Engineer demos how SpaceX is building fracked well gas plant • Hacker News Board

Re: Engineer demos how SpaceX is building fracked well gas plant

#11

Post by groby_b » Sat, Oct 16, 2021, 7:20 PM UTC

zionic wrote: post #7

speedybird wrote: post #5

Earlier quoted context omitted.

How could it be that SpaceX is answerable only to the FAA and is immune to the EPA? Why is it on the FAA to regulate a well? I think the author of the article should work on including a bit more exposition and a bit less snark (if he actually intents to persuade people, anyway.) Also I'm a bit confused why people are surprised the methane for these rockets will come from a well. Did people really think Elon Musk was…

I also don’t see what all the fuss is about here. SpaceX making a well to power the human colonization of mars is a drop in the bucket vs all the other wells in the state.

The big deal is that the well is seemingly exempt from the regulation all other wells go through.

It doesn't matter what Musk does with the methane, what matters is that he's at best exploiting loopholes and at worst operating extrajudicially.

Also, SpaceX "powering the human colonization of Mars" is a pretty huge sip of the Kool Aid there. Given the founder's track record, it's about as believable as "fully self-driving cars in a year".

But, more importantly, it's irrelevant to the problem at hand, sidestepping the regulation process

Re: Engineer demos how SpaceX is building fracked well gas plant

#12

Post by toomuchtodo » Sat, Oct 16, 2021, 7:23 PM UTC

groby_b wrote: post #11

zionic wrote: post #7

Earlier quoted context omitted.

I also don’t see what all the fuss is about here. SpaceX making a well to power the human colonization of mars is a drop in the bucket vs all the other wells in the state.

The big deal is that the well is seemingly exempt from the regulation all other wells go through. It doesn't matter what Musk does with the methane, what matters is that he's at best exploiting loopholes and at worst operating extrajudicially. Also, SpaceX "powering the human colonization of Mars" is a pretty huge sip of the Kool Aid there. Given the founder's track record, it's about as believable as "fully self-dri…

File a complaint with the Texas Railroad Commission and the US EPA, in all seriousness. If you need methane to escape the gravity well, follow the rules like everyone else in O&G.

Re: Engineer demos how SpaceX is building fracked well gas plant

#13

Post by Ericson2314 » Sat, Oct 16, 2021, 7:23 PM UTC

Guess solar isn't so good at industrial scale, eh?

They should go build some fission reactors instead.

Re: Engineer demos how SpaceX is building fracked well gas plant

#14

Post by DisjointedHunt » Sat, Oct 16, 2021, 7:24 PM UTC

brabel wrote: post #6

ed wrote: post #4

Additional context > Musk’s SpaceX aims to use a site in South Texas to launch rockets to carry people and cargo to the moon and Mars. To do that, the company intends to drill gas wells to make its own fuel and electricity, according a Federal Aviation Administration document seen by Bloomberg. > The SpaceX site in Texas will be supplied by at least five nearby gas wells, along with two gas-fired power plants, accord…

If anyone had any doubt about whether Elon really had the environment in mind when he founded Tesla, I think now you've got your answer. In fact, most people driving electric cars likely wouldn't think twice about building a fracked well if they knew they could make millions from that... if they really cared about the environment, they wouldn't even drive around.

How much carbon does one year of fires in California produce? For all the regulations on reducing usage, the wise politicians enabled conditions through neglect of forest care and trimming to allow fires so large, the plume could be seen from space and darkened skies as far north as Seattle.

The point here is, what is good for the climate isn’t the purview of these simplistic views of climate science.

Drilling a well doesn’t automatically kill everything Mother Nature created or anything. . . The economic shift that Tesla single handful brought about to get all of traditional auto to move to electric cannot be overstated.

So stop using “The Environment” as a battering ram that only your point of view protects. It is wrong.

Re: Engineer demos how SpaceX is building fracked well gas plant

#15

Post by roywiggins » Sat, Oct 16, 2021, 7:26 PM UTC

Ericson2314 wrote: post #13

Guess solar isn't so good at industrial scale, eh? They should go build some fission reactors instead.

Given how much Musk gets compared to Iron Man, you'd think he'd spend some time working on fusion to build his own Arc Reactor.

Re: Engineer demos how SpaceX is building fracked well gas plant

#16

Post by jeffbee » Sat, Oct 16, 2021, 7:27 PM UTC

DisjointedHunt wrote: post #14

brabel wrote: post #6

Earlier quoted context omitted.

If anyone had any doubt about whether Elon really had the environment in mind when he founded Tesla, I think now you've got your answer. In fact, most people driving electric cars likely wouldn't think twice about building a fracked well if they knew they could make millions from that... if they really cared about the environment, they wouldn't even drive around.

