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Post by Admin on Apr 4, 2016 12:09:48 GMT -6
Options for Strategic Turnaround of the Oil Industryimplementing ever more efficient co-generation solutions wherever the remaining fossil fuel budget may be burned.
right-sizing petroleum production for almost exclusively closed-loop feed stock and not so much direct-burn fuel purposes.
becoming a serious supplier of pure carbon Bucky-ball lubricants and nanotube fiber stocks as sequestering develops a non-fossil-fueled ability to retrieve and split CO2 from ambient air.
partnering with the private aerospace industry to create prodigious amounts of pure hydrogen and oxygen to fuel ever cheaper launches and deeper space ventures, and on the side power embedded fuel cells and entire trains of autonomous (self-driven) hydrogen cars on land, rail and in the air.
mitigating existing ship channel properties to redevelop the land for future-trade post-Panamax business, especially if asteroid mining begins to pay raw-materials dividends.
hugely retooling and reinvesting in future base-load energy options such as modular breeder reactors and eventually magnetically-constrained slow fusion direct electric and heat production.
exploiting that base load nuclear energy and supplementing it with abundant alternatives including on-demand nuclear-explosive geothermal to create a stream of custom hydrocarbons (boutique fuels) from seawater and feed stocks.
partnering with the public to mainline carbon-fee dividends to customers' checking accounts ( see CCL). participating in a tremendous new public-private partnership to develop American clean energy as public good, perhaps distributed underground from a safe, secure superconducting spine that will traverse the center of North America from Hudson Bay to Houston, and eventually extend under the Panama Canal to Patagonia.
taking ownership of whatever the OPEC oil states may leave to private oil majors after they have predominantly purchased winners of competition for advanced bio-fuel industries.
final development of identified fossil fuel reserves but only within Earth's limited remaining carbon budget, and in order of most economical-ecological exploits first - the rest will remain in solid earth reservoirs until they can be safely mined for use in the closed-loop feed stock industry found in option 2 above.
eventually, and this is really looking ahead, making good on those space company partnerships to transport valuable new bulk hydrocarbon resources for the closed-loop feed stock industry found in option 2 above from Jupiter's moons for safe delivery to a carefully carbon-neutral future Earth.
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Post by Admin on Apr 4, 2016 12:15:52 GMT -6
The status of diversification in the Houston-area economy
Anyone that lived through the 1983/86 crash in Houston can easily recall to this day what over-reliance on a single fuel to support the regional economy felt like when boom turned to bust. The CEO of Shell Oil Company walked away from a Kingwood mansion and threw in the keys. The 1983 economic crisis became just as pronounced in Houston as the 2008 financial meltdown from which we still recover at a national scale. Dating back to the first quarter of 2012, recently released BLS data quantified how Harris County job providers recovering from a 2008 "great" recession employed a little over 2 million workers in a little over 100,000 establishments, sending out $2.8 billion in weekly wages. Of these about 6 percent of all employees and 1.6% of all establishments directly engaged in the oil and gas industry, and supported almost 18 percent of total wages within the county. The average weekly wage directed by primary oil and gas industry participants amounted to over $4,000 per worker per week. In addition, about 4 percent of employees and 2.8% of establishments derived petroleum products in plastics and chemicals industries, generating almost 6 percent of total area wages. These workers shared in an average weekly wage that neared $2000. Also, about 10 percent each of area employees and establishments provided support to primary and secondary oil and gas industries (exclusive of the financial services industry), so that supporting actors sent home almost 13 percent of total area wages. These tertiary wage-earners averaged near $1800 per week. This means in 1st quarter 2012, about 20 percent of jobs and 14.1% of establishments in Harris County, Texas were tied with petroleum industries, providing over 36 percent of the county's entire wage stream. The average weekly wage for this portion of the workforce in Harris County was $2,499.81, or 187% of the county average.
The Houston area was widely considered to maintain additional employment strengths not directly related to petroleum-dominated industries. So beside petroleum interests and in order of wage-earning power during 1st quarter 2012, Harris County industries with generally better than twice average US location quotient were: - Financial Services: almost 7 percent of all employees worked in almost 13 percent of all establishments earning over 12 percent of total wages. Average weekly wage was $2,433.17, or 182% of the county average.
- Aerospace: with just ten employers that provided 3,131 jobs earning $6.4 million in weekly wages, the business of outer space made up a mere quarter percent of the Harris County total. Average weekly wage was $2,051.26, or 153% of the county average.
- Biotech: with a lower location quotient (LQ) of only 0.75, biotech actually appeared underrepresented in Harris County with only 56 establishments supplying 742 jobs earning $1.2 million in weekly wages. This industry supplied four hundredths of a percent of Harris County's total wages, leaving plenty of room for growth. Average weekly wage was $1,672.63, or 125% of the county average.
- Rice Milling: a mature Harris County industry with a whopping 6.71 L.Q., provided 184 jobs in just seven establishments offering $254,621 in weekly wages, which is only one hundredth of one percent of the county total. Average weekly wage was $1,383.81, or 103% of the county average.
- HVAC: the air conditioning industry in this hot and humid land had L.Q. of 1.62 where 212 establishments provided 7,382 jobs offering $9.4 million in weekly wages, which is about one-third percent of county total wages. Average weekly wage was $1,273.90, or 95% of the county average.
