Seems that we've been pretty lucky over the past 9 months or so regarding energy prices. Oil's been around $50 per barrel, natural gas was surprisingly inexpensive this winter. Heck, even the electric company sent a friendly flyer with this month's bill that they lowered the price per kilowatt hour.
But an old commodities traders used to say "the cure for low prices is low prices". Last summer, when energy prices were through the roof there was a lot of talk about drilling, searching, conserving and alternativising (my word). That talk has all but been silenced.
When prices fall it just doesn't make sense to keep drilling and searching for energy. It doesn't make as much sense to conserve. And it doesn't make as much sense to put money into an alternative energy source. The payback just isnt there.
But whoa to those who think that the energy prices we pay today are a good foundation to which to base an energy decision. Energy prices will be going up. If you had any doubt of that yesterday, be sure of it today. Geithner just printed up another trillion.
Showing posts with label energy. Show all posts
Showing posts with label energy. Show all posts
Thursday, March 19, 2009
Thursday, March 5, 2009
Nogginthought About Alternative Energies
Wow, energy is a hot topic these days. It appears that cap and trade is a shoe-in and that our nation's efforts will move more and more toward finding alternative ways to power our buildings.
But despite the hype and the seemingly clear path away from carbon based fuels, there are still some doubters.
In today's Wall Street Journal, Robert Bryce, managing editor of Energy Tribune points out what a small drop in the bucket(or should I say barrel) solar and wind power will make toward reducing our use of fossil fuels.
27.7 million barrels of oil were not consumed during 2008 thanks to the use of solar and wind. Problem is, he points out, that America uses the equivalent of 17,301 million barrels of oil worth of energy per year. That makes solar and wind quite a small contributor to the solution of our energy problems.
His conclusion is that hydrocarbons won't go away anytime soon and that the politicians need to admit that fact.
I'd have to agree with him. Politicians do things for power. And rallying against hydrocarbons is a politically popular thing to do.
Now, I don't propose to have all the answers, frankly I believe all politicians are cut from the same cloth, but I do think about this stuff.
The one thing that stood out in Robert Bryce's opinion piece is that he, in fact, has a solar array on the roof of his home that provides about a third of the power his family uses.
And that's where my Nogginthoughts begin. A Nogginhaus is a thinking house. And just like a thinking person is an independent one, so too will a Nogginhaus be an independent house. Sure, the nation needs to reduce it's dependence on foreign oil, blah, blah, blah. But we also need to reduce our dependence on the government 'doing something' to solve our problems.
Gas companies, electric companies, and water companies are all utilities that are fingers of the hand of government. And while all this talk revolves around solving the energy problems through various means, it is the individual who will pay for it.
Think now about how your home can be independent and then let the government do what it will do anyway - no matter what you think.
But despite the hype and the seemingly clear path away from carbon based fuels, there are still some doubters.
In today's Wall Street Journal, Robert Bryce, managing editor of Energy Tribune points out what a small drop in the bucket(or should I say barrel) solar and wind power will make toward reducing our use of fossil fuels.
27.7 million barrels of oil were not consumed during 2008 thanks to the use of solar and wind. Problem is, he points out, that America uses the equivalent of 17,301 million barrels of oil worth of energy per year. That makes solar and wind quite a small contributor to the solution of our energy problems.
His conclusion is that hydrocarbons won't go away anytime soon and that the politicians need to admit that fact.
I'd have to agree with him. Politicians do things for power. And rallying against hydrocarbons is a politically popular thing to do.
Now, I don't propose to have all the answers, frankly I believe all politicians are cut from the same cloth, but I do think about this stuff.
The one thing that stood out in Robert Bryce's opinion piece is that he, in fact, has a solar array on the roof of his home that provides about a third of the power his family uses.
And that's where my Nogginthoughts begin. A Nogginhaus is a thinking house. And just like a thinking person is an independent one, so too will a Nogginhaus be an independent house. Sure, the nation needs to reduce it's dependence on foreign oil, blah, blah, blah. But we also need to reduce our dependence on the government 'doing something' to solve our problems.
Gas companies, electric companies, and water companies are all utilities that are fingers of the hand of government. And while all this talk revolves around solving the energy problems through various means, it is the individual who will pay for it.
Think now about how your home can be independent and then let the government do what it will do anyway - no matter what you think.
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