Posted on 04/26/2013 12:35:42 AM PDT by neverdem
New technology and a little-known energy source suggest that fossil fuels may not be finite. This would be a miracleand a nightmare.
As the great research ship Chikyu left Shimizu in January to mine the explosive ice beneath the Philippine Sea, chances are good that not one of the scientists aboard realized they might be closing the door on Winston Churchills world. Their lack of knowledge is unsurprising; beyond the ranks of petroleum-industry historians, Churchills outsize role in the history of energy is insufficiently appreciated.
Winston Leonard Spencer Churchill was appointed First Lord of the Admiralty in 1911. With characteristic vigor and verve, he set about modernizing the Royal Navy, jewel of the empire. The revamped fleet, he proclaimed, should be fueled with oil, rather than coala decision that continues to reverberate in the present. Burning a pound...
--snip--
The land sheds organic molecules into the water like a ditchdigger taking a shower. Sewage plants, fertilizer-rich farms, dandruffy swimmersall make their contribution. Plankton and other minute sea beings flourish where the drift is heaviest, at the continental margins. When these creatures die, as all living things must, their bodies drizzle slowly to the seafloor, creating banks of sediment, marine reliquaries that can be many feet deep. Microorganisms feed upon the remains.
In a process familiar to anyone who has seen bubbles coming to the surface of a pond, the microbes emit methane gas as they eat and grow. This undersea methane bubbles up too, but it quickly encounters the extremely cold water in the pores of the sediment. Under the high pressure of these cold depths, water and methane react to each other: water molecules link into crystalline lattices that trap methane molecules. A cubic foot of these lattices can contain as much as 180 cubic feet of methane gas...
(Excerpt) Read more at theatlantic.com ...
At the same time, natural gas consumption is skyrocketing.
This is why Royal Dutch Shell expects US natural gas prices to double by 2015.
Its only common sense to expect the drilling, and the consumption infrastructure, to both adjust to the cost of horizontal drilling and fracking, as well as the actual lifetime production of a fracked well. This is a process, not an event. Unless of course we simply let Genius Obama determine the price by fiat.
When you consider the need we have felt for a Strategic Petroleum Reserve, actually there could be a case to be made for the government to put a thumb on the scale to bias the market toward domestic production in preference to imports from the ME.
I do not want government picking winners. It has always worked out as a bad idea. That is far different from maintaining a Strategic Petroleum Reserve which is designed to ride through upsets/disruptions, not change the long term market.
The RN used oil to generate steam. Diesels were not powerful enough to move 35K T ships. The first successful big ship use of diesels were th Graf Spee class armored cruisers of the late 20s. They were used because of the range offered by the diesel over steam.
Dohhh...
Thanks for the ping!
Book mark
You might enjoy this, although it’s long. Any criticism would be appreciated.
Your green energy bankruptcy of the day: SoloPower of Oregon
Meet Barack Obamas GreenTech connection
Global Warming on Free Republic
I got to see the one in the old merchie in San Francisco they used for engine room scenes for Titanic. Very cool!
With the advent of the diesel engine, the change was inevitable. But a good politician will get in front of the parade and lead it. Maybe he did push it along, but it was just a matter of time before the change happened.
mark for later reference
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