What if God was one of us?
If God wanted us to build Type 1 Civilization, he would have: 1. put a giant fusion reactor in the sky (emitting blackbody radiation around 5800 K)
2. made 28% of Earth’s crust out of a semiconductor with a matching bandgap (~1.1 eV or so)
3. filled the oceans with an alkali metal we could use to store limitless quantities of energy (sodium or something similar)
That would be a crazy coincidence…
Continue reading “If God had Wanted Us to Use Solar Energy…”Oil and gas executives are expressing concern about the Trump administration’s attacks on offshore wind, including attempts to block the construction of projects off the East Coast.
Executives generally have refrained from publicly denouncing President Trump, but in interviews with The New York Times, some voiced misgivings about what they have seen as undue political meddling in energy.
“Ever-changing policy, particularly as administrations change, is not good for business,” Darren Woods, the chief executive of Exxon Mobil, said in a recent interview. “It’s not good for the economy and ultimately, it’s not good for people.”
Mr. Woods, who runs the largest U.S. oil and gas company, was responding to a question about the Trump administration’s attempts to halt fully permitted offshore wind farms. He stopped short of directly criticizing those actions.
Continue reading “Even Exxon Thinks War on Wind is Nuts”Tired of getting screwed by Trump administration incompetence? You’re not alone.
The clown show that is Trump economic policy has collateral damage that it’s reached even his strongest supporters.
Politico Power Switch (email):
A quarterly survey of oil and gas companies released today by the Federal Reserve Bank of Dallas quotes industry executives who blast Trump on everything from tariffs and policy uncertainty to his attacks on renewable energy.
“Life is long, and the sword being wielded against the renewables industry right now will likely boomerang back in 3.5 years against traditional energy,” wrote one unnamed executive.
The comment cut a sharp contrast with Trump’s speech Tuesday at the United Nations, where he castigated countries for building renewable energy projects and boasted that “we have the most oil of any nation anywhere.”
“We stand ready to provide any country with abundant, affordable energy supplies if you need them, when most of you do,” Trump said.
American oil producers heavily backed Trump in last year’s presidential contest, but their simmering discontent with the president has emerged as an early theme of his second term.
Oil executives told the Dallas Fed earlier this year that Trump’s push to lower fuel prices, which lessens the economic incentive for producers to drill, was incompatible with his stated desire to increase production. The president’s decision to impose tariffs on a wide range of foreign products has driven up drilling costs at a time when producers are struggling with an oversupplied market, sluggish demand and weak prices.
Continue reading “Oil Patch Sours on Trump”Above, highly recommended interview with Gavin Newsom at Climate Week in New York.
Below, lying sack Energy Secretary Chris Wright immediately followed Newsom.
The Moderator David Gelles did a crap job of checking him.
If you follow this page, you will be able to spot Wright’s distortions and lies. Too many to go through here, but perhaps we can discuss in comments.
Below, I spoke to retired NOAA expert and IPCC Lead Author Jim Kossin about Wright’s distortions of his work.
Continue reading “The Weekend Wonk: Gavin Newsom and Chris Wright at Climate Week”Paul Greengrass is terrific director of action, responsible for 3 of the “Jason Bourne” movies, as well as the docu-dramas “Captain Phillips”, about Somali Pirates hijacking of the Maersk Alabama, in 2009, and “United 93” fictionalizing the death struggle between passengers and terrorist on the doomed eponymous flight on September 11, 2001.
Here he takes on a story from one of the deadliest wildfires in recent history, that devastated Paradise California, in 2018.
CBS had a look back several years after, below.
Continue reading “Trailer: “The Lost Bus” Docu-Drama on California’s Paradise Fire”The Permian Basin, which stretches across West Texas and New Mexico, if it were a country, would be one of the major oil and gas producers in the world.
That vast area is currently becoming a toxified sacrifice zone for the industry, while regulators sit back and watch.
Below, Mr Global, Matt Randolph, a Vice President and principle partner of Sentinel Energy, in Oklahoma.
If renewables are so cheap, why are electricity prices going up? As many (like @duncan__c) have pointed out, electricity generation is actually getting cheaper but delivering that electricity is getting more expensive.
Increased delivery costs are often attributed to transmission needed to connect renewables, but transmission isn’t actually the problem.
Gavin Newsom has been making waves with his social media campaign skewering and parodying Donald Trump’s ridiculous persona.
President Trump isn’t an existential threat to the energy transition and climate change, investor and climate activist Tom Steyer said Tuesday at an Axios House event during Climate Week NYC.
Why it matters: Steyer’s free-market views offer an upbeat contrast to the Trump administration’s focus on fossil fuels and nuclear over other clean-energy technologies.
Zoom in: “The energy transition is in full swing,” said Steyer, a 2020 presidential aspirant who co-founded and is co-executive chair of investment firm Galvanize.
Steyer also downplayed Trump’s threat to global climate change, noting the U.S. is responsible for just 11% of emissions.
Continue reading “Clean Transition Moving Ahead Despite Troglodytic Trump”