I may not know much about Parisian culture, but I know a good documentary when I see one. In the gripping 2007 culinary adventure Ratatouille, a guy inherits a small restaurant and becomes a sensation cooking with a rat on his head when it turns out the rat is a way better chef than he is. Oh it’s not real? Pardon me. Because I follow the energy scene closely, my ability to sort fact from fiction is severely diminished. One can only say to oneself “This can’t be happening” so many times before [Read more]
Low North American natural gas prices: a global oddity that brings a massive but impermanent competitive advantage
Is there any critical industrial material as bizarre as natural gas? The stuff holds almost zero interest for the general public, for the same reason no one is interested in the sound of a washing machine. Both boring. Both ubiquitous. Natural gas isn't even sold on Amazon. But forty-six percent of American homes use natural gas for heat, and surely more in Canada. But consider the storm below the surface. Traders love it, because it is one of the most volatile commodities in existence, and [Read more]
Awkward – Canada creates a brand new fossil fuel subsidy just in time for COP28, a reminder that sticks hurt and carrots are healthy
Upon hearing about the federal government’s decision to roll back the carbon tax on heating oil, I rolled up my sleeves. The point of writing about energy at all is to try to illuminate some aspect of an energy topic from a viewpoint inside the energy sector; to explain some energy nuance that the general population, which cares little for the nuances of energy, may find valuable. Energy is not simple, and there are a lot of loud storytellers out there, selling magical beans and wishful [Read more]
“That trend must stop” – even the computer hardware industry is starting to panic at AI’s looming energy appetite
There is an army of analysts out there, a quasi-industry, that attacks data streams like piranhas, ripping everything apart and, unlike piranhas, analyzing the living daylights out them. There are people that spend days on end analyzing, for example, not just weekly statistics on weekly petroleum consumption but also the magnitude and vectors of the error bars and comparing those to the error bars on monthly data. It’s funny to see their social media apoplexy when some arcane bit of [Read more]
Solar power has massive potential to benefit humanity – with a different focus
As we slide inexorably into the clutches of Soviet-style cultural narrative control and thought prevention courtesy of ‘fact-checking’ institutions and their oddly subjective ‘fact books’, I offer the following conundrum as a hurled wrench into the cogs of the greasy gears of the thought police: Solar power could soon become a wonderful thing for humanity. As a heretical writer on an oil/gas centric website - most likely soon to be flagged by governmental decree and definition a writhing pit [Read more]
International Energy Agency oil demand claims: Their headlines may please the masters, but the data usually says something else
The International Energy Agency, a Paris-based intergovernmental organization that regularly publishes energy research and outlooks, was in the news again the other week. “No new oil, coal projects needed as fossil fuel demand to peak this decade” blared the headlines from here, there and everywhere. The report concluded that demand for natural gas would also peak this decade. Ah, the poor old IEA. The world’s energy kicking post. They just can’t win. They do try. This latest headline is the [Read more]
AI Part II: Power-hungry AI data systems will follow cheap, reliable energy, no matter what the fuel is
“Crypto mining has been described as running your car in neutral all day so it can solve crossword puzzles in exchange for an occasional coupon that’s mostly useful for buying heroin online.” - Vice In the good old days of 2021, the price of Bitcoin reached $60,000 apiece, and the frenzy to ‘mine’ coins was palpable. If you’ve managed to successfully expunge the mania from the space between your ears, recall that crypto mining “requires three basic things: servers to solve complex mathematical [Read more]
AI AI, Oh Oh: Artificial intelligence power consumption about to skyrocket – and no one is prepared
Today’s musings go far into left field, but please do tag along. If you care about energy, you’ll want to hear all this. Though it has been around for a while, Artificial Intelligence (AI) has exploded in popularity in 2023. AI went from being a fringe thing to the thing. It has been a perplexing year in that regard; many first heard of AI in February and then by May were being told their entire profession was about to be wiped out. Yay, progress! In a well-written and mercifully [Read more]
Six month renewables moratorium is puzzling to many right across the spectrum
Every time I wander into the deep dark murky world of the electrical system, I am reminded of how complicated it is and how little I understand it. The physical movement of the electrons is complicated enough, but that’s “just engineering” - the part bound by certain laws of physics that are well enough understood. The big complexity comes from the planning, the forecasting, the regulatory process, all amid changing regulatory regimes. Here in Alberta, as the AESO (Alberta Electrical System [Read more]
What a world: “Fascist” Tucker Carlson and “commie” RFK Jr have a conversation that makes the BBC look dumb
The BBC - British Broadcasting Corporation - as a news source is, ostensibly, a paragon of quality, delivered relentlessly with appropriately unadorned bland precision, a bastion for everything that clings to yesterday’s buttoned-down factuality and traditions with the dogged and soggy enthusiasm of a rainy day. The Beeb sits there like a rock, born in grey, designed to be neither swayed nor impressed with cultural piffle. It has its own Royal Charter, the constitutional basis for the BBC. Per [Read more]
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