Update and Correction to a Past Blog
It has recently come to my attention that some information I quoted from a briefing I attended may be wrong. On October 20, 2009, I reported that a speaker had indicated that the steel required for a gas pipeline from Canada to the US would require more than a year's worldwide supply of steel. The speaker did not provide the analysis supporting this, and I must confess that I do not know much about pipelines and I did not try to reproduce the number myself. I have now learned that another blogger and his readers have analyzed the statement and found it to be wrong.
The statement and my uncritical acceptance of it points out what I believe to be a major problem we are all facing in discussing energy alternatives. The issues are numerous and very broad, so no one is an expert in all areas, and it is too easy to rely on someone on the basis of position or reputation. I regret if my quoting of the statement has misled anyone, and hope that, by referring you to the other blog that I can correct whatever damage has been done.
I will redouble my efforts to try to check the facts before I post something in the future--or, if I am unable to do so, at least to ask my readers if they can confirm or counter anything I report. One hope I have for this blog is that, by putting our collective heads together, we can come up with the real truth behind the assertions we hear for various technologies.
Gail:
ReplyDeleteI agree with the notion of collective fact checking. It is one of the very big innovations with the interactive media that we now have available. It is always good to attract independent thinkers who are willing to "run the numbers" and post their results.
I do thank you for sharing the claim about the amount of steel required to build a pipeline. It offered a great opportunity for me to learn more about one aspect of energy production, transportation and consumption that I had not done much work on before.
Rod Adams