Great article, as usual. I do hope Guyana manages to avoid the pitfalls of Petro statehood. I have never been there, but my parents had a friend, back in the day, who originated from there so I used to hear about the place a lot. I appreciate that you emphasize the nature of investment risk, that in this case Exxon took the risk, and got a high payback. Too many people today (the general public) seem completely unaware that all enterprise includes risk, and resulting profit is one of the incentives to take that risk, and in the end, makes us all richer. And lots and lots of risk takers also lose their shirt.
The larger fight on the horizon, at least in the US, is going to be the tech industry versus the climate lobby. The amount of power needed to power data centers and artificial intelligence is exponentially higher than most people believe and will continue to grow. It bolsters your argument that in any real growing economy, wind and solar cannot cut it since they are not energy dense and are not dispatchable.
The momentum is definitely getting behind fission, but what a fight! I am not a conspicary guy, especially about the bogey-man of Big Oil, but it does appear the Big Oil was indeed behind some of the anti-nuclear stuff in decades past. Not something to be proud of.
I quipped to a friend once that "if I were Big Oil, I'd help fund the environmentalists for job security". Somehow carbon dioxide bad but no to fission. Perfect use case for oil/natural gas/coal.
That, and with "nuclear" being "weapons" rather than "energy" first in people's minds, steep regulatory costs, and long construction times, it's a hard sell for politicians to the people.
Great article, as usual. I do hope Guyana manages to avoid the pitfalls of Petro statehood. I have never been there, but my parents had a friend, back in the day, who originated from there so I used to hear about the place a lot. I appreciate that you emphasize the nature of investment risk, that in this case Exxon took the risk, and got a high payback. Too many people today (the general public) seem completely unaware that all enterprise includes risk, and resulting profit is one of the incentives to take that risk, and in the end, makes us all richer. And lots and lots of risk takers also lose their shirt.
The larger fight on the horizon, at least in the US, is going to be the tech industry versus the climate lobby. The amount of power needed to power data centers and artificial intelligence is exponentially higher than most people believe and will continue to grow. It bolsters your argument that in any real growing economy, wind and solar cannot cut it since they are not energy dense and are not dispatchable.
Good article. Thanks for the info.
The transition from hydrocarbons to hydrocarbons is going great. Can't wait for nuclear fission to come back into fashion too.
The momentum is definitely getting behind fission, but what a fight! I am not a conspicary guy, especially about the bogey-man of Big Oil, but it does appear the Big Oil was indeed behind some of the anti-nuclear stuff in decades past. Not something to be proud of.
I quipped to a friend once that "if I were Big Oil, I'd help fund the environmentalists for job security". Somehow carbon dioxide bad but no to fission. Perfect use case for oil/natural gas/coal.
That, and with "nuclear" being "weapons" rather than "energy" first in people's minds, steep regulatory costs, and long construction times, it's a hard sell for politicians to the people.