U.S. Recoverable Oil, How Much Is There??

You forgot to mention Big Oil's special tax breaks, paying only 9% when other corps pay 25%. I don't want a penny of mine subsidizing the most profitable industry in the history of mankind!

Or how half of the US military budget is spent defending Big Oil's interest over-seas. Let Big Oil pay for their own damn security, not the tax payers' money or our military personel that pay with life and limb.

If Big Oil had to pay their fair share and weren't subsidized, gas would be about $7 a gallon using a real free market. And we're buying oil from people that hate us. I'd rather give China a dollar once for a wind turbine that keep paying oil sheiks over and over again. That's another billion a day we send over-seas, not counting the billion a day we spend on our military defending Big Oil.

I supported natural gas and T Boone's plan...until I learned about the consequences of what fracking does to our water systems. T Boone left that part out of his plan. There's homes that can literally light their tap water on fire due to fracking. Don't tell me it's "clean" until you research what fracking actually does.

Plus the impact burning your oil has on the environment. Who wants to breath that crap? What impact does pollution have on our health? How's the Gulf doing? How many smaller oil spills take place every year we don't hear about?

The Mid West US has plenty of wind. The SW US has plenty of sun. There are few countries on this planet with the wind and solar potential we have.

BTW...The best source for bio fuel is saw grass. It's the natural grass of the Midwest, doesn't take any "farming" and is drought resistant. It's something like 7x more energy efficient than corn.

That's a great question.


I suspect that before 2008 neither nation was serious about wind and China lagged us.

But since then the Chinese have put a lot more money and effort into developing their wind power than we have since 2008.

Look how their capacity has exploded since 2008.

From wikapedia...

Wind power in the People's Republic of China - Wikipedia, the free encyclopedia

Capacity (MW)


2005 1,260
2006 2,599
2007 5,912
2008 12,170
2009 25,100
2010 41,800
2011 62,000


Why are they leading now??

IMHO...

Thanks to big oil minions on the hill, we're still only dabbling at the edges instead of getting real serious about wind and other sources of alternate energy.


The stimulus bill allocated 90 billion towards new energy.


If we ever get serious about wind I'm sure we'll blow the Chinese away.


Here's what we've been up to with wind power...





TL


Ps. It's good to see Sal on board with the new green energy direction.

There's a few things that changed...One is the start of the recession.

Also, that's about the time China figured out that the environment was a factor in their economy and decided to greatly scale up their green energy.

As the article says, our wind installations are increasing. But China is just increasing at a faster rate. It isn't like we stopped installing wind turbines, or even slowed down, only that China got very aggressive and began installing them at a very aggressive rate.

For example, if we installed 1000 turbines a year back then and China 500, then we install 1500 a year now and China installs 5000...we have increased our own installation rate but lost "share" to China, which is what actually happened.

Hey Thom,

We both supported it. But when new info was presented, we changed our minds.

I believe we both just want the truth and what's best for the US. And being able to change your mind as new evidence is presented shows intellectual integrity.

And...I didn't even bring up that fracking appears to be causing earth quakes in E. Texas.
Study links fracking and earthquakes - SFGate

How Fracking, Drilling and Earthquakes Are Linked | StateImpact Texas

T Boone seems to have left some things out of his plan...And he does have alot of money to be made with natural gas. Not saying natural gas shouldn't be considered, but it sure seems we need some more info...

You probably won't ever hear me use that word in such a context. Trust me on that one.

Yep, we need a varied approach. While not perfect, green energy is far better than being as dependent on oil as we are. And the oil saved can be used for other things where there aren't alternatives, such as plastics and other materials.

Actually, a large chunk of the US can use wind or solar to a great degree. It's your part of the country that really isn't good for wind or solar. However, the Gulf states can use wave/motion generators, as well as sea-based wind mills.

And in many areas, when there's no sun, there's wind, and when there's no wind, there's sun.

In Colorado, we get over 300 days of sunshine a year. An area in the S. Nevada desert that's 10 miles by 10 miles could generate enough electricity to power the entire country. Same for wind in the Mid West.

The problem isn't that there isn't enough energy, it's that the grid isn't where the solar and wind energy is.

An improved grid system would also allow for electricity to be transported to areas that need energy from the areas that have wind/sun.

We are doing this to a great degree with the feds offering a tax credit for 30% of the installation, if it meets certain standards and creates more than 50% of your energy use.

This doesn't include other state and local incentives that may come into play.

He'll be competing with Colorado for that title.

It's a good move and the competition will be good for all.

Along the Front Range of the Rockies and the edge of the Great Plains states, from South Dakota through New Mexico, we are in a unique situation were we get both a lot of sun and a lot of wind. I'm not sure there's many other areas in the World that can match this region for both.