Ben, Author at Geothunder Main

Before the Flood: A Carbon Tax Story

Ben — Tue, 01 Nov 2016 03:55:07 +0000

In recent years I have been quiet on energy related issues. We have come a long way in the last 10 years. Like many people I recently watched “Before the Flood.” most of the film was good, but I would like to post a word of warning about the carbon tax mentioned in the film. The idea of a carbon tax could work if it is not perverted by politics, but that scenario is unlikely.

I spent more than five years researching carbon capture and storage (CCS). There is a strong possibility that “carbon credits” will accompany a carbon tax. The result will likely be the rapid death of the coal industry, and an increase in the price of power. The death of the coal industry may leave many of you overjoyed, but carbon credits will act as a subsidy for some oil companies. CO2 Enhanced Oil Recovery (EOR) works well for getting oil out of the ground. Oil companies will get paid for offset credits while injecting CO2 into the ground to get more oil back. They want to inject CO2 anyway. Carbon Credits will make it profitable for them to source and sequester CO2.

Sounds good right?

I don’t remember the exact numbers, but I believe the net result is carbon neutral at best. The oil coming out of the ground will offset any good that the carbon storage will do. Carbon credits are little more than a way to subsidize oil companies in a way that appears to be friendly to the environment.

Most of our research was in part paid by oil companies. They will benefit if carbon credits become common. The price of carbon credits will likely be dependent on a trade based system like the stock market. Such a system will cause significant fluctuation in other energy prices and energy intensive goods.

Companies like Denbury Resources even planned to use carbon credits as part of their business model. *Full disclosure I still have a small amount of Denbury stock, but I don’t expect to ever get my money back out of the company.*

A carbon tax sounds good on paper, but it is not a great solution to our carbon problem. The idea has flaws, and will be a new tool to abuse in the United States.

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The Phoenix

Ben — Sun, 04 Jan 2015 06:35:35 +0000

Rise From the Ashes

This site has been in bad shape for the last few months. I have completely restructured the front and back end. Many new features will speed things up, and hopefully, we will be better than ever. Our page rank is seriously suffering from a few mistakes I made when I let the site break and stay down for an extended period of time. I did try to retain the original header. You will find that the site is now phone/mobile friendly. We are also utilizing lazy loading so if I happen to make a post with too many pictures it will load as you need them which saves me bandwidth and saves you time if the content isn’t to your liking.

Most of our new content has been focused on “how to” articles simply because they get hits and people really do not care what a blogger has to say about energy. (That said I will probably have a few energy posts in the future)

I have a lot of other projects going on so I do not expect I will be updating the main page very often. This site is automatically tied in with a feed to most of my other projects so the top right corner will show my latest activity. I expect most of the activity will be related to other sites. I plan to get ThebakkenFormation and BakkenThreeForks back off the ground a separate projects in the future. I also plan to get a blog going for one of my car sites. I will also be working on client sites as needed.

My Updates in short:

Got Engaged
I’m now a webmaster and co-owner of Dirt River Design LLC
I have been working a new job for about a year as a well site geologist in Western North Dakota
Recent oil price changes will likely provide additional time to work on side projects and our business.
We have another significant plan in the works, but it will probably be July or later before you see anything about that here

I expect all of my old followers are all gone, but if any of you are still around people feel free to drop me a message.

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Tutorial on how to Change Youtube Speed

Ben — Sun, 28 Dec 2014 20:18:59 +0000

I put together a very short tutorial on how to change the playback speed on youtube. It will let you use slow motion and double speed on youtube without having to download the video to your computer.

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DIY Cheap Ventilated Litter Box Summary

Ben — Thu, 25 Dec 2014 18:54:10 +0000

DIY Cheap Ventilated Litter Box Summary

Goal of the project: A tutorial on how to modify and build a relatively cheap ventilated cat box using cheap household products.

Once finished this post will link to the projects page. I have started a DIY project to pull a slight negative pressure inside the litter box and push air outside. The concept is exactly the same as installing a blower fan in your bathroom. Once working properly the kitty box should be nearly odorless.

Window Venting Cat Box

The cat box will be modified to vent outside using an existing window, and parts can easily be obtained on amazon or at a local hardware store. Full Details of the parts will be at the bottom of the full post.

Quick Clean Ventilated Cat Box

As part of this build we will modify a quick clean cat box the “Omega Paw Self-Cleaning Litter Box.” The plan is to take a proven product and hopefully make it better.

Cat/Litter Box Fan

The fan we are using is a USB powered fan that you can buy off ebay. For those of you who are concerned with power draw. The max possible electrical draw should be around 12.5 watts, but I expect to it take a bit less that that so it shouldn’t draw any more than leaving a small CFL light bulb on. (Note it will depend on the efficiency of the USB power source. If you use a bad one you could probably almost double the draw)

Expected Total Cost for Ventilated Litter Box

I’m expecting the total cost of the ventilated litter box to be around $50

$25    Omega Paw Self-Cleaning Litter Box, Regular, Taupe (Sometimes these are on sale)
$10    Powered PC fan (AC Infinity AI-MPF80A Quiet 80mm USB Fan for Receiver DVR Playstation Xbox Computer Cabinet Cooling)
$~15 Plumbing components
$5      Velcro and clear flaps (Optional)

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State of Flux

Ben — Fri, 10 Oct 2014 06:25:02 +0000

The site will be in a state of flux for a little while. Our 3 year old theme wasn’t doing us any favors with multiple devices used today. We will be switching to a less graphics intensive dynamic theme.

I will likely start putting a bit more time into the site again. A lot of things have been happening, but I haven’t had much time to focus on my hobbies.

I would like to get some kind of business going in the next year or so, but I don’t exactly have a business model so we have long ways to go on that front.

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