Open Thread Non-Petroleum, June 1, 2022

Ovi Uncategorized

A guest post by Ovi

Comments not related to oil or natural gas production in this thread please, thanks.

92 thoughts to “Open Thread Non-Petroleum, June 1, 2022”

  1. Of course it’s almost impossible to predict the future except in very general terms, but continuing with the discussion of HVDC transmission lines…….. at least a few are either under construction or will be in the near future, to go with the very few we have already.

    The pessimists tend to believe we just can’t manage a successful transition to renewable energy, but they generally forget the lessons of history.

    One day the shit WILL be well and truly IN the fan, rather than just headed for it, as things stand today.

    Once it’s NECESSARY, assuming we aren’t so crippled up we can’t, we can move to a wartime economy, in terms of industrial policies.

    If we do that, it’s altogether possible that a new thousand kilometer line could be fast tracked for construction to start in as little as a few weeks, if the preliminary engineering work, such as planning a route, has already been done.

    Unless I’m seriously deluded, we could be building two or three new such lines every six months or so if we were to put even a fourth of the money into doing it that we put into making the world safe for people who drive oil fueled cars and trucks.

    1. At last reading, the USA had one long range HVDC line. The gist of the read was that China has a global plan that includes a global network of HVDC lines. Many of the HVDC lines in China have already been built (no specific numbers, sorry). The USA has chosen not to participate. This was as of 2 or 3 years ago. I also just read Australia is constructing an HVDC line to either Malaysia or Indonesia.

      1. From what I can tell the shit HAS hit the fan and it is now being distributed randomly around the room.

      3. All I know is that people really, really, really want to hear something get done about the outrageous gas prices and gouging by the oil companies.

        1. Donald.
          ‘ the outrageous gas prices’…
          what do you expect now that the world has entered the time of peak oil?
          The party of cheap petrol is over, and no one can claim they didn’t
          see it coming. Its been on the horizon like a thousand foot billboard with bold font for 50 years.

          1. Gas prices are mainly determined by greed and price gouging. Right now, the gouging is a consequence of Putin’s war in Ukraine and the world going back to normal after the coronavirus oppression. This is an article that explains in more detail why the prices at the pump have gotten so ridiculous.

            https://www.washingtonpost.com/business/interactive/2022/why-gas-prices-so-high/

            You should also read through the many comments there to get an understanding of the current situation.

            1. Gasoline prices are determined by how much I use my tractors, mowers, chainsaws, weed trimmers, truck and generator.

            3. Once upon a time, what happened in Texas determined the price of gasoline in the US. The price today of any and all fossil fuels are decided by WORLD supply and demand and the oil companies are now bit players in the equation.

        2. Donald Brooks,

          If you think the price is too high go elsewhere. If you want government controlled prices, move to Venezuela.

  2. The Kremlin said that Russia will not sell oil at a price below the market
    02 June / 14:20

    Moscow. Russia will not sell anything at a loss and will look for the most favorable conditions in the markets. This was stated by the press secretary of the President of Russia Dmitry Peskov in response to the words of US President Joe Biden that the EU is considering the purchase of Russian oil at limited prices.

    “These are economic issues. The point is that logistical problems still continue there, which leads to destabilization of the global energy market. Therefore, in any case, everything is regulated by the market, even despite the artificial difficulties that are provoked by the sanctions. But of course, Russia will not sell anything at a loss, in any case, somewhere the demand is reduced, then somewhere it increases, there is a reorientation of flows, the search for the most favorable conditions, ”Vedomosti quotes Peskov.

    Biden said earlier that the EU was considering various options, including buying Russian oil at capped prices. According to him, Russia would have a huge need for sales and fuel could be purchased at a price well below the market price. In May, US Treasury Secretary Janet Yellen said that G7 finance ministers had discussed the regulation of Russian oil prices by a cartel of buyers.

    Recently, EU leaders agreed to a partial embargo on Russian oil – the restrictions will affect two-thirds of the volume of fuel. Earlier it was reported that the sixth package of sanctions would include a ban on oil imports by sea, with pipeline oil shipped to landlocked Hungary, Slovakia and the Czech Republic subject to restrictions at a later stage.

