Feels more relevant than the 12th paragraph implies;
The sale has been in the works for more than a decade. Congress first mandated it through the Helium Stewardship Act of 2013. It was initially supposed to occur in 2021, but a series of delays — in part due to the same logistical and regulatory issues threatening shutdowns today — postponed the auction to Thursday.
In case anyone was wondering, the reason this was mandated in 2013 was because the government was causing private reserves to go out of business by flooding the market with cheap helium. It was believed that a private owner wouldn't do that by keeping the price high (and the law mandated a higher price until the reserve was sold).
If the resources are so mismanaged as to lose money, the taxpayers have to pay for it. The government with all its vast resources could put most businesses out of commission because it has no obligation to be profitable.
What if helium is cheap and relatively abundant though? Like the way we treat water. Even water has to be sold at a (preferably low) profit so that all the facilities and infrastructure around it can be maintained. In some cases the government does end up paying for water infrastructure but this is often initial setup costs that would be too huge and risky to provide affordable water to small communities if the true cost had to be paid by them in a reasonable time frame.
I've been thinking for decades now that creating my own stockpile of helium would be one of those crazy stories that would end up being insanely profitable. Akin to Elon making reusable rockets.
I read about counter arguments saying that helium is easy enough to source that it is really just an issue of the price/extraction ratio. Because of that, making your own stock pile company doesn't make sense.
Then, I read articles like this, that make me think it has nothing to do with the price/extraction ratio and everything to do with government control of production.
Obviously, I'm never going to do it, but it is a fun thought exercise anyway. I will add though, I've been seeing these helium stories cycle a bit more recently. I wonder what phase we are in.
What doesn't make sense is overthinking it. If the price of Helium went up over the years, the price of Helium is going to keep going up over the next years. When everyone tells you that we're going to run out, then the value is simply going to go up.
What people say about profitability is irrelevant. What matters is the price trend, not their opinions.
Now go take a look at charts. You're not going to like it. :)
There’s one law of physics difference here: (with a few exceptions) helium, because it’s lighter than air, will never replenish on our planet. There is currently most of what there ever will be. Unlike (almost?) every other object of commerce, there is an almost completely inelastic total supply. It is the ultimate non-renewable resource.
It's up to those of us living today to decide to make the common rising baloon extinct. It's going to happen one day regardless. If we do it sooner, we get to use helium for medicine longer.
I'm in favor, though sad, of a government ban. It should probably happen slowly so that no one's job is to empty canisters into the open air. Opinions?
Almost all natural gas wells just vent the helium they produce to the atmosphere. Helium balloons won’t ever be the culprit in a shortage. This is a plastic straw ban kind of issue, visible to people but pointless because the actual problem is elsewhere.
So where is the problem? The rate of the mining? The efficiency? I would assume that helium baloons wouldn't be the culprit in a shortage because they'll be the first to go in a shortage. I assumed it was because the money made from helium baloons is responsible for higher rates of helium mining.
I'm genuinely not going to know what you think the actual problem is if you don't tell me. I promise I tried looking it up before responding.
Edit: I hadn't thought about purity requirements. Helium baloons do require significantly lower purity than medical uses. So how that lower grade stuff is treated as a whole is the part to consider, rather than helium baloon revenue.
Surely this (unlike many other environmental and social issues) is effectively solved by price?
If helium balloons cost $100 each vastly fewer of them would be sold. If they cost $100 but you could get $90 back by bringing them back to the store for the helium to be recycled, much less helium would be consumed.
If there is a limited supply of helium for essential medical use, the price should rise until either demand is affected or less of it gets discarded by hydrocarbon extractors. If this doesn't happen we are probably ok.
Price is driven by the market, and the market has a very short timeframe where anything is relevant (it generally only cares about the timeframe when the transaction is taking place).
However the management of helium as a resource needs to be thought of as “the entire time that humans will exist on Earth”, since it’s an almost completely non renewable resource where after using it once it’s often lost forever.
Brazil nuts trees take over 50 years to grow. When they reach full size the nuts are so massive and so high that they can kill people walking below. The native habitat of the Brazil nut is getting burned down every year to make way for cattle grazing. Oh and did I mention they only grow in the rain forest and are not cultivated by farms, but rather harvested in the wild? Is this nonrenewable miracle nut worth thousands of dollars then? No, it goes into mixed nut compilations at Wal-Mart
Peat (the dead stuff, not the live moss) takes THOUSANDS of years to grow. Once used up it cannot be replaced within human civilization time scales. So of course we burn it for electricity and use it to grow potted plants...
Readit News
The sale has been in the works for more than a decade. Congress first mandated it through the Helium Stewardship Act of 2013. It was initially supposed to occur in 2021, but a series of delays — in part due to the same logistical and regulatory issues threatening shutdowns today — postponed the auction to Thursday.
Only a few wells are even setup to capture it because of the associated economic cost.
If we really care about conserving helium we would probably not vent it directly into the atmosphere while extracting natural gas.
Party balloons are not the problem here.
Why not just not flood the market with cheap helium?
What if helium is cheap and relatively abundant though? Like the way we treat water. Even water has to be sold at a (preferably low) profit so that all the facilities and infrastructure around it can be maintained. In some cases the government does end up paying for water infrastructure but this is often initial setup costs that would be too huge and risky to provide affordable water to small communities if the true cost had to be paid by them in a reasonable time frame.
I read about counter arguments saying that helium is easy enough to source that it is really just an issue of the price/extraction ratio. Because of that, making your own stock pile company doesn't make sense.
Then, I read articles like this, that make me think it has nothing to do with the price/extraction ratio and everything to do with government control of production.
Obviously, I'm never going to do it, but it is a fun thought exercise anyway. I will add though, I've been seeing these helium stories cycle a bit more recently. I wonder what phase we are in.
What doesn't make sense is overthinking it. If the price of Helium went up over the years, the price of Helium is going to keep going up over the next years. When everyone tells you that we're going to run out, then the value is simply going to go up.
What people say about profitability is irrelevant. What matters is the price trend, not their opinions.
Now go take a look at charts. You're not going to like it. :)
What about all that material cost sunk into the rocket, that they don't have to spend again for a new one?
What did the Helium Stewardship Act of 2013 try to solve?
I'm in favor, though sad, of a government ban. It should probably happen slowly so that no one's job is to empty canisters into the open air. Opinions?
I'm genuinely not going to know what you think the actual problem is if you don't tell me. I promise I tried looking it up before responding.
Edit: I hadn't thought about purity requirements. Helium baloons do require significantly lower purity than medical uses. So how that lower grade stuff is treated as a whole is the part to consider, rather than helium baloon revenue.
Curious, would you mind expanding on where you think the actual problem is?
If helium balloons cost $100 each vastly fewer of them would be sold. If they cost $100 but you could get $90 back by bringing them back to the store for the helium to be recycled, much less helium would be consumed.
If there is a limited supply of helium for essential medical use, the price should rise until either demand is affected or less of it gets discarded by hydrocarbon extractors. If this doesn't happen we are probably ok.
However the management of helium as a resource needs to be thought of as “the entire time that humans will exist on Earth”, since it’s an almost completely non renewable resource where after using it once it’s often lost forever.
We’ve already had half a dozen threads about the industrial uses of helium. Not relevant?
Peat (the dead stuff, not the live moss) takes THOUSANDS of years to grow. Once used up it cannot be replaced within human civilization time scales. So of course we burn it for electricity and use it to grow potted plants...