Another interesting note about Venezuela's shitty oil. According to US oil companies that surveyed the oil reserves in the past, there was only a bit over 50 billion barrels worth, so NOT the largest reserves in the world. When Maduro came to power, the amount of the reserves reported by his regime suddenly shot up to about 300 billion and that's been the number used ever since. It seems the evidence for that increase may be "trust me bro".
Ta, Dok. When we retire, we're remodeling our mountain aerie. That will include solar panels on the roof, a tulip windmill somewhere on the property, battery storage, better insulation, and a mudroom-laundry. And greenhouses to extend our growing season.
So much more $$ could be made in clean energy infrastructure. Jobs are at the top. But you can’t take the surfeit of sun and win or storage from people and make $$ on it. And therein lies the rub. Hence oil companies hanging on so long and so hard. While the CEO of Blockbuster sneered at Netflix and Apple saw the year 2000 was inevitable, the executives of big oil could have pivoted but chose to instead bathe in their profits without a care in their heads about end times. Fiddle Dee Dee. I guess that they’ll think about it tomorrow.
If the Koch Brothers had spent the money shat away on preventing the inevitable on battery technology, grabbing those patents before some people we could name, they'd end up with more money than oil could have ever provided.
Patents turn freely available infinitely reproduce-able resources into monopoly-controlled rare resources. They're anti-competition and anti-market so the capitalists love them.
Speaking as a simple human I remain dazzled -- FUCKING DAZZLED -- by running my home with sunlight. I remain dazzled -- FUCKING DAZZLED -- by LEDs that give light without heat, use virtually no power and run for 25 FUCKING YEARS. So please tell me, WHAT IS FUCKING WRONG WITH ME?!?!?!?!?
Don't forget Trump's first Secretary of State, former Exxon-Mobil CEO Rex Tillerson confirmed Trump was "a moron." Word gets around in industry circles.
"Industry experts say oil companies wouldn’t be inclined to invest tens of billions of capital rehabbing Venezuelan oil fields without being sure of at least a decade of production. There’s no government in Venezuela to make such a guarantee, and although Trump may promise to secure long-term stability for US oil investments, companies know better than to just take his word for it. "
Hmm, who was saying that here on the little recipe blog, just yesterday? Oh yeah, it was me.
No effing way are oil companies touching Venezuela with a 10 foot pole. And even if some CEO had a big boner for going down there just to make it so Donnie isn't a lying fuck-face, the shareholders will never allow it. It would be corporate malfeasance.
They will touch it with a 30 ft pole. They will agree to some nebulous future investment, just enough for the Dotard to proclaim an historic victory. Then they will back away very slowly.
And they are ALREADY being quoted as "we'll need guarantees before we commit" ... forgetting that a guarantee from Trump is worth dogshit and nothing else.
I will never understand why presidents, prime ministers, CEOs, and billionaires keep believing that man. It's like they've never dealt with someone who cannot be trusted. Which is weird, because about one in five kids cannot be trusted and has to be taught what it means to be trustworthy, not to mention that about one every fifty adults apparently didn't learn not to scam.
Sorry to burst Demented Donnie's bubble, but Saudi Aramco is the largest oil company in the world. American companies have 2 of the top 7 spots. That is all.
So those TX oil refineries? I think they are also the ones which refine Alberta tar sand crude. Of which there is an abundance... or would be except for the small trade war going on. I guess we should blame Canada for this. Maybe ... perhaps. They did start the trade war, right? .... right?
Another interesting note about Venezuela's shitty oil. According to US oil companies that surveyed the oil reserves in the past, there was only a bit over 50 billion barrels worth, so NOT the largest reserves in the world. When Maduro came to power, the amount of the reserves reported by his regime suddenly shot up to about 300 billion and that's been the number used ever since. It seems the evidence for that increase may be "trust me bro".
Ta, Dok. When we retire, we're remodeling our mountain aerie. That will include solar panels on the roof, a tulip windmill somewhere on the property, battery storage, better insulation, and a mudroom-laundry. And greenhouses to extend our growing season.
So much more $$ could be made in clean energy infrastructure. Jobs are at the top. But you can’t take the surfeit of sun and win or storage from people and make $$ on it. And therein lies the rub. Hence oil companies hanging on so long and so hard. While the CEO of Blockbuster sneered at Netflix and Apple saw the year 2000 was inevitable, the executives of big oil could have pivoted but chose to instead bathe in their profits without a care in their heads about end times. Fiddle Dee Dee. I guess that they’ll think about it tomorrow.
If the Koch Brothers had spent the money shat away on preventing the inevitable on battery technology, grabbing those patents before some people we could name, they'd end up with more money than oil could have ever provided.
Patents turn freely available infinitely reproduce-able resources into monopoly-controlled rare resources. They're anti-competition and anti-market so the capitalists love them.
