The US has sufficient coal to provide all non transport energy needs. Coal can also be refined into pretro and by-products – albeit on significant cost and environmental impact. However, their are cleaner more efficient methods coming on. Of course there is the issue of EREOI. However, that is only an issue if the the energy source for conversion is not sufficiently abundent.

Its not pretty, but worse case you bring more nuke online for electricity, and use nuke to convert coal into oil or gas. Obviously this isn’t a sustainble solution. But the idea isn’t to run this way forever, its to buy you another 20-50 years. You also wouldn’t try to replace all conventional supply, just ease the pressure.

Peak oil’s impacts are usually discussed in terms of socio-economic breakdown. However, the reality is no nation is going to accept this fate, and die easy. Especially not nuclear armed ones. A worse case peak oil scenario, is basically going to mean WWIII. So contigency planning, in terms of investments or real estate is sort of moot. You can’t just buy commodities, move closer to industry/food sources, or learn to garden.

In terms of solution, I am big proponent of tele-commuting. Unless you job involves physically touching things or people – there is no reason for you travel to an office where you also burn additional fossile fuels via seperate electricity and heating/cooling.

Electricity should be primarily nuclear near to mid term,with use of breeder reactors. Solar and wind should also be brought on for diversification and easing load on fuel cycle.

Transport fuels should shift to bio and plug in electric, with conventional, shale, and gassification filling any near term gaps.

It might be worth having the gov invest in shale and gasification capacity, even it sits unused. Just to take some of the risk/supply premium out of market, and provide protection against real disruption.

crop rotation alone cannot hope to replenish the minerals and nutrients removed from the soil at the rate that modern industrial farming methods remove them.

and consider that while americans might be bale to do with a little less food, the majority of the worlds population do not produce enough food to feed themselves, so any drop in food production in the main suppliers such as the US can and does have a devastating effect on other parts of the world

there are 3 main components of fertilizer, NPK

N uses the haber process

methane(CH3SH) is cleaned, mainly to remove sulfur impurities that would poison the catalysts. This is done by turning sulfur into hydrogen sulfide:

CH3SH + H2 → CH4 + H2S

H2S + ZnO → ZnS + H2O

CH4 + H2O → CO + 3H2

2CH4 + O2 → 2CO + 4H2

CH4 + 2O2 → CO2 + 2H2O

CO + H2O → CO2 + H2 high

K2CO3 + H2O + CO2→ 2KHCO3

CO2 + 4H2 → CH4 + 2H2O

N2(g) + 3H2(g) → 2NH3(g),

This is done at 150 – 250 atmospheres (atm) between 300 and 550 °C,

The Odda process is used to make nitrophosphates
The process involves acidifying phosphate rock with nitric acid to produce phosphoric acid and calcium nitrate.

Ca3(PO4)2 + 6 HNO3 + 12 H2O → 2 H3PO4 + 3 Ca(NO3)2 + 12 H2O

2 H3PO4 + 3 Ca(NO3)2 + 12 H2O → 2 H3PO4 + 3 Ca(NO3)2.4H2O

The calcium nitrate gives nitrogen fertilizer. The filtrate is composed of phosphoric acid with some nitric acid , this is neutralized with ammonia to produce a compound fertilizer.

Ca(NO3)2 + 4 H3PO4 + 8 NH3 → CaHPO4 + 2 NH4NO3 + 3(NH4)2HPO4

I’ll have to review my fertilizer production methods. Where I grew up there are no Natural Gas supplies, but a lot of fertilizer production I think came from coal. I will have to review my Chemistry 101 to remind myself how they make it. The only piece I can remember is how the final stage where they use vortexes to turn the product into pellets. Very cool.

I’ll have to review my fertilizer production methods. Where I grew up there are no Natural Gas supplies, but a lot of fertilizer production I think came from coal. I will have to review my Chemistry 101 to remind myself how they make it. The only piece I can remember is how the final stage where they use vortexes to turn the product into pellets. Very cool.

I’ll have to review my fertilizer production methods. Where I grew up there are no Natural Gas supplies, but a lot of fertilizer production I think came from coal. I will have to review my Chemistry 101 to remind myself how they make it. The only piece I can remember is how the final stage where they use vortexes to turn the product into pellets. Very cool.

I just asked a question and then I find out about: Kettle – Why my farmer friend sold his almond orchard earlier this year – he mentioned fertilizer but I didn’t really get it..

njpatient – It’s an election year – AND oil prices are where they are – no wonder I caught that blip about others drilling off our borders…

And that SAS has a connection at the US-Cuban Trade Council!

Man, you just learn about a hundred new things every day…

two ells.

You’ll piss off Herb.

Assemblyman Joseph Cryan (D-Union) called the pending early retirement payout to Barbara Trzeszkowski a “crime against New Jersey taxpayers.”

“This deal reeks of the insider dealing and disregard for taxpayers that has led residents to hold government in such low esteem,” said Cryan, also a member of the Assembly Budget Committee. “This is an obscene amount for any superintendent, and is especially offensive coming from a district that depends on the state’s taxpayers for the bulk of its funding. Not one penny of this payout should be released.”

David Wald, spokesman for the Attorney General’s office, declined to comment. Kathryn Forsyth, spokeswoman for state Education Commisioner Lucille Davy, said Davy plans to examine the deal. “We are reviewing the contract to see what, if anything, can be done,” she said.

The severance package for Trzeszkowski, who is retiring next month at age 60 after working 38 years in the Keansburg school district, includes $184,586 for unused sick and vacation days, and $556,290 in severance pay based on her salary. She did not return a call seeking comment.

Keansburg, a Monmouth County school district of about 1,800 students, is set to receive $28.9 million in state aid, about 81 percent of its total school budget. It is one of 31 poor school districts eligible for heavy state funding under court rulings.

from what i have read, it does appear that a spanish company is helping cuba drill new exploratory wells and have stated the possibility of significant reserves. however the whole “drilling right off of florida angle” is more of a political slant. cuba has been looking for oil for decades.

…absent that process, we’d have to fertilize with BS, like in the good ‘ol days.

China, India and others are drilling off the coast of Cuba (i.e., in Cuban territorial waters), but that wasn’t what Cindy asked. Her question was whether they’re drilling closer to the US coast than the US does. The answer to that is no.
If Bush thought he could reasonably blame Communist Cuba and the Red Chinese for high oil prices, he’d never stop talking about it.