Tuesday, March 24, 2015
Lex Anteinternet: And the pumps kept on.
And following on this:
Lex Anteinternet: And the pumps kept on.: Saudi production has reached 10,000,000 bbl per day, near (or perhaps) an all time record high. This comes in the face of Saudi resistance ...
I read in the paper this morning that the solar panel industry now employers more people in the US than coal mining.
Indeed, an irony of this is that there's now an effort in some states to tax homeowners who install solar panels, using the logic that they use power on the grid when they cannot generate power on cloudy days. While that's generally true, the law has generally been, or at least was (I haven't kept up on it) that power companies actually had to buy power sent back down the line by domestic solar and wind electrical generation. This has likely been regarded as a minor inconvenience by power companies for a long time, but now they're becoming irritated in some areas, apparently.
Irrespective of that, solar has quietly come a long way in the past 40 years. 40% of German electrical output is now solar (and if they'd continued to allow nuclear power generation, they'd have darned near 100% non emitting power). There's no reason to believe that a high American output isn't similarly possible, and perhaps now even probable.
All of this is hugely important to the state of Wyoming, and of course other energy producing states. With an oil industry that dates back to the 1890s and a coal industry that started when the Union Pacific was first constructed, the state has acclimated itself to the extractive energy industry being the main economic engine of the state. Coal severance taxes, which were at first stoutly opposed by some, have been funding the state government here for over 40 years now. The schools are nearly entirely constructed using money generated from taxes on coal. Coal production has been declining now for several years, and the coal industry's backers have been quite vocal about what they feel should be done to aid the industry, and that it can generate "clean coal". But the long term trends seem hard to ignore at present. Coal is being supplemented in the U.S. as a fuel, in Europe its being supplanted. The trend line in the US seems headed in the same direction unless major technological developments can change the dynamics of the situation. The coal market right now seems to be mostly China, but Pacific coast states and provinces object to the loading of it, and transportation of coal by sea has its own costs and problems. So, in spite of hopes in that quarter, and in spite of efforts by Wyoming's politicians in that direction, the Chinese saving the market seems unlikely.
And, as explored here earlier, it seems difficult not to conclude at this point that the Saudi Arabians have made a similar conclusion about future of petroleum oil, and have decided to keep the price on the floor so that they dominate the market during what they have calculated will be the transition phase. Probably calculating that the beginning of a technological transition from petroleum has commenced and that the process will take about the same amount of time one way or another, by keeping the price low, they'll dominate it during that period of time. In other words, the money is going to go somewhere, and it might as well go to them. By keeping the production high, and selling what they'll have, they'll make the most money possible out of their resource and probably try to use that to transition to some other type of economy. Goodness, knows they need to, as their current culture and economy isn't viable continuing on with its current model.
But for states like Wyoming, which have relied on these industries, the trend line is a bad one for the traditional economy. Agriculture, Extractive industries, and Tourism have been the three legs of the stool of Wyoming's economy. There's a pretty good chance that one of those legs is now broken, and there's no really solid idea of what to do to replace it, if it needs to be.
As a final observation, folks who note things like this here are often branded as "antis". However, as a Wyoming native, and a former crewman on a workover rig, and as a person with a geology degree, I think I can stand on my bonafides. I'm not declaring this as part of a manifesto, but rather observing as a person given to that by training and inclination. We probably need to be pondering these topics here.
Monday, March 23, 2015
And the pumps kept on.
Saudi production has reached 10,000,000 bbl per day, near (or perhaps) an all time record high. This comes in the face of Saudi resistance to pressure to decrease production.
Accompanying, this Chinese economy, long seen as a potential major oil importer, has been slowing down over the past 11 months.
Neither of which is a good sign for American oil production. Hovering in the $50 to $60 bbl range for months now, a decrease in the Saudi price and a maintenance of Saudi production can't help but be noticed by the domestic industry's planners.
Accompanying, this Chinese economy, long seen as a potential major oil importer, has been slowing down over the past 11 months.
Neither of which is a good sign for American oil production. Hovering in the $50 to $60 bbl range for months now, a decrease in the Saudi price and a maintenance of Saudi production can't help but be noticed by the domestic industry's planners.
Sunday, March 22, 2015
The Big Speech: War is sweet to the inexperienced
γλυκύ δ᾽ἀπείρῳ πόλεμος.
πεπειραμένων δέ τις ταρβεῖ προσιόντα νιν καρδία περισσῶς.
War is sweet to the inexperienced, but the experienced man trembles at its approach
Pindar.
πεπειραμένων δέ τις ταρβεῖ προσιόντα νιν καρδία περισσῶς.
War is sweet to the inexperienced, but the experienced man trembles at its approach
Pindar.
Saturday, March 21, 2015
Friday, March 20, 2015
Thursday, March 19, 2015
On Law, Corruption and Puritanism in American Politics
It is widely assumed, as we all know, that there's vast corruption in American politics. Indeed, there's a new television series out right now based on that thesis. And I'll freely admit that this country has had its share of corrupt politicians, or ones who acted in what I'd regard an amoral or immoral fashion. I could go into that topic and express my views on those people now, but I'll forgo it for another point.
I wonder, quite frankly, to what extent American politics are characterized not by corruption, but by lingering Puritanism. Quite a lot, I think.
Take the current flap over Hillary Clinton's email, and her use of a private rather than a government account. Who cares? I don't. In most countries, quite frankly, this would not be a matter of the slightest concern. But, in the same spirit that caused the Puritans to ban Christmas, the whole country seems to be having a big to do over this. Only in the US would such a minor matter be regarded as really serious.
Or take the personal behavior of our politicians in other areas. In recent decades this has been a huge issue (although it seemingly was not in prior decades, and for reasons that baffle me JFK still gets a pass in this area). We've nearly deposed a President in recent years over this, while in contrast a trial is going on in Italy over a politician whose behavior in this area was wild in the extreme. It isn't that something is being done in Italy so much as its the case that things have to get hugely out of hand before anything is done. Here, matters that are unseemly but not really threatening the nation can get you almost impeached.
Or take our insider trading laws. We've actually made it a crime to act on knowledge you pick up in the course of your employment. That's frankly amazing, and criminalizes a natural part of human nature. We tell people that they can't act on what they know, as that would be unfair to those who don't know, what they don't know. Fairness is nice, to be sure, but criminalizing knowledge is pretty extreme really.
Corrupt? I don't think so much. Puritanical is more like it, in these regards.
National Agriculture Week: A second post World War One homestead
Holscher's Hub: A second post World War One homestead:
An abandoned post World War One hay farm, now returned to pasture.
An abandoned post World War One hay farm, now returned to pasture.
Wednesday, March 18, 2015
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