Drill or No Drill?

[kelpdiver 2]

you don't need a massive number of downtown power outlets for cars - the Tesla is aiming at a 200+ mile range per charge. The Volt is 125?

Presuming people aren't too stupid about it, they'll be charging their cars in the dead of night when demand is lower and excess generation capacity exists.

[masterrig 1]

Thanks, Amazon! That's how I learn. I was watching 'Tougher in Alaska' and they showed the pipeline and followed it to a seaport in Washington and all these foreign ships lined-up in the harbor. I appreciate your straightening me out on that.
Like you, I live in an area close to refineries and the 'oil patch' and like you, we pay higher prices than those in other parts of the country.


Chuck

[masterrig 1]

I had heard that, about 'oil speculators' driving-up the price of oil on a local news report. I appreciate you in-put. I now, have a better understanding of how it works.


Chuck

[nanook 1]

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Presuming people aren't too stupid about it, they'll be charging their cars in the dead of night when demand is lower and excess generation capacity exists.

I always vote on stupid or lazy. Build a better fail safe device, they will build a better stupid. Inventions will never satisfy the lazy.
I have a feeling I will be able to market "Smart" electricity. "My Trons will smarten up your car"You probably will have those that fear too low a charge and always have to hook up. Alway keep it max charged, just in case of . . .


I kind of wonder if everyone that waits till night to charge their cars will equalize the load of the Grid. That's millions of vehicles per time zone. Those cars are guaranteed to be on of the most tron hungry plug-ins in the house. You think maybe as much as an a/c while it's charging?

_____________________________

"The trouble with quotes on the internet is that you can never know if they are genuine" - Abraham Lincoln

[kallend 2,106]

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It's my understanding, the reason for high oil prices in this country is due to 'speculators' driving-up the price so as to turn a quick fortune in their favor.
Also, all this talk of off-shore drilling and drilling in the Arctic... what about all that oil that flows through the pipeline from Alaska to the port of Seattle and is loaded onto tanker ships and goes straight to the Orient? When that pipeline was first built, it was explained to us that the pipeline would end our worries in this country for oil and ease our dependency on foreign oil. About all we see of all that oil is what spills on the docks! What's the deal?


Chuck

The emerging markets are the biggest cause of oil prices. China has increased oil consumption exponentially and they are going to need more. .

The nerve of those Asians. We get them to do nearly all of our manufacturing so the multinational CEOs can get even richer, and they go and use oil to run their factories and transport their goods and workforce

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The only sure way to survive a canopy collision is not to have one.

[Amazon 7]

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The nerve of those Asians. We get them to do nearly all of our manufacturing so the multinational CEOs can get even richer, and they go and use oil to run their factories and transport their goods and workforce

Too bad we cant go back to the old days and just have the British sell them opium....cheeky wogs.....what what.

[nanook 1]

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The nerve of those Asians. We get them to do nearly all of our manufacturing so the multinational CEOs can get even richer, and they go and use oil to run their factories and transport their goods and workforce

You would think they would just walk those Rebok shoes over to the docks. Lazyyyyy. . .

I believe the chinese learned their lessons well. I have a feeling most of that oil is going to their own personal needs sans U.S. manufacturing.

_____________________________

"The trouble with quotes on the internet is that you can never know if they are genuine" - Abraham Lincoln

[kelpdiver 2]

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I kind of wonder if everyone that waits till night to charge their cars will equalize the load of the Grid. That's millions of vehicles per time zone. Those cars are guaranteed to be on of the most tron hungry plug-ins in the house. You think maybe as much as an a/c while it's charging?

If and when everyone is using such vehicles, the night demand might exceed the day. However, we might solve that simply by making offices turn off more of their lights at night.

The end solution may be a 'smart' charger that has bidirectional communication with the grid. Most cars won't need a full charge every night and the start time can be scheduled to match up with demand. This technology is already present and in some use with daytime A/C and business use.

So some changes may be needed, but it's one of the easier ones.

[kallend 2,106]

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Some odd poll options there. They should be:

1) Keep the current bans, keep drilling in the US and keep importing foreign oil.

2) Remove the current bans, keep drilling in the US and keep importing foreign oil.

Nothing we will do, other than developing other sources of energy, will significantly reduce our imports. If we could somehow drill enough deposits fast enough to stop our imports, the US would be completely out of oil in 2.6 years.

Some numbers:
Remaining US oil reserves 22 billion barrels (P90 proved reserves)
Our production level 5 million barrels/day (11.5 years remain)
Our demand 22 million barrels/day - 2.6 years would remain if we started pumping at this rate

That's why "drill more!" is just rearranging the deck chairs on the Titanic. If you want to suck every deposit dry within a few years, then by all means, waste all that money drilling and give yourself another two years to drive that SUV. But when the oil runs out, you are going to discover that you need oil for a lot more than motor fuel - you need it for drugs, plastics, asphalt, lubricants and industrial process feedstock.

Personally I'd rather have another 12 years of oil than another 2.6 - which is why I think "drill drill drill!" is a dumb idea. An even better idea would be to take all the money that would be wasted on rapid drilling expansion and use it to develop alternatives.

"I've been an oil man all my life, but this is one emergency we can't drill our way out of. But if we create a new renewable energy network, we can break our addiction to foreign oil." T. Boone Pickens, July 8, 2008

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The only sure way to survive a canopy collision is not to have one.

[billvon 3,075]

>The end solution may be a 'smart' charger that has bidirectional
>communication with the grid.

Indeed, GM is already working with utilities on such smart chargers.

http://tech.slashdot.org/article.pl?sid=08/07/22/1827224&from=rss