Scott Benson

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    • Wed Jun 25th 12:52 PM | Rating: 0 0
      Commented on:
      All of the Motor-Fuel Alternatives to Conventional Crude Oil Stink
      (P.S. I'm a democrat and I'm voting for Obama, though I am predicting that by the end of his first term, people will be unimpressed. There's little he can do now.)
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    • Wed Jun 25th 10:35 AM | Rating: 0 0
      Commented on:
      All of the Motor-Fuel Alternatives to Conventional Crude Oil Stink
      FBI conspiracies, "cars running on water," and the massive move to products made (cheaply) in China are hardly great rebuttals.

      I'll wait patiently for the laughter, if we have that much time to wait.

      Thanks for the replies!
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    • Tue Jun 24th 15:55 PM | Rating: 0 0
      Commented on:
      Kashagan Illustrates Hurdles of New Oil Production
      Don't forget the darn rare seals and beluga sturgeon that are in the way (I like seals ....) And yep, that part of the Caspian Sea is frozen 5 months out of the year, and the oil in question is loaded with sulfur.
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    • Mon Jun 23rd 14:18 PM | Rating: 0 0
      Commented on:
      An Alternative to America’s Gasoline Crisis
      (Brazil is not 60% biofuel. Brazil is VERY proud of their oil industry (Petrobras) which has had some great success in the last few years. Contradictory to popular belief, all Brazilian cars are NOT run on sugarcane ethanol -- only about 20% of them do. That leaves the 80% that run on OIL. More specifically, diesel. 55% of Brazil's engines run on diesel. This isn't hard to believe. Brazil has lots of buses, trains and trucks, and doesn't have "suburbs" persay. Brazil runs on oil, just like everyone else.)
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    • Mon Jun 23rd 14:09 PM | Rating: 0 0
      Commented on:
      The 'Peak Oil' Myth: New Oil Is Plentiful
      You don't understand peak oil, dude. Nobody says we are running out of oil. Peak oil says we may be running out of CHEAP oil, on which our modern world economies depend. Every alternative you list, from the Brazil Tupi and Carioca fields (indeed impressive amounts, maybe, but very deep in the earth) to the oil shale nonsense, are going to be HUGELY expensive to produce. There is lots of oil for people who can afford it. But few people seem to acknowledge that most of the world isn't all that rich. Do your research, my man.
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    • Mon Jun 23rd 12:25 PM | Rating: 0 0
      Commented on:
      An Alternative to America’s Gasoline Crisis
      I have been working with alternative-fueled vehicles since 1992 -- E85 and CNG primarily. The "users"/&quo... of mine who drove the CNG vehicles under realistic conditions did not like the CNG vehicles. While they ran, the lack of filling stations was problem #1. Amoco/BP paid half a million dollars each for the fast-fill stations that they eventually closed, cause they made no sense. CNG has had its day, and it failed. The U.S. has been on a natural gas production platueau for 30 years, and every new well depletes faster than the last. LNG is going to be very costly. CNG is a great fuel. Too bad there is no "there" there in terms of supply.
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    • Fri Jun 13th 12:56 PM | Rating: 0 0
      Commented on:
      Drilling in ANWR: What's Not to Like?
      Reminder: it is currently illegal to drill ANWR, so no test wells have been drilled. There may be nothing at all at ANWR.
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    • Thu Jun 5th 12:33 PM | Rating: 0 0
      Commented on:
      Electric Cars for 2010: Shift from Foreign Oil to Riding on Local Renewable Energy
      I'm of the mind that electric cars are simply "process of elimination," where nothing else (especially gasoline-powered) is going to be affordable. However, with electricity, we need to keep in mind:

