Jim Bourg/ReutersPresident-elect Barack Obama's energy program is expected to focus on renewable energy, transitioning away from fossil fuels.
CALGARY - "Canada's oil sands community is gearing up for a big push in Washington to influence U. S. president-elect Barack Obama's energy agenda." Claudia Cattaneo, Financial Post (click on the read more icon for the full Financial Post story)
I know why I am not a politician or a diplomat as my reaction to this issue is take it or leave it. Here is our "friendly" oil, you my American "friends" can buy all you want. Or if our oil is too "dirty" for you go back to the Middle East and buy their "clean" oil.
The Chinese only see oil. No dirty, friendly, or non friendly oil.
Just oil.
Total American Imports of Petroleum (Top 15 Countries) Source USA Govt Dept of Energy
(Thousand Barrels per Day) YTD 2008
CANADA 2,427
SAUDI ARABIA 1,560
MEXICO 1,31
VENEZUELA 1,210
NIGERIA 1,067
IRAQ 675
ALGERIA 525
ANGOLA 523
RUSSIA 487
VIRGIN ISLANDS 326
ECUADOR 216
COLOMBIA 210
UNITED KINGDOM 218
BRAZIL 244
KUWAIT 207
As I said take it, or leave it.
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2 comments:
Focusing on renewable energy does not "transition away from fossil fuels". Are you aware of the massive amount of rebuilding and retooling that would require? If you want to know, I have the numbers. (Think of how many solar panels and windmills it would take to replace ONE gas station in downtown LA. Staggering!) No, the energy industry is not in any kind of trouble at all.
Nobody should be under the illusion that we will transition away from fossil fuels -- at least not in our lifetimes -- or, at any rate, not until we find a revolutionary way to produce energy. And those technologies are still the stuff of R&D, many of them with no foreseeable time horizon. Renewable energies are promising adn should be explored -- particularly by the established energy industry. But I dont' think they can exceed much more than 15% of total output in the next twenty years. About 85% of that 15% will be owned by the likes of BP, Shell, Exxon and others. And the cost of building out nuclear energy on the kind of scale we're talking about will cost tens of trillions of dollars...for the state of California.
Please, let's all stop propagating that scaremongering, oil-company lobbyist rubbish about renewable energy. That makes about as much sense to me as the US being "energy independent". The people who spout that muck are either ignorant...or liars. Don't get me wrong, renewable energy is good. It's just not anywhere near enough to satiate US consumption levels.
The US (and the rest of the world) will buy oil from the market -- whether it is from Saudi Arabia, Iraq, Iran, Russia, Venezuela, Mexico, or Canada. Or even outer space. Politicians know this. Why they don't prepare the American people for this reality is beyond me. Fossil fuels are becoming scarcer. Prices will rise again. Canada will develop technologies to more efficiently extract crude and natural gas, along with the US and other nations. But Canada will benefit enormously from this. The US has a LOT of untapped fields, without having to open up ANWAR. But even if we opened up all of our explored resources to drilling, it wouldn't bring more than a few percentage points in increased capacity. Okay, maybe 5%. I got those numbers, too.
Why isn't anyone talking about this?
In a word, votes. The conservative government of Canada was supposed to be pro business / oil. However in a minortiy government they need votes and green talk of any kind gets votes. Whether it is right or wrong makes no difference to a politician.
As I said in June, imagine life with out oil. Imagine the cost.
The Rainbow Warrior can no longer set sea, Al Gore can no longer fly to his $200,000 dinner speaking engagements, David Suzuki can no longer drive his bus across Canada, you cannot heat your home, your lights don't come on, the car has no fuel, all plastic materials are gone.
Think.
The case to find alternatives is clear, as oil is finite. However while that journey is in progress if you have any economic sense at all, the case to find and produce all the oil we can is also clear.
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