S. A. Shelley: On September 12, 2025, the blades fell off a big wind turbine in Perth, Scotland. Despite being in operation for less than a year, the blades, for some reason, dropped 250 ft (76m) to the ground. Because of copyright, OWOE cannot show the actual photos of the disaster, but OWOE does provide an artist’s sketch (Fig. 1), along with links to source articles.
S. A. Shelley: Over the last few weeks, OWOE staff have been asked, “How much power (energy) does AI consume”?” This is a doozy of a question. As we noted in a prior blog, estimates of the energy consumed just by ordinary data centers, those massive server facilities on which Meta, YouTube, X and the like store videos, photos and the musings of the mad, famous or not, already consume about 3% of all electrical power generated.
Continue reading Will AI Open the Pod Bay Door for Us?S. A. Shelley: Supposing that North America can overcome Canadian obstinacy to expanding energy and mineral production, there is another big problem (Fig. 1). All the energy and minerals must go by sea to supply all “allied” states. As noted in a prior blog (Our World of Navies: The Return of Privateers), the U.S. Navy, and all allied navies combined in their current state are too small to effectively protect those sea routes.
Continue reading Energy, Minerals, Geopolitics and the Sea Problem: Part 3S. A. Shelley: In the last blog we considered the global benefits of a North American Energy Alliance (NAEA). (See Energy, Minerals, Geopolitics and the Sea Problem: Part 1, as well as other OWOE blogs advocating for the NAEA). In this blog, we examine critical minerals that are essential to electric vehicle batteries (lithium, nickel, cobalt), renewable energy tech (rare earths, graphite), and defense and aerospace (platinum metals). Looking at mineral reserves (wealth), the whole of North American holds a significant share of the world’s critical mineral reserves. According to the International Energy Agency (Regional snapshots – Global Critical Minerals Outlook 2025) North America’s share of global reserves for key critical minerals is shown in the following charts.
Continue reading Energy, Minerals, Geopolitics and the Sea Problem: Part 2OWOE Editor: At this time of year OWOE likes to share with its readers some of the interesting and often offbeat energy stories that haven’t gotten much media attention over the past year. Unfortunately, this year one of our main contributors, a troublesome Canadian, who often blogged on controversial energy topics, was warned that he was on a list of possible foreign provocateurs to be rounded up and sent to El Salvador. He has since disappeared and was last seen diving in the Baltic in the vicinity of various undersea infrastructure. Therefore, we are only able to bring you one story this year…
Human Biodiesel
The Center for Sustainable Oil (CFSO) in Lincoln, Nebraska, recently announced a new product they are calling Human Biodiesel. The head of their research laboratory, Dr. C. Heston says that he got the idea after watching the classic movie Soylent Green. His lab has perfected the science of extracting subcutaneous and visceral fat from deceased humans. The process is to extract as much pure fat as possible using a liposuction technique. Then the rest of the body is then boiled, causing the remaining fat to rise to the surface where it is collected.
Continue reading Interesting Energy Stories You Might Have MissedOWOE Staff: This month, the American Petroleum Institute (API) presented its “5 Point Policy Roadmap to Secure American Energy Leadership and Help Reduce Inflation” to President-elect Donald Trump and the 119th US Congress. Given that the API is an organization that was created by the oil industry, is supported by the oil industry, and is funded by the oil industry, it is no surprise that it is a blatantly self-serving plan whose primary purpose is to ensure income and maintain shareholder value for the fossil fuel industry. However, OWOE has reviewed the plan and concluded that it is a not unreasonable plan in many ways. With that in mind, OWOE has done some minor editing to address several serious problems that will negatively impact our planet over the long term and hereby presents its own “5 Point Policy Roadmap to Secure American Energy Leadership and Ensure the Planet is Protected for Future Generations”.
Continue reading OWOE’s 5 Point Policy RoadmapGuest blog by Manny Topiques Here are some interesting and somewhat offbeat energy stories that haven’t gotten much media attention over the past year.
Is coal the new future for clean energy? In an amazing new discovery just announced by NASA (National Aeronautics and Space Administration), the Perseverance Rover discovered an outcropping of high quality space coal not far from the spacecraft’s 2021 landing site. Using its rotary percussive coring drill, the rover was able to penetrate approximate 6 meters below the planet’s surface to confirm that this outcropping was the surface exposure of a large deposit of anthracite space coal. Further exploration on future missions will be required to determine if this deposit is native to Mars or the remains of a meteor that impacted the surface in the distant past.
Continue reading Interesting Energy Stories You May Have MissedOWOE has pointed out similarities between today’s Big Oil and last millennium’s Big Tobacco several times over the years. In September 2022 we published “Don’t Blame the Suppliers, Unless They Are Big Oil” where we shared articles documenting the efforts of the fossil fuel companies to engage in a public relations campaign to sow doubt in the science of climate change by following the playbook of the tobacco industry. And in August 2023 we published “Big Oil Stuns Again” where we addressed the greenwashing that the oil companies are currently engaged in and speculated that Big Oil’s lack of civic responsibility might become legal liabilities in the future, similar to what happened with the tobacco industry. Recent events have made it even more clear that, yes, Big Oil is following in the footsteps of Big Tobacco and is likely to meet a similar fate.
Continue reading Big Oil Is the New Big TobaccoBill Luyties, OWOE Technical Editor: There is no doubt that the world needs oil and will continue to need it for some time while the transition to renewable energy plays out. There is also little doubt that that burning of fossil fuels and associated carbon dioxide release into the atmosphere have contributed greatly to the current crisis that is global warming (see 97% of active climate scientists agree). Examples of the impact on the world’s climate are all around us – from the record-breaking temperatures around the world, to the forest fires in Canada, California, Spain, Greece, and Hawaii, to the melting glaciers in the Arctic and Antarctic and rapidly rising sea levels. So, where does Big Oil fit into this ongoing transition? The last several years have seen Big Oil, which has been the source of much of the public misinformation about climate change, pushing the narrative that they will be part of the solution. How is that going?
Continue reading Big Oil Stuns AgainBlog by Bill Luyties (OWOE Founder and Editor): Over the past few weeks, I’ve had multiple articles pop up on my news feeds that proclaim that an EV can cost as much to drive per mile as an ICE vehicle. These all appear to be based on an Anderson Economic Group report titled: Real World Cost of Fueling EVs and ICE Vehicles (2nd Edition), dated April 2022 but apparently not issued until early 2023. One article headline actually shouts: Shocking study finds EVs cost more to fuel than gas cars in late 2022. While I generally feel that the Anderson study did a good job of trying to compare costs, the authors of these news articles ignore most of the study and focus on a single headline-grabbing finding that for mid-priced cars EVs cost about the same as ICE cars when charged at home, but cost more when using commercial chargers (see Figure 1). This may well be true today, but the Anderson study and these articles miss the real point – such a comparison is misleading and almost totally irrelevant for a number of key reasons.
Continue reading Why Can’t Someone Calculate the True Price of Gasoline?