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Oilsands among the most carbon intensive crudes in North America (2017)
- eucryphia 5y agoNot if they were allowed to use small modular nuclear reactors with heat exchangers to heat the crucibles.
- AtlasBarfed 5y agoI would love for small modular reactors to be a reality, but using them for economic enablement of the tar sands is about as negative an application as one could imagine. The timeline for modular reactors is 10 years at best, and by then if carbon taxes or crude demand collapse doesn't make the tar sands economically unfeasible, we are in deep trouble on global warming.
- lisper 5y agoWe are already in deep trouble.
- LargoLasskhyfv 5y agoAhem! The byproduct of that stuff is [1] https://duckduckgo.com/?t=ffab&q=oil+sands+sulphur+mountains&iax=images&ia=images https://duckduckgo.com/?t=ffab&q=oil+sands+sulphur+mountains... which could be used to induce a little bit of global dimming by spraying it into the upper layers of the atmosphere, doing some geo-engineering. cough cough Just sayin'...
- AtlasBarfed 5y agoI know you're being nonserious, I'm not criticizing your comment. It does scare me how often intentional global dimming was mentioned in the early days when geoengineering was being suggested as an alternative for our carbon "deficit". So... you want to retard photosynthesis, one of the major carbon binders, in order to stop... global warming that is caused by... unbound carbon dioxide? I think this was right around the time the first Matrix movie came out, where the earth was completely ruined by blacking out the sun.
- LargoLasskhyfv 5y agoSCNR edit: To my defense I can only say I had 5 times 380 to 390ml(16.5 fl ounces) instant caramell coffee(double dosed!), with additional caramell syrup, canned whipped cream(sprayable), and a large shot((for me anyways) about 3 to 4 fl ounces) of Rum. /me giggles in drunken sugar rush
- AtlasBarfed 5y agoHopefully the EROEI will collapse on these if EVs drop oil demand, like the Saudis did to the Dakota frackers.
- totalZero 5y agoAgreed. The only way out of our petroleum mess is to roll out more efficient products that consumers naturally prefer. There are many positive externalities to reducing oil demand. Imagine a world where the US lacks a resource incentive to wage war in the Middle East.
- wumpus 5y agoWe could also (radical though there) put a price on negative externalities, so the market would do the right thing. That will do a lot for the natural preferences of consumers.
- hedora 5y agoA dollar per gallon of gasoline would more than pay to recapture the atmospheric carbon burning the gasoline would release. Math: 1 gallon of gasoline releases 20lbs of CO2 1 ton is 2000 pounds, so a gallon releases 1/100th of a ton. Atmospheric carbon capture technologies are projected to cost $17-70 per ton, or $0.17-0.70 per gallon of gasoline.
- adrianN 5y agoRight, so set up a market where carbon capturers can sell carbon credits and you need to buy carbon credits to pump oil out of the ground or dig up coal. Don't speculate on some future efforts to suck the carbon back with money that is already spent on other things. I'm pretty sure that right now, and at the scale we release carbon, it's a lot more expensive than 17-70 dollars per ton.
- AtlasBarfed 5y agoBanks are what will kill oil. There's going to be a reverse economies of scale as the market shrinks. But in particular, what billion dollar multiyear oil project would get private financing with the uncertainty fossil fuels face with EVs, Solar, Wind, and grid storage? There might still be government pork that keeps some development alive, but the bankers will probably kill oil.