Perpetual Innovation

Category: oil independence

  • Earth Day 2022 Who Killed the Electric Car?

     Earth Day 2022 (April 22, ’22) Who Killed the Electric Car?

    The statistics and the forecasts for Global Warming and
    Climate Change are increasingly dire. The decision – and it is a decision – to do
    business as usual (buy big gas guzzlers) is becoming increasingly costly to the world. And the window to avoid
    the worst warming scenarios is closing. The CO2 and methane that we have been
    pumping into the atmosphere will persist for decades (centuries really)
    continuing to heat a warming world.

    On that note, a documentary is in order for Earth Day 2022, Who
    Killed the Electric Car     (2006). Read about it on Wikipedia,
    watch on many venues including IMDb and Prime Video. It pretty much describes the methods of
    Big Tobacco in its hay day, and the methodology adopted by oil companies for
    about a century. Lots of celebrities. Hard to find a single factoid that is not true.

    General Motors was starting to be very successful with its
    electric car in 2005, rolling it out to meet the aggressive zero emissions vehicle
    (ZEV) standards that California was phasing in at the time. The standard,
    appropriately call CARB, was suddenly watered down and phased out, with both
    the state of California (Schwarzenegger)
    and the Federal government (Bush) chasing after a shiny object: Hydrogen. Cool technology, but… Hydrogen is still not here, and will probably never be truly competitive for most applications.

    GM (and the other Big Autos) killed off their EVs. In GMs
    case, the recalled them all back from their leases (not renewing) and crushed
    them all (but 1). If GM had stayed with their EV program they would have been
    in the same market position as Tesla is now, only 15 years earlier.  GM bought controlling position in a wonderful
    battery technology that would have given the EV 200+ mile range (vs 60 for the antiquated
    lead battery technology they were implementing). But that battery was never
    utilized. This controlling stake in the battery company was later sold to …
    Chevron!

    The documentary investigates who were the murders of the EV
    and who were the accomplices. But the obvious victims are the general public
    and, of course, the environment! We continue to be addicted to oil. Ukraine is
    a stark reminder of what the power bought with oil revenues can do.

    For now, drive less. Plan for a small vehicle. Make sure
    your next vehicle is either electric of plug-in- electric hybrid.

    As we celebrate Earth Day of 2022, think about how easily
    the citizens can be manipulated away from objectives that are better for the
    world into paths that are only good for monopolies and the ruthless.

    Please let us know if there is anything that is factually untrue. Also, are the conclusions sound?

    #EV #PHEF #WhoKilledTheElectricCar #GlobalWarming #ClimateChange #EarthDay

     

  • New Look at Oil Reserves, Renewables and Climate Change

    New Look at Oil Reserves, Renewables and Climate Change

    There is a long term energy competition battle ahead between renewables and fossil fuels.  Just as the prices for renewable energy sources, mainly solar and wind, have fallen markedly, our irrepressable technolgy advances have enabled us to find vast new oil reserves under our feet.  Check this out to see what we have in billions of barrels:  http://www.usnews.com/news/blogs/data-mine/2014/12/04/us-oil-reserves-hit-38-year-high

    So, this likely means the prices of gasoline and home heating oil will stay low for some time and it is also likely that Congress will get around to lifting the ban on exporting oil.  Good for the consumer? Yes and very much ‘no.’  From an out-of-pocket perspective, lower costs, more disposable income.  From the standpoint of the environment, more oil means more carbon emissions for a longer period of time even considering the ongoing sustainability efforts of large companies and many cities around the world.
    It seems we have our feet planted firmly in mid-air on the dilemma of climate change, human activity causation and the profit motive.

  • Reduce Oil Dependence Costs

    Reduce Oil Dependence Costs: “Nearly 40% of the oil we use is imported, costing us roughly $300 billion annually. Increased domestic oil production from shale formations and improved fuel economy standards have decreased oil imports over the past few years, but the U.S. Department of Energy projects that we will continue to rely on imports for 35% to 40% of our petroleum needs in the future.”

    This is interesting. The rate of oil imports is dropping like lead. We are down dramatically form 13m Barrels per day in August 2006 before the Great Recession to only about 6m in 2013. See stats here: http://www.eia.gov/dnav/pet/hist/LeafHandler.ashx?n=PET&s=MTTNTUS2&f=M

    Several oil Execs have commented that we should be North-America energy independent about the end of this decade. US independence should probably happen within 10 years, (Assuming that the US gov let’s us start exporting.)

    How did the Department of Energy get this so very wrong?

    ‘via Blog this’

  • The Energy Quiz | ExxonMobil

    The Energy Quiz | ExxonMobil:

    Try the energy Quiz from ExxonMobil:  exxonmobil.com/quiz
    It has 4 categories related to energy: people, sources, uses and savings. There are 5 questions in each section.

    Interesting that the actual quiz lives here: http://corporate.exxonmobil.com/en/company/advertising-campaigns/energy-lives-here/quiz
    Under the advertising campaign.

    I didn’t do well on the quiz. And you probably won’t either. I do take issue with at least one of the 5 questions in each category. I don’t like how they state projections as fact. (Make sure not to over think it.)

    BUT this is a very cool quiz and provides very nice information for people to think about.

    ‘via Blog this’

  • A Shrinking U.S. Trade Deficit—Brought to You by Fracking – Businessweek

    A Shrinking U.S. Trade Deficit—Brought to You by Fracking – Businessweek:

    US trade deficit is shrinking. Rapidly.


    The reason is the import of oil is a very expensive commodity. By the end of this decade, North America should be trade neutral on energy and then move to a surplus thereafter. At peak, the US trade deficit was about 6% of GDP. That is, our GDP would be reduced by the oil that is not produced domestically, but produced afar.


    For a country such as Saudi Arabia, with only about $30 to $40 costs associated with producing a barrel of oil, that leaves about $60 of profits. All of that money per barrel leaves the US and goes to foreign governments and foreign companies (or Multi-national companies).


    With all the new found oil at home, the GDP jumps by a couple percent. The trade deficit — as it pertains to energy — will shift form a percent or two deficit to  becoming a surplus within 10 years.


    Economically, this is a beautiful think. If the US were a developing country this would be called economic development utilizing import substitution. Here is a blog on US Energy  that discusses the US Energy Outlook Report for 2013. Want to look at forecasts of the future, go to US Energy Information Administration Annual Energy Outlook 2013.


    As we drop from 10M barrels per day of oil-type imports to zero we will drop more than $300B in trade deficits (more than 2% of GDP). (See http://www.eia.gov/.)

    National security improves.


    Of course there is one small caveat. Oil, gas, coal and Nat Gas are non-renewable resources. That means that they must be phased out, sooner or later.


    Beautiful thing economically, but with a few clouds surrounding it.

    ‘via Blog this’