Leaderboard

I do both as well. Beauty of living near the foothills of the Rockies.

With fully programmable vehicles, who needs to even leave their eyes open? That's exactly what I mean. You have no feel for the terrain if the cpu does everything. You're just a tourist in a seat. No thrill. No fear. No soul. A pavement princess will never understand this.

We can't really win small or big wars when we have our hands tied behind our back by military lawyers and political hacks who are pulling the strings and making the rules of engagement decisions. Or leave billions of dollars of high quality equipment like we did in Afghanistan. While we leave our foreign comrades to be tortured and killed by the Taliban. We cannot really "win big wars" like we did in Iraq when we then let our enemies take over the country and get the oil, after we spent many billions to repair the damage we did to win the war. lraq was our biggest potential ally against Iran too. The only people who won these wars were our industrialists and our enemies.

Sounds like you would rather go hiking or horseback riding.

https://www.zerohedge.com/commodities/european-gas-and-power-prices-jump-supply-shortage-fears-erupt European Gas And Power Prices Jump As Supply Shortage Fears Erupt by Tyler Durden Monday, Dec 13, 2021 - 10:59 AM A combination of Russia's inactive Nord Stream 2 pipeline and cooler weather forecast through the end of December sparked a rally in European natural gas futures. German power prices surged to a record high while French power prices jumped to a decade high. Concerns that Nord Stream 2 pipeline won't operate this winter season comes as the new German chancellor Olof Scholz said his government would "do everything" possible to make sure natgas flows continue through Ukraine and not the latest Russian to German undersea pipeline. Last month, German energy regulators suspended Nord Stream 2's certification process. The US has also sanctioned companies affiliated with the pipeline's construction. On top of the geopolitical uncertainties, mixed with tight natgas supplies across Europe, some of the lowest in a decade, a new 14-day weather forecast shows cooler than average weather, which will boost natgas demand. Benchmark Dutch front-month gas futures jumped as high as 10% to 116.39 euros a megawatt-hour on Monday, the highest since Oct. 6. UK gas futures also soared 10% to 294.07 pounds. Cooler weather on the continent has increased the power demand. German power contracts added 9.7% to a record 205 euros per megawatt-hour. French power contracts rose to 329 euros per megawatt-hour, the highest ever. ...

The horse, the ultimate "autonomous vehicle" (until you need to catch 'em).