- Coffee Bean Roasting: a recent startup industry in Harris County, green coffee roasting maintained 490 employees in eleven establishments offering $605,325 in weekly wages, which amounted to an embryonic two hundredths of one percent of county total wages. Average weekly wage was $1,235.36, or 92% of county average.
- Medicine: an average-paid Medical Center with lower-wage supportive services like ambulance drivers and home health care workers, combined to offer $188 million in weekly wages (6.74% of the county's total) to 178,819 workers (8.6% of the county total) spread over 8,706 establishments. Thus averaged, a weekly wage of $1,053.47 was 79% of county average. The gigantic and expending size of the Texas Medical Center hinted at a large and growing population in the Houston metro area, Houston–The Woodlands–Sugar Land was the fifth-largest metropolitan area in the United States and second-largest in Texas with a population of 6,313,158 in 2013 and 6,490,180 in 2014, according to U.S. Census Bureau's most recent mid-year (ACS 1-Year) estimates. Considering the size of population served, the medical profession in Harris County still has a location quotient of only 1.27, meaning it has ballooned but only to 27% larger than the average medical industry of a US metropolitan city.
- Bus and Rail Transit: with over three times the L.Q. average, Harris County's innovative Bus and Rail Transit industry employed 3,120 workers in 12 establishments offering a total of almost $3 million in weekly wages, between one and two tenth's percent of the county total. Average weekly wage was $910.45, or 68% of the county average, marking this the lower-wage industry among the big ones in the Houston area.
- Remaining jobs not clustered above fell closer to or below the US average location quotient of 1.0, so the majority of employees (64.4%) performed typical duties as in any big American city. This huge range of jobs taken together averaged to around the same wage as the bus and train transit drivers got: $910.98 per week.
Summary:So the top 20 percent of earners working in Houston-area's predominant energy industry took home over one third of all wages, all tied to oil and gas. Other employment clusters led by financial services captured 15% of total wages, and the remainder followed (almost 2/3 of total area jobs) with under 44% of area wages. Can we do without the petrol-jobs? Not if we want to remain a vibrant, viable metropolitan area that is pushing ever closer to a desired world-class standing. Will similar jobs be maintained in our future? This is only likely if the oil majors perform a tremendous strategic turnaround of their own, as outlined in the post heading this thread.
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Post by Admin on Apr 4, 2016 12:29:18 GMT -6
What fossil fuel divestment means for the Houston area
Course Correction, Closer than we Thought:
End of an Era as Rockefeller's Heirs Divest From "Morally Reprehensible" ExxonAt the end of 2015, Houston had traveled as much as "T-plus 30" years past the outside estimate for how long humans may safely extend fossil fuel exploitation before stemming a tide of climate change that increasingly threatens modern civilization plus uncountable animal and plant species with disaster and near- to full extinction... with 1/3 of them ending births as soon as 2050. Around 1978 Exxon's own excellent internal science staff had formulated an estimate with only five to ten years remaining at expected global emissions curves to define an alternative path away from fossil fuels. Well it's taken far longer than desired, and depends on nothing more solid than shaming and cooperation, but with this year's Paris climate accord in hand the whole world now stands united to attempt this major course correction together. Portland, Oregon and surrounding Multnomah County have followed a joint climate action plan since 1993, now in its fourth installment. Other places started a bit later, like Houston with its 2008 City of Houston Emissions Reduction Plan and currently underway City of Houston Sustainability Action Plan, and many have yet to begin their first such project. Unfortunate for locals, Houston, Texas in billing itself the Energy Capital of the World to its peril still equates that title with fossil hydrocarbon exploration and production. This excerpt downloaded from the Portland, Oregon local government Bureau of Planning and Sustainability (BPS) web site gives energy industry leadership pause: "In November 2015, Portland City Council passed two new resolutions, signaling local resolve to move away from fossil fuels. The first resolution, passed on November 4, opposes oil trains carrying crude oil from rolling through Portland and Vancouver. The second resolution directs City bureaus to identify how to use the City's authority to restrict the development and expansion of fossil fuel infrastructure (other than infrastructure like pipes to serve direct end users.) Resolutions are not legally binding on their own. Any legally binding code changes will come back to City Council for consideration at a later date. The new resolutions build on a history of action: Reduce direct use of fossil fuels: The City has been systematically working to reduce fossil fuel use in Portland for more than 20 years, as detailed in four successive climate action plans. This most recent decision reflects the commitment of Portland’s leadership to stay the course, rather than a radical departure from past practice. Don't invest City financial resources in fossil fuels: In September 2015 City Council passed a resolution that adds fossil fuel companies to the City’s "do-not-buy" list of corporate securities. Reduce fossil fuels in our electricity supply: The City continues to partner with clean energy advocates and allies to make it easier for renewable energy development to take place in Oregon. BPS has run programs to help residents and businesses go solar, like Solarize Portland, and has piloted new program ideas like crowdfunding for solar on community buildings. BPS has played an active role in supporting state legislative and regulatory proceedings that advance clean energy, like the Renewable Portfolio Standard." Consider that Portland has a 20-plus year lead embracing climate action, and we have reason to expect other US cities and counties will enact similar measures quite rapidly as part and parcel of a national contribution toward global fossil fuel emissions reductions of 80% by 2050. What would this mean for Houston, the nation's fourth largest city, and for surrounding Harris, Fort Bend and Montgomery Counties? |
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