Fracking
technology changed the world's energy prospects. The Hilbert curve
was reset decades ahead to the future. American oil fields got a new
lease on life, the price of oil dropped nearly to pre-Arab oil
embargo levels. With the prospect of most of the world's depleted oil
fields eventually returning to on-line status-such as the heavily
used Baku and Iranian fields as well as fields damaged by war in
Iraq, the price of oil per barrel should remain low for a couple of
decades unless adequate taxation is added to discourage consumption
to limit global warming gases.
In
the United States many productive wells were and are being capped and
exploration slowed or halted because of the surfeit of oil on the
market. Saudi Arabia's fields that are not even half empty can be
fracked when the time is right to keep the flow going. Plainly the
prospect for creating a lot of lasting jobs in an industry already
saturated with over-supply isn't good. A better place for investors
to look, and for the Trump administration to support in order to
create good-paying new American jobs is alternative energy and energy
efficient technology like room temperature super-conductors for power
lines.
The
rise of the era of fuel cells for cities and homes, business and
industry is on the rise. New battery technologies for automobiles and
homes that don't require expensive materials are being developed.
Missouri Wind turbines have brought the cost of quality, 1700 watt
wind generators for homes down to an entry cost minus extras such as
charge controllers, wires and staff, down to as little as 348 dollars
on Ebay. Solar voltaic technology continues to surge ahead. For the
future American homes increasingly will be their own energy suppliers
rather than public utilities.
Alaska's
great budget deficit for the state government of more than 4 billion
dollars is an example of what the consequences of disregarding
alternative energy and over-reliance on fossil fuels may be. Many
government people still look to oil as the necessary way to finance
big government and disregard alternative energy and the market facts
of life.
The
trans-Alaska oil pipeline operates below capacity because the field
is substantially depleted. Obviously it might be fracked with some
possible long-term damage to the warming, thawing permafrost
potentially-even increasing earthquake frequency in the already
seismically unstable state, yet one must ask if there is any market
utility in doing that? Wouldn't another large contribution of supply
to the global oil market drive down prices even further?
The
state of Alaska could just reduce the size of its government while
increasing its efficiency and innovate new ways to serve the
interests of the people. The Trump administration could learn from
their mistakes and introduce legislation to keep alternative energy
investments growing as well as to require all public utilities to
purchase or offset homeowner costs for home energy production spliced
into the grid. Public utilities might better serve as distributors of
home-produced energy supplies rather than energy suppliers down the
road.
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