Biden Administration stops ANWR development

406dn said:
While I realize that nuclear power is the only source really capable of replacing hydrocarbons, I am leery of giving companies a less self inflicted regulatory environment in which to operate.
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The intent of next gen nuclear is not to reduce the safety standards or oversight, but that by standardizing and modularizing inherently fault tolerant devices you reduce the "bespoke regulation" that is the current reality and adds greatly to cost and slows roll out. Essentially every nuclear facility in the last gen is a bespoke, "designed in place" facility that in turn resulted in a great deal of bespoke, on the fly regulatory oversight which contributed to significant cost over runs. Heavy regulation in and of itself adds nothing to safety. It is proper and effective regulation that does that. Next gen nuclear is trying to learn from the "design/build/regulate on the fly" approach that has failed. Get the right regulatory framework baked in and then roll out subject to proper oversight. Part of this will require that some federal regulations need to pre-empt any state "piling on" after design and sign-off is complete. There is no carbon solution in reality without nuclear, but there will be those that try to use the wheels of federal litigation to block next gen nukes - this needs to be stopped in the bud.
 
VikingsGuy said:
There is no carbon solution in reality without nuclear, but there will be those that try to use the wheels of federal litigation to block next gen nukes - this needs to be stopped in the bud.
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Good luck with that. For every lawyer who holds your view, there is another who doesn't.

I think it would be wise of the nuclear industry say up front they want oversight of their operations. If big oil has image problems, they are minor compared to the nuclear industry.
 
406dn said:
Good luck with that. For every lawyer who holds your view, there is another who doesn't.

I think it would be wise of the nuclear industry say up front they want oversight of their operations. If big oil has image problems, they are minor compared to the nuclear industry.
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Properly written federal statutues can cancel most district court litigation. Like so many areas, it is the lack of leadership and will power in congress that leaves us with the mess we have. There is no inherent right to delay via countless serial litigation. There are areas where congress has cut that off. They just haven't done so in this area. That is on congress and the nation's voters, not on lawyers. If we don't like the quagmire of endless environmental and wildlife litigation we can cut it off. We have the system we deserve frankly.
 
BigHornRam said:
Sounds like a whole lotta unicorn farts and rainbows to me but we should know soon enough if this will work.

www.cnbc.com

This 34-year-old's start-up backed by Bill Gates and Jeff Bezos aims to make nearly unlimited clean energy

Brandon Sorbom was rejected by Ph.D. programs. Now, he's a co-founder and chief scientist at Commonwealth Fusion Systems, backed by Jeff Bezos and Bill Gates.
www.cnbc.com www.cnbc.com
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99.9% of new ideas fail, but radios didn'e exist until they did, gun powder didn't exist until it did, man controlled nuclear fission didn't exist until it did, and the internet didn't exitst until Al Gore invented it ;). At some point controlled fusion will be a thing. 2% chance it is during my lifetime.
 
I can’t believe no one on here has mentioned cannabis/hemp as a replacement for fossil fuels. Biomass can be converted to methane, methanol, gasoline at a fraction of the cost of oil, nuclear, and coal along with reducing environmental cost as well. I’m not advocating legalizing the use for getting buzzed, but there is validity in utilizing seeds for oil, reduction of smog, and a renewable resource. If memory serves it was all outlawed 1937 or so. Henry Ford was a big believer in it. We need to think outside the box. Seed oils were also used as aircraft lubricants in WW2, ropes and rigging equipment. And with today’s technology I would imagine the fibers could be used for automotive. Many of you are very knowledgeable about oil and gas as possibly many of you are in the industry. I’m just pulling out some memories from bio chem in college in the 80’s where we touched a pinch on this subject. I believe the discussion that this will never happen until it’s legalized on the federal level again.
 
There is no bio mass solution that comes even close to replacing fossil fuels.

I would point to the ethanol mandate in gasoline. It is now, more or less, 10% of a gallon of gasoline. So to replace the other 90%,, the amount of corn produced dedicated to be converted in ethanol would need to grow 9 fold. There is not that much spare farmland to reach that goal. Actually, the growth would need to be greater than that. The energy in a gallon of ethanol is less that an equal volume of hydrocarbon gasoline.

