We need to learn quickly to keep up with the massive change around us so we don't get run over. We need to outrun change.
And as long as you didn’t really mean to off them.
The Los Angeles Times reports Companies won’t face charges in condor deaths.
The federal Fish and Wildlife Service told the operators of Terra-Gen Power’s wind farm in the heart of condor habitat they
…will not be prosecuted if their turbines accidentally kill a condor during the expected 30-year life span of the project.
I’m starting to get a kick out of the idea that we measure humongous amounts of oil in terms of Bakkens.
Here’s the latest example, in terms of explaining the magnitude of what’s happening in Texas:
In just the last 16 months since October 2011 when the state produced 1.598 million bpd, Texas oil output has increased by almost 700,000 bpd to 2.295 million bpd in February, which is the equivalent of adding an entire new oil field the size of the North Dakota Bakken formation to the US oil supply (based on February production in the Bakken of 715,000 bpd).
Output increase in Texas over 18 months equals one Bakken.
That’s point number 3 at Carpe Diem’s post explaining The meteoric rise in Texas oil output continues and is one of the most remarkable energy success stories in US history.
Amazing.
RBN Energy has a report, If You’ve Got the Money We’ve Got the Crude – new Refineries in North Dakota, that explains
North Dakota’s only refinery produces less than half the diesel the State consumes. To help remedy that disparity the first new refinery to be built in the Lower 48 since 1977 is under construction today and two more new refineries are planned.
Very cool. There is more demand for diesel in the state than the one refinery there can produce.
Here’s my simple summary:
One of the great things about the tech revolution is the low barrier to entry for lots of things. Used to be it would require a receptionist, stat typist, full-sized copy machine, and large bookshelf with lots of expensive books to start an accounting firm.
Now you can start a firm at a desk with equipment that fits on the desk. I know it can be done. I did it.
Same with writing, publishing, creating music, and any business that involves professional services or selling over the ‘net.
So why not pursue your dream?
Philosiblog expands that idea with If you don’t build your dream someone will hire you to help build theirs.
You don’t have to realize any benefit from humongous amounts of oil in the ground.
California isn’t. California doesn’t want to.
A great Wall Street Journal editorial summarizes Texas wanting oil and getting much wealth while California doesn’t want either: A Tale of Two Oil States.
The editorial says Texas pumps more oil than the next four largest states combined and could double their production by 2016 and triple in another decade. Production in California is declining.
The editorial points out there about 400K oil jobs in Texas but only around one-tenth that, or 40K, in California.
Warning: sarcasm alert. I try to avoid destructive humor. When I look at foolishness about energy, ridicule obviously becomes a great tool to point out the foolishness.
There is a lot of oil here: Continue reading “Texas wants oil riches, California doesn’t. We’d rather skip the jobs & taxes and slaughter golden eagles to get our clean energy.”
There are a lot of factors explaining why drilling costs are higher in Bakken than elsewhere. Multiple factors explain why costs are dropping.
Seeking Alpha, by Michael Filloon, explains in Bakken Update: Bakken Well Costs Are Decreasing Faster Than Companies Indicate.
Just a few reasons costs are higher: The formations are deeper, infrastructure hasn’t had decades to develop so isn’t as strong as elsewhere, the extreme cold weather makes drilling more difficult, the spring thaw makes truck deliveries slower because of lighter loads.
A number of factors beyond pad drilling and growing efficiency are at play to reduce costs. The article’s conclusion: Continue reading “More explanation why drilling costs are going down in Bakken”
I mentioned the dropping costs of production in Eagle Ford in this post.
Here’s the graph in the presentation slide deck for the 2013 report from the University of Texas San Antonio:
Thanks to R.T. Dukes of EagleFordShale.com for permission to repost his graph. Thanks to Professor Thomas Tunstall for a copy of the slide presentation.
(Cross-post from my other blog, Freedom Is Moral.)
I challenge you to this experiment:
Spend a few days reading nothing but technology news. Then spend a few days reading nothing but political news. For the first few days [you will] see an exciting world of innovation and creativity where everything is getting better all the time. In the second period [you will] see a miserable world of cynicism and treachery where everything is falling apart.
Why is there such a gulf between those two worlds?
Quote from here.
“I can’t make this stuff up” should be trademarked by Million Dollar Way.
Bills are moving through the California legislature to halt fracking in the state until it is studied to the legislator’s satisfaction. Reported by the AP in Lawmakers advance bill to halt oil fracking.
Fracking has been used in California for 60 years. Six decades.
Continue reading “California may ban drilling technique that has been used for only 60 years”
The quote is from Helen Keller and Philosoblog discusses it in a post of the same name.
Deep down we all want our life work to make a big impact on the world. Those of us working or volunteering or donating in the nonprofit community want to change the world.
Reports are surfacing that businesses and colleges are planning to reduce hours for part-time staff.
Now news is appearing that state governments are working the same plan.
Why? Continue reading “State governments starting to change part-time rules”
Check out this superb graph from Wired Magazine reposted by Carpe Diem – Chart of the day: The falling price of memory.
Fantastic illustration of how drastically storage prices have dropped in last 20 years.
Let’s look at the technology I’ve used to pass info back and forth to clients while at their office.
The USGS updated their estimate of the amount of oil that is undiscovered, technically recoverable in the Bakken field. Second paragraph of their press release says:
The USGS assessment found that the Bakken Formation has an estimated mean oil resource of 3.65 BBO and the Three Forks Formation has an estimated mean resource of 3.73 BBO, for a total of 7.38 BBO, with a range of 4.42 (95 percent chance) to 11.43 BBO (5 percent chance). This assessment of both formations represents a significant increase over the estimated mean resource of 3.65 billion barrels of undiscovered oil in the Bakken Formation that was estimated in the 2008 assessment.
This means the mid-point (statistically correct phrase: mean) of the total oil that is technically recoverable with current technology is 7.4 billion barrels of oil. Their assessment is that the probability is 95% that there will be at least 4.4B and the probability is 5% that there could be as much as 11.4B.