Spill baby spill, slippery politics

Do you have such a vehicle? How many passengers can it carry? What was its cost?

How do you calculate efficiency? I ask this because your comments suggest you don't understand the basic thermodynamic concepts involved.

More nonsense and denial. You posited that an electrical vehicle powered from our electrical grid was more efficent than any internal combustion vehicle and used the comparative calculations in "Phoebe's musings" as proof. Her calculation assigned a 13.5% energy loss to the IC vehicle to account for the extraction, refining and delivery of the petroleum fuel, but none at all to the fossil fuel plant that produced the electrical energy used by the electrical vehicle. She did use a slightly high but otherwise realistic value for the losses associated with the generation of the electrical power in a coal or gas fired plant. Finally she compared the performance data of a four passenger, fully equipped Accura with a lightweight two passenger electrical vehicle with few power consuming accessories.

Solar and wind power involve much higher capital and operating costs per KW-HR actually generated than gas, coal or nuclear generation plants. That cost reflects the value of the materials, labor , and energy directly used in building and operating them: all ultimately involve the expenditure of energy. We don't presently have the excess power in our grid required for the widespread use of electric vehicles and we don't have the redundancy and coverage in our power grid to access renewable sources and meet this new demand. That too will require energy and cost.


Not true. I used Phoebe's data and the associated 13.5% energy losse, exactly as she (and you) posited it. You, however, appear to be asserting that electrical energy can be extracted from the sun or the wind with no expenditure of energy or cost whatever.

Bullshit! I posited that an electric engine is more efficient than an IC one, period. I said nothing whatsoever about our current electric grid. You brought that up.

You forgot Nuclear power in your comparisons...

Cycloptichorn

Efficient for who? For what?

Energy policy for an advanced industrial democracy of 300+ million people thinly spread over almost 4 million square miles with a GDP of over $14 trillion is far too complex a matter to be dealt with so casually.

Have a google on the Strategic Petroleum Reserve. What would a Strategic Electricity Reserve look like?

If there was an answer in your post to mine I dident recognize it amoung all the bullshyt.

What do you mean by "all the bullshyt"? There was only a smidgin by my standards. I can pile it up a lot higher than that if I have a mind.

No self-respecting bull would think of it as anything other than a wet fart. Have you never seen a bull take a dump.

Let's have a sense of proportion around here.

Im a country boy so the answer to your question is yes, Ive seen a bull take a dump. Now that I think about your posts do resemble a bull dump.

It has the potential to stop the leak. The plan is to inject a dense mud, probably some sort of barium solution that will exert enough pressure to kill the well.

One question is whether they can even hit the existing drill string and casing. It seems to me that they may have to enter both to kill it. Sounds tricky, but there is the potential to completely kill it.

On the other hand, I don't really understand why they can't enter the well from the existing opening. We need a real petroleum engineer like Jim to help us with this.

As an aside, shares of BP stock traded on the NYSE have risen from $27 to $32 over the last 5 trading days. That is more than an 18% increase.
Go figure.

Maybe their assets turn out to have more real value than their perceived liabilities.

I remember something like this with the Burlington Northern railway. They looked week but their enormous land holdings had been carried at cost for the past eighty or so years. Just speculating, you understand.

I've always thought it would be really funny (in a tragic sort of way) if, say 50, 100, 150 years from now there is some virus that threatens to wipe out the entire human race, and the only thing that would somehow stop it is in some trace mineral only found in naturally forming crude oil. Only by that time we'll have used it all up driving out fat asses to the movie theater for some entertainment.

And when you get a good look at it these days it's a bit of a stretch to call it entertainment. PC is about as funny as a Kremlin directive.

Where's Stan Laurel when you need him?

We were speculating a few pages back that , once the limits of BPs liabilities are better known, the market would "discount" this event and the stock would ascend the S&P. (At least that was my opinion)

The most compelling analysis I've seen is that there is that there must be a break well below the existing opening. Capping the pipe at the top just forces more oil out that other break, which erodes the well and makes the whole situation worse.

I'm curious as to who is buying BP stock, I think BP is 40% american owned but I'd guess BP stock buyers are not american.

The WSJ reported yesterday that Libya's sovereign fund is investing heavily in BP, perhaps a parallel action to a major Libya/BP petroleum development deal recently concluded.

There are also stories of the remarkable longevity now expected of the convicted Libyan Lockerbee bomber, who was released over six months ago in the anticipation of his death due to advanced prostate cancer, but is now experiencing an amazing recovery. You may recall there were accusations that the British government did this at Libya's request to facilitate the same BP deal .

Bottom feeding for beginners.

Yes. I read that about two hours after post my own idea.

The company profited 180 billion dollars or something over the last decade. Even if their cleanup costs exceed the 20 billion dollar by triple or quadruple over the next decade, they'll still be a very profitable company.

Cycloptichorn

Sure, but I did billing from well servicing companies for about 15 years, and only had to write off two bad debts. A reputation for reliability still counts for something in the O&G business. Except if you're dealing with Libya, maybe.

The news today is that the CEO is on a mission to Middle Eastern countries, attempting to sell stock.