ΞNΞRGY

A dive into the direction of DAO’s, and an inevitable use of autonomous, decentralized ownership of the most vital piece of society, Energy.

Below you will see a Graphic that was shared to me recently. It features a theme I have seen echo and reverberate throughout our collective mind, for quite some time (not Just in Web 3.0). I understand the concern for the environment, Sometimes I feel more than others; but there comes a point societally when we have to Grow Up. We must become adults, and actually fix this broken thing, instead of watch it scurry away further down the road - (with a can of oil in tow) while we get busy ‘ReFraming’ our motives instead.

A Snapshot of a zoomed out/external perspective on using Crypto as the fan-artist engagement medium.
A Snapshot of a zoomed out/external perspective on using Crypto as the fan-artist engagement medium.

It seems as though, to fans, the climate is the largest concern for Cryptocurrencies, and for those artists and Web 3.0 builders, that this is the least tractable of the issues facing our space.

For as long as there has been widespread scientific consensus that climate change is an ordeal that is knocking on our door, or at least walking up the front steps, there have been secret meetings and hands joined regarding what narrative will most painlessly keep the pockets of those entrenched in the energy departments full of that same money, and retain their signatures on the papers that shuffle through our own governmental halls, and our Department of Energy, for grants and tax breaks and then some, most likely behind closed doors. This narrative is what I call Climate Change™

The tailors of this narrative? > Chevron, and BP, and Shell, and Exxon, Aramco, and of course, the GrandDaddy of them all, OPEC.

The amount of wholly misinformed, but highly motivated activists, who may consider themselves progressive, are simultaneously fueling our carbon emissions by wasting all of our collective time by saying things like the far left column of this report quotes. These are precisely the statements that a worldwide oil cartel would espouse in order to defame any potential solutions to these climate crises that are not the ‘state regulated’ ones.

One mild solution that was cooked up for issues of climate, was the completely simple and easy-to-understand Environmental Social Governance Score, or ESG. This standard has existed for quite some time, but took to the mainstream in lockstep with Climate Change™

Sample ESG score spread of various Inter-Governmental/Global Oil Companies
Sample ESG score spread of various Inter-Governmental/Global Oil Companies

As we can see above and below, the ESG standard has done near zilch in terms of initiating any sort of hydrocarbon use retrograde, with the Market Cap of just the top 20 North American oil and gas companies nearing $1 Trillion. (nearing half of the biggest individual player, Saudi ARAMCO at $1.84 Trillion)

A deeper Inspection of North American Oil & Gas Company ESG rating and breakdown  (Nov 2021)
A deeper Inspection of North American Oil & Gas Company ESG rating and breakdown (Nov 2021)

Each of the top 20 grossing North American Oil and Gas producers/sourcing companies received a Negative Consideration, Affecting several analytical components or one severely. In each cited as the most extreme the ‘climate transition risk’, the transition to post hydrocarbon. This is because these companies are entrenched. The emphasis will be put towards figures like the one towards the bottom the ‘Climate physical risks’:

3 component analysis of Environmental risks in the overall score of Oil and Gas Companies relative to all corporations.
3 component analysis of Environmental risks in the overall score of Oil and Gas Companies relative to all corporations.

It will be easy to guess what argument will be made in defense of the status quo, the argument that has already been made. Just look at the relative climate physical risk avg. score for Oil and Gas companies, relative to all Corporations. This will likely be presented without reference to the other two metrics, especially the avg. score received in the ‘Climate Transition risks’ category at the top of the graphic.

To Condense these data into one component shows more clearly the deal, on average; Oil and Gas Companies are 62% worse performing than all other companies in the ‘Environmental’ aspect of the ESG Score.

So what?

This ‘closed loop’ solution in turn drives the whole thing further down the tracks for us to deal with later, while necessitating more carbon use to accommodate the slag that is the Oil & Gas companies, by requiring more infrastructure built around CO2 emission for CO2 capture with no realtime solution to climate transition risks. This is where the solution ends in the normal, regulated conversation. Where one elusive word comes in to steal the show, and empty the room: Nuclear.

And this is where the DAO comes in.

This certainly is an ambitious undertaking, for any size or scale venture: To undo the global hegemon on profitable energy by cheapening and thinning out the margins of nuclear so that only a DAO could handle the tutelage of such an operation.

Cryptocurrency is the new playing field needed to compete with a global, intergovernmental cartel that is keeping hydrocarbons on life support, and they will only ever function in fiat. Once a new field of play is open, and it is owned in a decentralized way, one can expect soon after an inflection point towards a cocktail of renewable innovations, and an eventual unseating of hydrocarbons as our fundamental reserve.

