This chart reveals the complete idiocy of the greenies who believe wind and solar can replace oil, gas and coal in powering our society.
Courtesy of: Visual Capitalist
The Evolution of America’s Energy Supply (1776 – 2014)
This chart reveals the complete idiocy of the greenies who believe wind and solar can replace oil, gas and coal in powering our society.
It’s all about money for the government and Big Corps. Most people don’t know, but GE was slated to administer the Carbon Credits – similar to Chase (from memory) administering the EBT Cards. They are profit centers.
Too bad nuclear didn’t redirect its efforts into the Thorium fuel cycle instead of the U-235 fuel cycle. Th-232 is much safer and abundant than U-235 fuel. Thorium also does not produce plutonium, which is why U-235 was chosen as the military wanted some Dr. Strangelove action.
As the hydrocarbon-based energy supply depletes, nuclear will become more attractive. It’s the only energy source that can meet baseline continuous energy needs. I wonder if there will come a time when hydrocarbon based energy becomes so expensive, that it will be used mostly to meet baseline energy needs when solar or wind can’t operate.
Brian, we can still do this with the least bit of help from the NRC.
One of the people who worked under Dr. Alvin Weinberg at the Oak Ridge National Laboratory, nuclear scientist Kirk Sorensen, founder of Flibe Energy, is trying to build a commercial LFTR. The principal obstacles are regulatory and financial. The company is trying to raise the money to have the NRC review its design, which is a very costly process… can cost hundreds of thousands of dollars. Then to build the prototype itself.
Unfortunately, both the regulatory and financial climates are very unfavorable to the development of heavy industry and new nuclear technologies. These things are not for speculators who want a fast turn- you are talking about a 10 year take-out at least, if not longer.
The wedge for renewable energy appears to be broadening out at least as fast as gas and petroleum did (now representative of ~60% energy makeup). Adoption of renewable seems to be accelerating, though not necessarily in an intelligent way.
My personal favorite example:
http://mic.com/articles/117948/6-months-later-here-s-what-s-happened-to-the-netherland-s-solar-bike-paths
Solar powered bike path – $3.7 million, 3MWh in 6 months. Assuming a 20yr lifespan (with no loss of efficiency over time) that means $30833.33/MWh. So if your wife wants to run her 1500W blow dryer for 15 min each day, at this price you’re paying $80/week. Yay solar.
@ Brian and Chicago999444
I 100% support projects that continue to investigate Liquid Flouride Thorium Reactors (LFTRs). But let’s get real, they’re a long, long way from being ready for prime time use as a source for producing commercial scale electricity. As in 20-30 years. And that’s a minimum, according to the government of China, which has launched its own LFTR program, which is extremely well funded.
The best practical targets for a commercial scale (20-50 megawatt) thorium reactor here in the U.S. are military bases, and that would still be at least 20 years down the road. As for any larger reactor, maybe later this century.
By the way, why isn’t whale oil and kerosene included in the pre-19th century breakdown?
The term “fossil fuel” was coined in the 1950s when not much was known about the nature of naturally-occurring hydrocarbon products. Environmentalists have used this misconception about naturally occuring oil to their advantage; hence, the now-discredited concept of “peak oil”.
Oil is abiotic in nature, being produced deep within the earth by yet-unknown processes. Russian oil interests have been drilling deep wells, as much as 30,000 feet deep and coming up with oil deposits–far deeper than that of decayed plant and animal materials.
It turns that many of our depleted oil wells are “filling back up”; oil is migrating from deep within the earth, upward to many of our present drilling sites.
There are certain interests that do not want to see oil as a plentiful natural resource–FOLLOW THE MONEY…
As to vehicles, it’s about CONTROL. The powers that be want us OUT of our vehicles, relegated to high-rise, soviet-style apartments using bicycles, trains or buses for transportation–limiting us to certain areas. Of course, the pristine “wilderness” would be restricted to the “elite” with their “dachas” would be reserved for the “elite” environmentalists and their ilk…
“Oil is abiotic in nature …” ———– anarchyst
You are 100% correct!! About time somebody with brains showed up!
Abiotic Oil refills depleted wells at free fall speed.
