One of the fewer and fewer good things about the Internet is the ability to share a smile, and occasionally some common sense. Part of what made Texas a fun place to be was that plainspoken thought was respected and encouraged. The El Arroyo Mexican Restaurant in Austin has long been a leader in this space. It provides today’s reponse to the IEA’s recent comments around the apparently just realized need to maintain security of oil supply:
Just in the past week we’ve seen a vertiable tsunami of press from climate concerned parties like Bloomberg, and today the New York Times, around whether we really can electrify everything, everywhere, all at once if we aren’t able to build more than a few hundred miles of high voltage transmission line every year.
The realization is finally dawning (or has to be acknowledged) that natural gas fired power plants are pretty much the only way to boost power generation in the short run. Even with them it’ll be difficult to tie in the electricity to the grid without a lot of equipment that’s already in short supply. The term “Levelized TOTAL Cost of Electricity” (LTCE) is entering the conversation to capture the true cost to satisfy the desire of modern society to have power on demand 24/7.
The next media shoe to drop will likely be a discussion of how this increased demand for methane in the US could affect our ability to provide it “affordably” to everyone else with the same idea. More on this topic to come, as it’s been the basis of our current base case long term scenario for US natural gas and petrochemical feedstocks for nearly 2 years.