And that does not even consider the fuel needs supplied by diesel.

We need something far more energy dense,,,,,,which keeps coming back to nuclear. And that has its own can of worms.
 
The only way wood pellets or other biomass can compete with coal is through carbon neutral mandates. Jet fuel can be made with biomass but at a cost of over $10 per gallon.
 
406dn said:
There is no bio mass solution that comes even close to replacing fossil fuels.

I would point to the ethanol mandate in gasoline. It is now, more or less, 10% of a gallon of gasoline. So to replace the other 90%,, the amount of corn produced dedicated to be converted in ethanol would need to grow 9 fold. There is not that much spare farmland to reach that goal. Actually, the growth would need to be greater than that. The energy in a gallon of ethanol is less that an equal volume of hydrocarbon gasoline.

And that does not even consider the fuel needs supplied by diesel.

We need something far more energy dense,,,,,,which keeps coming back to nuclear. And that has its own can of worms.
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And that was if 100% of the biomass based fuels could be created without energy itself. Currently we use gas/oil to make biomass fuels and only with the best fields, best technology and perfect weather does EtOH make more energy than its production consumes. Zero gas/oil would mean zero biomass fuel. This will only change if someone can solve the "C5 sugars problem" - a technical problem that, as the Economist once said, "is the technical marvel that has been 5 years away for 50 years."
 
VikingsGuy said:
And that was if 100% of the biomass based fuels could be created without energy itself. Currently we use gas/oil to make biomass fuels and only with the best fields, best technology and perfect weather does EtOH make more energy than its production consumes. Zero gas/oil would mean zero biomass fuel. This will only change if someone can solve the "C5 sugars problem" - a technical problem that, as the Economist once said, "is the technical marvel that has been 5 years away for 50 years."
Click to expand...

The ethanol mandate boondoggle could have its own thread.

Some might recall the ads touting diesel fuel derived from green algae. That project had financial and scientific backing. Ultimately, it ran into reality.

Fossil fuels are in reality biomass collected over many millions of years, altered by their environmental conditions into everything from methane to coal. That alone should convince people that biomass can be a small part of a solution but not a major part.
 
Much of arctic oil development is via ice roads in the winter.
The Trump administration approved the Willow development plan in October. Permits to mine for gravel and build ice roads were issued on the morning of Jan. 20, just before Biden was sworn in.

Last Saturday the 9th U.S. Circuit Court of Appeals in California issued a decision will halt on-the-ground work at Willow for the year...

Willow was potentially a $2 billion-plus crude oil project... one of the biggest oil projects in North Slope history. It was west of ANWR in the National Petroleum Reserve. It has been estimated that Willow could produce over 100,000 barrels per day of crude oil.
 
AlaskaHunter said:
Much of arctic oil development is via ice roads in the winter.
The Trump administration approved the Willow development plan in October. Permits to mine for gravel and build ice roads were issued on the morning of Jan. 20, just before Biden was sworn in.

Last Saturday the 9th U.S. Circuit Court of Appeals in California issued a decision will halt on-the-ground work at Willow for the year...

Willow was potentially a $2 billion-plus crude oil project... one of the biggest oil projects in North Slope history. It was west of ANWR in the National Petroleum Reserve. It has been estimated that Willow could produce over 100,000 barrels per day of crude oil.
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The liberty island project BP was working on that Hillcorp took over for pulled as well.
 
neffa3 said:
Funny how they don't mention the cost to run your furnace...
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Oh totally, I posted it mostly tongue in cheek.

I think everyone's big take away should be that our grid is vulnerable and that a mix of sources is good.

My preferred option would be Nuclear as a back bone to the grid, NG combustion plants or hydro where applicable to deal with fluctuations in the grid as those can spin up quickly, and then solar and wind to distribute load in the grid. Solar panels on houses in places like AZ to offset summer AC spikes... that's a no brainer.

Energy policy needs to be pragmatic, demagogues on either side of the spectrum are unhelpful.

It got real pricey all around.
www.wfaa.com

Natural gas supply is critically low in Texas. Are rolling gas outages next?

"Natural gas supply constraints may lead to service outages for some Atmos Energy customers," the utility announced Wednesday night.
www.wfaa.com www.wfaa.com
 
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