Two years ago, I wrote a piece for BOE report, on the cost to decarbonize the world’s economy. It can be found in the archives. In that article, my estimate came out to about $300 trillion dollars, or $10 trillion per year, more than 10% of the world’s GDP spread out over 30 years. While governments that are now calling for “Net Zero” rarely mention cost, some observers are coming out with numbers in the trillions for annual expenditures, foreshadowing the vast sums that would be [Read more]
Column: Let’s all Join the Green Party!
Let's all Join the Green Party! No, I don't mean the group led by Elizabeth May and her followers. While I'm sure she is a nice lady with good intentions, I don’t like the way her and other contemporary greens have drifted away from true environmentalism and became fixated on opposing carbon dioxide. The “party” I am referring to is the planetary feast with free food for all due to the recent abundant carbon dioxide being lavished on the atmosphere. We all know the level of CO2 has [Read more]
The cost of Decarbonization: how much green to go green?
There is a lot of discussion about “decarbonization” to address the threat of Climate Change. This is the process of weaning the world’s economy away from carbon based energy (coal, oil and natural gas), and replacing it with non-carbon based renewables. This article attempts to cost out the process on a global scale. Normally, we would do a “cost-benefit” analysis, but with this issue benefits are completely subjective. Depending on whether one is a climate change skeptic or believer, [Read more]
Column: North American oil independence is worth celebrating
If you’re in the Canadian Petroleum Industry, it’s hard not to get discouraged by recent news. Competitive disadvantages like Carbon taxes and over-regulation are diverting investment to friendlier jurisdictions like Texas. Politicians fail to appreciate the importance of petroleum energy, and apathetically stand aside as protestors pester pipeline projects to death. Infrastructure constraints have hurt the economics of landlocked areas as price differentials blow out due to transportation [Read more]
Column: Downstream Greenhouse Gas Emissions Kill Energy East
In October, the TransCanada's Energy East project was officially cancelled, after being blindsided with a final regulatory obstacle. The project, which would have shipped 1.2 million barrels of oil from west to east across Canada, was an important piece of infrastructure for the petroleum energy sector, a vital part of the Canadian economy. The new requirement from the National Energy Board, that finally doomed the project, was that approval would be contingent on consideration of “downstream [Read more]
How electric vehicles and renewable generation will affect oil and gas demand
We hear a lot about upcoming disruptive green technologies, that are poised to end the era of hydrocarbon energy in the economy. Let’s have a look at the numbers, to see how these new technologies will impact future requirements for oil and natural gas. In the transportation sector, oil is the dominant fuel by far, with light vehicles (cars, SUVs and light trucks) using about 60 percent of all oil consumed worldwide, mostly in the form of gasoline refined from crude oil. The light vehicle [Read more]