      1. Greetings! Disagree a Hole in the Head. Imports to Russia have been greatly reduced. Tourism from Russia too. It is difficult to spend dollars, but it is dangerous to save them, they can be arrested again. I think companies in the Russian Federation will gradually reduce oil production. The trade balance in 2021 was positive, approximately: $500 billion in sales and $350 billion in purchases, the difference was divided by the profit exported by Western and Russian companies and businessmen + invested by the government in securities in the west. Now, I think it makes no sense to maintain the old level of production.

      1. Ovi , you dialed the wrong number . The website linked and The Kyiv Independent are two media sites that came online after the SMO started in Ukraine . Both are funded by MI 6 and the Western ” deep state ” . All who still believe that Ukraine is winning can read these sites for BS that will make you feel fluffy . Be my guests .

  4. Good news from Alaska.

    OIL INDUSTRY EXODUS IS A CLEAR SIGN THAT IT’S TIME TO RESTORE ARCTIC REFUGE PROTECTIONS

    “88 Energy canceling its lease interest on the heels of Chevron and Hilcorp divesting themselves of their own Arctic Refuge holdings is the clearest sign yet that there is zero interest out there in industrializing the wildest place left in America. We have long known that the American people don’t want drilling in the Arctic Refuge, the Gwich’in people don’t want it, and we now have further proof that the oil industry doesn’t want it either.

    The 2021 oil and gas lease sale for the Arctic National Wildlife Refuge was an epic failure, generating less than 1% of the revenue outlined in the 2017 Tax Act. Congress opened the Arctic Refuge to oil drilling in 2017 backed by the ridiculous promise of industry enthusiasm leading to billions in federal revenue from lease sales. That promise continues to be exposed for the lie that was, and we support Congress and the Biden administration taking long-overdue action to restore fiscal common sense and re-establish protections for this crown jewel of our National Wildlife Refuge System.”

    https://alaska-native-news.com/oil-industry-exodus-is-a-clear-sign-that-its-time-to-restore-arctic-refuge-protections/61904/

    1. That is good news–
      I was there in 1968 when it just started.
      Alaska was never like it was after it started.
      I went down to BC mostly after that.

    1. Seems pretty likely that the Middle East and North Africa is going to see a lot of unrest in the near future.

    1. This chart clearly shows the great benefits to society by using vegetable oil to make biodiesel. Pure insanity, let the poor starve, who cares.

  11. For all you guys who say the shit is already in the fan:

    “You ain’t seen NOTHING yet”, within the context of the general public in rich western countries actually FEELING some real pain.

    Sure we had a lot of empty shelves in super markets within the last couple of years……… but I didn’t see any shelves actually emptied of much in the way of staple foods.

    If one staple was out, there was usually some of two or three more available.

    The shit won’t REALLY be in the fan in terms of things going to hell until the electricity is going off frequently, when the tap doesn’t run, when you wait in line for a couple of days for some gasoline………..

    Maybe we will still be able to go proactive about the worst problems then…….. IF we’re still capable of doing so. If the crisis doesn’t sneak up on the ninety percent of us who are unwilling to do any hard thinking.

    https://getpocket.com/explore/item/the-five-universal-laws-of-human-stupidity?utm_source=pocket-newtab

  12. CARBON DIOXIDE PEAK FOR 2022 MORE THAN 50% HIGHER THAN PRE-INDUSTRIAL LEVELS

    Carbon dioxide measured at NOAA’s Mauna Loa Atmospheric Baseline Observatory peaked for 2022 at 421 parts per million in May, pushing the atmosphere further into territory not seen for millions of years, scientists from NOAA and Scripps Institution of Oceanography at the University of California San Diego announced today. NOAA’s measurements of carbon dioxide (CO2) at the mountaintop observatory on Hawaii’s Big Island averaged 420.99 parts per million (ppm), an increase of 1.8 ppm over 2021. Scientists at Scripps, which maintains an independent record, calculated a monthly average of 420.78 ppm.

