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Flying over the oil fields is fascinating (I personally find the South Texas oil fields at night to be even more so), but the other interesting perspective that

Flying over the oil fields is fascinating (I personally find the South Texas oil fields at night to be even more so), but the other interesting perspective that you get to see is the massive wind farms just a handful of miles away from the oil farms. They're harder to see on Google maps (since the turbines are vertical rather than taking up a lot of horizontal space), but if you're on a flight or driving through the area you can really get a sense of the scale of them. Some of them are even larger than the oil fields, and yet they hardly extract even a fraction of the energy. For all the faults of Texas's oil fields, the state is also at the forefront of wind energy. But the reality is that we're still nowhere near being able to afford not drilling.

joe_the_user 8y ago
When drilling (taken broadly as exploiting hydrocarbons to the hilt) has the potential for the extinction of the species and wind-farms and renewables generally have the potential to provide sufficient energy for species survival, yeah, we can afford not to drill. Energy density isn't everything. There's also not dying in fire/floods/tornadoes/civil-unrest.
ryanmarsh 8y ago
Flying over south Texas oil fields... are you thinking of Texas City or Pasadena? Those aren’t oilfields. They’re refineries.
- txcwpalpha 8y ago
  Nope, I was referring to the massive group of oil fields called the Eagle Ford play that stretches from the Mexico border near Hidalgo, going Northeast all the way up until I-10 east of San Antonio. See this photo: https://s.hdnux.com/photos/17/05/74/3956516/5/920x920.jpg https://s.hdnux.com/photos/17/05/74/3956516/5/920x920.jpg
dreamcompiler 8y ago
> Some of them are even larger than the oil fields, and yet they hardly extract even a fraction of the energy Total energy extracted over a couple of centuries is dramatically higher with wind. Oil is stored solar energy that eventually runs out; wind is realtime solar energy that never runs out.
- yostrovs 8y ago
  It does run out when there's no wind.

joe_the_user 8y ago

When drilling (taken broadly as exploiting hydrocarbons to the hilt) has the potential for the extinction of the species and wind-farms and renewables generally have the potential to provide sufficient energy for species survival, yeah, we can afford not to drill. Energy density isn't everything. There's also not dying in fire/floods/tornadoes/civil-unrest.

ryanmarsh 8y ago

Flying over south Texas oil fields... are you thinking of Texas City or Pasadena? Those aren’t oilfields. They’re refineries.

txcwpalpha 8y ago
Nope, I was referring to the massive group of oil fields called the Eagle Ford play that stretches from the Mexico border near Hidalgo, going Northeast all the way up until I-10 east of San Antonio. See this photo: https://s.hdnux.com/photos/17/05/74/3956516/5/920x920.jpg https://s.hdnux.com/photos/17/05/74/3956516/5/920x920.jpg

dreamcompiler 8y ago

> Some of them are even larger than the oil fields, and yet they hardly extract even a fraction of the energy Total energy extracted over a couple of centuries is dramatically higher with wind. Oil is stored solar energy that eventually runs out; wind is realtime solar energy that never runs out.

yostrovs 8y ago
It does run out when there's no wind.