2nd Edition Coming in June 2023

 Get the Second Edition of the book !!  Coming Soon !

Many of the things I predicted and pointed out 9 years ago have unfolded as predicted.  Costs continue to increase for areas where we do not invest in innovation.  Environmental advocates have continued to tunnel vision the discussion to only wind and solar.  I have updated the data and charts and the results are fascinating.  

The government virtually shut off all drilling and exploration of domestic fuel sources, and the costs increased.  It is very interesting to see as the conversation shifted during the 2016 presidential elections -- just the discussion of producing our own domestic energy resulted in lower fuel prices as our competing foreign energy producers responded.  

 Fuel prices are important.  A 20% increase in fuel prices results in hundreds or even thousands of dollars for the American people.  An average family may spend $3,000 per year on automotive gas.  A 20% increase means $600 our of their pocket, and lost value to the economy.  Remember the $600 checks the government sent to us once.  They sent one check and patted themselves on the back, while taking $600 out of our pockets every year thereafter.  And actually the price of green energy was even higher because fuel prices didn't go up 20%, they went up 80%.  That is a cost to each of us of about $2,400 per year.

Get the updated information and see for yourself.

Alternatives to high priced solar and wind energy

Are there other alternatives?  Is there only wind and solar?  We need to insure we have a low cost readily available base load energy fuel source for our economy.  I am an all of the above advocate.  Let's find a way to supply low cost, environmentally clean and abundant energy -- or we will become energy poor. 

Some groups focus on what they like and don't like, without regard for the merit or functionality of an idea.  There is growing support for a new method of coal based generation.

The past method for coal fired energy was to supply atmospheric air to the combustion.  However, air is only about 21% oxygen.  the other 80% of air is nitrogen and other gasses.  It is this impure mixture which creates more pollutants on in the exhaust from the combustion.  A new combustion cycle was introduced about 7 years ago in which they will purify the air supply to be almost 100% oxygen.   This improves the efficiency and reduces the emissions of NOx by up to 80%.  Other pollutants are also reduced.  While the oxygenation cycle requires some energy and reduces the overall output, it remains much much more cost effective than any other source of power generation.  The emissions are reduced by 97% below half of the current generating stations.  Think of it;  We could reduce the air pollution by about 50% and still have very low cost power.

Courtesy NETL, National Energy Technology Lab,
 http://www.netl.doe.gov/technologies/coalpower/turbines/refshelf/brochures/Brochure%209-19-05.pdf

There are several twists to the remaining Oxy-fuel cycle.  The environmentalist wants to pump the remaining CO2 into the ground, at great cost, to insure zero emissions.  One company has coupled their process with the enhanced oil extraction process.  Many tight oil fields require CO2 or other gaseous mixtures to force the oil out of formations and into the extraction process.  By siting microgeneration stations at the point of oil extraction the former problem of what to do with the CO2 becomes the solution for better and more efficient recovery of our own oil resources.  I love it when America out-smarts a problem.

Several companies have generating stations that are already online and proving the technology today.  Google oxy-fuel cycle and read more.

Read more at;
http://www.netpower.com/technology.html

http://www.netl.doe.gov/publications/factsheets/project/Proj460.pdf

http://www.netl.doe.gov/publications/factsheets/rd/R&D127.pdf

US set to become Natural Gas Exporter in 7 years.

US set to become Natural Gas Exporter in 7 years. 

The Energy Information Administration released a report for Bank of America titled "Outlook for shale gas and tight oil development in the U.S".  The report outlines state of US energy development, and very clearly shows that we have enough energy to power the American Economy - if we would only develop them.

Adam Sieminski, "Outlook for shale gas and tight oil development in the U.S.", EIA, Accessed May 2013

Four of the top five uncertainties to development are man-made.

• Resource quantities and distribution
• Surface vs. mineral rights
• Risk appetite of industry participants
• Infrastructure and technology
• Environmental constraints

Furthermore, three out of the five potential impediments are government influenced (risk, distribution (leases), and environmental constraints.

The presentation in full can be found at:  http://www.eia.gov/pressroom/presentations/sieminski_04202013.pdf

High Energy Prices = High Un-employment

We know based on some basic economic principles that increased regulations and taxes slow the economy down.  I have postulated in my upcoming book that higher energy prices are an indicator of both high regulation and higher taxes and also correlate to higher unemployment.  Now thanks to the Institute for Energy Research (IER) I can show the data.  The IER recently published a study that included all the data that I needed.  So I graphed un-employment against energy prices for 48 States from February of 2010.  The trend is unmistakable.

Nuclear Fusion is a Reality

The National Ignition Facility (NIF) -- a laser test facility at Lawrence Livermore National Laboratory in Livermore, Calif. -- turned on its 192 laser beams for a brief instant on March 15, unleashing a record-setting 1.875-megajoule blast into a target chamber.

The lasers were combined, gathered and focused through a series of lens into a 2.03-megajoule shot, said Ed Moses, NIF director -- a record for the facility.

That pulse of energy lasted for just 23 billionths of a second, yet it generated 411 trillion watts of power, NIF said -- 1,000 times more than the entire United States consumes at any given instant.

“It’s a remarkable demonstration of the laser from the standpoint of its energy, its precision, its power, and its availability,” Moses told Nature magazine.

But it’s barely half the battle. NIF hopes to dramatically increase the power of the laser shots by the end of year, intending to ultimately use the facility to harness the energy reaction that occurs naturally within the sun: fusion.

“This event marks a key milestone in the National Ignition Campaign’s drive toward fusion ignition,” Moses said.

In fission, atoms are split and the massive energy released is captured. The NIF aims for fusion, the ongoing energy process in the sun and other stars where hydrogen and helium nuclei are continually fusing and releasing enormous amounts of energy. In the ignition facility, beams of light converge on pellets of hydrogen isotopes to create a similar, though controlled, micro-explosion

http://news.discovery.com/tech/world-most-powerful-laser-120322.html.

Why a book?

I have written this book because I think that people need to be informed to make good energy decisions in directing their Government.  It is difficult to stay informed on political issues.  It is even more difficult to stay informed on a technical topic like energy and how it interacts with something as double sided as political issues.  Yet it is imperative that people stay informed and well connected to direct their Government.

Several things that have changed over a long period of time make staying informed more difficult, make people more disconnected from their Government, and divide us from each other.  People used to sit on their front porches and talk to each other as they walked around their neighborhoods.  As time and transportation abilities progressed, people drifted apart and now we live and work sometimes great distances apart.  We are more distant from our families and more distant from our co-workers.  We go into work, then we come home, and those are two different worlds.  Seldom do we live close to others of our co-workers.  Seldom do we live in areas where we walk around and talk to our neighbors.  Those things would be fine in one sense, except that they have not been replaced by a quality communicaton substitute.  Men came together in parts of their daily work and discussed issues.  Old men sat in corner stores and discussed these things in light of the past.  Women came together as they worked out their daily life taking care of the home and children, or even more recently as a part of the workforce.  Today, politics is a shunned topic in those areas.  That makes it difficult to talk about life and politics with each other the way we used to.

Let's start now