Bush ok's Gulf of Mexico Drilling

[TCDiver1]

However before that, on the mainland, I was able to ride my bike 7 miles each way.

That's nice. I'd like to see you do that in a foot or so of snow.

It's sad that we are missing the boat on a good, sound, long term energy policy. The politician that floats a solid plan to handle the same writes their own ticket with the public. Although the current power lobby might have issues with that.

We need a nationally supported effort like the moon landing, etc. The obstacles to something like safe cold fusion are very daunting indeed but IMO no less daunting for our times than a safe moon shot was back then. It would likely take decades but if successful the dividends paid would be unimaginable.

I would love to see more of my tax dollars going to something like that. I'm tired of funding bridges to nowhere and politicians cutting a fat hog with their pensions and salaries.

Too many people in high places have too much to lose if something like this is going to work. That's what we have to fix before we can really get down to the serious business of logical energy conservation for the future.

In the meantime we can't shut off the spigot like we do a garden hose. Good on drilling for our own resources IMO. Each step we take to make middle east or despot oil more inconsequential, is a good step.

 

[FredT]

Andy,
Hybrids are cheap, it all depends on what you want.

It also depends lot on where you are. A hybrid is a total waste of money if you intend to run the air conditioner. Mileage drops to below a similar sized conventional car, and stays there!

In climates where air conditioners and heaters aren't a necessity and commutes are on flat land of less than 15 miles they work fine. Outside that envelope they are a serious waste of $. A "plug in" hybrid widens the envelope a bit, but still eliminates places where a car AC is necessary.

FT

 

[Green_Manelishi]

well, President Bush has sgned into law a bill opening up 8.3 million acres in the Gulf of Mexico to oil and gas drilling

it's part of House Bill 6111

so ...

it's happened

Florida does get a 125-mile buffer from its coastline:

http://www.miami.com/mld/miamiherald/16201124.htm

i did some looking, but couldn't find any major oil spills from drilling platforms.
all but one of the listed ones are from ships (one is from a pipeline):

http://www.endgame.org/oilspills.htm

Good. More platforms to dive. More artificial reefs.

 

[vondo]

The obstacles to something like safe cold fusion are very daunting indeed ...

I've seen this remark twice now, so I wanted to jump in. There is no such thing as cold fusion* let alone safe cold fusion. There is fusion (nuclear fusion to be correct). It's very "hot." People are researching being able to control this, progress is being made, but it is not yet able to produce more energy than is put in. The estimates of when this might be usable are "30-40 years" and they have been saying the same thing for the last 30 years. It might happen, maybe even in my lifetime.

But, (not talking to you anymore), sitting around and waiting for one of these magic bullets to save us is a recipe for potential disaster. And by waiting I include pumping in a bunch of money fore research but not changing our behavior today. Almost all of pennisular Florida could be underwater in 50 years. That's a lot of wreck dives! We have the know-how and technology (mostly know how) to stop or drastically slow this down TODAY but we aren't because our leaders have sold us on some magic future with unlimited power from nuclear fusion and hydrogen powered flying cars that can travel to Mars and back.

Ok, I'll step down from my soapbox now.

* Ok, there is actually cold fusion. You have to produce a beam of muons (a very energy intensive process), slow them down, and get them to replace an electron in a hydrogen atom. Then two hydrogen atoms can get close enough to fuse into deuterium. The problem is that even at 100% efficiency in every step this uses (WAG here) at least 100 times as much energy as you get out.

 

[WarmWaterDiver]

Right On, Vondo! Having grown up from the 60's onward, seeing the trends in domestic consumption vs. domestic production, I'm glad we're increasing domestic production, personally.

Anyone who watched "Oil, Rigs, and Sweat" should have a pretty decent picture of what the 2004 & 2005 hurricane season did to Gulf of Mexico crude oil & natural gas production, and the subsequent effects. The articles on the undersea mudslide Ivan caused that snapped and scattered so many gathering lines from offshore production to onshore gathering and refining should give you a pretty good idea on how well modern blowout preventers and other anti-spill technology works though - how many saw oil pollution from those events?

Rigs can blow out, whether onshore or offshore. I think some guy mucking about in Kuwait a few years back demonstrated the onshore effects pretty graphically.

I was a driving age teenager when Ixtoc 1 blew out, and oil from it got into the Laguna Madre. The previous 2 summers, my buddy and I could take big coolers with us, walk out until you felt like the mud had turned to a cobblestone street, and have both coolers full to the brim with scallops in a couple of hours.

