Posted on 02/01/2015 10:17:45 AM PST by ckilmer
American liberty has always been held up by two pillars. Limited government and unlimited resources.
What happened in the 1970's was that the USA moved toward a future based on limited resources. (That has naturally pushed the USA in the direction of unlimited government because of the need for the government to adjudicate over relatively scarcer resources.)
In order to facilitate the republican vision of limited government its important that pubbies also push for a future of unlimited resources.
Toward this end the republican party needs to have a technological vision Greater than Reagan's Star Wars for foreign policy which helped end the cold war and greater than the democrats current clean energy program which right now is at grid parity in the US southwest.
A pubbie vision of unlimited resources fits the bill.
The pubbie unlimited resources vision should be as simple and straight forward as it is profound in its impact of pushing the USA back to a future based on unlimited resources.
This is it.
Kill the cost of energy.
Kill the cost of desalinated water.
Reduce the cost of electricity production to 1/10 the cost of current cheapest coal produced electricity. That's what will yield the true 21st century economy and come closest to fulfilling the greatest generation's 1950's and 60's dream of too cheap to meter electricity. This is the first part of what will move the USA back in the direction unlimited resources. This transformation will be as profound as coal and steam engines were to the 19th century and the gasoline powered internal combustion engine and the electrically powered motors were to the 20th century.
The second part of the vision to push America back to a future of unlimited resources --requires that we kill the cost of desalinated water so that desalinated water is cheap enough for agriculture in southern California, the desert southwest and the inter mountain west. This will produce the sort of agricultural revolution that will feed the 21st century and beyond. And do for places like the southwest in the 21st century what the iconic hoover dam did in the 20th century.
Cheap energy and water are what produce a future of unlimited resources.
Put the vision of unlimited resources before America and the vision of limited government will make perfect sense to EVERYBODY. (Because a rising tide raises all ships.)
As it happens all the pieces are in place to accomplish this great task. It will happen anyway. All the pubbies need to do is do is organize the culture around this goal (like the dems do around clean energy) and then claim the credit for it.
It should be understood that 1/3 of the cost of desalinized water is the cost of energy so that if you kill the cost of energy you also take some but not all of the cost out of water desalination.
I like the second paragraph.
I had never looked at it that way.
Rush says the soul of wit is brevity. You seem to have met that standard here, well done!
Free market competitive pricing is the only way to ensure that relatively scarcer resources are protected and allocated in the most efficient and cost-effective way.
Since government-imposed "adjudication" of resources operates by definition without critical pricing information, its allocation will necessarily be wasteful and inefficient. Shortages will be the inevitable result.
Desalination causes thick briny slurries which kill ocean seabeds.
Otherwise Saudi Arabia would be the Earth’s biggest greenbelt.
But there are promising solutions; desalination is just not one of them.
But the premise of this writing has merit. Cheap essentials reduce dependency. Anything that reduces dependency is anathema to what drives the socialists in the Democratic party. Anything that frightens these socialists is good for America; a simple refrain yet universally true.
Since government-imposed “adjudication” of resources operates by definition without critical pricing information, its allocation will necessarily be wasteful and inefficient. Shortages will be the inevitable result.
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Agree. the result of increasing government intervention is increasing shortages.
Desalination causes thick briny slurries which kill ocean seabeds.
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well yeah, you’re right —but the solution to that problem is obvious.
You figure out how to use the brine for industrial purposes. Na and Cl are industrial chemicals which can be re purposed. Plus the brine has a lot of useful trace metals.
So the brine becomes a profit center rather than a cost waste center.
There are already a number of companies around who are doing parts of this. But more R&D needs to be done.
In the end you do for salt water what they do with pigs. Use everything but the oink.
> “So the brine becomes a profit center rather than a cost waste center.”
> “There are already a number of companies around who are doing parts of this. But more R&D needs to be done.”
The throughput processing for brine slurries backs up. Desalination volume is therefore limited to the time it takes to process the brine.
Your statements are ‘wishes’ and ‘thoughts’ that are not backed up by practical engineering. Your statement that “more R&D needs to be done” is decades old. Plenty of research has been done on treating and processing brine. Do you really think you are announcing something that isn’t more than 100 years old? Think Man, if the brine problem had been solved or was solvable, there would be desalination plants everywhere.
Don’t be so cavalier in thinking all that is needed is “more R&D” for brine.
There are other solutions in work but current desalination tech is not on that list.
Again, think if desalination had a solution to brine, don’t you think it would have been solved by now? And you should know that the best water treatment scientists and engineers have tried to solve this important problem.
The author of this writing is sophomoric in conceptualizing but he does at least draw attention to the fact that cheap essentials lessen dependency.
