47 Comments
Jul 1, 2022Liked by Irina Slav

Suriname, Guyana and Namibia will become giants in filling the gap.

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End the sanctions on Russia. Actively talk about the reducing consumption and embrace rising interest rates to slow the economy enough to fix supply chains.

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1. Elect leaders with common sense.

2. Prioritize food over fuel.

3. Prioritize fuel over renewables until renewables can be practically deployed.

4. Environmentalists must learn to make compromises, such as allow mining to facilitate production of batteries, and allow Natgas pipelines in order to wean countries off more polluting forms of power generation.

That’s just my opinion.

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Jul 1, 2022Liked by Irina Slav

Irina, this supply-demand mess is a worldwide problem. And will find it’s own solution via prices, if only the people’s collective will is followed. If not, pain will eventually cause the necessary changes. Currently, the world must suffer a lot more pain. It will be messy.

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Jul 1, 2022Liked by Irina Slav

Crisis = opportunity (assuming government(s) step back and allow free markets t work)

Otherwise, good luck to us all - we'll need it.

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Jul 1, 2022Liked by Irina Slav

A little bit of everything - energy supply of all kinds, and demand reduction over realistic periods of time.

OECD, particularly North America, energy demand has to fall. We have to work energy strategies, not emissions strategies (if you can call them that). The focus has to be do provide adequate and affordable energy while realistically mitigating and minimizing environmental impacts. We are currently being driven by the thought that we'll focus on emissions and kid ourselves that we'll have adequate energy. That was obviously an ignorant and misinformed route to start with, but it's starting to become obvious enough that even politicians can see it.

I do believe that shortages and prices will resolve the worst of this, but it will take time. So buckle up.

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Jul 1, 2022Liked by Irina Slav

There is no realistic way out of this mess. There are too many opposing and conflicting viewpoints on what to do about energy. Ending fossil fuels while expanding renewables is King Kong vs. Godzilla. I'm not sure who wins, how they win, or if they ever win. Ironically, Godzilla dies without King Kong in the same way that renewable energy is not feasible with fossil fuel energy and fossil molecules. Normally, economics should dictate the allocation of capital. But when you throw in "existential threats", economics become secondary. As I say, I don't see a realistic way out of this mess.

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Jul 1, 2022Liked by Irina Slav

Can we include reality and assume reasonableness from the green folks in our thoughts?

That in itself could be my answer. How about we just let the Forrest’s grow and work our little butts off planting more trees. The planet’s big green filter will get everything back in balance, while we move at a sensible pace to cleaner energy production methods, using better technology, as it is developed, rather than windmills and solar panels RIGHT NOW, EVERYWHERE, NO EXCEPTIONS!

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Jul 1, 2022Liked by Irina Slav

Expose the scam of ESG

Expose the cult of climatism

Let markets decide how much oil&gas to produce, and how much renewables to produce

All these policies were developed during a high-energy, low-energy cost world. Thanks to oil&gas. Now we are seeing what a low-energy, high-energy cost world looks like. It ain't pretty.

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Jul 1, 2022Liked by Irina Slav

Beside a rapid expansion of nuclear energy, a big move to methanol and DME could easily have been done. Methanol being an excellent replacement for gasoline and DME for diesel, which are much cleaner burning, more efficient, less expensive and can be made in unlimited quantities from any biomass, including forest overgrowth which just ends up being burned in massive forest fires. Or made from coal, NG including stranded or flared gas, flue gas(i.e. from cement plants), seawater CO2 or carbonaceous waste.

The DOE built a demo IGCC coal power plant that could coproduce methanol for 50 cents/gal. The Luigi Mega-Methanol plants can produce methanol from NG for 6 cents/liter. And the NREL forecasts methanol from biomass large scale production at 50 cents/gal or 13 cents/liter. An optimized methanol spark ignition engine can substitute for a diesel engine at 1.5X torque/liter displacement, 40% more compact, ~10% more efficient with a much wider island of high efficiency than the diesel engine, as well as much lower emissions. And methanol burns at higher efficiency than natural gas in gas turbines. Methanol being the easiest fuel to store, with spills having minimal environmental effect.