The Ecology of DAO’s

The first vital ingredient in the mix will be an alloy of decentralized ownership of land by members of Governments, communities, Tribes, companies, and more, via the aquifer that will be the DAO. This is what the DAO will do best, represent a collective ownership in a physical utility that will be used and maintained through its collective ownership. Ownership will be necessary for things like waste repository, resource extraction, and manufacture/energy output.

The Yucca Mountain Waste Repository is one such candidate, having been closed for near a decade without purpose, due almost solely to bureaucratic and regulatory tape. Today it still stands as a shining example of the answer we crave when it comes to stateside nuclear waste - in spite of a collective misunderstanding of its relative risk.

Allowing the communities that are impacted most directly to have a first-hand, grassroots stake-hold in the management, oversight, and shared growth of ownership value, will be the cornerstone that drives our energy sector into a new ERA. This is a potential only imaginable with the DAO.

What if paying your energy bill was as easy as buying one NFT and holding it in perpetuity, just incorporated into your mortgage or lease agreement. I imagine a day where the utility bill is obsolete.

With a network of DAO’s and private companies/contractors, groups like @CityDao and @MountainDao for land ownership strategies, @EcoDAO for remediation and climate transition efficiencies, and many, many more to fit in the cracks where needed, we can turn a modest reboot of the internet into the fundamental building block of a new age.

These are just examples, but this ‘network’ of DAOs is an idea shaping up already as evidenced by articles recently crafted by some thought leaders of Web 3.0, seen here:

https://thedaoist.mirror.xyz/8jKbVJCJgUFk5BT6RqE4UjGcWY3Qjr1ZnzVZVnvurIc

Moving Forward

So where does this all leave us? It is clear the Nuclear project is still very early, and the innovation is not near complete, but what it needs, ironically enough, is some proverbial gasoline.

The desired outcome of the existent industry leaders (oil) is occurring, and we know this from reports from the International Energy Agency:

Across advanced economies, nuclear power increases slightly in 2021, with output remaining 6% below 2019 levels. Nonetheless, nuclear remains the largest single source of low-carbon generation in these economies.

And it is also acclaimed in the same report that, notably, America is falling behind the pack relative to emerging markets:

Nuclear power in the United States is expected to decline further in 2021, with five reactors scheduled to be retired during the year, leaving output more than 4% below 2019 levels. The anticipated declines in the United States in 2021 offset increases in other advanced economies.

ESGs are an investment model that add fog and disillusionment to the climate situation.

To accept that nuclear is not an option - too risky, too expensive, too much hazardous waste, is to accept the spoon-fed defeat straight from OPEC. It has been two too many decades of this conversation, I’m only 25 and I’m tired of it. I have been discussing this topic since my high school debate class.

The Resolution is far from clear or simple,

but might look something like this:

Through the enlightenment that is decentralized ownership, we need to push forward a new regime of energy production. The options are plenty;

-Nuclear waste isolation in fewer locations (Yucca Mtn., subduction,…)

-City managed and citizen owned Small modular reactors, for geographically viable cities (concerns for geo-hazards like earthquakes etc.)

-Private company/DAO integration to stitch together a multi-level network of owners and suppliers of energy, recourses, infrastructure, etc.

The conversation must be had, and the sooner the better, we are on the precipice of something great.

There is going to be a mass migration of souls from the traditional world, and they will be lost without something physically realized to grab onto to understand where this ship is going.

There are opportunities a plenty to begin to noodle with filling in the cracks to gain traction into what could be the future model of payment: collective ownership.

I think what I really want to say is, Rather than continue to fuel our future activities on oil, and just compensating by adding more Activities (Carbon Capture, Reforestation, sequestration etc.) Why not just change the fuel?

As long as oil has us focused on climate 'action’, and re-framing narratives, we are not focused on the whole of survival of the human experiment: Decarbonization.

References:

IEA (2021), Global Energy Review 2021, IEA, Paris https://www.iea.org/reports/global-energy-review-2021

Holland, B. (2021, November 24). S&P rolls out new ESG credit indicators for Oil and Gas Companies. Accelerating Progress. Retrieved January 4, 2022, from https://www.spglobal.com/marketintelligence/en/news-insights/latest-news-headlines/s-p-rolls-out-new-esg-credit-indicators-for-oil-and-gas-companies-67805942

Additional Credits:

TheDAOist.mirror.xyz // stefdelev.eth Numa oliveira

Stream.waterandmusic.com

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