The United States Is Now the Largest Global Crude Oil Producer • Hacker News Board

Re: The United States Is Now the Largest Global Crude Oil Producer

#221

Post by rsj_hn » Thu, Sep 13, 2018, 3:22 AM UTC

triviatise wrote: post #77

melling wrote: post #37

Earlier quoted context omitted.

How much range do people need before there's no longer range anxiety? People used to complain about 200 miles not being enough then Tesla released 300 miles then they said that's not enough either.

We are already there, 200 miles is already plenty. The vast majority of people only commute and the average commute distance is 16 miles each way so a 200 mile electric car satisfies the main use case. Married households could do an electric car for commuting and a gas vehicle for longer trips. The main issue is one of cost, a secondary issue is style. Tesla's are expensive, but other automakers will fill the gap, wi…

I may be the outlier, but I don't think the Prius looks like crap. It's not super appealing, but IMO most modern cars all look alike and they are boring. At least the Prius looked a bit more quirky when it came out, so a little more interesting. Now, they are so ubiquitous that the quirky sense is gone, but it's not worse than your typical sedan.

Re: The United States Is Now the Largest Global Crude Oil Producer

#222

Post by learc83 » Thu, Sep 13, 2018, 3:38 AM UTC

toomuchtodo wrote: post #210

learc83 wrote: post #147

Earlier quoted context omitted.

100 miles is enough range to get out of the way of worst effects of most natural disasters, and plenty of people get by without a car at all.

100 miles would not be sufficient to get out of the path of Hurricane Florence currently on the US eastern seaboard (although Tesla has done of the honors of lifting any restrictions on their software range limited models, as well as providing free SuperCharging to get folks to safety [1]). [1] https://electrek.co/2018/09/12/tesla-releasing-more-battery-...

It's enough to get far enough inland that it's no longer that dangerous, which is why I said "worst effects."

I've never heard of an evacuation order 100 miles inland.

Re: The United States Is Now the Largest Global Crude Oil Producer

#223

Post by [deleted] » Thu, Sep 13, 2018, 3:51 AM UTC

Gustomaximus wrote: post #198

adrianratnapala wrote: post #180

Earlier quoted context omitted.

Is the $400 price when they are sold for meat or hair? Or perhaps as just raw material for a camel training pipeline. Presumably a camel that anyone wants to ride has been raised and trained properly. That camel is ever going to be ridden, then putting down $400 for a warm body is only the beginning of the investment.

Article says 'world trade in live camels'. I assume it's mostly meat but have read elsewhere Australia camels are often used for breeding vigour. On the training. I know more about horses. Where I live in Australia a typical untrained horse will go for about $2-4k and trained it will go from $3k to $10k. Obviously add zeros for special breeds or quality genetics. I cant see camels being too different in ratio of untr…

[deleted]

Re: The United States Is Now the Largest Global Crude Oil Producer

#224

Post by throwaway76543 » Thu, Sep 13, 2018, 3:51 AM UTC

Gustomaximus wrote: post #198

adrianratnapala wrote: post #180

Earlier quoted context omitted.

Is the $400 price when they are sold for meat or hair? Or perhaps as just raw material for a camel training pipeline. Presumably a camel that anyone wants to ride has been raised and trained properly. That camel is ever going to be ridden, then putting down $400 for a warm body is only the beginning of the investment.

Article says 'world trade in live camels'. I assume it's mostly meat but have read elsewhere Australia camels are often used for breeding vigour. On the training. I know more about horses. Where I live in Australia a typical untrained horse will go for about $2-4k and trained it will go from $3k to $10k. Obviously add zeros for special breeds or quality genetics. I cant see camels being too different in ratio of untr…

The horse market is like the piano market. Exceptional specimens are exceedingly expensive but at the low end you can probably just find one for free that no one wants anymore.

Re: The United States Is Now the Largest Global Crude Oil Producer

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Post by cgdcraig » Thu, Sep 13, 2018, 3:53 AM UTC

reaperducer wrote: post #85

2trill2spill wrote: post #27

Earlier quoted context omitted.

> They're certainly still obscenely rich, but the power they had over geopolitics via OPEC is effectively gone at this point due to tar sands, renewables, and natural gas. You missed the other significant factor in reducing OPEC political power, horizontal drilling, IE fracking. Almost all the new oil and natural gas in the US is coming from horizontally drilled wells.

Almost all the new oil and natural gas in the US is coming from horizontally drilled wells. Utah tar sands are coming online soon. Then... who knows what comes after that.