    “Carbon dioxide is at levels our species has never experienced before—this is not new,” said Pieter Tans, senior scientist with the Global Monitoring Laboratory. “We have known about this for half a century, and have failed to do anything meaningful about it. What’s it going to take for us to wake up?”

    https://phys.org/news/2022-06-carbon-dioxide-peak-higher-pre-industrial.html

    1. “NOAA said carbon dioxide levels are now about the same as 4.1 to 4.5
      million years ago in the Pliocene era, when temperatures were 7 degrees
      (3.9 degrees Celsius) hotter and sea levels were 16 to 82 feet (5 to 25
      meters) higher than now. South Florida, for example, was completely
      under water. These are conditions that human civilization has never
      known.”

      1. As the sea rises in locations we aren’t able to wall off, the locations will be abandoned and inland cities will expand, creating a future wave of prosperity and new economic opportunities. In a few million years if humans are still around, when the temperature has stabilized into a new norm, assume we will have figured out a way to stay alive on this planet e.g. live underground. Therefore, carbon dioxide which fluctuates by the season is something the average person need not be concerned about unless your job depends on it.

      2. The period you refer to, the Pliocene, when Earth began a cooling trend toward the Ice Ages, was the period great apes began to evolve, i. e. our immediate ancestors. The cooling climate was a factor in these primates’ genesis.

        Makes ya wonder what happens when we lurch back to a pre-ape climate. . .

    3. “What’s it going to take for us to wake up?”

      But “we” have been awake, and that is the very problem. We knowingly and willingly walked into the abyss.

      I was an Earth Sciences student in the mid-70s. I learned about this shit way back then. There is no fucking excuse. When Reagan was re-elected in 1984, I threw my hands up and said, F it. We took the wrong fork in the road and doomed ourselves.

      F*ck Homo colossus.

      1. Indeed. Currently, “I need an AR-15 in case I need to
        hijack a plane to fly my child to a country with socialized healthcare”, is my favorite take on gun ownership.

    1. I have been thinking recently that we need a new economic term to replace stagflation. Perhaps recessflation?

    1. Two thoughts on the article after reading the comments.
      -I think what they are experiencing is called “common mode failure”. When you make a bunch of “things” with identical designs and there is a flaw in the design all of the” things” fail and they will fail at about the same time. France used to brag a lot about how, unlike the US, they built all of their reactors to identical designs so they needed only one training regime for their operators and one training regime for their maintenance crews and one inventory of spare parts. A great idea if your fundamental design of the “thing” is sound. Apparently not in this case.

      The comments for the most part seemed to express a solid cornucopian mind set. Kinda of the “we deserve to live like this somebody needs to fix it”.

  15. Ukraine war ‘aggravating’ existing global food crisis, UN warns
    “The number of people facing severe food insecurity has grown dramatically in the last six years. The Ukraine war is the latest element in an extremely complex situation. The UN had seen a lot of progress in reducing the number of people facing hunger in the last 20 years. But there’s been a reversing trend in about 20, 30 countries in the last several years.”
    https://www.aljazeera.com/economy/2022/6/3/ukraine-war-aggravating-existing-global-food-crisis-un-warns

    Let’s hope the cornucopian rapture gets here soon.

    https://en.m.wikipedia.org/wiki/Cornucopianism

  16. We need to talk about climate interventions, as tipping point dominoes fall
    “The need to cool the planet in order to avoid collapse scenarios needs to be taken seriously.”
    http://www.climatecodered.org/2022/06/we-need-to-talk-about-climate.html?m=1

    CLIMATE DOMINOES
    Tipping Point risks for critical climate systems
    “Climate Dominoes: Tipping point risks for critical climate systems, outlines the scientific evidence that critical climate tipping points face grave risks in Antarctica, the Arctic, Greenland Ice Sheet, Amazon rainforest and for coral reefs.”
    https://www.breakthroughonline.org.au/climatedominoes

    1. Lots of excellent medicines are actually rather powerful poisons in and of themselves.

      The Saudi’s and OPEC should be producing more oil short term to help us get thru the immediate crisis.
      Sure the medicine is a long term poison, but it’s a short term solution, and if we don’t make it thru the short term……. well the long term is merely an academic question, in terms of the environment.

