Snapshots In Time -- US Gasoline And Ethanol -- January 19, 2015

Spend some time looking at these snapshots in time. They really are quite phenomenal. The first one especially. Maybe not unprecedented. I don't know. But certainly in my short lifetime what seems to be happening seems remarkable. It's hard to believe we haven't entered a brave new world with regard to fossil energy: the demise of coal, the rise of natural gas, the glut of gasoline.

The obvious question: just how much less expensive can gasoline get? Some see $25 oil.

Snapshots in time:

Source: EIA (a dynamic link).

Has the US ever gone over 9.5 million bopd gasolind demand? Yes, starting back in 2003 there were many periods in which demand for gasoline in the US fluctuated around 9.5 million bopd.

• fourth week in August, 2003: 9.668 bopd
• second week in August, 2004: 9.521 bopd
• third week in August, 2005: 9.471
• first week in August, 2006: 9.697
• third week in August, 2007: 9.762
• the last week of August, 2014: 9.480 million bopd

I am unaware of any weekly period in which gasoline demand went over 9.5 million bopd over the Memorial Day Weekend, but it certainly looks like we could do that later this spring. 

With an improving economy and gasoline prices staying low, one can easily imagine the US going over 10 million bopd for the first time in its history in 2015 (weekly average). One wonders if the move to grant drivers licenses to undocumented residents of California might provide the final bit pushing us over the 10 million bopd threshold. With gasoline stocks soaring, I can only imagine increased marketing by downstream companies pushing their products.

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Ah, The Irony Of It All

Last week a dozen earthquakes were reported in Connecticut and the governor has banned fracking (see disclaimer).  Now, today, it is being reported that there was a 3.0-magnitude earthquake -- OMG, 3.0 -- between Colorado Springs and Pueblo, Colorado. 

Earthquakes are as common as precipitation in southern California from Connecticut to Colorado, where there is almost no fracking, and no earthquakes in North Dakota, the center of modern-day fracking.

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The Word For The Day: Trope

Trope: A literary trope is the use of figurative language – via word, phrase, or even an image – for artistic effect such as using a figure of speech. Kenneth Burke has called metaphor, metonymy, synecdoche and irony the "four master tropes."

I think we all "know" irony and metaphor even if we don't always use the former correctly. The word "metonym" is less well known but used all the time, such as "Wall Street" to refer to the US financial sector, or "Hollywood" to refer to the US film industry.

I see "synecdoche" often but never seem to remember what it means. Very similar to synonym but a bit more imaginative, such as "hired hands" for workers; "bread" for food; "cat" for lion, and so forth.

Early on with the blogging I discussed how "the Bakken" was used in at least three different contexts. I began using "the Bakken" as a literary trope for US unconventional oil some years ago.