Fun fact, Canada had the 3rd largest proven reserves of oil in the world, mostly in the oil/tar sands.

Re: The United States Is Now the Largest Global Crude Oil Producer

#226

Post by not_kurt_godel » Thu, Sep 13, 2018, 4:25 AM UTC

creato wrote: post #51

melling wrote: post #37

Earlier quoted context omitted.

How much range do people need before there's no longer range anxiety? People used to complain about 200 miles not being enough then Tesla released 300 miles then they said that's not enough either.

For me, it's not really the range at all, it's what you do at the end of the range. Charging stations are rare and slow, fuel stations are common and quick. I don't see why gas-electric hybrids, with say, 20-50 miles of electric-only range aren't more popular. That would eliminate the vast majority of fossil fuel usage [1], and avoid this problem entirely. It also seems a lot cheaper than loading a car with hundreds…

> I don't see why gas-electric hybrids, with say, 20-50 miles of electric-only range aren't more popular

As best as I can tell, Priuses are essentially an incremental evolution towards this. Check out Prius Prime vs the regular Prius. I imagine the main reason it's less popular is because of the higher price but they'll probably become more popular over time as Toyota works on bringing it down.

Re: The United States Is Now the Largest Global Crude Oil Producer

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Post by clumsysmurf » Thu, Sep 13, 2018, 4:25 AM UTC

heisenbit wrote: post #83

There are some question marks on how sustainable the US oil boom is as the extraction methods are quite capital intensive. We are at historic low capital price and have a fairly high oil price and still the profitability picture is not pretty. To dig deeper see: https://wolfstreet.com/2018/08/15/shale-profits-remain-elusi...

And also much more water intensive, a problem in regions under water stress already:

"Water use for fracking has risen by up to 770 percent since 2011"

https://www.sciencedaily.com/releases/2018/08/180815141441.h...

Re: The United States Is Now the Largest Global Crude Oil Producer

#228

Post by joelhoffman » Thu, Sep 13, 2018, 6:56 AM UTC

pasbesoin wrote: post #220

buboard wrote: post #165

Earlier quoted context omitted.

The high price of those camels is, oddly, tied to oil riches.

Here in the U.S., my friend's perfectly capable trail horse (who also has a variety of other training and has even done a bit of dressage) was around a $1000, a few years ago. Camels have a reputation (I'm not sure to what extent it's deserved) of being somewhat more obstreperous; nonetheless, I have a hard time extrapolating to 50K, were camels in a like position to horses in the U.S. Not for a "decent" camel. In cu…

To whatever distance their relevant relationship to llamas extends, it's deserved.

Re: The United States Is Now the Largest Global Crude Oil Producer

#229

Post by singularity2001 » Thu, Sep 13, 2018, 7:21 AM UTC

vonmoltke wrote: post #179

astrodust wrote: post #79

Earlier quoted context omitted.

A) It's a foot compared to historical levels, it's 10cm since the 1990s. B) It's a constant problem in Miami where high tide is now above the level of many roads so they've had to jack the roads up several feet more. C) Venice, Italy is routinely flooded because of sea-level rise and it's only getting worse.

> B) It's a constant problem in Miami where high tide is now above the level of many roads so they've had to jack the roads up several feet more. No, it isn't. It's a problem during king tides. Yes, king tide flooding is getting worse, but "constant problem" is an exaggeration.

thanks for the clarification. anything except exaggerated tides wouldn't make any sense to me

Re: The United States Is Now the Largest Global Crude Oil Producer

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Post by wastedhours » Thu, Sep 13, 2018, 8:26 AM UTC

dplavery92 wrote: post #156

losteric wrote: post #93

Earlier quoted context omitted.

The public is always reluctant to change established behavior and expectations... mass adoption requires revolutionary change that overcomes perceived functional and financial costs of switching, or evolutionary change with no perceived cost. So EV will see mass adoption as soon as people can top up at a "charge station" in under 3 minutes and get 200+ mile range - because that's what people expect from "a car". The…

>The beautiful part is that once home charging is no longer required, people will be happy to charge at home! We are an adorably irrational species. The problem isn't that people are unhappy to charge at home now, it's that if and when I need to travel more than 200 miles without stopping at home, I need supporting infrastructure (and planning to find it) or to use another vehicle.

Plus, I live in an apartment block with the under-building garage not having any plug sockets. Unless I drape an extension lead down 5 storeys and about 150m away, I can't see the upgrade path at the moment.

There probably are sockets closer, but it's not as simple as "park and charge", but either "lobby the building management and get sockets installed" or "find a hacky solution with long cables".