This energy crisis and all we here about is more crap about wind, solar, agrofuels and hydrogen. Zip about nuclear, methanol or DME = the real clean substitutes for oil & gas.

Quoting Robert Zubrin:

" I offered to bet up to ten people $10,000 each that I could take my 2007 Chevy Cobalt [EPA 24mpg, 21 city, 29 hwy], which is not a flex-fuel car, and, running it on 100 percent methanol, get at least 24 miles per gallon on the highway. Since methanol averages less than half the price of gasoline - and can readily be made from coal, natural gas, or any kind of biomass without exception - this would demonstrate superior transportation economy from a non-petroleum fuel that is producible from plentiful American resources. Unfortunately, no one took the bet. That fact alone says a lot. Of the 7 billion people on this planet, there are about a million or so who know a great deal about cars. Clearly, not one of them was sufficiently doubtful that it could be done to put his money on the line. Although it left me short a nice chunk of easy cash, the refusal of anyone to accept my challenge should have settled the matter. But some people, while refusing to take the bet, still demanded that I conduct the test anyway. I did, and here are the results."

" First, I ran the car on 100 percent methanol. This required replacing the fuel-pump seal made of Viton, which is not methanol compatible, with one made of Buna-N, which is. The new part cost 41 cents, retail. In order to take proper advantage of methanol's very high octane rating (about 109), I advanced the timing appropriately. This dramatically improved the motor efficiency and allowed the ordinarily sedate sedan to perform with a significantly more sporty spirit. As measured on the dyno, horsepower increased 10 percent. With these modifications complete, I took my Cobalt out for a road test. The result: 24.6 miles per gallon. When I first made the bet, many commentators thought that I would aim for high-efficiency performance with high-octane fuel by increasing the compression ratio of the engine (which is how race-car drivers using methanol have done it for the past half-century). However, with modern cars using electronic fuel injection, this is unnecessary. Instead, the necessary changes to the engine can be made simply by adjusting the Engine Control Unit software. Thus, except for switching the fuel-pump seal as noted above, no physical changes to the car were required "

The Methanol Economy: G. K. Surya Prakash, Loker Hydrocarbon Research Institute, University of Southern California

https://eu-ems.com/event_images/presentations/Dr.%20Surya%20Prakash%20presentation%202.pdf

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Jul 1, 2022Liked by Irina Slav

The convergence of dark vectors extends well beyond those stated.

On the bright side perhaps this will catalyze groundbreaking innovation(s).

In the meantime, all the self collective systems will continue to adjust by grinding down each in its own way.

These is no stopping this now.

The hands that were dealt are going to be played out unless derailed by an act of God. But don't forget the bulk of the population accepted all this every step of the way while the watchers have been warning.

Soon things will start to move so quickly and so devastatingly it will light your hair on fire.

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Jul 1, 2022Liked by Irina Slav

If the climate alarmists and green agenda has its way, up the creek without a paddle.

However, if we build the Keystone XL and bring some refineries out of mothballs, maybe we can survive. Europe has to build more LNG facilities.

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Jul 1, 2022Liked by Irina Slav

The understanding of the physical laws does not require math. I would suggest that this be a pre-requisite for making decisions on energy. It is matter of life or death.

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The Laws of Thermodynamics.

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Jul 1, 2022·edited Jul 1, 2022Liked by Irina Slav

Very simple.

All of the issues you listed have their root cause in government's attempting to fix what they perceive is a problem.

First step? Repeal the 16th Amendment.

That will get government OUT of the business of attempting to solve societal issues.

There are far, FAR too many idiots in government - e.g., Anthony Fauci - who truly believe they sit at the right hand of God.

What's happening today has an exact parallel to what happened in the U.S. during its Prohibition Era AND the advent of the US Federal Reserve.

