Between the Front & Back: Grundle’s Book Club
Comments
-
That doesn’t surprise me in the least. I included it as I always like reading counter arguments.HoustonHusky said:
Hadn’t read the book but from what I read of the article/review I’d argue otherwise...should be noted that the author of this review isn't a WP staff writer or book reviewer...he’s an environmental activist (and a bit nuts IMHO) from a quick Google search of him.Doog_de_Jour said:OK, back to the book...
Before I launch into what I thought of it and respond to other’s observations, here’s a book review by WaPo that picks apart some of the author’s points:
https://www.washingtonpost.com/outlook/a-global-energy-study-that-misses-some-climate-change-realities/2020/09/24/1addeb3e-f2b3-11ea-bc45-e5d48ab44b9f_story.html
A much better/fairer review is here in the Wall Street Journal:
https://www.wsj.com/articles/the-new-map-review-tapping-the-untappable-11601333350 -
@CFetters_Nacho_Lover will take great umbrage at the shots at #NachosGreta.Doog_de_Jour said:
That doesn’t surprise me in the least. I included it as I always like reading counter arguments.HoustonHusky said:
Hadn’t read the book but from what I read of the article/review I’d argue otherwise...should be noted that the author of this review isn't a WP staff writer or book reviewer...he’s an environmental activist (and a bit nuts IMHO) from a quick Google search of him.Doog_de_Jour said:OK, back to the book...
Before I launch into what I thought of it and respond to other’s observations, here’s a book review by WaPo that picks apart some of the author’s points:
https://www.washingtonpost.com/outlook/a-global-energy-study-that-misses-some-climate-change-realities/2020/09/24/1addeb3e-f2b3-11ea-bc45-e5d48ab44b9f_story.html
A much better/fairer review is here in the Wall Street Journal:
https://www.wsj.com/articles/the-new-map-review-tapping-the-untappable-11601333350 -
The book absolutely makes the poont about cheap power and manufacturing. Toward that, he includes an anecdote of a Chinese chemicals company opening a new plant in Louisiana specifically for cheap power and easily access to petrochemical precursors.HoustonHusky said:Haven’t read so I should probably stay out...but I won’t. I can say nothing has been a bigger destroyer of capital ($$$) than shale. Not great for oil companies, but it’s been an absolute boon for the US as a whole...yeah capitalism. It balanced out the capital flow for the US, created jobs galore, and given us a shiteton of natural gas which has kept our power/electricity prices low (compared globally) which has been one of the key drivers for manufacturing (don’t discount energy cost in that renaissance...many people ignore it). Economics on shale plays are completely different than as an example deep water drilling...both in upfront CapEx and cycle time to revenues. Doubt you will see much of the high, high upfront CapEx deep water/Alaska/etc drilling until something structurally changes.
Environmentalist are right about shipping oil on rail cars...fuck them (and Warren Buffet and Russia and others) for using these moron environmentalists to fight all the pipelines. That said, some of that pipeline craziness really screws over Canada and Northern US oil plays (Wyoming and North Dakota) and benefits plays down here so I guess I shouldn’t complain too much. Bad for US...good for Texas. Yeah us. -
Again, I need to preface this with the fact I haven’t read the book. That said, I’d argue it’s much more fundamental that what I’m assuming is the methanol plant in Louisiana. Take steel as an example...crazy energy-intense process to make it. Having dirt-cheap energy prices here in the US helped reinvigorate the industry here (it wasn’t just Trump tariffs) which cascaded downstream to other manufacturing that used it.GrundleStiltzkin said:
The book absolutely makes the poont about cheap power and manufacturing. Toward that, he includes an anecdote of a Chinese chemicals company opening a new plant in Louisiana specifically for cheap power and easily access to petrochemical precursors.HoustonHusky said:Haven’t read so I should probably stay out...but I won’t. I can say nothing has been a bigger destroyer of capital ($$$) than shale. Not great for oil companies, but it’s been an absolute boon for the US as a whole...yeah capitalism. It balanced out the capital flow for the US, created jobs galore, and given us a shiteton of natural gas which has kept our power/electricity prices low (compared globally) which has been one of the key drivers for manufacturing (don’t discount energy cost in that renaissance...many people ignore it). Economics on shale plays are completely different than as an example deep water drilling...both in upfront CapEx and cycle time to revenues. Doubt you will see much of the high, high upfront CapEx deep water/Alaska/etc drilling until something structurally changes.
Environmentalist are right about shipping oil on rail cars...fuck them (and Warren Buffet and Russia and others) for using these moron environmentalists to fight all the pipelines. That said, some of that pipeline craziness really screws over Canada and Northern US oil plays (Wyoming and North Dakota) and benefits plays down here so I guess I shouldn’t complain too much. Bad for US...good for Texas. Yeah us.
Energy is a fundamental building block to the manufacturing industry...it’s why Germany subsidies it for companies. You want to kill an economy drive up energy prices...hope we aren’t dumb enough here to rediscover this known concept. -
One of the things I appreciated about this book was it explained how cutting over to green/clean fuel is such a challenge, especially in the developing world. The author mentioned how even if the US were to magically switch over every vehicle over to electric, there is 1) still airplanes, which for the foreseeable future don’t have alternative means of fueling and 2) in a places like India and Africa, without some sort of huge outside investment, they don’t have the capital to cut over to EV without stunting their economic growth.
This is the thing that’s always frustrated me when talking about environmental topics with many people is they don’t think of details like this, generally.
And I don’t think the US will have any widespread adoption of EVs anytime soon. The incentive (and the technology/infrastructure) just isn’t there yet. Look at how all the money/R&D seems to get put into automated driving cars and apps like Uber. -
Oh, and just wanted to provide some feedback to @GrundleStiltzkin and @DerekJohnson, I’d definitely do the book club again! It might help to have a weekly “game thread” in the Record Shoppe that just goes over a few chapters at a time though instead of the whole book at once.
Thank you for organizing! I enjoyed this. -
What do you mean by “anytime soon?”Doog_de_Jour said:And I don’t think the US will have any widespread adoption of EVs anytime soon.
-
I was thinking of the aggressive timelines many presidential candidates were talking about during the primaries. Bernie Sanders, and this is mentioned in the book, wanted complete decarbonization of both the energy and transportation sectors by 2030.BennyBeaver said:
What do you mean by “anytime soon?”Doog_de_Jour said:And I don’t think the US will have any widespread adoption of EVs anytime soon.
-
Decent book. It's no Harry Potter, but not bad. I listened to it mostly in the car and for that reason probably missed more than I'd admit, but I thought it tied a lot together. OBK even got a 5G shoutout in the book. Agreed with that smoke show @Doog_de_Jour that as much as folks would like to see a quick transition, it's not likely feasible. Now I can move onto half blood prince.
-
Also fuck China.
