Things are sure looking a lot different today with respect to peak oil, between drilling down and getting to the really deep and seemingly abundant oil, in places like the Gulf of Mexico, where the pressure is huge and bad things happened, and Fracking technology, it looks like we’ve got another 20-25 years before we… (read more)

Hello folks. Google discontinued FTP Publishing after they took over blogger and I finally got around to upgrading our web server so we could run modern applications like WordPress and imported my old blogs into WordPress. Unfortunately, only the bare text appears to have been imported, all the nice markup and everything else has been… (read more)

I’ve read about the development of LED street lighting by Cree and a number of other manufactures and was curious just how well it actually worked. Recently, I had the opportunity to see it in person. In Seattle on 10th Ave E between Harvard and Roy there is a section of street lighted by LED… (read more)

As we transition from hydrocarbon fuels to renewable sustainable energy sources one of the issues we have is that many sustainable energy sources are intermittent. The sun only shines during the day, wind blows when it wants to. With hydrocarbon fuels, many power plants can’t be readily throttled to adjust to variable energy demand. Coal… (read more)

The best possible world involves engaging all human beings, allowing everyone to live a productive life and contribute to our civilizations future. That means getting everyone thinking and communicating. There are a couple of annoying limitations to the blog as a medium. First, it tends to be one-way. Sure, you can post comments and I… (read more)

One of the big arguments of the anti-environmentalists, oil company lobbyists, or what have you, is that solar and wind, the most commonly mentioned renewable energy sources, aren’t available 24×7 (at any one location). They can’t provide so called “base-load” power. On the other hand, we’ve got this rumbling at the east side of the… (read more)

Last winter was the coldest winter on record in North America. Last night, the temperature plummeted to 13°F here in Shoreline Washington (13 miles north of downtown Seattle). For this area that’s not unheard of but it is extremely rare. Global Warming portrayed in the popular media is a gross over simplification. There are natural… (read more)

I think everyone should take a moment to read this 60 minutes article posted by CBS News on their website. Saudi Arabia talks about this new oil field that production costs will be under $2/barrel; yet, they need to sell oil at least at $55 to run the Saudi Government. And who is their largest… (read more)

Economic growth requires more than the free flow of capital. It requires energy. The world economy hit the wall because the supply of energy available from conventional sources also hit the wall and nobody thought ahead enough to put the necessary infrastructure in place to assure access to the energy we need for sustained growth… (read more)

It’s incredible how short-sighted people are today. Oil prices decline for a few weeks and OPEC starts talking about a production cut, Chevron puts tar sand projects expansion on hold; and people start driving their SUVs again. Folks, it’s TEMPORARY. First, the oil tycoons want to keep Republicans in office. They give 11 times as… (read more)