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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

#111

Post by [deleted] »

toast0 wrote: post #110
rcMgD2BwE72F wrote: post #68

Earlier quoted context omitted.

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.

To my knowledge, Europe doesn't have an extensive network of freight railways, instead it has a working network of passenger rail, with lots of electrification. The US freight network hasn't yet managed to fully rollout positive train control, electrification seems like a much harder problem. Moving freight requires a lot more power than moving people, and also has a lot more sidings and things. Some lines run double…

[deleted]

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

#112

Post by gonzo »

hnphillipj wrote: post #34
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…

You should know that oil is hardly used for elec. gen in developed countries. They are only indirect competitors - through the automobile.

> You should know that oil is hardly used for elec. gen in developed countries.

Visit Hawaii sometime. Oil on Oahu. Diesel on the other islands.

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

#113

Post by seanmcdirmid »

toast0 wrote: post #110
rcMgD2BwE72F wrote: post #68

Earlier quoted context omitted.

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.

To my knowledge, Europe doesn't have an extensive network of freight railways, instead it has a working network of passenger rail, with lots of electrification. The US freight network hasn't yet managed to fully rollout positive train control, electrification seems like a much harder problem. Moving freight requires a lot more power than moving people, and also has a lot more sidings and things. Some lines run double…

Europe has freight rail, they often use separate tracks, and most of it is electrified.

China has a lot of freight, is as large as the USA, and has a decent amount of electrification as well.

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

#114

Post by seanmcdirmid »

ac29 wrote: post #82
rcMgD2BwE72F wrote: post #68

Earlier quoted context omitted.

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.

>why not electric trains like we do in Europe? While electrification of the US freight rail network certainly may happen, you have to remember the US is twice as large as the EU (9.1M sq km vs 4.5M sq km) and only a quarter the population density (33 vs 117 per sq km). Long distance passenger train routes don't really make sense (electrified or not, very few people want to spend 2 days on the train when a flight is 4…

China has a similar size to the USA and has invested heavily in HSR as an alternative to flying. Beijing to Guangzhou is 9 hours by train, which is pretty competitive with a flight when considering travel time to/from airports as well as the other hassle.

China also does a lot of freight and has gone through a lot of electrification (75%). Freight runs between Beijing and Lhasa, which is similar to NYC to LA.

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

#115

Post by enraged_camel »

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.

>>America now produces enough oil that cutting off Saudi Arabia wouldn't be any kind of energy crisis.

This is naive. When you cut off Saudi Arabia, you cut off all OPEC. And that would devastate America, even at the current levels of domestic production.

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

#116

Post by mrpopo »

stjohnswarts wrote: post #93
rcMgD2BwE72F wrote: post #81

Earlier quoted context omitted.

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%

Nothing is a "90% problem", even on land.

Tankers' environmental impact is disastrous, although they actually are comparatively quite CO2-efficient for shipping goods. It's just that there is so many of them now.

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

#117

Post by seanmcdirmid »

gonzo wrote: post #112
hnphillipj wrote: post #34

Earlier quoted context omitted.

You should know that oil is hardly used for elec. gen in developed countries. They are only indirect competitors - through the automobile.

> You should know that oil is hardly used for elec. gen in developed countries. Visit Hawaii sometime. Oil on Oahu. Diesel on the other islands.

You’ll see diesel generators powering islands in Southeast Asia as well.

Diesel is a useful option for places not connected to a larger grid.

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

#118

Post by mulmen »

FlyMoreRockets wrote: post #54
rcMgD2BwE72F wrote: post #37

Earlier quoted context omitted.

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

At this point, there are no long distance electric trains in the US. Odd, it seems like it would be mutually beneficial to have the electric grid run on rail right of way and be used to power trains.

Power lines can climb much steeper hills than trains.

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

#119

Post by baybal2 »

pathseeker wrote: post #27
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, 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…

In other news, coal prices are actually going up! And China's coal exports began to ramp up, for first time in a decade!

https://www.forbes.com/sites/timtreadgold/2018/09/20/the-inc...

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

#120

Post by somberi »

A good related article from The New Yorker:

https://www.newyorker.com/magazine/2018/01/01/the-dark-bount...

Interesting pieces:

In large part because of high oil prices, a disproportionate share of America’s economic growth over the past decade has come from Texas. The gross domestic product of the state is $1.6 trillion; if it were an independent country, its economy would settle in around tenth place, eclipsing those of Canada and Australia. California, with forty per cent more residents, has a G.D.P. of $2.6 trillion, but since 2000 job growth in both Dallas and Houston has expanded by about thirty per cent—three times the rate of Los Angeles.

..

.. Because native Texans were suspicious of outside corporate interests—especially John D. Rockefeller’s Standard Oil—two local companies were formed to develop the new field: Gulf Oil and Texaco. (Both companies have since merged with Chevron.)

..

.. To entice investors to help him drill yet another well, he drew up fake geological reports indicating the presence of salt domes and stratified-rock folds, which can trap oil and natural-gas deposits beneath them. The phony report suggested that, at thirty-five hundred feet, a well could tap into one of the greatest oil deposits in the world. Once again, a wild prediction turned out to be true.

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