Put up a wind tower and you get electricity for 20 years with a little maintenance. Takes a 200 square foot pad, can farm around it and can recycle everything but the blades when done. The electricity runs to your house by wires, no trucks. Plug in your car at night. 

You have to dig a hole.. pump about 90 trucks worth of concrete in it plus the rebar... consider that it's going to take enough to keep a 150' or taller structure VERTICAL in 100+mph winds.

When that wind turbine is obsolute.. WHEN a wind Storm takes it out.. or it catches on fire.. or it actually makes it through it's expected life.. that concrete PAD is STILL going to be there for a couple.. centuries..

Some people like the economic development of wind farms.. and some people.. For instance my buddie's father was a phd Engineer.. and in his words..

"Wind energy is a farce.. they are UGLY.. they WASTE RESOURCES.. and if it wasn't for the Green's we wouldn't be doing it."

Now we've made some efficiency gains since then.. but you still don't see a lot of Wind Farms in the Flint Hills.. and if you TRY to propose one.. your going to have to explain it to a room full of people who will show up against it..

NIMBY!!

So far we have not run out of places where the wind blows.. but in order to have a decent crack at energy reliance.. you're going to have to go to something like 50%+ from wind farms..???

You will LITERALLY have to plant one on every 20 acres over a couple of STATES!!

If you go down highway 81 through Oklahoma.. you will go through a couple of counties where there are oil wells every 40 acres.. pop over an overpass.. and you'll see.. 10,000 pump jacks rocking back and forth..  10,000 bore holes through the aquifer and someone's drinking water.. hope they sealed that well..

WE KNOW that burning some petroleum products causes CANCER..  There's even a study that mapped cancer incidents which was statistically significant next to 4 lane or 12 lane Highways out in California.

This one took 30 seconds to find..

( http://www.lung.org/our-initiatives/healthy-air/outdoor/air-polluti... )

and it's not really the one I was thinking about.. as far as oxegenates added to gasoline which are petroleum based.. THEY CAUSE CANCER!!

Now I'm not totally against petroleum.. Are you going to Walk everywhere?

So I was reading Rapier's site between ballgames last night..

and there's this.. ( http://www.rrapier.com/2018/02/eia-sees-possibility-of-peak-tight-oil-by-2022/ ) where we are going to Frack our way to Utopia.. even Rapier says it has "limits."

down a ways in the comments is this..

( https://www.peakprosperity.com/blog/113557/great-oil-swindle )

Crib Notes:

a) the US is going to take the #1 Crude Oil producer title here in a few months.. topping out at 11..12..15 myn bbls per day or higher..
b) this STILL may not be enough to give us lower crude oil prices as China and India demand continues to grow at well over 1 myn bbls per day.. per year.. China wants to be like the US.. with 4 times the population.. IF they EVER achieve that.. well we use 18+ myn bbls per day x 4 = 64 myn bbls.. ?? or 2/3d's of the World's current output..  then there's India.. which now has more people than China..

c) so it STILL depends upon what OPEC does.. and more importantly what the state of military power is over there..  

Specifically..

Risks from the 2nd article..  Global Debt is a ticking TIME BOMB.. when you spike Energy prices.. (gonna pay the mortgage or buy gasoline?  Cause you can't do both.. )



Debt is as High.. actually higher.. than it was during the Start of the Great Recession..

Which.. you can kick off again if you just "mess with" one of these critical Crude Oil supply routes..



Someone sinks a tanker in the Straight of Hormuz.. and 18.5 myn bbls per day of Crude goes Offline. As Insurers WILL NOT COVER the Loss of Multi MILLION dollar Sailing Vessels in a Shooting War.. and most companies can't RISK it..  they are kind of expensive..

Fortunately the US is not as Vulnerable today at 10.3 myn bbls per day as we were in 2005 at 4.5 myn bbls per day.  ( lol  All we need are pipelines.. and it's increasingly difficult to build them through even places like NEBRASKA.. save the EASTERN SEABOARD.. What happens the next time you have to lay a pipeline across Ohio.. Pa.. to NYC..??  "Good Luck with that.."

( https://www.eia.gov/dnav/pet/hist/LeafHandler.ashx?n=PET&s=WCRFPUS2&f=W )

However, it STILL is a World market.. so we'll still see Crude spike something over $100 per bbls..

So.. WE NEED domestic produced energy..

Do you want to get it from pumpjacks.. Wind Farms.. or Corn Fields.

Ethanol is not 100% of the solution.. but at least it doesn't cause cancer.. and it's better to look at then either of the two other options.

However, we will still rely on those also..

The Permian is going nuts.. at 3 myn bbls per day.. it's down there in tumbleweed country.. vs Down Town Dallas..

( http://dfw.cbslocal.com/2016/11/17/texas-shale-oil-field-could-yield-20-billion-barrels/ )

Are they going to develop the Barnett.. (believe I got that one right..) under Big D?

Those Texans LOVE OIL.. but start shaking the ground.. btw.. we had another earthquake last night here.. and yes it's from Oil Production.. when you pump enough Water out of Zone A.. and then dump it Down Zone B.. you create enough pressure that things slide..

.. including the earth.. and the buildings above it..

IF you po poo that.. then you can go talk to my MIL who has cracks in her HOUSE.. WALLS.. etc.. from the earthquakes that NEVER happened before the Crude Oil spike and drilling boom around her..

It's Real.

Tumbleweeds don't really care.. people and their expensive houses do..

Can we develop more Shale?  Yes.. plenty of places around the globe to do that.. all you need is the formations.. access to Water.. Sand.. Men and Machines.. and it's preferable that someone isn't shooting at you.. like the Oil Fields in Africa.. or Central America..


Geo-politic's and Energy production go Hand in Hand.

I'll save my post about the TRAVESTY of the Oil Sands production in Western Canada..  THAT is a SHAME!!

You're going to WASH Crude out of SAND with MILLIONS upon MILLIONS of ACRE FEET of Pristine Water.. Shoot I'd rather have a pipeline of WATER vs a Pipeline of Tar Sands.. That is JUST PLAIN WRONG!!

so I'll wrap it here..