Sounds like such a waste. May be some way will be found to form oink collection and aggregation and use it effectively on the battlefield against islamonazis and ISIS.
In the end you do for salt water what they do with pigs. Use everything but the oink.
Sounds like such a waste. May be some way will be found to form oink collection and aggregation and use it effectively on the battlefield against islamonazis and ISIS.
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I’m not getting your point. Even the big pools of pig sh-t that accumulate around pig farms are starting to be turned into energy in the form of methane gas.
The salt waste can be turned into useful industrial chemicals and metals.
Dry the brine out further and sell it as sea salt.
(That has naturally pushed the USA in the direction of unlimited government because of the need for the government to adjudicate over relatively scarcer resources.) WHAT?
Your assumption is FALSE
Where in the US Constitution does it say that it is Governments job to adjudicate resources? They tired that in the OLD USSR, and the result- even though they had vast resources they always had shortages because in is impossible to monitor values of resources by anyone. Capitalism naturally determines the value of resource with each trade.
When everyone owns everything (Socialism) no one owns anything. When individuals own things they are more careful and seek out realistic values. Every notice there is never a shortage of automobiles for sale in America. No lines for meat or bread?
Again, think if desalination had a solution to brine, don’t you think it would have been solved by now?
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Absolutely not. The best chemical engineers are are not in the desalination industry. They’re in the chemical industry.
The chemical industry doesn’t give a rats ass about the desalination business—nor would they want competition from desal based chemicals.
There is in short a industrial structural problem here. I’ve talked to guys at the Bureau of Reclamation the San Dia labs and elsewhere in the desal community. They were told 15 years ago by the chemicals industry that brine wasn’t useable. So they simply gave up. They put no effort into it. Only in the last 5-6 years or so have they begun to put more effort into turning brine into useful products.
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Your statements are ‘wishes’ and ‘thoughts’ that are not backed up by practical engineering.
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You’re stone dead wrong here. This stuff going to happen. I’ll show you what the first generation of brine reuse looks like. I wrote an article on this a couple years ago,
http://www.rdwaterpower.com/carbon-sequestration-and-desalination/watereuse-foudation-symposium/
And you will be quite correct to say that its not enough.
That’s what R&D is about.
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The author of this writing is sophomoric.
It does sound like you’ve had your butt burned. I’ll agree that indeed the desal biz moves at a glacial pace.
If you knew your history however, you’d know that government funding for the desal business was nearly 200 million dollars a year for 30 years from the 50-70’s—in 50’s to 70’s dollars. That work produced RO membranes. Then the US government gave up and the technology and industry mostly went overseas.
Presumably you do not work for an foreign company.
Yeah that’s one idea. But I think it can be mined for cheaper from salt mines. There’s more value in the Na and Cl as industrial chemicals.
Where in the US Constitution does it say that it is Governments job to adjudicate resources?
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I’m sure that you’re correct. And its probably just a coincidence that two years after US oil production peaked in 1969—the Supreme Court voted in ROE V Wade. Subsequently something like 50 million babies have been aborted.
(That has naturally pushed the USA in the direction of unlimited government because of the need for the government to adjudicate over relatively scarcer resources.) WHAT?
Your assumption is FALSE
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In this case “naturally” presumes that the people are Godless. When people do not trust in God they put they’re faith in princes kings and pharaohs.
You presume that most of the people are Godly. That people will “naturally” put their faith in God.
You don’t get it. You’re very naive and inexperienced.
OF COURSE valuable salts and minerals can be recovered from brine.
BUT for every cubic yard of fresh water recovered there is about as much brine to contend with and the treatment of brine takes MUCH longer than the time to produce fresh water. So where does one put all the brine? GET IT NOW? Huge pools of brine are backed up while producing fresh water and the brine volume becomes unmanageable!
Free market competitive pricing is the only way to ensure that relatively scarcer resources are protected and allocated in the most efficient and cost-effective way.
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Agree. But people have to have faith in God to trust in a price mechanism. The country for decades has for decades but especially after 1970—become more godless.
So kill the price of energy and water and give the credit to the God and the pubbies in that order.
You’re sufficiently passionate about the matter for me to believe that either you’ve had your nose rubbed in brine problem or you have an interest in the brine problem not being solved.
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Which is it?
As well, clearly you didn’t read the article I wrote five years ago which shows the academic and entrepreneurial work being done on the problem of converting brine from a cost center to a profit center.
(And yes yes you’re right that its not there yet. But the problem of converting brine waste from a cost center to a profit center is far from insurmountable.)
Read this piece I wrote on where the desal industry was at on the matter of brine reuse back in 2012.
http://www.rdwaterpower.com/carbon-sequestration-and-desalination/watereuse-foudation-symposium/
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