REUTERS https://finance.yahoo.com/news/u-natural-gas-futures-nearly-133449617.html U.S. natural gas futures up nearly 4% on soaring European prices Dec 13 (Reuters) - U.S. natural gas futures rose almost 4% to a fresh one-week high on Monday on forecasts for colder weather and higher demand next week than previously expected and an 11% jump in European gas prices that should keep U.S. liquefied natural gas (LNG) exports near record highs. Gas prices in Europe soared to their highest since hitting a record in early October on rising demand expectations and renewed concerns that Russia will hold back gas exports to Europe over delays to the startup of Gazprom PAO's Nord Stream 2 gas pipe from Russia to Germany. U.S. Secretary of State Antony Blinken said on Sunday that gas is unlikely to flow through Nord Stream 2 if Russia renews its aggression against Ukraine. Front-month gas futures was up 14.8 cents, or 3.8%, to $4.073 per million British thermal units (mmBtu) at 8:14 a.m. EST (1314 GMT), putting the contract on track for its highest close since Dec. 3 for a second day in a row. Before the latest price increase, speculators had cut their net long positions on the New York Mercantile and Intercontinental Exchanges for a second week in a row last week to their lowest since June 2020 on expectations the United States will have more than enough gas for the winter heating season. In recent months, global gas prices hit record highs as utilities around the world scrambled for LNG cargoes from the United States and elsewhere to replenish low stockpiles in Europe and meet surging demand in Asia, where energy shortfalls have caused power blackouts in China. U.S. futures jumped to a 12-year high in early October but have since pulled back because the United States has plenty of gas in storage and ample production for winter. Overseas prices were currently trading about 10 times higher than U.S. futures. Analysts have said European inventories were about 20% below normal for this time of year, compared with just 3% below normal in the United States. Looking ahead, many analysts said milder-than-normal weather expected in the coming weeks will allow U.S. utilities to leave enough gas in storage to cause stockpiles to reach above-normal levels by mid-December. That would be the first time storage would be at above-normal levels since April. Data provider Refinitiv said output in the U.S. Lower 48 states has averaged 96.6 billion cubic feet per day (bcfd) so far in December, putting it on track to top the monthly record of 96.5 bcfd in November. Refinitiv projected average U.S. gas demand, including exports, would jump from 110.3 bcfd this week to 123.7 bcfd next week as the weather turns seasonally colder. The amount of gas flowing to U.S. LNG export plants has averaged 12.0 bcfd so far in December now that the sixth train at Cheniere Energy Inc's Sabine Pass plant in Louisiana is producing LNG. That compares to 11.4 bcfd in November and a monthly record of 11.5 bcfd in April. With gas prices around $38 per mmBtu in Europe and $35 in Asia, compared with about $4 in the United States, traders said buyers around the world would keep purchasing all the LNG the United States can produce. Week ended Week ended Year ago Five-year Dec 10 Dec 3 Dec 10 average (Forecast) (Actual) Dec 10 U.S. weekly natgas storage change (bcf): -72 -59 -118 -114 U.S. total natgas in storage (bcf): 3,433 3,505 3,743 3,481 U.S. total storage versus 5-year average -1.4% -2.5% Global Gas Benchmark Futures ($ per mmBtu) Current Day Prior Day This Month Prior Year Five Year Last Year Average Average 2020 (2016-2020) Henry Hub 3.97 3.93 2.58 2.13 2.66 Title Transfer Facility (TTF) 37.67 34.92 5.82 3.24 5.19 Japan Korea Marker (JKM) 35.22 35.19 9.46 4.22 6.49 Refinitiv Heating (HDD), Cooling (CDD) and Total (TDD) Degree Days Two-Week Total Forecast Current Day Prior Day Prior Year 10-Year 30-Year Norm Norm U.S. GFS HDDs 376 346 409 414 411 U.S. GFS CDDs 10 9 2 5 4 U.S. GFS TDDs 386 355 411 419 415 Refinitiv U.S. Weekly GFS Supply and Demand Forecasts Prior Week Current Week Next Week This Week Five-Year Last Year Average For Month U.S. Supply (bcfd) U.S. Lower 48 Dry Production 96.6 96.8 97.0 91.3 84.7 U.S. Imports from Canada 8.7 8.5 9.1 9.5 8.9 U.S. LNG Imports 0.0 0.0 0.0 0.4 0.3 Total U.S. Supply 105.3 105.3 106.1 101.2 93.9 U.S. Demand (bcfd) U.S. Exports to Canada 3.6 3.7 3.6 2.8 3.0 U.S. Exports to Mexico 5.7 5.5 5.5 5.6 4.6 U.S. LNG Exports 12.1 12.3 12.3 11.0 5.0 U.S. Commercial 13.8 12.7 15.9 16.7 15.0 U.S. Residential 21.9 20.6 26.8 28.2 25.4 U.S. Power Plant 28.4 25.1 27.3 30.1 25.8 U.S. Industrial 23.8 23.2 24.7 25.6 24.6 U.S. Plant Fuel 4.8 4.8 4.8 4.8 4.8 U.S. Pipe Distribution 2.5 2.4 2.7 2.4 2.4 U.S. Vehicle Fuel 0.1 0.1 0.1 0.1 0.1 Total U.S. Consumption 95.3 88.9 102.3 107.9 98.1 Total U.S. Demand 116.6 110.3 123.7 127.3 110.7 U.S. weekly power generation percent by fuel - EIA Week ended Week ended Week ended Week ended Week ended Dec 17 Dec 10 Dec 3 Nov 26 Nov 19 Wind 16 13 11 13 14 Solar 2 2 2 2 2 Hydro 7 7 6 6 6 Other 2 2 2 2 2 Petroleum 1 1 1 1 1 Natural Gas 33 36 37 34 35 Coal 17 19 19 20 19 Nuclear 22 21 22 22 21 SNL U.S. Natural Gas Next-Day Prices ($ per mmBtu) Hub Current Day Prior Day Henry Hub 3.66 3.67 Transco Z6 New York 2.95 3.21 PG&E Citygate 5.09 5.25 Dominion South 3.04 2.92 Chicago Citygate 3.50 3.43 Algonquin Citygate 3.83 3.67 SoCal Citygate 7.70 7.37 Waha Hub 3.27 3.28 AECO 3.08 3.02 SNL U.S. Power Next-Day Prices ($ per megawatt-hour) Hub Current Day Prior Day New England 39.25 56.50 PJM West 18.50 24.25 Ercot North 33.50 31.50 Mid C 59.50 38.00 Palo Verde 37.75 38.00 SP-15 49.25 55.25 (Reporting by Scott DiSavino Editing by Paul Simao)

