It is both delusional and wishful thinking that this series of downturns constitute the worst that has ever happened in History to the Global and American oil and natural gas industry. Nor are the things done wrong unprecedented by that industry: had they the wit or control of their vices, it would have occurred to the majors that perhaps by diverisfying their portfolio into other industries as an offset and for “saving for a rainy day” might have been the better part of wisdom.

As but one example of what should have been the US energy industry’s piggybank, at present there are 480+ highly developed and researched hydroelectric project opportunities in the USA in the 50-1,000 MWe range which the US Bureau of Reclamation has identified. Hydroelectric bond issuances pay down like a broken Las Vegas slot machine. Yet are there takers for these projects? No. Elon Musk-type flying saucer BS projects, solar panels and wind farms come first before projects that actually work…and coincidentally, produce fewer if any emissions. BTW the hipshot total of what net revenues to investors those neglected hydro projects could yield annually is in the range of 3-4 trillion US per year in today’s dollars given a net power yield of 100 MWe average output for each of 480 hydro projects. That is 48 gigawatts of power capacity requiring no fuel to produce it thrown down the drain or rather going up the energy companies’ executive noses as Peruvian Army marching powder.

Here is the list of 480 hydro sites open for development in the USA courtesy of the US Bureau of Reclamation. The document is here: “2018 Available Sites 8-17-18.pdf” Most of these sites should have been under active development in 1985 or so.

Every business now seems to be managed on the basis of the “flash the cash, throw the future in the trash” meth dealer ethic. Play the long game and you always win if your concept of winning includes maintaining some semblance of stability and normality.