Both were / are government attempts to "solve" a societal issue.

In the case of Prohibition, it was alcohol abuse (e.g., drunken husbands coming home and beating their wives). In the case of the US Federal Reserve, it was economic ups and downs.

Prohibition was a spectacular failure. It brought about the rise of people like Al Capone and of organized crime. Things got so bad, the 18th Amendment to the US Constitution - Prohibition - had to be repealed.

The US Federal Reserve was the root cause of 1929's Great Depression and the 2008/09 subprime mortgage crisis and subsequent recession.

This whole situation will get exponentially worse if we don't get government out of the situation.

Donald Trump was trying to get government out of the way and give power back to the American people where it belongs. Just like in Ottawa (Canada), Washington (D.C.) panicked when they heard him say that and reacted to him like a rabid dog.

So the first step is to get rid of government's source of vast power and wealth, i.e., income taxation.

The next step? Get rid of the gatekeepers like the EPA, Dept. of Educ., HUD, etc.

The next step? Let the American people solve all this. They'll solve it beautifully.

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Jul 1, 2022Liked by Irina Slav

There’s an old saying: “When you find yourself in hole, the first thing to do is stop digging.” All the tall foreheads in the world capitals need to stop making regulations and let the free market address the issues. Central planning never gets capital allocation correct.

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Jul 1, 2022Liked by Irina Slav

I think the next 2-3 years will be REALLY BAD. I am long term optimistic for humanity though. Hopefully by 5 years the world will be placed on a crash course towards nuclear innovation, economically competitive synthetic fuels, wide adoption of GMO crops for higher yields, etc. We won’t have fixed all of the problems by then, but we should be on our way.

Unfortunately the stakeholder capitalist crowd needs to be taught a lesson first and that is going to hurt.

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founding

There are 3 things driving mankind, survival, greed and laziness. If you survive long enough you get greedy, when you have enough stuff you get lazy....I am hoping that survival will dominate until this is over... so drill, baby drill.... and that they get some sense about how our world works as of today, not in some utopian future, the step from here to there is not possible in one stride. It'll be a rough ride, but I think it will blow over, hopefully in 2-3 years, I'm too dam old for it to last any longer! If China takes over, then I don't have to worry about it too long..... but I'm an Irish woman living in Texas, so I have a little fight left in me!

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We are in massive population overshoot. And so unfortunately, our Davos/WEF oligarchs will have to seize control and reduce us all to serfs (or Soylent green). Right out of “Brave New World”. It’s just going to have to be the way it is. (Sarcastic, but sadly, actually not really)

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founding

Georgia Guidestones first commandment:

"Maintain humanity under 500,000,000 in perpetual balance with nature."

That's 500 million people, globally.

If you are not familiar with the insane Georgia Guidestone commandments which are literally carved in stone in public, you might want to do an internet search.

Population reduction is a publicly stated goal by WEF and other globalists.

The Green New Deal is one step toward achieving population reduction due to lack of energy.

Add in the coming food shortages this upcoming winter.

Hope you have prepared accordingly.

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Jul 2, 2022·edited Jul 2, 2022Liked by Irina Slav

Good question, Irina. In some parts of Italy we are experiencing water shortage which has led to rationing. Now just add that to the mix and you'll understand where we are going. My only prayer is that we do not wake one morning and they us tell there is air shortage...lol. Who knows how that will happen?

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founding
Jul 2, 2022Liked by Irina Slav

Ending the war in a Ukraine must be a priority, but not everyone wants the war to end.

A new global security architecture will emerge with energy adequacy rather than Climate Security at the epicentre. Climate Change and related dangers needs to be fully reassessed on a pragmatic basis with the new focus of environmental protection. Current policies inspired by the Paris agreement lead to nowhere.

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Jul 5, 2022Liked by Irina Slav

One very simple thing to do is stop converting food into ethanol to put into fuel. It costs far more fuel in the first place to produce that maize than it creates as ethanol by a multiple factor.

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