He runs through the ins and outs of how our whole world runs on cheap energy. My favorite thought is, “The real reserve currency of the world is the BTU and the dollar is the physical manifestation of it. The war on Russia, like the war on Iran, is as much about protecting the control of energy as it is ideology. What we are seeing is that the countries with vast energy wealth are starting to figure out that they are better off as partners rather than as competitors.”
Ah, the British Thermal Unit. Metric units be damned.
It’s about time Westerners figured out that windmills and solar panels mean poverty for them and their descendants and start figuring out where the energy source for the year 2200 is going to be. The Germans are pretty smart maybe they’ll start taking those nuke plants out of mothballs after they freeze their own balls off this winter.
I have a hunch geothermal energy and hydrogen as a vehicle fuel is the way things will go but you never know. Funny things can happen. But windmills it won’t be.
Let’s go Brandon!
You will not see hydrogen powered vehicles in your lifetime. Maybe in the lifetime of Princess Sack Of Potatoes.
Hydrogen leaks – ask NASA.
There is no near term technology to fix that.
Hydrogen is a tricky material. But we could handle it the way I did for hydrogen reactors. Everyone’s garage could be equipped with 18 inch concrete walls with a blast panel for the roof. Think of all the work there would be for contractors after the building code change. I like the idea of hydrogen cars but with unlimited energy we could synthesize octane with CO2 and water as starting materials. Given enough cheap energy and raw materials anything is possible.
“It’s about time Westerners figured out that windmills and solar panels mean poverty”. I could have told you that 30 years ago. The energy density of wind or solar is a pitiful fraction of coal/gas/ or especially nuclear-powered generators. Plus the reliability/availability issues. And the land taken out of useful production to put up the turbines or panels. I still think the only person who made money off solar when I lived in Vermont was the guy hired to sweep the snow off them during the winter.
I have nothing against energy efficiency, new kinds of energy production or advances in technology. But the Left always embraces the worst technological alternative. Case in point, compact florescent light. It has a slow startup, produces a ghastly light and is a pain in the neck to dispose of because of the mercury they contain. It’s always the stupidest choice, adopted because it will cause the maximum disruption to our system.