Global warming (aka “climate change”) has been shown to be a fraud (climate is always changing) and has attracted the snake charmers (al gore) and hustlers out of the woodwork. The so-called “hockey stick” model has been shown to be fraudulent. The attempts to foist “carbon credits” and other scams on the public was unsuccessful. Once again FOLLOW THE MONEY.
Fraud in science is not only limited to those who are providing the funding. There was a case in the Pacific northwest where so-called scientists “planted” lynx fur in certain forests to make them “off-limits” to logging. Fortunately, these government Fish and Wildlife Service scientists were caught. Of course, they received NO punishment for their behavior. The so-called “endangered species act” is actually more detrimental to humanity . . . species are always changing . . .
Environmentalists have been some of the most dishonest people in their misguided attempts to “save the planet”. Our earth is much more resilient than they would have you believe. Environmentalists see humans as a “pestilence”. They would like to see the human population reduced (by any means necessary) by around 90%. The survivors would be walled-off in soviet-style high-rise apartments, riding bicycles, taking trains and buses while the wilderness areas would be available only to the “anointed” environmentalists.
I, for one, have no use for these limp-wristed, birkenstock-wearing, prius-driving, tofu-eating poor excuses for human beings. I would suggest that environmentalists take their own advice and eliminate themselves first.
Environmentalists are like watermelons–green on the outside and red (communist) on the inside. It’s always been about control.
I CHEER when I hear a of a “greenpeace” ship getting blown out of the water. . .
Abiotic Oil refills depleted wells at free fall speed, and then collapses back into its original footprint …. which is why its so difficult to find, unless you blow it up with thermite.
Abiotic oil? “Refills depleted wells at free fall speed” I guess it’s not just 9/11 you guys don’t know jack shit about.
http://www.oilempire.us/abiotic.html
Nuclear? Tell that to the Pacific marine life and Japanese still suffering. It gets worse by the day.
http://enenews.com/radiation-expert-horrific-health-toll-fukushima-nuclear-disaster-infant-death-significantly-increased-many-areas-japan-government-actions-unconscionable-impossible-be-moved-scale-deaths-human
Westcoaster
Are all libtards humorless dicks?
any R&D funds for clean coal could have better served our interest over the long term. the enviro folks never come up with common sense solutions. like vestibules. just sod roofs (reinforced) or built by design on commercial buildings could save tremendous cost whether hot or cold. on a hot day who looks for the shade of a tree in the world of tarmac, good luck. why build conventional houses in tornado alley. again simple answers are a good starting place. as a former electrician i love the juice, even a poor guy like me lives well because of electrons. all for less than two dollars a day.
I’d like to see the graph but with the Y-axis in energy units instead of percent.
Westcoaster, Japan sits on an active tectonic zone. The Fukushima reactor is an older and potentially more dangerous design. Its a boiling water reactor, where as much safer pressurized water reactors could be used. There are much better ways to implement nuclear power. The biggest obstacle remains what to do with the spent fuel.
However, if it came to choosing between nuclear power, and reverting to a pre-industrial society with an associated 90% die off in global population, I’d choose nuclear power.
Deep deposits of oil could be biotic. The earth’s oceanic plates are constantly being subducted under the lighter continental crust. In the US the ocean floor is subducted under the continent in the pacific northwest. The ocean plates melt and form the magma that surfaces in the Cascade Range volcanoes. The earth is 4.5 billion years old. No part of the ocean floor is over 200 million years old due to recycling through the process of plate tectonics and the subduction of those plates. In places rocks in the continental crust have been found to be over 3 billion years old.
Is there a way to embed images in comments? Or is that considered a no-no?
@Guy: Betcha didn’t know there are TWENTY-THREE (that’s 23) reactors online today in the U.S. of the same design as those that melted down in Fukushima. Most of these are downstream from dams and near large population centers:
http://www.newsmax.com/Newsfront/GE-reactors-Japan-UnitedStates/2011/03/14/id/389407/
ALSO; Did you know this? “Thirty-five years ago, Dale G. Bridenbaugh and two of his colleagues at General Electric resigned from their jobs after becoming increasingly convinced that the nuclear reactor design they were reviewing — the Mark 1 — was so flawed it could lead to a devastating accident.”
http://abcnews.go.com/Blotter/fukushima-mark-nuclear-reactor-design-caused-ge-scientist/story?id=13141287