Reply #20: Sir Isaac Newton is why [View All]

[Texifornia]

EROEI (energy return on energy invested). We would have to consume coal at minimum of an order of magnitude than we consume oil and gas today.

Coal gasification returns barely over break-even while light sweet crude returns nearer to 15 to 1.

No panacea. The Nazis could not do this effectively enough to run their war so they set their sites on SE Europe and the Caspian Sea region.

No snap your fingers an everythings O.K. Unfortunately, Reagan killed the Carter energy policy which had, among other things, a mandate to create a methodology for energy accounting. That is, how many (BTU, Therms, watts, pick your unit) it takes to build a thing. We would know what the EROEI is for everything.

Wind looks best now, although it is difficult to determine precisely how many BTUs went into the manufacture of a wind turbine.

I can see coal gasification in the distant future as a means for making jet fuel. Liquid hydrocarbons are the only fuel with enough energy density to power aircraft, but it will never, ever, replace conventional oil.