The ever erudite George Will wrote an article awhile back about the history of peak oil. The timeline from 1914 to now is dotted with gloomy predictions of oil's imminent demise. Back in the 70's, failure-face president Jimmy Carter publicly worried that we would run out of energy by the 90's. Will brings us up to date...
Since then, the world has consumed three times more oil than was in the proven reserves. Today, shale rock formations in Texas and Louisiana; Montana and North Dakota; and New York, Pennsylvania, and other Eastern states may contain 2,000 trillion cubic feet of clean-burning natural gas. (George Will – Peak oil)Fellow blogger Jersey McJones recently chided me for calling wind power an "immature technology." OK Jersey, I take it back. Wind is very mature. It's so mature it's over the hill. Jerry Taylor and Peter Van Doren say it better than I ever could:
Have we ever seen such a "green economy"? Yes we have; in the 13th century.
Renewable energy is quite literally the energy of yesterday. Few seem to realize that we abandoned "green" energy centuries ago for five very good reasons. (Green Energy Economy Reconsidered)It Takes a lot of Land, it's not Reliable, it Starves People...
The same authors explain that you would have to turn the entire state of Connecticut into a wind farm just to power New York City. And Lord help the NYPD and all those appliance stores if the wind stopped at night. Solar has the same limitations.
Biofuels is no better. It starves people to feed cars. Farm land is finite, and government subsidizing ethanol skews the market and has caused food shortages and higher prices. Your tax dollars at work.
I am not a Luddite. I cheer technological advances. Unlike many on the left, I only cheer actual advances, not wishful thinking ones. Take LED’s for example. I love them, and I am confident the price eventually come down. It already has for flashlights. Anyone who has ever gone camping with kids who are scared of the dark cannot help but appreciate these little energy saving marvels. They last forever!
Meanwhile, the case for fossil fuels is compelling:
Fossil fuels are everything that green energy is not. Approximately 1,000 cubic feet of natural gas (which cost approximately $4.00) can generate the same amount of electricity as running an average rooftop solar system for 131 days. (George Will – Peak oil)
XarJ - End of the World
Silver, Thats the point of "going green"; destroy jobs and energy in order to control people and their mobility. The starvation works fro their population control.
ReplyDeleteAll of this has absolutely nothing to do with energy or "global warming", those are just contrived ideas so as to sell this shit to the people.
Excellent post. I'm suspicious any time the government wants to take over energy (one of Lenin's key initial steps was the "electrification" of the Soviet Union). We're moving toward "cleaner" energy sources, and the best way to do that is with the free market (as with all other technological advances outside of military ones). That BO is purposefully forcing the issue is a huge gamble for him and will most likely cost him 2012. Cutting off (by making ridiculously and unnecessarily expensive) fossil fuels before there is an alternate, cost-effective energy source that can actually take the enormous energy burden of our nation is irresponsible, even cruel. The people who will suffer most, ironically, are much of his base. Don't expect them to thank him for $7 or $9 gas and all the price hikes on literally everything that accompany it.
ReplyDeleteThe Greenies have been shouting for decades, "The sky is falling! The end is near!"
ReplyDeleteAnd so many of their so-called predictions have proven to be stupid and inaccurate.
Yet, they persist, and more and more young people fall for their propaganda and scare tactics.
Christopher is right. It has never been about the environment. It is about Impoverishment. When everyone is equally poor, it will be easier to control us.
ReplyDeleteI completely agree with Christopher. The green movement seeks to limit human liberty, period. How arrogant to imagine human beings can affect the forces of nature. Even if that were so, then would human activity be part of the forces of nature —thereby, a natural phenomenon? God must love idiots —he made so many.
ReplyDeleteThey love the phrase "addicted to oil", as your title suggests, did anyone shout "we're addicted to whale blubber, whale oil"? Of course not.
ReplyDeleteAll this 'green' talk is proving to be a true drag on the economy. The cost is too high, it does not work, it did not create AMERICAN jobs, but Chinese jobs.
Debbie
Right Truth
http://www.righttruth.typepadcom
Spot on! "Take LED’s for example."
ReplyDeleteI was in a home improvement store last week, and they had a 110v. LED light bulb for a mere...$35.00! And while I'd much rather have one of those than the current line of Exploding Mercury Bombs, (Catastrophic Failure Lamps) I think I'll just make do 'til the price comes down!
Few people realize that biofuel is actually way, way inefficient economically on a large scale.
ReplyDeleteThey also seem to not realize that the equipment needed uses deisel. Go figure.
LED's are pretty great! And I am hopeful the prices will drop.
ReplyDeleteGreenies are all about wielding power and using it over desperate people. They want to cripple our economy.
going RED is more like it ! Hope ya had a fab weekend!:)
ReplyDelete"Proponents of green energy argue that if the government can put a man on the moon, it can certainly make green energy economically attractive. Well, notice that government was not trying to get a man to the moon profitably..."
ReplyDeleteThat is a such a stupid observation.
The government doesn't build roads for profit either, yet they are vital to the profits of the people in the towns that build them.
Thanks to the Apollo Project, we have accomplished many, many great things. From communications to computers, nutritional science to sociology and psychology, we PROGRESSED in innumerable ways.
The beauty of our Founding Document is that it left open possibilties for the future - not a Rock of Truth chained to the bottom of the deepest sea.
JMJ
Did you hear the news, they finally got that sonofabitch osama. Hats off to those soldiers, they have all our thanks. I’m celebrating today. Well done and thank you America, it is a great day for the west.
ReplyDeleteIndeed it is, MK!
ReplyDeletePeak Oil is a crazy, unfounded myth. We have speculators for a reason. Yes, eventually we will run out of oil, but before that happens the price will have risen so high (and slowly I might add because of speculation) that alternatives will have been researched and developed and use decreased so much that it would not matter. Peak Oilers are much like any other environmentalists; they remain willfully ignorant about basic economic principles.
ReplyDelete