The summer after Ixtoc 1, we spent all day and found 5 scallops, which we left in hopes of repopulating. What I remember at the time is the booms weren't put in place further south in time to catch the stuff before it got into the marine nursery area, although there was plenty of time to do so, and the spill went on for a long, long time. I don't think anyone would tolerate a spill of such duration today.

http://www.cedre.fr/uk/spill/ixtoc/ixtoc.htm

http://www.photolib.noaa.gov/historic/c&gs/theb2822.htm

In my college Thermodynamics II class, one exam had an extra credit question regarding the U of Utah claim. As I recall, the calculated energy release would have leveled more than just the lab (by far!) if it was accurate. I'm glad to see a knowledgeable update.

My Thermodynamics 1 professor lamented the loss of the Fast Breeder Reactor program in the USA.

Te Iran-Iraq war pushed oil prices to new lows in the later part of the 1980's - I remember Regular Leaded gasoline as low as $0.489/gallon in 1986/1987 - which had been above $1.30/gallon in 1983. Now we're seeing similar economics to 1983 when taxes (especially) and inflation are accounted for - so either the supply will increase (in particular now, supply from more politically stable areas - Canadian synthetic crude oil and domestic prodcution) or the economics will (literally) fuel alternatives, like they have done for Canadiian syncrude. Some folks are talking about trying refining oil shale in Colorado again - I'm interested in that as I had a project to disassemble parts of a shuttered plant there years ago and re-erect in Texas for conventional oil refining use (and it's still running today instead of rusting away). Time will tell, I'm interested at being along for the ride.

 

[fishb0y]

There are many short term fixes to long term problems. Like the idiot in Hawaii a couple of weeks ago that wanted everyone to buy electric cars because they dont burn oil. Hawaii produces 95% of it's electric power from oil They have tried wind many times. They get federal money, they put them up then they go beach and let them fall apart. Geothermal? We have a volcano that has been erupting for 23? years now yet there have only been two test plants set up and they were on the wrong side of the island!

People forget that there are up to 15 submarine nuclear power plants operating on Oahu (less than 15 miles from Waikiki) at any point and time. Over 100 million miles steamed without a serious nuclear casualty. Hows that for safe?

 

[Bill51]

The Energy Policy Act of 2005 directed more research into oil shale and tar sands research recognizing that 62% of the world’s oil shale reserves are in the US. Already demonstration projects are predicting it could be competitive at prices as low as $30, but there can be huge cost swings in production based on specific mining locations that makes that number more theoretical than practical. The odd problem is that it takes a lot of water to mine and process oil shale, and many times the large fields are located in locations where water is scarce such as Colorado and even Israel. Ironically oil shale was a major source of energy back in the 1800s, but was quickly displaced by conventional oil drilling as it was much easier and cheaper to produce, but that it is expected to change in about 12-15 years when newer technology reduces oil shale production costs and crude oil costs continue to climb.

 

[Wildcard]

People forget that there are up to 15 submarine nuclear power plants operating on Oahu (less than 15 miles from Waikiki) at any point and time. Over 100 million miles steamed without a serious nuclear casualty. Hows that for safe?

Thats excluding the russians of course....:shakehead

 

[fishb0y]

Nah... been a couple of years on that one, from my understanding.

 

[WarmWaterDiver]

There are issues with arsene / arsenic in shale oil. I have heard the de-arsenator(s) at one place could not be disposed of anywhere, so they were encased in concrete in place when they had reached retirement.

http://www.co.blm.gov/gsra/documents/textanvilpoints.pdf

http://www.blm.gov/nhp/news/legislative/pages/2001/te010626.htm

Bill51, you can probably cite the dates, but the cheap energy of the late 1980's through the 1990's meant US government support & subsidy for things like shale oil, coal gasification / coal liquefaction (used in South Africa) were dropped in the USA, while the Canadian government kept subsidizing tar sands upgrading. This has paid off recently with the Canadians, and I think their long-term viability in this arena is now certain.

The USA still has lots and lots of coal. Other alternatives like gas to liquids, gas to fuels, methane hydrate undersea field use, etc. New Zealand has been converting natural gas to gasoline for years.

http://peakenergy.blogspot.com/2005/08/underground-coal-gasification-coal-to.html

http://www.techhistory.co.nz/ThinkBig/Petrochemical%20Decisions.htm