In reply to Kyzer.

Oh that reminded me of a Previously that I forgot to include on this!

In reply to jwz.

Part of me wants to think that the original source of oil is some previous "intelligent" species that evolved doing carbon capture in this way after burning too much coal. We can tell how it turned out by the presence of another intelligent species cautioning us on fossil fuel use

Everyone should visit Richard Wilson's 20:50 wherever it's installed. You won't forget that smell. That's just one roomful of dinosaur squeezings, imagine a cavern of it.

In reply to Nate.

😶 Damn.

In reply to A_Minion.

The quote from the article (you don't even need to click through!) says it has been tapped nine times (Nine times? Nine. Times.), presumably for smaller crises than this one. So....

In reply to CSL3.

Oh we’ve had earthquakes in Texas for a decade or so now, courtesy the fracking.

I don't see a problem, North slope Alaska has at a minimum of 25 Billion barrels of oil and tho they are only pumping at 200,000+ bpd they have pumped far more a day in the past. We also have our own refinery, tho small can produce far more than it is now. That's not counting off shore or Texas Calif and other wells in the US. It would take far longer then current problems to even begin to tap S.O.R.

In reply to Western Infidels.

I fear we’re 30 years late for that… :-/ @jwz

In reply to thielges.

I see what you did there.

Nice to see Geoff publishing on BLDGBLOG again.  You can always count on him for news from the underground.

In reply to tfb.

Trump is actively disassembling the USA on multiple fronts, almost as if he's trying for a repeat of the Soviet Union's end days.  Once this once great nation is in parts, the oligarchs can pick up the pieces at bargain prices.  

Doubling down on scarce fossil fuels while sabotaging sustainable wind and solar energy?  This folly seems so obvious, yet his MAGA sycophants still believe that he is making the country better.  Either that or they are deluded into thinking they have a chance of profiting from the downfall.  The best these bombastic bros will be able to do is to buy a few more thousand rounds of ammo for their strategic WROL reserve.

In reply to Euler.

Wait until you find out what the "carbon capture" con / pipe dream actually means!

Rest of the world: the war in Ukraine and some idiot deciding to attack Iran means fossil fuels are an enormous short-term economic risk that even quite stupid economists and politicians can understand.  We need to build PV and wind capacity as fast as we possibly can.

(Pakistan has deployed 41GW-worth of Solar panels since 2023. All its other power generation put togetheer is 46GW).

America: storing vast amounts of oil is the solution!  The storage is crumbling you say?  Never mind, never mind.  Also we should make it very very hard to deploy PV or wind.  Yes, that will solve it.  And let's attack Iran! Data centres in spaaace will be the answer!

There's a saying, isn't there? With Trump you never have to ask whether it's malice or stupidity: it's always both.

In reply to Western Infidels.

Not American, but you can fall into a pretty deep click hole by searching "maple syrup" on this blog.

In reply to CSL3.

I think people are well beyond the point of just taxing them.

In reply to Western Infidels.

I thought the oil reserve was a bunch of barrels in a warehouse. I never thought they'd literally pump the oil back into the ground.

I knew the helium reserve was a physical site. But I had a vague idea the oil reserve was virtualized or outsourced in some way. As if it were just an agreement or arrangement in which oil and refining companies would stockpile more crude than would otherwise be financially efficient.

It would be great to learn about some big American infrastructure thing I hadn't heard of before *without* the immediate follow-up of "...and it's falling apart."

EVERY TECH CEO: "Those mean Californians wanna tax us for being rich! We're gonna move to Texas and hoard our money like dragons with gold!"

BOOMER TECH INVESTOR: "Or like James Dean in Giant."

EVERY TECH CEO: "Like who in what?"

{the move happens}

EVERY TECH CEO: "Well, we made it to Texas! Less than 3% of our crucial workforce came with us, but we made it to this hot-as-balls state to do our environment-killing work unimpeded. We'll be just like those old oil barons! Yup, everything's bigger 'n better in Texas!"

{as the War on Iran continues, the gov't orders the Texas reserves drained and bribes France with taxpayer money to kill off their wind farms}

EVERY TECH CEO: "Do you hear that? Like a rumbling? They don't have earthquakes in Texas, too, do they?"

TEXAS:

it would be hell of a moment for the US oil strategic reserve to go bust…

If it was not for the implications on global economy, I’d almost cheer if it happened…

The president can stay irrational longer than the salt caverns can stay structurally sound. Or however that quote goes.