How much carbon does one year of fires in California produce? For all the regulations on reducing usage, the wise politicians enabled conditions through neglect of forest care and trimming to allow fires so large, the plume could be seen from space and darkened skies as far north as Seattle. The point here is, what is good for the climate isn’t the purview of these simplistic views of climate science. Drilling a well…

Carbon from forest fires is part of the short-term carbon cycle because it came out of the atmosphere quite recently. It is fundamentally different from carbon found underground that was deposited before humans existed.

Re: Engineer demos how SpaceX is building fracked well gas plant

#17

Post by schiffern » Sat, Oct 16, 2021, 7:28 PM UTC

brabel wrote: post #6

ed wrote: post #4

Additional context > Musk’s SpaceX aims to use a site in South Texas to launch rockets to carry people and cargo to the moon and Mars. To do that, the company intends to drill gas wells to make its own fuel and electricity, according a Federal Aviation Administration document seen by Bloomberg. > The SpaceX site in Texas will be supplied by at least five nearby gas wells, along with two gas-fired power plants, accord…

If anyone had any doubt about whether Elon really had the environment in mind when he founded Tesla, I think now you've got your answer. In fact, most people driving electric cars likely wouldn't think twice about building a fracked well if they knew they could make millions from that... if they really cared about the environment, they wouldn't even drive around.

>If anyone had any doubt about whether Elon really had the environment in mind when he founded Tesla, I think now you've got your answer.

This sort of "tribal purity" logic is silly: "if you've ever done anything negative, it means you never intended to do anything positive."

This is nothing but the environmentalism equivalent of the old "you're either with us or against us, we're at war!" fallacy.

Rockets have always used fossil fuels. This is not news. The fact that SpaceX is vertically integrating changes nothing about that. On the contrary it likely reduces leaks (which is a good thing) by shortening the processing chain.

Re: Engineer demos how SpaceX is building fracked well gas plant

#18

Post by speedybird » Sat, Oct 16, 2021, 7:28 PM UTC

groby_b wrote: post #11

zionic wrote: post #7

Earlier quoted context omitted.

I also don’t see what all the fuss is about here. SpaceX making a well to power the human colonization of mars is a drop in the bucket vs all the other wells in the state.

The big deal is that the well is seemingly exempt from the regulation all other wells go through. It doesn't matter what Musk does with the methane, what matters is that he's at best exploiting loopholes and at worst operating extrajudicially. Also, SpaceX "powering the human colonization of Mars" is a pretty huge sip of the Kool Aid there. Given the founder's track record, it's about as believable as "fully self-dri…

> "he's at best exploiting loopholes and at worst operating extrajudicially. [...] But, more importantly, it's irrelevant to the problem at hand, sidestepping the regulation process"

Again, the EPA exists, so where are they in this? What loophole is SpaceX using to skirt around the EPA?

Re: Engineer demos how SpaceX is building fracked well gas plant

#19

Post by ahmedalsudani » Sat, Oct 16, 2021, 7:29 PM UTC

DisjointedHunt wrote: post #14

brabel wrote: post #6

Earlier quoted context omitted.

If anyone had any doubt about whether Elon really had the environment in mind when he founded Tesla, I think now you've got your answer. In fact, most people driving electric cars likely wouldn't think twice about building a fracked well if they knew they could make millions from that... if they really cared about the environment, they wouldn't even drive around.

How much carbon does one year of fires in California produce? For all the regulations on reducing usage, the wise politicians enabled conditions through neglect of forest care and trimming to allow fires so large, the plume could be seen from space and darkened skies as far north as Seattle. The point here is, what is good for the climate isn’t the purview of these simplistic views of climate science. Drilling a well…

Filed under non sequitur.

Re: Engineer demos how SpaceX is building fracked well gas plant

#20

Post by DisjointedHunt » Sat, Oct 16, 2021, 7:32 PM UTC

groby_b wrote: post #11

zionic wrote: post #7

Earlier quoted context omitted.

I also don’t see what all the fuss is about here. SpaceX making a well to power the human colonization of mars is a drop in the bucket vs all the other wells in the state.

The big deal is that the well is seemingly exempt from the regulation all other wells go through. It doesn't matter what Musk does with the methane, what matters is that he's at best exploiting loopholes and at worst operating extrajudicially. Also, SpaceX "powering the human colonization of Mars" is a pretty huge sip of the Kool Aid there. Given the founder's track record, it's about as believable as "fully self-dri…

That’s a serious accusation without evidence.

The document clearly states that Spacex has an application with the FAA for the use of the land as a Launch Site.

The subsidiary “Lone star mineral extraction” is an entity that purchased another company along with all their licenses for extraction rights in addition to seemingly applying for their own licenses.

I’d recommend you edit your comment to correct it. There is no sidestepping of regulations here, the regulations themselves cover different things and the article makes it sound like one set of regulations should cover these activities while clearly saying that it currently does not.