      The LAST fucking thing we need is a drag assed economy for the next few years……… in terms of having the political will and the resources necessary to ditch both the Saudi’s AND their oil down the road.

      1. OFM , ” help us get thru the immediate crisis.” . Please define “us ” . As Hilly Billy said define “It ” . 🙂
        Continue “The LAST fucking thing we need is a drag assed economy for the next few years ”
        OFM , you ( we ) don’t have a choice . It is going to be a drag assed economy not for the next few years but forever . Confluence of ” Overshoot ” and ” Limits to Growth ” is the perfect storm .

        1. By “us” in this context I mean humanity in general , and the Western peoples more specifically, and the USA in particular.

          And while I agree that the heady days of oil fired growth using up Mother Nature’s one time gifts of soil, water, ores, etc, are pretty much behind us………….

          Things can be better, or worse, for the next few years, depending on how the many cards fall.
          I would much prefer that the oil cards fall in our favor, with enough oil coming to market cheap enough that our political leadership will be willing and able to vote for policies pushing renewable energy HARD.

          Think of this as war. Sometimes you find it necessary to sacrifice SOME men in the short term to win and save MOST of your men , and your country, for the long term.
          If the Democrats lose control of DC this fall, and the White House in a couple of years, you can just about forget about Uncle Sam doing anything to preserve and protect whatever is left of the environment.

          The Democrats best hope of winning is that the economy holds up ok.

  18. https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=bYKeiBiyHu4

    If u got 2 hours to kill….Sam Harris and Bart Ehrman (UNC Chapel Hill New Testament Expert)…discuss…

    What is Christianity?

    Why is this on an Energy site? Because if you think Christianity is going to save us …. You are gonna be disappointed.

    Moderators delete if inappropriate.

  19. A bit of food for thought.:

    On fanatic dedication:

    You are never dedicated to something you have complete confidence in. No one is fanatically shouting that the sun is going to rise tomorrow. They know it’s going to rise tomorrow. When people are fanatically dedicated to political or religious faiths or any other kinds of dogmas or goals, it’s always because these dogmas or goals are in doubt.
    Robert Pirsig

    1. A person exhibiting excessive enthusiasm and intense uncritical devotion toward some controversial matter is quite a thing to see. Maybe the Flat Earthers will soon start having doubts about tomorrow’s sun rise.

      I’m the Coach Type. I find out what motivates people and I leverage it to increase performance. Some people are motivated by money, some by ego, some by ideology, some because they want more attention from the boys and girls that they like, and some are motivated because their mom is up in the stands watching the game. Poor performance is usually related to personal matters outside of job & team, so it helps to have something in your interpersonal toolbox that helps people feel like opening up. Also, pretend you’re mad sometimes and kick the garbage can.

      Fanaticism is usually, although not always, a pejorative designation. Perhaps the most well used Ad hom in history.

      “Using the word fanatic is a wonderful way to avoid having to look beneath the surface at any of the human motivations that might be involved. Labelling somebody a fanatic is just an A to B knee jerk response in terms of the depth that factors need to be examined. Real people that might be extremely motivated, or feel extreme pressure and societal and cultural coercion to do something, might have some really interesting motivations and points of view. What sort of a range of options do they think they have?” ~ Dan Carlin Hardcore History

      “The ability to understand a question from all sides meant one was totally unfit for action. Fanatical enthusiasm was the mark of the real man.” ~ Thucydides

      “Never hate your enemy, it affects your judgement” ~ Michael Corleone, The Godfather

      Inside the Mind of Fanaticism
      https://www.huffpost.com/entry/inside-the-mind-of-fanaticism_b_5a072059e4b0ee8ec36941e1

      Fanaticism Is a Disease Like Alcoholism
      https://www.psychologytoday.com/ca/blog/ambigamy/201411/fanaticism-is-disease-alcoholism

