Three Links From Carpe Diem Today -- And a Link To London Newspaper -- What a Treat for Readers -- The Bakken, North Dakota, USA

Update

See first comment regarding need to replace batteries in the hybrids and all-electric vehicles. It is not just the cost of the new battery, but the interior of the car must be completely gutted to replace the battery.

Original Post

My favorite site: Carpe Diem.com.

Three links to warm the cockles of my heart:

• Shale gas boom igniting (perhaps a poor choice of words -- using "boom," "igniting," and "gas" all in one phrase) a pipeline construction boom
• Even with $8,000 subsidies, one does not sell more electric cars
• OWS (Occupy Wall Street) complains about lack of jobs and economic opportunity): hey guys, there's a labor shortage in western North Dakota 

The pipeline construction story, of course, is the most interesting.

I might as well add this story while I'm at it. The gist of this story has been posted before. I expect to see more of these stories (the US is now exporting liquid natural gas -- can you believe it -- exporting a fossil fuel that isn't coal! -- wow): world power swings back to America.

The American phoenix is slowly rising again. Within five years or so, the US will be well on its way to self-sufficiency in fuel and energy. Manufacturing will have closed the labor gap with China in a clutch of key industries. The current account might even be in surplus.

Don't tell Congress. They'll start spending now.

And this London-based newspaper mentions the Bakken near the top:

Less known is that the technology of hydraulic fracturing - breaking rocks with jets of water - will also bring a quantum leap in shale oil supply, mostly from the Bakken fields in North Dakota, Eagle Ford in Texas, and other reserves across the Mid-West.

"The US was the single largest contributor to global oil supply growth last year, with a net 395,000 barrels per day (b/d)," said Francisco Blanch from Bank of America, comparing the Dakota fields to a new North Sea.

Total US shale output is "set to expand dramatically" as fresh sources come on stream, possibly reaching 5.5m b/d by mid-decade. This is a tenfold rise since 2009.

And I remember folks saying the Bakken was hyped.