2021 – a breakthrough year for electric vehicles We are in the middle of the biggest revolution in motoring since Henry Ford's first assembly line was installed in 1913. Are we moving faster than expected? 8 December 2021 The global EV market — including hybrid electric vehicles (HEVs), plug-in HEVs (PHEVs), and battery-electric vehicles (BEVs) — continued to heat up in 2021 despite the Covid-19 pandemic Incentives and an explosion in the number of new EV models came together at the right time, energizing both supply and demand They said the 2020s will be the decade of the electric car — and they are not wrong. For starters, despite a pandemic-related worldwide downturn in car sales, the global sales of electric vehicles (EVs) increased by a staggering 41% in 2020. Even better, by 2021 EV sales around the world grew by a record 160% within the first half of the year alone. Contributing to the resilience of EV sales in the face of the pandemic were efforts by automakers who have been shaking up and electrifying their lineups. There have also been supportive regulatory frameworks put in place, more governments announcing incentives to safeguard EV sales from an economic downturn, and perhaps more importantly, the expansion of the number of EV models while battery costs had continued to fall. Did the public embrace electric vehicles better in 2021? If you look into every major technological advancement we have endured over the past centuries, they all follow remarkably similar paths to broad adoption. As Rapid Shift put in its report, “they putter along until they hit that magic sweet spot of value and convenience — and then they take off. Adoption rapidly increases until the market is close to saturated, when it trails off.” To put it in context, much like the internet in the 90s, the electric car market is now growing exponentially. As of now, it is estimated that drivers around the world will buy around 5.6 million electric passenger vehicles this year, according to a recent report from BloombergNEF released in concert with the COP26 United Nations Climate Change Conference. Global EV sales. Source: BloombergNEF That is basically double the number purchased last year and, more importantly, it represents almost 8% of all vehicle sales. The more interesting fact is that today, there are more than 500 models of EVs and fuel cell vehicles available for sale — just six years ago, that figure was under 100. The more apparent interest is mainly attributed to the flurry of investments in a range of areas, from charging infrastructure to energy storage and transmission, involving a combination of government, utility, and private firms around the world. In fact, with many governments around the world setting targets to ban the sale of petrol and diesel vehicles, it indirectly gives impetus to the entire transition process.

The West will be Greener while the rest of the world will continue to demand coal and oil. Our economies will suffer while the rest of the world will continue to enjoy diesel, gasoline, natural gas, and coal etc. Meanwhile they will be doing the manufacturing, mining, illegal drug marketing, etc. They will sell us electronics, solar panels, wind turbines, etc. They will make them with fossil fuels available from OPEC, Russia, and whoever develops them all around the world.

The myth of "peak oil", a fantasy dream concocted by wild-eyed Green Revolutionists, has now been exposed as a political hoax. No one with any intelligence is being taken in by this quack philosophy. https://oilprice.com/Energy/Crude-Oil/Investors-See-Peak-Demand-Happening-Much-Further-In-The-Future.html "Currently, just 2 percent of oil investors believe peak oil demand will occur by 2025, and fewer than 40 percent see that peak before 2030. One-third of investors expect oil demand to peak between 2025 and 2030, but another one-third think that peak would be after 2030, at some point between 2030 and 2035. Mid-2030s is currently OPEC’s timeline for peak oil demand. Global oil demand is expected to continue to grow into the mid-2030s to 108 million barrels per day (bpd), after which it is set to plateau until 2045, OPEC said in its 2021 World Oil Outlook (WOO) earlier this year. OPEC sees oil demand growing “strongly” in the short- and medium-term before demand plateaus in the long term. Despite expected plateauing demand in the long run, oil will continue to be the fuel with the single largest share of the global energy mix by 2045, meeting 28 percent of energy demand then, OPEC Secretary General Mohammad Barkindo said last month, stressing the need for investments in oil supply to meet consumption. Demand is set to grow, as the world still runs on fossil fuels which account for around 85 percent of total global energy demand. "

