Category: Fuel Storage & Distilling

Letter Re: 20 Pound Propane Tanks and Differing Valve Designs in the U.S.

Jim, I have seen discarded 20 pound propane tanks discarded by the road for a couple years now. The trash guys don’t pick them up, either. (At least not in my area) They are tossed out because they have the “old style” valve in them. At Wallyworld [Wal-Mart], they were swapping the old tank for an up-dated one for a pretty reasonable price. I discussed this with my local propane guy, and he said they are losing about $1.00 each doing what they are doing. Now I found out why. The local Indian reservation has gas stations, and one of …


Three Letters Re: Questions on the Pickup Truck as a Multi-Purpose Retreat Vehicle

Dear Jim and Survival Blog: I’m sure the question of the best truck for a survival retreat will generate a large response. By trade, I am an engineer; however, I currently am working as a maintenance person for a large camping facility in upstate New York. In my experience with equipment and vehicles, I would have to say anything with a Cummins 6B or 4B diesel power plant will earn the owners respect for the amount of work it will do and the long life you can expect from the unit. I live next to a medium size farm operation …


Letter Re: Rethinking Global Oil Reserves

Michael Z. Williamson is correct that folk don’t think about all the uses of oil in the products we buy. The sustainability of our growing population is dependent upon massive amounts of oil used in pesticides and fertilizers in order to obtain spectacularly large crop yields per acre, not to mention the harvesting, transportation, and transportation of food. Shortages of oil could have a severe impact on food production, and last year even the “moderately high” price of fuel caused a few farmers to not be able to harvest their crops. One problem with the oil picture is that not …


Rethinking Global Oil Reserves by Michael Z. Williamson

Ah, oil. It’s close in everyone’s minds because we rely on it absolutely. It fuels our vehicles, some houses, provides lubricants, is used for all our plastics and in many industrial applications. The first major factor in the chain is surveying and drilling of crude. As recently made the news, a massive reserve in the Gulf of Mexico has increased our domestic supply by 50%. There are also newer technologies coming on board for extracting oil from tougher resources (Shales, sands, deep wells, from under permafrost) and also manufacturing oil from organic waste, in a process called Thermodepolymerization (TDP). The …


Letter Re: Winter Fuel Blends and Fuel Storage Life

Jim, If [liquid fuel] prices continue to plummet then a good thing to do is stock up on winter fuels when prices bottom out. Didn’t you say winter/cold weather fuels have an advantage over warm weather production? – Jason in North Idaho JWR Replies: Yes, gasoline formulations do vary seasonally here in the United States. Here is a good reference on the subject, although I think that it overstates the risk of vapor lock running winter blend gas in the summer. The most notable difference is that winter blends are oxygenated in some regions of the country (typically with a …


What Happens After: Observations on Hurricane Katrina

Jim; Just a few notes about my experiences with Hurricane Katrina a year later. On the evening that Katrina passed our retreat, my partner and I began to make our way back to our homes (less than 30 miles) and businesses to secure them – (both firearms related). We chose to take different routes, him on foot, and me in my truck with my dogs & supplies. The routes required pushing and/or cutting trees, poles, fences and all manner of lines and debris from the road ways. The few roads that could be made passable with chain saws and simple …


The Coming Energy Crisis: Hubbert’s Peak Or Not–Be Prepared!

There has been a lot of ink spilled in recent years, debating the Hubbert’s Peak (“Peak Oil”) theory. FWIW, I am a believer in global oil depletion, but I think that those in the “Peak Oil” crowd are about 20 to 25 years too early in their predictions. In my estimation we cannot depend on the slow-moving bureaucracies of national governments to rescue us from the coming energy crisis. Even if we were t overcome the problem in the First World, the second World and the Third World–with less money available for massive crash programs and probably with a more …


