Renewable Revolution

Gail Tverberg Article from China
Gail Tverberg said,

Prof. Lianyong Feng of Petroleum University of China, Beijing, hired me to put together a short course (eight sessions, each lasting about 1.5 hours) on the nature of our current problems for students majoring in “Energy Economics and Management."

Well, thank you Gail, for giving readers an excellent of idea of where your PRIORITIES have ALWAYS been. 

Why do I get the feeling that "OUR" in the "our current problems" part of your quote MEANS the PETROLEUM INDUSTRY? 

Get this, Gail. The COST of those externalities you have never wanted to add into your computations is PRECISELY what is making fossil fuels AND nuclear power "inefficient" (i.e. more expensive to extract form your point of view). All the other costs you mention are a function of globalizing predatory capitalist practices that are certainly NOT limited to the energy industry. They are part of that "race to the bottom" shafting people all over the world in every business predatory capitalism has corrupted (most of them) that you have never showed too much concern for.

So, in reality, financing costs, employment costs, plant and equipment costs and so on are IRRELEVANT to the LACK of cost effectiveness of producing dirty energy fuels when you compare those costs with the environmental push back going on right now.

But I am not surprised that you are silent as a mouse on that subject.  I am also not surprised that you are incapable of discussing the visible and invisible welfare queen handouts (subsidies, "depletion" LOL! allowances, etc.) the fossil fuel industry and nuclear power polluters CONTINUE to rob from  the people while Renewable Energy gets a PITTANCE in comparison.

Gail, what you DON'T say tells more about your bias than what you DO say.

Dirty energy fuels were NEVER cheap or inexpensive. But the planetary polluted SEWERS took a century or so to back up while the profit over planet gravy train lasted.

I realize you will not stop your love affair with "cheap" fossil fuels until they are below 50% of the energy picture. But it's coming, dear; MUCH sooner than your actuarial math expects. Make sure you take a peek at what is happening to battery prices if you can handle the shock of peer reviewed paper projections of price drops for 2030 ALREADY HERE in 2016.

And don't forget to add the lawsuits against the fossil fuel industry and remedy awards for harming the health and stability of THOUSANDS of species, not just humans, to the COSTS lowering the "efficiency" of producing dirty energy fuels.

There is NO statute of limitations on the CRIMES your fossil fuel pals have committed over the last century.

I suggest you start figuring THOSE COSTS to dirty energy production. Yep, that DOES make them even more "inefficient" to produce. 

It's over for dirty energy. Live with it.