Energy Aware

The sooner we stop expecting a miracle of technology or a quick transition to renewable energy, the better we will be able to cope with a more difficult energy future.

There is little flexibility to modify the kind of crude oil input or distillate yield once the refinery is built. Suggestions by some people to re-design, to build new refineries, or to use new technologies to boost diesel output are not realistic.

I’m not suggesting that everyone needs to become an energy expert. I’m saying that memes are a lazy approach to something too important to be lazy about.

The energy debate assumes that there is some sort of black-and-white choice between fossil and renewable energy. That is not only wrong—it’s impossible.

Lower carbon emissions are critical for the future. That does not mean we can pick a fantasy and make it happen.

The rate of change in energy intensity is now approaching zero. Future GDP will not increase without substantial increases in energy consumption. That is bad news for climate change and for earth’s ecosystem.

Old-paradigm analysts believe that oil demand must revert to ever-higher levels which supply simply cannot meet. In fact, the opposite is true. The correct oil paradigm is supply-driven and price-constrained.

For its many merits, people deserve better information and guidance than Unsettled provides.

Let’s be realistic about what is feasible in the limited time available before energy supply becomes an even bigger crisis.

How much oil is left and what are future prospects for oil production and the economy?

Climate change cannot be fixed with renewable energy and electric vehicles.  Substantial reductions in population, energy use and consumption are the only answers to climate change and its cause, overshoot.

Renewable energy is mainly used for electricity & that is only 20% of energy consumption.