  20. Peter Navarro has been arrested, cuffed and shackled.
    I’m pouring my self a celebratory drink.

  21. Kids Die, Cops Lie
    “there were nearly two dozen Uvalde officers in the hallway outside of the classroom where the shooter was slaughtering 19 children and two teachers; that they didn’t enter out of fear for their own lives/an assumption that the damage was already done despite continued gunshots”
    …
    “Conflicting reports around what happened inside Robb Elementary School are, to my mind, based in two things: efforts from the police to cover their asses after probably the most catastrophic school shooting failure in US history and the willingness of the media to uncritically repeat whatever cops tell them.”
    https://eoinhiggins.substack.com/p/kids-die-cops-lie?s=r

    There are no vagaries or ambiguities about active shooter response procedures. None. Just coward cops and toady journalists.

    1. None. Just coward cops and toady journalists.

      Bingo! We have a winner.
      Couldn’t agree more

      1. Those two dozen cops hiding out in the hall we’re what’s called a Contact Team. Well, supposed to be anyway.

        “The mission of the contact officer or team is to locate and stop the threat. Even if the threat seemingly has been terminated, contact officers or teams are required to render the location safe”

        https://www.theiacp.org/resources/policy-center-resource/active-shooter

        Nice hats though, those Texas cops. Nothing worse than a bunch of cowards jacked up on authority.

        1. Man drowns as Arizona police watch: ‘I’m not jumping in after you’
          https://www.sfgate.com/news/article/Man-drowns-as-Arizona-police-watch-I-m-not-17222090.php

          Cowards, for sure.

          “Sean Bickings pleaded for help as he struggled to stay afloat in a reservoir in Tempe, Ariz., late last month. But Tempe police officers watched without intervening as Bickings went underwater and did not come back up, according to city officials and a transcript of body-camera footage.”

          1. They’ll perhaps make better fertilizer than they did human beings.

    2. “to my mind, based in two things”

      “willingness of the media to uncritically repeat whatever cops tell them”

      This is just BS and what the Right wants you to believe. Don’t be fooled. Blaming the media is a distraction from the failure of the police and the gun culture in America. We are less than two weeks into the after math of a mass shooting of 19 children and 2 teachers and the media has exposed the lies of the Texas governor and police. Reporting the story line of the police and governor at announcement is the media’s job. Expecting the media to sort out the truth instantly is ignorance. If it wasn’t for the media, we wouldn’t know they have been lying. Also, to be clear. Fox News is not news but propaganda for those with critical thinking issues.

      1. MADELINE —

        “Blaming the media is a distraction from the failure of the police and the gun culture in America.”

        I wholeheartedly agree. Overall the American media does an excellent job. I read the New York times every day and subscribe to The Atlantic. For the record, I’m Canadian.

      2. “Conflicting reports around what happened inside Robb Elementary School are, to my mind, based in two things: efforts from the police to cover their asses after probably the most catastrophic school shooting failure in US history and the willingness of the media to uncritically repeat whatever cops tell them.”

        Whilst the media is not responsible for the shooting and the cowardly police response, they are responsible for the job they do, and their shameless parroting of police statements. Conflicting statements around what happened are based upon the police tendency to lie and the media tendency to repeat it. Nobody expects journalists to sort out the truth instantly, that’s your strawman argument, but they are expected to treat police statements with a little more scrutiny than the latest press release from the local real estate association. If those two teachers hadn’t survived to offer criticism of police response then the story would have remained one of a heroic police response, as was initially stated by police and parroted uncritically by media.

        https://en.m.wikipedia.org/wiki/Copaganda

        1. I guess the bottom line is nobody can continue to say that the solution to a bad guy with a gun is a good guy with a gun. Oh hell, of course they’ll keep saying it.

    1. I think this goes a Little too far…

      “Conclusion

      In conclusion, temperatures could rise strongly soon, driving humans extinct by 2026, making it in many respects rather futile to speculate about what will happen beyond 2026.

