A new energy policy sure would be a good outcome from this BP spill, but I am not holding my breath. Electric cars should be a manageable achievement in this day and age. Even if they go slower and everybody has to take a little longer to get where they are going.
“I don’t care what you do DIBS. Buy 20 cars and idle them all day for all I care. I just like to point out to the indignant finger pointers that they are actually the source of the spill and BP is an instrument of their consumption patterns.”
PUH-lease, this from the guy driving all over the country all spring!
“One can only hope that this disaster will somehow loosen the oil industry’s grip on alternative energies”
Montrose;
The oil industry is barely involved in the alternative energy industry. I’ll give you an example in a field I am directly working in: offshore wind energy.
The turbines are made by Siemens and a Spanish company (begins with V, but the name escapes me now). The high voltage cables that run to the turbines are made by Hitachi, Sumitomo and two European companies that are not well-known in the states: ABB and Nexans. The installation is done by companies like Oceaneering, Caldwell Marine and Tyco (all of which would LOVE for this field to develop so that they could reduce their exposure to the offshore oil industry).
You know what’s holding up this industry? First and foremost: the economics doesn’t make sense, even WITH the generous government subsidies on the books. The second significant factor is the potent NIMBY/enviromental lobby that puts such constraints on the placement of these offshore turbines as to further make the economics ridiculous. Look up the history of the Cape Wind project if you want a primer on this nascent industry. Right now this project is being held up by some Indian tribe that claims the placement of the turbines (10 miles out, mind you) will mar their “ancient vistas”.
“If I needed gas, i would drive by a BP dstation for another. But, i still need the gas.”
I don’t care what you do DIBS. Buy 20 cars and idle them all day for all I care. I just like to point out to the indignant finger pointers that they are actually the source of the spill and BP is an instrument of their consumption patterns.
Anyways it doesn’t matter one iota which station you buy it from.
A number of years ago I was sitting around a big map of a middle eastern country with an interesting group of people. They were drawing squares on the map to identify how gas exploration rights were going to be auctioned off. The chief economist for this country’s state-owned oil company (which was in charge of this process) told me something I will never forget. He told me that oil is one of the few markets where it truly doesn’t matter one little bit where you buy or where you sell. You can boycott a country you are trying to punish, or buy from some country you are trying to support. But it won’t make a lick of difference because supply and demand for oil is truly global. Doesn’t matter who you buy from or who you sell to.
So boycott BP if you’re angry. Or Citgo if you hate Chavez as much as I do. Or Russia if you like. But it won’t matter. It won’t make any difference at all.
was hoping Nadal gets a chance to face him to take back title
A new energy policy sure would be a good outcome from this BP spill, but I am not holding my breath. Electric cars should be a manageable achievement in this day and age. Even if they go slower and everybody has to take a little longer to get where they are going.
Very subtle, Biff, prolly too subtle for Cobble even, but very entertaining.
*rob-for-a-day*
“I don’t care what you do DIBS. Buy 20 cars and idle them all day for all I care. I just like to point out to the indignant finger pointers that they are actually the source of the spill and BP is an instrument of their consumption patterns.”
PUH-lease, this from the guy driving all over the country all spring!
Roger Federer lost.
*rob-for-a-day*
I’ll always remember Tipper Gore as the buttinski who decided to make a crusade out of music lyrics.
Who remeber’s Dee Snyder from Twisted Sister testifying before congress?
“One can only hope that this disaster will somehow loosen the oil industry’s grip on alternative energies”
Montrose;
The oil industry is barely involved in the alternative energy industry. I’ll give you an example in a field I am directly working in: offshore wind energy.
The turbines are made by Siemens and a Spanish company (begins with V, but the name escapes me now). The high voltage cables that run to the turbines are made by Hitachi, Sumitomo and two European companies that are not well-known in the states: ABB and Nexans. The installation is done by companies like Oceaneering, Caldwell Marine and Tyco (all of which would LOVE for this field to develop so that they could reduce their exposure to the offshore oil industry).
You know what’s holding up this industry? First and foremost: the economics doesn’t make sense, even WITH the generous government subsidies on the books. The second significant factor is the potent NIMBY/enviromental lobby that puts such constraints on the placement of these offshore turbines as to further make the economics ridiculous. Look up the history of the Cape Wind project if you want a primer on this nascent industry. Right now this project is being held up by some Indian tribe that claims the placement of the turbines (10 miles out, mind you) will mar their “ancient vistas”.
Yes, Legion, start the reactors. Just asinine that the environmentalists have stymied this for so many years and we are now behind many other nations.
“If I needed gas, i would drive by a BP dstation for another. But, i still need the gas.”
I don’t care what you do DIBS. Buy 20 cars and idle them all day for all I care. I just like to point out to the indignant finger pointers that they are actually the source of the spill and BP is an instrument of their consumption patterns.
Anyways it doesn’t matter one iota which station you buy it from.
A number of years ago I was sitting around a big map of a middle eastern country with an interesting group of people. They were drawing squares on the map to identify how gas exploration rights were going to be auctioned off. The chief economist for this country’s state-owned oil company (which was in charge of this process) told me something I will never forget. He told me that oil is one of the few markets where it truly doesn’t matter one little bit where you buy or where you sell. You can boycott a country you are trying to punish, or buy from some country you are trying to support. But it won’t make a lick of difference because supply and demand for oil is truly global. Doesn’t matter who you buy from or who you sell to.
So boycott BP if you’re angry. Or Citgo if you hate Chavez as much as I do. Or Russia if you like. But it won’t matter. It won’t make any difference at all.