Six Letters Re: The Ethanol Debate

Sir: Regarding ethanol, the amount of fossil fuel or equivalent slave labor wage work make ethanol driving a exclusive privilege of the wealthy. Brazil has the world’s highest percentage ethanol from sugar cane for motor fuel. US use of current corn ethanol processes are petroleum negative and only feasible due to massive taxpayer subsidies. If the readers of SurvivalBlog are expecting to have motor power in the age of ethanol I realistically suggest keeping down to a small displacement engine motorbike and maybe a chainsaw. Electricity is much higher watt per acre from water solar or wind and bicycle horse …


Two Letters Re: The Ethanol Debate

Jim: Regarding the following snippet in Odds ‘n Sods: As quoted by our friend Bill Bonner at The Daily Reckoning: writing in Fortune magazine, Lester Brown notes that ethanol is not only a waste of money, if taken up widely, it would actually mean starvation for many of the world’s poor people. “The grain required to fill a 25-gallon tank (with ethanol) would feed one person for a year,” Brown writes. I was under this impression too. Don’t get me wrong I think its a waste of time and resources, but ethanol doesn’t have to be [derived from] the grain. …


Letter Re: Storing Ethanol Blend Gasoline?

Jim, Here in the DC area the gasoline supplies are by law blended with (I think) 15% ethanol. I’m familiar with the requirements for storing standard gasoline, but have no idea if the ethanol blend poses any problems for long term storage. Do you have any advice or knowledge that you can share with your readers on this? – Shawnee JWR Replies: Sorry, but that goes beyond my expertise. Perhaps some of the blog readers would care to comment.


Letter Re: Australian Podcast on Peak Oil

Jim, There’s an excellent, very recent Peak Oil multi-part podcast at the Australian ABC site listed below. I found it informative, and also a good way to brake the news to my wife. She’s a type A personality that works ALL the time, but she doesn’t particularly keep up with world events. (Yes, it’s my fault. I should’ve brought her into the fold long ago.) It brought her to tears. Now I feel bad because I didn’t expect that…but, it had to be done. Since she’s a survivor, and smarter than I am, it’ll be good to have her help …


Thinking the Unthinkable, By Norman Church

Editor’s Note: The following lengthy speech was given at the “Peak Speak 2” Peak Oil conference, held on July 15, 2006 at Bedzed, Wallington, UK. Introduction Oil depletion is just the first of a series of resource crisis humanity is about to face because there are just too many of us! This century we will face peak resources, period. There are many fascinating and exciting renewable energy developments. Wind turbines, solar energy, geothermal, biomass, wave and tidal power schemes which are all important energy sources for the future – and could at least help keep the electricity grid going to …


Letter Re: James Kunstler at Midwest Renewable Energy Fair

Jim, As a regular reader of Survival Blog, I thought others might like a “field trip” report from the Midwest Renewable Energy Association’s (MREA) Energy Fair held this past weekend. This is an annual event hosted in central Wisconsin and it has had a growing number of attendees; last year’s fair drew over 10,000 and this year it was expected to draw ~17,000 people over its three days. In my mingling, I encountered people who had traveled from as far as New mexico, southern Oklahoma, Kansas, and many from Wisconsin and bordering states. The fair is a collection of vendors, …


Letter Re: Salt Blocks and Free Firewood

Mr. Rawles: I wanted to say what a great and informative site you have, I just recently found it, and have started reading the archives. I haven’t read much but I haven’t seen anything on putting out salt or trace mineral blocks to attract deer. I think it would be helpful to have several on hand.Ours is in the pasture behind the house and many mornings we could have shot from the deck. I think it’s a good idea to put them out now so the deer will have established a routine of visiting them. Also concerning firewood, my husband …


Letter Re: Do-it-Yourself Ethanol Stills

James, Check out this link: http://www.dogwoodenergy.com/. It’s for a company that manufactures stills for producing ethanol. Ethanol can be used for use as a diesel fuel extender. The downside is that the still must be registered with the BATFE, including the street address and the location [of the still] on the property. As an aside on diesel fuel: I worked for an earthmoving company in Florida and they maintained diesel fuel tanks on the premises. One of the problems they had with diesel that they didn’t have with gasoline was that bacteria would grow in diesel and clog the filters. …