      2. I think the author might be reiterating or regurgitating Guy Mcphersons viewpoint of extinction by mid 2020s due to catastrophic climate change.

        1. Good point. Perhaps Guy is involved with or has influenced the site. While I very seriously doubt human extinction by 2026, I do find interesting the articles mention of pending El Niño and solar maximum that may occur concurrently. As well, I feel that rather than extinction by 2026 we’ll instead perhaps lose about a billion to famine and famine related violence between 2023 & 2030.

          1. What is certain to go extinct in the near future is the current iteration of industrial society.

          2. I follow Survivalist’s comments closely, and he makes some good points here and there.
            I don’t agree with quite a lot of what he has to say, but in this case:

            “by 2026 we’ll instead perhaps lose about a billion to famine and famine related violence between 2023 & 2030.”

            I’m willing to second that opinion. I would bet a thousand on it, even money. I might even give five to four odds.

            It’s really a when question. It’s not an if question at all.

            There’s essentially a zero chance we can maintain and increase food production globally in sufficient quantities year after year for another couple of decades, and it will be longer than that before the population peaks.

            Whether production can keep up with population for another five to ten years………. IF all the cards were to fall right, maybe so………. but there are way to many jokers in the deck for any reasonably well informed person to think so.

            And when major short falls hit in some particular regions, the other countries with adequate production, but not much more than adequate for domestic use, are likely to be thinking more about building a domestic reserve than otherwise.

        2. “I think this goes a Little too far…”

          And yet, how far from the truth is it?

          Peter Carter gives a summary of the apocalyptic IPCC report:

          “This report is a dire warning…”

          I have watched this shit going on for decades. I have no hope. Zero.

          Here’s a hint of what’s to come:

          My nephew is addicted to opioids. He knows exactly what’s happening. He has even explained to his grandmother (my mom) how the drugs alter his brain chemistry. Rehab after rehab has been futile. He has no free will

          Recently, he fell asleep inside a dumpster, was transported to a waiting waste truck, dumped out, and broke his wrist and hurt his head.

          Please explain to me how anyone can disbelieve that a century of monumental bungling couldn’t possibly lead to unimaginable catastrophe?

    2. I’ve been thinking for a few years that next big el nino will be shocking to most, in the severity.
      If it comes mid decade, it will also correspond with the time when much of the world will be finally waking up to the reality of permanent high expense fossil fuel.
      Enthusiasm for wind and solar and ev’s will be then gathering big momentum (decades late).
      It will be a frenzy, I suspect.

      Cultural extremism and tribal/national tensions will also likely rise from this lull (admittedly not in Ukraine)
      along with the heat.

  25. They Just Admitted This… Russell Brand (Youtube)

    The Head of the World Economic Forum Klaus Schwab & The CEO of Pfizer Albert Bourla were at Davos 2022 this week, discussing numerous topics around vaccines & the pandemic. Is this something to be worried about?

    (Russell Edward Brand is an English comedian, actor, radio host and YouTuber.)

    Seems to me that in a post Peak Oil environment, putting unelected bodies like the WHO in charge of global health policy and depending on extremely high tech (very complex) solutions from pharmaceutical companies is not going to end well. Something to bear in mind for all those that go on ad nauseam about how technology like solar panels and EVs will not save us. Neither will “high tech” medicine.

    1. IslandBoy,
      There is a big difference between expecting high tech medicine to ‘save us’
      and being a smart user/adopter of innovations.
      Innovations can be in the field of energy, of engineering, of medicine, of education, for example.
      The world isn’t flat, death from tetanus toxin and polio can be 100% prevented by vaccination, and water flowing downhill can indeed be harvested with turbines to produce electricity.

      In a somewhat related topic, all peoples who have declined adoption of important innovations such as fire, the wolf domestication, then horses, or metal, or fossil fuels, or understanding of the ‘germ theory of disease’…have been swamped and buried by those who did.
      I’m not saying that is good, rather that it is the way things have gone for the last million years.
      [controlled use of fire by Homo erectus, beginning roughly 1 million years ago]

      The notion that something/anything can ‘save us’ is sooo pre-bronze age.
      Maybe time to put that behind us.

