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Tag Archives: Shale

Shale Oil Revolution Continues

Posted on April 7, 2015 by Donn Dears

Companies in the United States who are drilling for shale oil have had to respond to the sudden low price of oil. Saudi Arabia decided to maintain production rather than cut production to maintain the price of oil, and this Continue reading Shale Oil Revolution Continues→

Posted in Energy, Freedom, Government, Politics | Tagged CO2, energy, Fossil Fuels, Fracking, Iran, oil, Peak Oil, Saudi Arabia, Shale

What is Saudi Arabia’s Game Plan for Oil?

Posted on January 20, 2015 by Donn Dears

The Saudis seem to have decided to maintain their output of oil, while allowing the price to fall, so as to maintain market share. But why? Why haven’t they cut production to maintain the price of oil? The following ideas Continue reading What is Saudi Arabia’s Game Plan for Oil?→

Posted in Energy, Freedom, Government, Politics | Tagged Baker Hughes, Drill rigs, oil, Russia, Saudi, Saudi Arabia, Shale

Fortune Magazine Bias

Posted on November 18, 2014 by Donn Dears

Nestled in the middle of an article supporting wind energy and energy efficiency is a chart showing energy intensity. The Fortune magazine article pits clean energy vs “dirty coal” in Ohio. Note the adjective “dirty”. The article is an excellent Continue reading Fortune Magazine Bias→

Posted in Energy, Freedom, Government, Politics | Tagged CO2, electricity, energy, Fortune Magazine, Honda, Shale

Enough Oil for Independence?

Posted on July 20, 2012 by Donn Dears

Do we have enough oil to become independent from OPEC? The answer isn’t straight forward because there are differing estimates of oil reserves. The oil industry readily accepts the definition of proven reserves as being, “Proven reserves, those with a Continue reading Enough Oil for Independence?→

Posted in Energy | Tagged Canada, Gulf, oil, OPEC, RAND Corporation, Shale, USGS

Foiling OPEC

Posted on March 9, 2012 by Donn Dears

A recent WSJ op-ed by Robert McFarlane said, “If we produce more oil, OPEC will sell less to keep prices high.” While this has been true in the past, it might not be true in the future, if we produce Continue reading Foiling OPEC→

Posted in Energy | Tagged Canada, Fracking, Libya, McFarlane, NYtimes, oil, OPEC, Saudi Arabia, Shale, Venezuela, WSJ

Stop Fracking and Help Russia

Posted on March 6, 2012 by Donn Dears

We can help Russia by stopping, or substantially curtailing, fracking. Do we want to help Russia, or is this only an unintended consequence of efforts to stop fracking? Russia, a major supplier of natural gas to Europe, has sold its Continue reading Stop Fracking and Help Russia→

Posted in Energy | Tagged Baltic, energy, Europe, Fracking, Gas OPEC, Gazprom, LNG, Nabucco, natural gas, Qatar, Russia, Shale, Ukraine

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Table of Contents

Introduction

When we flip the switch, the lights come on without anyone thinking about it. This has only been true for the last hundred years in metropolitan areas, and for only approximately eighty years in rural areas with the enactment of the Rural Electrification Act of 1936.

In 1935, only 25 percent of rural homes in the United States had electricity, and there are people alive today who grew up without electricity. Today, few people are even aware of the monolithic system that generates, distributes, and controls the electricity that flows with seeming effortlessness across the United States. This system is referred to as the grid, which is actually three grids covering the entire lower forty-eight states.

Over the past one hundred years, there have been only two area-wide blackouts affecting over 30 million people caused by a failure of the transmission system. There have been other blackouts—mostly caused by storms—affecting smaller groups, perhaps as many as several million people. Overall, the grid has worked remarkably well. Reliability can still be improved upon, but this is primarily a question of placing transmission and distribution lines underground to minimize weather-induced outages.

Suddenly, we are faced with a threat to the grid we haven’t seen before. It is a threat that can dramatically increase blackouts and the suffering that accompanies them. Some in leadership positions have viewed climate change as an existential threat to mankind and have implemented actions to eliminate fossil fuels from the generation of electricity. Some have claimed that wind and solar and other renew- ables can replace all the coal-fired, natural gas, and nuclear power plants in the United States. It can be argued that the actions these people are taking are making electricity more costly and less reliable, and placing Americans at risk for little or no reason. They are willing to gamble the safety and lives of Americans, as well as the American economy, on an ideology.

Our nation has suffered through a medical war fighting COVID-19 in which thousands died. As my neighbor said,

“The inability of our country to anticipate the corona- virus pandemic and put in place adequate reserves of all of the things we needed—PPE, ventilators, masks, tests, hospital beds, etc.—speaks loudly and directly to the need for reliable on-demand electricity and the need to plan for it right now.”

Imagine if Americans had to suffer through rolling blackouts while quarantined at home during a future pandemic. How would newly erected emergency hospitals operate without electricity, let alone our existing hospitals without diesel fuel or natural gas to power emergency generators?

This was brought home by an oped in the Washington Post. Quoting from the op-ed:

Residential use is up as workers and school children stay home.

[Demand is down] in locked up restaurants, offices and factories.

Hospitals are a different story: They consume twice as much per square foot as hotels . . . lead schools and office buildings by an even greater margin. And their work couldn’t be more vital as they confront the novel coronavirus.

A grid operator, sequestered in his dispatch center in East Greenbush, New York, said it all, “Keeping the lights on. . . . It’s so critical.”3

There is little doubt there will be another pandemic. The only question is when. We must do what is needed to guarantee adequate and reliable supplies of electricity in preparation for the next pandemic.

President Trump recognized the vital importance of the grid when he issued an executive order on May 1, 2020, to protect the grid from foreign adversaries. He said the grid, “provides the electricity that sup- ports our national defense, vital emergency services, critical infrastruc- ture, economy, and way of life.”

There is also an ideology that threatens the grid. This book will examine how federal regulators, state governments, utility companies, and the operators of the grid themselves are imposing their beliefs about climate change on all Americans and placing the grid in great jeopardy. Unelected bureaucrats and self-imposed intelligentsia are making decisions that place all Americans in danger.

Looming Energy Crisis will show you why we must continue to use fossil fuels and why we must protect the grid from the actions of those who are imposing their personal beliefs on the rest of us. Our objective should be low-cost reliable electricity available for everyone.

Reliability is a national security issue.