…would prompt increased price volatility and higher prices. Higher natural gas prices also mean higher electricity costs. “The impact will be felt by all consumers, not just industrial users,” Cicio said. “Farmers will pay more for fertilizer, natural gas to dry their crops and electricity to run their irrigation systems; homeowners will pay more to heat and cool their homes; and manufacturers would be confronted with greater competitiveness chall…
…d development to find technological breakthroughs Helm is pretty sure that natural gas will be the winner for the foreseeable future if his prescriptions are implemented; I am confident that nuclear energy will soon dominate under those conditions as long as atomic fission is not artificially constrained. Though Helm is a self-described “academic scribbler” with no formal position within the multinational petroleum industry, his book and his talks…
…s during the ’60s and ’70s. Price controls led to the temporary decline of natural gas supplies in the 70s and some of the 80s while by hobbling petroleum imports, price controls caused long lines and shortages at gas pumps. I think a friendly regulator like – as Rod has proposed – the FAA, or maybe the FRA or the NTSB would go a long way to make nuclear energy more viable. Other friendly measures could include allowing the nuclear waste trust fun…
…ike reheat much easier and more compactly with molten salt to gas HXs than gas-to-gas HXs). It will also put us on a more useful long term strategic trajectory, namely that of the molten salt reactor. Gas cooled reactors are interesting, but the only development advantage we’ll get for future reactors is the closed Brayton cycle… Cyril R. Here’s a nice webpage where you can calculate the specific enthalphy of nitrogen gas. Using 10 bar pressure,…
…ear power plants, I assume that he and his employer favor coal and natural gas. (Wind and solar are incapable of the task of supplying the kind of reliable, industrial strength power that most members of our society expect to be available 8760 hours per year.) Dr. Lyman is partially correct in asserting that there are challenges associated with producing smaller reactors that can be operated profitably without reducing safety margins, but he is gi…
…n. Rod: They say they are against fossil fuels, but they work hard to sell natural gas – which is the primary growth opportunity for the multinational petroleum companies. They also work hard to promote wind and solar energy, which REQUIRE fast responding diesel or natural gas power plants. They fight hard against nuclear energy – the only alternative to fossil fuels that can provide reliable power. The only fossil fuel that they actually seem to…
…els of the future, devotes chapter 22 to “A Very Short History of American Natural Gas and Regulatory Stupidity”. He details how the growth of natural gas threatened coal: By the late 1950s, gas looked ready to rob even greater market share away from coal. But just as that energy transition was beginning, natural gas became a favored target for federal regulators. And the hodgepodge of regulations that resulted would hamstring the U.S. gas industr…
…home heating market and the railroad locomotive market to diesel fuel and natural gas. The utility power market was the coal industry’s only real growth area. However, by the early 1970s, the coal industry quietly backed away from the political struggle against atomic energy, apparently recognizing that more effective recruits had arrived to continue the fight. After 1971, it appears that the coal industry decided to focus its internal efforts on…
…ff.html EU power prices: http://www.energy.eu/#Industrial-Elec Getting nat gas prices back up to historical norms would also help, but that seems to be taking a lot longer than some had predicted. Still, the depletion rates of fracked gas wells almost guarantees higher prices down the road. Daniel @ Pete51 The Russian will beat the market on delivery of SMRs. They have a floating model due out in 2016. China, India, Vietnam and a truck load of cou…
…r Israel, the US or Saudi Arabia would be happy to compete against Iranian natural gas. Israel makes that list because of its recent large discoveries of gas in the eastern Med. http://www.haaretz.com/business/.premium-1.618502. The US and the Saudis have long cooperated to limit Iranian oil production for a variety of reasons including the desire to keep oil prices high and profitable in the world market. You say you remember Palestinians celebra…
…e, Enron and its leaders were seeking unearned income by driving up market prices and establishing trading products whose prices they could control and manipulate. However, the rest of the hydrocarbon industry played along with the movement that arose against atomic fission because they knew that their profits were going to be under severe pressure if they allowed fission to flourish and drive down the price of energy fuels due to the inevitable i…
…plants are even close to being old enough to be replaced. At a $3.50/MBtu gas price, a CCGT @ 95% CF would almost certainly beat a NEW nuke, hands down. Of course, assuming a long-term price of $3.50/MBtu would almost certainly be a mistake. Helian Since when is pointing out that it may not be wise to waste potential energy sources and unnecessarily create a lot of transuranics in the process “creating a drama” and “laying a guilt trip?” “To be b…
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