        1. Do you have a link to a statement of his that doesn’t require watching some you tube piece?
          I’m not interested in more spin on this topic.

  26. “Something to bear in mind for all those that go on ad nauseam about how technology like solar panels and EVs will not save us. Neither will “high tech” medicine”

    Thanks for the heads up Tips. Who woulda thunk it!?

    “I feel that in order for health care to adapt to environmentally driven shifts in long-term health risks, health services need to adapt to a drastic decline in population health status, climate refugees, disasters, and disruptions to the supply chain. I don’t see anyone planning for that. Everyone seems to be on the historical trajectory of anticipating status quo and evermore budgets.”

    “I anticipate future healthcare moving towards an environmental philosophy that will challenge the strong commitment to individual autonomy seen in traditional bioethics, and the extensive and intensive care of the very sick and dying”

    “Tertiary healthcare is expensive and therefore environmentally costly. Technologically extending a life at great cost to the environment is increasingly meaningless in the context of the long-term need to maintain the human and nonhuman biosphere.”

    What Moral Distress in Nursing History Could Suggest about the Future of Health Care
    Andrew Jameton, PhD

    https://journalofethics.ama-assn.org/article/what-moral-distress-nursing-history-could-suggest-about-future-health-care/2017-06

  28. Solid state batteries may be a real BIG THING in the near future. So far, as best I have been able to see, they are vaporware….. but with companies such as BMW and Ford being just about ready to test them in actual automobiles ……….

    I’m inclined to think somebody, if not this company, will have automobile scale solid electrolyte batteries in commercial production within another two or three years.

    https://electrek.co/2022/06/06/solid-power-begins-solid-state-battery-pilot-before-testing-with-ford-and-bmw-in-late-2022/

    1. Yes, solid state batteries are coming. I am not an expert on this (few are), but from what I have seen the prospect is that a solid state battery can increase range by a lot (maybe 30%-50%). The charging time is slow and in your link example silicon is used in the anode. Silicon is widely used in the electronics industry, so it is an issue if battery production is to be scaled up. Well, today we have batteries where phosphate and cobalt are used also. With their own disadvantages. The challenges with battery production is for one the ability to scale it with the associated metal extraction limitations, and then weigh this against the pro/cons of the particular battery chemistry.

      That said there is a number of areas where a 30-50% longer range vehicle with slow charge time can be very useful. Coaches, taxis, small trucks, delivery vans etc. Just need intensive use through the day and charge at night. And also the occasional user of a high priced personal vehicle. Charge it when electricity is cheap, and use the charge the next 1-2 weeks. There are a lot of applications for the higher battery density, which gives the 30-50% longer range. And I have not commented on cost issues, since I have no idea. Probably expensive until mass produced.

    1. HOLE IN HEAD —

      From your post: “Consistent with recent policies, India has again chosen to prioritize energy production over climate policies. The number of mines to reopen is expected to total nearly 200 soon.”

      Meanwhile, in China, the coal hopper is being loaded higher. Chinese policymakers recently greenlighted a coal mine capacity expansion of an additional 300 million metric tons in 2022—almost the annual production of the entire European Union. That’s enough coal to fill a train of standard rail hopper cars that would wrap around the entire equator, plus enough left to stretch from Washington, D.C., to Los Angeles.

      https://foreignpolicy.com/2022/06/06/china-energy-nationalism-coal/

        1. Also – a lot of the energy that is used in China / India is effectively exported – so the actual per capita consumption is likely a bit lower.
          Rgds
          WP

          1. Too much energy is consumed in India generating those scam phone calls of which I receive from two to ten each day.

  30. The five stages of grief for Europe .
    1 , Denial ( We don’t have to pay and we will not pay )
    2 . Anger ( Why should we pay ?)
    3 .Bargaining ( Is there some way that we can save face ?)
    4 . Depression ( F*** we will have to pay )
    5 . Pay in Rubles ( Acceptance )
    🙂

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