Posted on 05/07/2013 11:02:26 AM PDT by DannyTN
Lots of people think American energy independence is within reach thanks to our shale boom.
...
It's been a long time since producing all your own oil actually made you independent. We spent 40 years transforming global markets so they were integrated and flexible, to give us protection from the vagaries of global oil production, and one of the side effects is we're now part of that, even if we produce all our own oil. ...
(Excerpt) Read more at businessinsider.com ...
I’ve worked in the Nuclear industry. Those figures are bogus.
You cannot compare coal burning, oil burning, or natural gas burning to nuclear, as nuclear doesn’t burn.
There is a reason nuclear submarines can operate for 20 years without being refueled: the conversion of nuclear heat output to energy is very efficient. It doesn’t require oxygen to burn, unlike coal, fuel oil, or diesel fuel.
Environmentalists have tried hard for decades to make look nuclear energy look bad. I see they have succeeded with all the crap they’re publishing online about how efficient solar power is compared to anything else. How droll!
If you click the link that is right below the title it takes you directly there. Or at least it does me.
Environmentalists are really just Luddites.
They don’t want us to use any technology or energy that makes our lives better or easier.
Like everything else leftist, they take a mandate from God and flip it on its head as something bad.
I noticed that the economy went in the tank after Milton died.
I just love the mindset that can only be described as mindless:
It's been that way for xx years, so it must remain that way forever. The human mind is like a ratchet, capable of going in only one direction.
Well, that not the way it is. When some human activity changes, for the better or worse, it is driven by circumstances. When circumstances change, there is absolutely nothing to prevent the same human beings for changing for the better.
That change does not happen, or is assumed impossible, can only be described as mass cultural cognitive dissonance. Digging a deeper hole to eliminate the feeling of dysfunction.
Of course things can be changed. The only thing necessary is to destroy the deep roots of the special interests, domestic or foreign, which profit from the dysfunction.
That it is presumed to be impossible is sad, but understandable. I call it BS.
If we continue to be a government by the people for the people, we can change anything, and eliminate those special interests by whatever means necessary, beginning with the criminal (and largely ignorant and self-serving) political class.
Interesting, now it takes me directly to it also, rather than the indirect route of before, maybe it has something to do with accumulating cookies.
I would be willing to bet your farm on the Kentucky Derby. If the government were to give me that authority, your farm wouldn't be worth much by the time the next Derby came around. The same holds true with oil that somebody else produces.
That absurd approach has been a puzzler to me. It can only be the result of what was truly relatively cheap oil, which created gigantic generating facilities which shrugged off the gigantic transmission losses (50% !) between generator and users.
Distributed generation makes more sense today., for anything other than hydroelectricity.
There are portable nuclear generators used by the military that can power a small town. I have never heard of a single instance of any alarming accident with those.
The problem is the metaphorical buggy-whip oil monopolies. They have most criminal politicians and neurotic doom and gloom idiots in their pocket.
I agree with that. Comparing inefficiency of different fuels doesn't have too much meaning. It ignores the great difference in cost of some fuels. But when the efficiency is used, I would like us to be truthful about it.
The real point in producing more energy is not literal “independence” for the US. It is to influence the world’s energy markets. The US produces enough oil and gas, world wide prices are down and stable; despotic countries with oil deposits lose their influence, political and economic. US policy is not held hostage to these wacko despots. US influence world wide becomes more significant.
I don't know what you did in the Nuclear Industry. I am guessing it didn't involve learning about Thermodynamics. I've taken Nuclear Engineering courses. I've worked in the Electrical Utility Industry. I've been part of design, construction and commissioning of power plants. If any of that means anything. My resume or yours isn't part of documenting nuclear power efficiency.
You cannot compare coal burning, oil burning, or natural gas burning to nuclear, as nuclear doesn’t burn.
It doesn't have to burn to have an efficiency. You are the one that compared the efficiency; I pointed out your comparison was false.
Nuclear doesn't burn but it does produce heat in the decay. We take that heat to a transfer fluid, usually water but sometimes sodium and the like. The heat is eventually carried to a steam turbine and eventually to a condenser. We don't make electrical power from the radiation, we make it from the heat.
There is a reason nuclear submarines can operate for 20 years without being refueled: the conversion of nuclear heat output to energy is very efficient. It doesn’t require oxygen to burn, unlike coal, fuel oil, or diesel fuel.
Not requiring oxygen to burn is why it stays submerged. It only needs refueling after decades because the E=MC2 means a lot of energy from a little bit of mass. None of those have anything to do with the system efficiency.
Environmentalists have tried hard for decades to make look nuclear energy look bad. I see they have succeeded with all the crap they’re publishing online about how efficient solar power is compared to anything else.
That data isn't from environmentalists. That is from the Power Energy providers.
No, No, No, it’s big government regulation, and union thugs like you, who have caused all that.
You don't have enough zero's is your guess of price.
The site license alone would require 10's of millions of dollars, although future ones would get cheaper.
Why nuclear energy is on hold for Alaska
http://www.newsminer.com/news/local_news/why-nuclear-energy-is-on-hold-for-alaska/article_51958987-2a69-5528-aa4b-fd2755913460.html
That's absurd. You obviously have never owned or run a business.
Damn, I bet every totalitarian in world history has said that, or someting like it. So tell me, who are the "angels" that are the "we" who will decide what is in the "peoples" best interests? And who are the "people" anyway, as opposed to the "we" represented by "our?" And while I'm at it, are we to protect the worker and screw the consmer? Oh wait, they are the same. Crap! Another central planning idea down the toilet!!!
Well said sir, and corrrect.
And yet, Danny claims to understand fungible assets. I think he is thinking about athlete’s foot....
With every post, Danny emerges as more and more of an economic leftist, not to mention ignorant of economics - but alas, I repeat myself. You nailed him on this point, his willingness to "take that gamble" when it's nothing of his being gambled. Yep, typical occupy wall street lo fo, economically speaking. And now, exposed in his own words.
You make an assumption that is not valid.
You apparently don’t understand competition and substitute the term Free Trade in it’s place. Free Trade becomes a bugaboo when competition is the reason for all you hold in disdain. China is held as the reason for the problems when all the pacific rim has grown by competing with America, Europe and Japan.
To think in terms of America Vs China is a gross misunderstanding. The whole world is involved.
There is probably the term Chicoms in your vocabulary when the term Chicaps better describes the change and development in China. There are people there, especially young people of the world. They want what others have and work, work hard, for it. They are competing for a better life.
Economics like Rush says, is not a zero sum game. There is not just one pie. Many additional pies can and are being created. You can’t see the pies in China or Singapore or Jakarta but they have been created by capital and work.
To understand today your view must encompass the world, the whole world. (I’ll concede Uruguay and maybe Burma and Chad and such). The rest of the world competes for a betterlife and more and more pie.
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