“But make no mistake, [Bradley]’s as venomous an antinuke as the most biased Greenpeacer.” (Colin Hunt, Canadian Nuclear Society)

Social media exchanges are educational and informative. Going head-to-head with an intellectual foe is a great opportunity to learn and unmask error–and to find out what you do not know. I report, you decide on the exchanges below, which get into some basic issues and the history of a troubled, government-subsidized technology.

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This LinkedIn exchange began with a post by Chris Keefer, Physician and President Canadians for Nuclear Energy:

Nuclear to the rescue. I’ve said it before and I’ll say it again. Nuclear is best suited to replace many fossil fuel services. When fossil fuels become constrained nuclear doesn’t just become attractive, it becomes inevitable.

I responded as follows:

New nuclear capacity is just way too expensive and complicated compared to the alternatives.

“After advertising its efforts to produce environmentally friendly fuels from algae for over a decade, Exxon Mobil Corp. is now quietly walking away from its most heavily publicized climate solution.” (below)

Biofuel is out, leaving carbon capture and storage (CCS) as the leave-us-alone, we-are-doing-our-part “greenwashing” strategy at ExxonMobil (see tomorrow’s post). The end of algae as a substitute for crude oil comes after $350 million and 14 years of commitment. This expenditure was joined by a “green” advertising campaign around the project of at least $60 million, mostly spent between 2017 and 2019.

It was predictable. Shell, BP, and Chevron had previously thrown in the biofuels towel. And it is reminiscent of Exxon’s failed ventures in the 1970s: Office equipment. Real estate. Synthetic fuels. Shale oil. Electric motors.…

Ed. note: This post excerpts energy and climate material from the Media Balance Newsletter, a free fortnightly published by physicist John Droz Jr., founder of the Alliance for Wise Energy Decisions. The complete Newsletter for this post can be found here.

Renewables (General):
*** The New RPS: RELIABLE Portfolio Standard 
*** Level Playing Field
*** Future Grid: Really?
*** US Renewable Power Projects Slow Over High Costs and Community Opposition
Wind and Solar Projects Face Uphill Battles Despite Subsidy
Wind and solar energy ‘flatlines’ in frigid state at worst time
Major Biomass Facility to Close at Large Military Base, this Spring
Deep seabed mining plans pit renewable energy demand against ocean life

Wind Energy — Offshore:
*** Federal Agency Failing to Protect the Environment from Offshore Wind
*** Evidence says offshore wind development is killing lots of whales
The strange coincidence of the Offshore Wind Industry and 178 dead whales
Calls mount to stop offshore wind project as more whales wash up dead
Biden Hypocrisy Overflows, Harming Lobster Fishers and Right Whales
Killing Whales and Never Having to Say You’re Sorry!…

Ed. note: Julián Salazar Velásquez, geologist and petroleum engineer with a mulit-decade career in the Mexican and Venezuelan oil industries, is a leading educator and proponent of free market energy. He is author of numerous articles and Gerencia Integrada de Campos de Hidrocarburos” (2020), a primer on the oil industry value chain. His four-part world view began yesterday and continues in Part III, and Part IV.

Part II: Hydrocarbons: Curse or Blessing?

The anti-fossil-fuel crusade by environmental groups has attracted financing from Russia (Figure 3) to reduce competition from oil and gas in areas of Europe, Canada and the US, as reported in 2017 in National Review by Austin Yack. His investigation showed that in 2012, an attempt was made to grant Chevron a license in Bulgaria to explore and produce shale gas.…