worst Nightmare

#97

Post by stjohnswarts »

pathseeker wrote: post #23
Kaveren wrote: post #7

I'm hopeful that America can further lessen our dependence on Saudi Arabia as much as possible through this. Alas, the alliance is based around a lot more than just oil, and the Saudi vision is to shift away from oil reliance, but I'll gladly take a chink in the armor. > "Global oil demand has so far absorbed the extra U.S. crude barrels, limiting the impact on prices" This slightly curbs my optimism.

America now produces enough oil that cutting off Saudi Arabia wouldn't be any kind of energy crisis. The only reason to be nice to tolerate their journalist murders at this point is for military strategic advantages in the middle east.

Why would Saudi Arabia be any different than Russia or China (who we trade with (minus the Trump idiocy) without compunction) we don't comment on their murder of journalists or their dictatorships? Saudi Arabia is our only big ally in the region, why do you want to cut off all ties to them? It won't change anything and will just hurt us in the long run.

Re: Texas Is About to Create OPEC’s Worst Nightmare

#99

Post by stjohnswarts »

buboard wrote: post #57
Kaveren wrote: post #7

I'm hopeful that America can further lessen our dependence on Saudi Arabia as much as possible through this. Alas, the alliance is based around a lot more than just oil, and the Saudi vision is to shift away from oil reliance, but I'll gladly take a chink in the armor. > "Global oil demand has so far absorbed the extra U.S. crude barrels, limiting the impact on prices" This slightly curbs my optimism.

> the alliance is based around a lot more than just oil, curious what else

If anything the military side of things is far more advantageous to us than the oil. They are the major counter balance to the theocracy in Iran that would like to unbalance the entire region and establish an Iranian born caliphate.
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