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Renewable Friday: The Decline and Coming Fall of Oil [1]

['This Content Is Not Subject To Review Daily Kos Staff Prior To Publication.']

Date: 2025-01-03

The Death of Coal is moving right along. Next, oil, which has been going sideways since President Biden broke OPEC’s pricing power with increased US production and a beautifully timed release from the Strategic Petroleum Reserve. We need increased oil and gas production as long as we don’t have enough renewables installed to cover increases in demand for electricity. Biden was working on that, too, with major legislation such as the Inflation Reduction Act. Now the forces of Wrong-Wingism are determined to roll back all of that progress.

Can they?

Well, they can certainly do some damage with Executive Orders, but they can’t pass laws through the bitterly divided House, and they certainly can’t roll back the power of Real MoneyTM, which has made Texas a leader in renewables and storage, and has made major inroads into others among the Reddest states, especially those with the most wind.

Oil won’t die for lack of supply, but for lack of demand for fuel and petrochemicals, with growth in renewables, energy storage, transmission grids, EVs, heat pumps, green ammonia, recycling, and more.

The Stone Age came to an end, but not for a lack of stones, and the Oil Age will end, but not for a lack of oil. On the whole, I sometimes wish we had discovered water.

One-time Saudi Oil Minister Sheikh Ahmed Zaki al-Yamani

It turns out, however, that the Saudis and other oil kingdoms are discovering the sun, and the tech for desalinization, and for exporting solar power.

Let us, then, celebrate Cause and Effect.

Oil prices post 3% annual decline, slipping for second year in a row By Georgina McCartney HOUSTON (Reuters) -Oil prices fell around 3% in 2024, slipping for a second straight year, as the post-pandemic demand recovery stalled, China's economy struggled, and the U.S. and other non-OPEC producers pumped more crude into a well-supplied global market. Brent crude futures on Tuesday, the last trading day of the year, settled up 65 cents, or 0.88%, to $74.64 a barrel. U.S. West Texas Intermediate (WTI) crude settled up 73 cents, or 1.03%, to $71.72 a barrel.... Edward Song commented I believe that green energy such as wind and solar have kept oil prices in check. This is good news for the future economy. True, even if only part of the story. McCartney continued Oil will likely trade around $70 a barrel in 2025 on weak Chinese demand and rising global supplies, offsetting OPEC+-led efforts to shore up the market, a Reuters monthly poll showed on Tuesday. A weaker demand outlook in China in particular forced both the Organisation of the Petroleum Exporting Countries and the International Energy Agency (IEA) to cut their oil demand growth expectations for 2024 and 2025. The IEA sees the oil market entering 2025 in surplus, even after OPEC and its allies delayed their plan to start raising output until April 2025 against a backdrop of falling prices. But let us turn to our regular news sources for other advances.

x Trump tells the European Union that if they don't buy more oil from the US, he will put tariffs "all the way" on European goods.



Europe's response: tariffs are cheaper for us in that case! pic.twitter.com/27LNxBZIn3 — EssenViews (@essenviews) December 30, 2024

x Four oil and gas corporations have recently tried to use lawsuits to silence Greenpeace and to intimidate the climate movement…@Shell backed down this week. @TotalEnergies lost.

Two down. Two to go. #ImWithGreenpeace #StopDrillingStartPaying #WeWillNotBeSilenced pic.twitter.com/Eiw8VrLcwy — Greenpeace USA (@greenpeaceusa) December 20, 2024

x Record number of people arrested for civil resistance will spend Christmas in prison.



You know who won't be spending Christmas in prison?

Fossil fuel execs

Corrupt politicians

PPE millionaires

Water company bosseshttps://t.co/dQSKQZx1Yv — Just Stop Oil (@JustStop_Oil) December 20, 2024

Utilising electricity from solar and wind in a grid becomes problematical at high levels ✘ for complex but now well-demonstrated reasons ✘. Supply does not correspond with demand.✘ world-nuclear.org/information-... The solution to this is either nuclear base load or H2 ✘



[image or embed] — Denis Jenkins (@denislinton.bsky.social) January 2, 2025 at 8:36 PM

Lies, damned lies, and paid industry shilling. I count four porkies in that post. Nuclear costs too much, takes too long, is utterly corrupt, and leaves toxic waste. The way to balance the grid with lots of renewables is storage.

Fun fact: we not only know how nuclear power is generated, but nuclear power plants are safer ✘ & ✘ cleaner than just about every other power source currently available, when the full life cycle is taken into consideration.



[image or embed] — InaneDragon (@inanedragon.bsky.social) January 2, 2025 at 8:22 PM

Again, flat-out lies. Nuclear costs twice as much as wind and solar, which do not suffer meltdowns.

From DK

Meteor Blades

Me

Others

Russian stuff blowing up: Ukraine ends transit of Russian gas supplies

The treaty expired, and Ukraine had no interest in renewing it, while Europe has seen this coming.

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