Nothing stops wars that people desire to have.
And no one wins in war.
Well maybe military contractors can.
DOE Issues Emergency Orders to Keep Coal Plants Operating [https://www.presidentialprayerteam.org/2026/01/07/doe-issues-emergency-orders-to-keep-coal-plants-operating/]
Presidential Prayer Team is NOT a parody. They, apparently, prayed for more global warming ... and it worked thanks to Man God Large Hands.
I run this oil company now.
And I don't know what 'barrels' means.
These guys. For reals.
Just end oil. Wars are a problem, but not THE problem. Fossil carbon is.
Speaking as a simple human I remain dazzled -- FUCKING DAZZLED -- by running my home with sunlight. I remain dazzled -- FUCKING DAZZLED -- by LEDs that give light without heat, use virtually no power and run for 25 FUCKING YEARS. So please tell me, WHAT IS FUCKING WRONG WITH ME?!?!?!?!?
I know, right? So much of green tech is amazing!
Are you familiar with solarpunk? I think you'll love it.
In looking for a good picture or movie to show you what it is, I ran into a festival.
https://solarpunkfestival.com/history/
Sadly that seems to have been a one time thing in 2018.
For fantasy solarpunk book tips I recommend Spellshop and The Enchanted Greenhouse.
https://www.goodreads.com/book/show/217206125-the-spellshop
For science fiction I recommend The Monk And Robot books.
https://www.goodreads.com/book/show/40864002-a-psalm-for-the-wild-built
Cheers! Hardcore LEM fan here.
What is LEM in this context? Sorry, none of my friends are very interested in solarpunk and I am too socially burned out to join more communities.
Stanislaw Lem, writer
Nothing. Absolutely nothing.
Thought so...
Don't forget Trump's first Secretary of State, former Exxon-Mobil CEO Rex Tillerson confirmed Trump was "a moron." Word gets around in industry circles.
If memory serves, I believe he said he was a fucking moron. I'm sure that assessment carried even more weight.
He maybe heard that Germany lacked oil in WW II.
Ergo das Afrikan Campaign to get the Arab oil fields.
Land wars in Asia take a lot of oil.
He skipped the part of the Nazi loss at El Alamein.
A nice somewhat wonky (as is his wont) (or wonk) explanation from Paul Krugman (part of it may be paywalled)
https://paulkrugman.substack.com/p/the-emperors-new-oil-wealth?utm_source=post-email-title&publication_id=277517&post_id=183712298&utm_campaign=email-post-title&isFreemail=false&r=5jjna&triedRedirect=true&utm_medium=email
"Industry experts say oil companies wouldn’t be inclined to invest tens of billions of capital rehabbing Venezuelan oil fields without being sure of at least a decade of production. There’s no government in Venezuela to make such a guarantee, and although Trump may promise to secure long-term stability for US oil investments, companies know better than to just take his word for it. "
Hmm, who was saying that here on the little recipe blog, just yesterday? Oh yeah, it was me.
No effing way are oil companies touching Venezuela with a 10 foot pole. And even if some CEO had a big boner for going down there just to make it so Donnie isn't a lying fuck-face, the shareholders will never allow it. It would be corporate malfeasance.
They will touch it with a 30 ft pole. They will agree to some nebulous future investment, just enough for the Dotard to proclaim an historic victory. Then they will back away very slowly.
True. They may pay lip service. But they won't actually commit any dollars or employees to that gong show.
They would spend pocket money and send some employees they don't respect (i.e. all of them except the C-suite).
And they are ALREADY being quoted as "we'll need guarantees before we commit" ... forgetting that a guarantee from Trump is worth dogshit and nothing else.
I will never understand why presidents, prime ministers, CEOs, and billionaires keep believing that man. It's like they've never dealt with someone who cannot be trusted. Which is weird, because about one in five kids cannot be trusted and has to be taught what it means to be trustworthy, not to mention that about one every fifty adults apparently didn't learn not to scam.
Yeah, they are going to be stuck between a rock (Trump's brain) and a hard place (actual reality).
Sad!
"Today the President launched strikes against his most hated enemies: sanity and reason."
https://www.ragingpencils.com/2026/1-5-26-sanity-and-reason.html#previous
Don't forget accountability.
Sorry to burst Demented Donnie's bubble, but Saudi Aramco is the largest oil company in the world. American companies have 2 of the top 7 spots. That is all.
So those TX oil refineries? I think they are also the ones which refine Alberta tar sand crude. Of which there is an abundance... or would be except for the small trade war going on. I guess we should blame Canada for this. Maybe ... perhaps. They did start the trade war, right? .... right?
“it’s going to be hard to figure out how to fight wars over sunshine.” just ask Monty Burns amirite.
I can hear Trump now: "Greenland has been stealing our sunshine, our beautiful sunshine, for centuries now, and it's got to stop."
lol