"green energy" feasibility and investment opportunities

That is one of “several”. I’m just guessing, but I’d assume Valero’s preparation for the maintenance shutdown impaired the other refineries’ ability to make similar preparations (or Valero’s arrangements fell through due to subsequent unplanned shutdowns).

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I worked in a refinery for one summer between high school and college. I was scared to death, both from heights and the idiots I worked with, including sons of “senior leaders”. Although it was before the “coolness” of marijuana, there were tons of guys getting high, as they leaned against tanks of jet fuel. There was, at least, one explosion per month (not blaming exclusively on stoners). In the four months I was there, we had 2.5 unexpected shutdowns for at least part of the plant. I was lucky to keep working, as my job was not affected by the shutdowns.

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I’m unsure if there is a defined market yet, but this kind of regulation could easily be in California’s future … It will certainly encourage ranchers to eliminate any beans from cow-feed.

ETA: I grew up on a farm. I know that cows are not fed beans, although they may eat the plants (greens). I also know that cows expel more from the other end. They rarely burp, even while chewing their cud.

ETA2: I may have been in error about cow burping, All of our cows were Republicans, so can’t comment on the Jackass variety. :slight_smile:

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More on high gas prices in CA

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Greta OKs it

And Germany says “ja wohl”

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I do not think they checked with Greta for her approval

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https://twitter.com/SquawkCNBC/status/1576921977754902528?ref_src=twsrc^tfw|twcamp^tweetembed|twterm^1576921977754902528|twgr^a369f65fab9ea2c41d0f4917188cd31df6b54faa|twcon^s1_&ref_url=https%3A%2F%2Fhotair.com%2Fdavid-strom%2F2022%2F10%2F26%2Fwhat-has-all-that-investment-in-renewables-actually-bought-us-n505881

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I supposed to you it may sound like we invested too much and barely moved the needle, but I think his argument is that we haven’t invested enough.

I listened to the discussion and that’s not my impression. His point is just bottom line the investment has not worked. He does not say why. Perhaps, as you seem to believe, because we did not invest enough or, as I believe, the wind and solar technology is not ready and able to replace fossil fuel.

The energy giant RWE has already begun the dismantling of the wind energy farm near the German coal mine Garzweiler. RWE notes that lignite, also known as brown coal, has been mined from that site for over 100 years.

RWE is looking for the additional fuel as it prepares to fire up three of its lignite-fired electricity plants this October, which had previously been placed on standby.

RWE said in a statement last month, “The three lignite units each have a capacity of 300 megawatts (MW). With their deployment, they contribute to strengthening the security of supply in Germany during the energy crisis and to saving natural gas in electricity generation.”

Interesting that there’s no mention of using more wind technology just fossil fuel natural gas.

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The numbers are cherry-picked and don’t tell the whole story. The world invested $3.8T into renewables over 10 years and all it did was maintain the same overall energy consumption percentage. It’s impossible to draw any conclusions from this. How much was invested into fossil fuels over the same 10 years? How does the current investment into renewables compare to past investment (creating the necessary infrastructure) into fossil fuels?

There’s a major difference between the investments into so-called renewables and fossil fuels. The investment into solar and wind was tax money extracted by governments from the citizens. The investments in fossil fuels were by private companies from their profits. If wind and solar were able to provide energy without subsidy, the government would not need to intervene.
Edit.

How does the current investment into renewables compare to past investment (creating the necessary infrastructure) into fossil fuels?

The past investment into infrastructure was also from profits. Profits were used to drill wells, build pipe lines, build refineries, build gasoline service stations, etc. Yes there are some tax implications but no more so than for other industries. And they make sense such as allowing companies to deduct capital expenses from their taxable profits

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It’s that the obvious conclusion regardless of your perspective? The debate is (or should be) about if the additional $30-trillion investment needed just to move the needle 10% is even feasible, let alone worthwhile for the still-meager results.

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I mean, you cut emissions by 50% if you just have Thanos (or Putin, etc) kill half the people, and it would cost a lot less than $30T.

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I don’t know the numbers, but there has been plenty of tax money extracted by governments from citizens then used to subsidize fossil fuels (and nuclear).

Only if you don’t include the value of a statistical life in that cost.

EU joining CA on the “EVs only 2035” idea

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They can’t heat their homes or turn on the lights but at least they will be able to drive around in their EVs.

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image

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Analysts are projecting “a huge gas-to-coal fuel transition in power and industrial sectors” of Europe. Yes, not gas to renewables, but gas to coal. In fact, the European Union’s coal consumption grew 16 percent year-on-year for the first half of 2022. European countries imported 7.9 million tons of thermal coal in June, more than doubling year-on-year. Annual coal imports are expected to reach 100 million tons by the end of the year, the highest since 2017.

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