Obama creates two nature preserves

[icehorse]

And what technical knowledge do you have to question what the paper said? Or are you questioning it based on you don't like what was put forward?

His own assumptions. For example, the paper was based on the arbitrary goal of compete oil independence by 2050. That's a fine arbitrary goal for discussion purposes, but there is no reason for that to be our real world goal.

 

[tytlyf]

And what technical knowledge do you have to question what the paper said? Or are you questioning it based on you don't like what was put forward?

What credibility does a military historian have on climate change and/or renewable energies? I like experts and people qualified in the field better.

 

[esmith]

His own assumptions. For example, the paper was based on the arbitrary goal of compete oil independence by 2050. That's a fine arbitrary goal for discussion purposes, but there is no reason for that to be our real world goal.

That is your opinion not substantiated by any facts. And again what education to you have to support your "opinion"

 

[icehorse]

That is your opinion not substantiated by any facts. And again what education to you have to support your "opinion"

?? "total oil independence by 2050" is simply an arbitrary goal. Nothing wrong with it, but it's arbitrary. Why couldn't we say "40% oil independence by 2060". That's another arbitrary goal. One doesn't need to be an expert to notice an arbitrary goal, it's just common sense.

===

On another front though... if your argument is that we shouldn't be reserving all of this land because we might be able to get some resources from it, consider this:

- In October, 2016, a MASSIVE new oil field was discovered in Alaska. It's estimated that this field could produces another 6 BILLION gallons of oil. I believe that before this discovery, it was estimated that we could get another 8 BILLION gallons of oil out of Alaska's known reserves. So let's be generous and say we know of 15 billion gallons. Oh what the heck, let's say it's 20 billion gallons.

Alaska Oil Reserves May Have Grown 80% on Giant Discovery

- Humans currently use about 100 MILLION gallons of oil per DAY.

That means that ALL of the oil in Alaska is only enough to supply the world for 200 days, a little over 6 months.

Now let's imagine that somehow, the new Bears Ears monument - by a huge miracle - was discovered to be on top of as much oil as all of Alaska. It's clearly preposterous, but what the heck.

If we were to drill there, the equation would be that 6 months of oil for the world is worth forever destroying these unique and beautiful monuments. Seems like a no-brainer to research alternative energy and stop destroying our environment, no?

 

[Quagmire]

So your going to replace all fossil fuels with solar power, when will this be available, ...

Well, things will probably start to speed up as soon as the fossils get the hell out of the way.

 

[Valjean]

Why would you need to ask that question? It's common sense. The sun

D'oh! -- you stole my post!

So your going to replace all fossil fuels with solar power, when will this be available, and where are you going to put all the generating equipment? That's why I'm asking the question, but I'm fairly positive you do not have a viable answer. Just we will do it. Where are you going to get the replacement for all the products that require petroleum in the production?

It's already cheaper than coal/oil in some states, and will be cheaper practically everywhere in four or five years.
Naturally petroleum will still be useful as a base for lubricants, plastics, &c, but demand will only be a tiny fraction of current levels.
Solar Projects Are Moving Ahead – And Will Soon Overtake Natural Gas In U.S. Energy Production - The Ring of Fire Network

This month, about of an estimated 25.73 gigawatts of electrical energy generated, over 63% will have been generated by solar and wind-powered facilities. Natural gas still outpaces wind (31% vs. 26.4%), but taken together, renewables come out the clear winner.

And how much of this was generated by coal and petroleum? A mere 0.3 gigawatts, accounting for only just over 1% of the total.

Tim Shear, who is an economist for the EIA, points out that if everything goes according to plan, “2016…would mark the first year that solar was the largest source of capacity.”

 

[esmith]

D'oh! --
Solar Projects Are Moving Ahead – And Will Soon Overtake Natural Gas In U.S. Energy Production - The Ring of Fire Network

Hmm Ring Of Fire Network....Touted as "Today's Top Progressive Voices"
So you have your sources and I posted mine previously.

In 2013 the US used approximately 4986.4 gigawatts of power. the largest solar project, Mojave Solar Project, generated 503.576 gigawatts of power in 2015 or about 10% of the power used. There are 3 fields covering about 710 acres of land each. So if one took the figures from this site you would need 100 of them to supply the US at 2013 figures. Now your source says that between 25-73 gigawatts of power was generated in Dec 2016. Now taking the high end of 73 gwh that would work out to 876 gwh of electricity generated in the US in one year . That's over 10 times less than the figures by the DOE that the US used in 2013. Of course, in the summer I would assume more power would be generated. Now, one small, no make that large issue , if one does away with fossil fuel for generating electricity you will still have a huge energy demand in heating. Where are you going to get the electricity and money for everyone to convert to electrical heating?

My sources for the above are from:
List of countries by electricity consumption - Wikipedia
Mojave Solar Project - Wikipedia