Well sure, but those are political policy questions. Not military ones. Military planners cannot make those decisions, and except at the highest levels do not even inform the decision makers.

Tomasz: I think it is reasonable to consider the division of Ukraine between the East and the West sphere of infuence traditionally on the Dnieper river. With Kiev in the Russia sphere zone. The sacred place of Russian Orthodoxy, the so-called Pechersk Lavra, must sooner or later find itself in the Russian mir. ---- This is complicated, and you can look at Belgium: two populations with scarce friendship between them, and yet hard to split. But there is a rationale: Ukraine sufficiently Russian to be treated very stingily by the West, and sufficiently anti-Russian to loose industries that relied on common supply chains and markets with Russia, and get cold treatment this coming winter. Too weak to stand alone, and de-facto, friendless. IMHO, officially neutral Ukraine would be in a much better position, Finland and Austria are doing fine, after all.

That makes zero sense in a combat infested war. The size of generators to power up 50 Humvees or 30 troop transports would be very large and need a fuel truck to keep it running while charging said vehicles. All the vehicles would have to line up and plug in and that would make for a serious protection issue. ICE is and will be best in combat vehicles for the foreseeable future. Several hundred vehicles would need several massive gen-sets of 100,000kw running 24/7 while battle is going. That be alot of fuel and if enemy takes out said gen-sets then your really up a creek.........

You cannot have it both ways, declaring war on oil and suppressing investment in oil, and at the same time demanding the production of more oil and the expansion of oil production...those two policy directions contradict one another, in case Biden & Co. failed to notice it. https://oilprice.com/Energy/Oil-Prices/US-Shale-Slams-Bidens-Oil-Policies.html "The shale patch is keeping disciplined spending because of their changed priority to return cash to investors first and because of the high uncertainties on the global oil market with oversupply looming early next year and uncertain impact of Omicron (or other) COVID variants on demand. But U.S. oil producers also face heightened uncertainty with this Administration, which pushes for renewable energy and looks to impose more restrictive policies on the fossil fuels industry. When the Biden Administration intensified calls on OPEC+ to boost production to alleviate surging gasoline prices in the U.S., the American Exploration and Production Council said at the end of October, “The worst thing an Administration can do to energy prices is restrict supply by implementing policies that make it harder to produce energy.” The Administration also called for an investigation into whether oil companies are allegedly colluding to make gasoline prices the highest in seven years. In a comment following President Biden’s renewed request for the Federal Trade Commission to investigate rising gas prices, Frank Macchiarola, Senior Vice President for Policy, Economics and Regulatory Affairs at the American Petroleum Institute (API), said in mid-November: “This is a distraction from the fundamental market shift that is taking place and the ill-advised government decisions that are exacerbating this challenging situation. Demand has returned as the economy comes back and is outpacing supply. Further impacting the imbalance is the continued decision from the administration to restrict access to America’s energy supply and cancel important infrastructure projects.” “Rather than launching investigations on markets that are regulated and closely monitored on a daily basis or pleading with OPEC to increase supply, we should be encouraging the safe and responsible development of American-made oil and natural gas,” Macchiarola added. "

And how do they access the electric grid in the middle of the desert? It seems to me that gasoline/diesel is a much more portable source of fuel than electricity.

China benefits from the Green New Deal Blizzard while burning record amounts of coal and laughing all the way to the bank! Russia does the same, while flaring and price gouging Europe! https://oilprice.com/Alternative-Energy/Renewable-Energy/Why-Tariffs-On-Chinese-Solar-Panels-Failed.html

I doubt that I would be interested in driving one in this century. It looks like it might be useful on the Moon or on Mars. A good place for it.