      The U.S. uses one terawatt of electricity now per year. Imagine natural gas becoming unaffordable for winter heating. So now you need two terawatts (can't burn the tree in the backyard forever). Add in millions of electric vehicles that used to run on gasoline (night charging may help for awhile) that have to be powered. Now you have THREE terawatts that you need. The whole world generates four terawatts per year. We are expecting this 1960s electric grid which is hanging by a thread even now to supply all this power?
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    • Fri May 30th 13:53 PM | Rating: 0 0
      Commented on:
      In Light of Peak Oil, Financial Diversification Is a Bad Idea
      If you're a peak oil person, as am I, you must realize that China and India and SE Asia are not going to ascend to world prominence via their impressive industrialization. Superexpensive oil means their industrialization stops cold very soon. Europe is going to fall apart as well due to peak oil, so the Euro is now under attack. I"ll go along with the precious metals for inflationary reasons, but it sure looks like the dollar stands to climb back up -- other currencies will be under so much stress.
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    • Sat May 24th 10:47 AM | Rating: 0 0
      Commented on:
      Does 'Speculation vs. Fear' Matter When Oil is Running Out?
      The only people who think oil was formed "abiotically"... are Russian and French scientists from the 1950s and 1960s. Oil was formed "biotically,"... as almost all Western petroleum geologists and engineers believe. Oil was formed over millions of years via algae, plant matter and microscopic organisms under high pressure and temperature. Try a less biased source: wikipedia.org
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    • Sat May 24th 01:20 AM | Rating: 0 0
      Commented on:
      Does 'Speculation vs. Fear' Matter When Oil is Running Out?
      Gasoline and diesel are indeed carbon-hydrogen bonds from algae & plant matter that strengthened over millions of years under extreme temperature and pressure. If anyone could make it for a penny and half, someone would be doing it already. The sheep says ... they aren't doing it cause they can't do it that cheaply (anymore) .... BBBBBAAAAAAAAA!!!!
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    • Fri May 23rd 11:43 AM | Rating: 0 0
      Commented on:
      Does 'Speculation vs. Fear' Matter When Oil is Running Out?
      We are not running out of oil. There is no supply shortage today. What we may be running out of is "cheap" oil, which our modern economy is built around. There are no renewables or alternatives that can replace the power of oil for any length of time. And the public is so unready to hear this news, that their suburban house may not be worth very much (without affordable gasoline, 50% of the U.S. housing is near worthless,) that they may have to ride a bus with smelly homeless people, that they won't be able to fly cheaply to the Bahamas for vacation, if at all, that their winter strawberries won't be available at the local grocery store, I dread the future. I'm still going to try to make some money off of all this in the short run, but Congress and the presidency will be hopeless to stop it. I can only hope someone figures out how to supercompress and superheat dead plant matter into oil over a few years instead of several million years, cause otherwise things are gonna be a LOT more expensive.
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    • Tue May 6th 13:52 PM | Rating: 0 0
      Commented on:
      Ethanol Will Become a Fad Without Government Intervention
      The argument about corn ethanol as a fuel is not a food issue. There are just not enough BTUs in corn ethanol (in America) to displace any meaningful quantities of gasoline or diesel -- maybe 15% at best. Corn ethanol cannot do anything for us, unless we were to grow 6-8 times more corn, which is fantasy.
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    • Mon Apr 28th 12:08 PM | Rating: 0 0
      Commented on:
      Ethanol Producers Will Surprise Many
      1) Corn ethanol will never displace any real quantities of gasoline or diesel -- it doesn't have enough BTUs (and we will never be able to grow enough corn to satisfy our vehicle fuel needs.)
      2) 50% of corn is consumed by the animals we eat, but that part of the corn stalk is NOT the part that humans eat
      2) Corn ethanol plants cannot be converted easily to cellulosic ethanol plants -- they are very different processes. Cellulosic means moving tons of "hay" all around, something the corn infrastructure can't do right away.
      3) Profitable cellulosic is many years away -- they haven't found the right enzyme yet (after 30 years of trying). Corn is a sugar -- easily broken down. Cellulosic is plants and wood -- much harder to break down.
      4) CNG production in the U.S. has plateaued for 30 years, with every new well depleting faster than the last. The rest of the world pays $15 to $20 per million BTUs for LNG, versus us paying $11 presently. They will outbid us. CNG & LNG isn't the answer either.
      5) We Americans are just going to have to used to living less.
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    • Wed Apr 16th 11:50 AM | Rating: 0 0
      Commented on:
      VeraSun Energy and the Ethanol Debate
      We're also going to have to confront the "slavery-like&quo... conditions of the 1,000,000+ migrant, destitute sugar cane cutters, who work in inferno-like conditions for little pay. Even the catholic church is starting to scream about it. That 8:1 EROEI comes at a price.
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