View topic - North American energy independence by 2020

From an energy consultant... only a prediction, not a sure thing. But good news if the well-being of the economy is the issue... not so good, if climate change, pipelines and the oil sands are issues, since fossil fuels make up a large part of this.

Stephen Harper's Malasia agreement yesterday to pipe and export natural gas is part of this picture.





http://www.woodmacresearch.com/cgi-bin/ ... d=11572576

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So, by 2020, we'll be using up our own resources, rather than buying much of what we need at tolerable prices from others.

This appears to be driven by private industry, as usual. And we know from past North American history that private industry will exhaust any resource and leave a mess behind.

It's a prediction, predictions are often wrong. There are others that say NA will need foreign oil for a long time yet. The hardcore solar camp predicts that the shift to solar is inevitable because of improvements in technology, and by 2020, solar panels will be cheap enough to displace fossil fuels cost-efficiently.

Predictions, take yer pick.



Our culture is capitalist-based and our well-being depends to a great extent on the benefits that that brings in. I've read reports on international conferences where "even Canada is beginning to realize the benefits of capital flowing in for development"... yep, the Great White North is open for business. The US has been at it longer, IIRC US communists were eliminated or blacklisted during the fifties.... j/k...



Um, there's still a great deal of oil, natural gas and coal in NA that hasn't been exhausted yet. As far as messes being left behind, yes, there is that, OTOH that has to be weighed against the economic benefits that the development brings in. Need a job, a house, a vehicle, a kevlar canoe made possible by the polluting corporate greedhead swine at DuPont?

The antidote to all that mess in America and Canada, is the system of protected natural areas kept free from development... some say that world-class natural areas protection is made possible by capitalism, since wealth is necessary first, before environmental protection can be made possible. The poor developing nations are evidence of that.

OK, the caffeine's beginning to wear off... I'm done.

PS... Stephen Harper is flying back from Malasia bringing $36 billion to develop natural gas for export... even BC's "pipeline, over my dead body" premier is happy with that.

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I got this news link from a friend over the weekend:

"Cheap, spray-on solar cells developed by Canadian researchers: Silicon-free solar cells, light and flexible enough to roll up or use as window blinds, are under development at a University of Alberta lab. Here's how they would work: http://cbc.sh/ev447iT "

Could this become a major breakthrough in the economic viability of solar power? Note that this work is being done at the University of Alberta and funded by the provincial government.

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How does Malaysia's financing of LNG export facilities in BC ($11 billion for port, $5 billion to TransCanada for pipeline, $5 billion for takeover of Canadian owned Progress Energy, and more) have anything to do with energy independence in 2020?

Sounds like a sweetheart deal for TransCanada, developers (selling at a higher price to Malaysia and Asia than US or Canada), and shareholders of Progress Energy (who saw 150% jump in share values with Petronas buyout in 2012). For the rest of us (looking for long lasting and affordable natural gas at home, and moderately sufficient environmental rules) ... not so much?