http://online.wsj.com/article/SB120128939885117541.html?mod=hpp_us_inside_today
Even if he is right his actions show a distinct lack of imagination as far as how to protect himself from the consequences he fears.
70% of the oil we use in the US goes in to our cars and trucks. Currently it costs about $3 a gallon for gas. If we convert to electric plug-in which is the next wave of cars coming in the next 10 years the cost falls to a mileage equivalent of 60c a gallon (this is based on using the electricity from our coal fired power plants, if we went to more nuclear plants the cost would be closer to 12c a gallon equivalent). We save huge amounts of money and oil. The other 30% of oil is used for plastics and industrial processes.
Each 42 gallon barrel of crude produces about 19.5 gallons of gas, so $10 gas ceteris paribus would translate to $330 oil. At $330 oil the financial incentives to use solar, wind, and electric vehicles would be massive. The incentives to use synthetics in manufacturing plastics etc instead of oil would be massive. The incentives for investment in green alternatives would be massive and the resultant innovations would further reduce the reliance on oil.
At $330 oil the oil sands of Canada would be even more commercially viable than they are now.
From the CBS story...
"There are 175 billion barrels of proven oil reserves here. Thatâs second to Saudi Arabiaâs 260 billion but itâs only what companies can get with todayâs technology. The estimate of how many more barrels of oil are buried deeper underground is staggering.
"We know thereâs much, much more there. The total estimates could be two trillion or even higher," says Clive Mather, Shell's Canada chief. "This is a very, very big resource."
Very big? Thatâs eight times the amount of reserves in Saudi Arabia"
http://www.cbsnews.com/stories/2006/01/20/60minutes/main1225184.shtml
Obviously we all know that resources on earth are finite and that a growing population is putting pressure on those resources but we are decades away from having to worry about the type of doomsday scenario that peak oilers are preparing for as if it is going to happen next month (like that idiot filling up 5 gallon jugs of gasoline more likely to burn down his house long before any peak oil crisis shows up). In those ensuing decades the innovation that will occur especially if the price of oil remain around $10) will make the effects of peak oil mute.
Even if he is right his actions show a distinct lack of imagination as far as how to protect himself from the consequences he fears.
70% of the oil we use in the US goes in to our cars and trucks. Currently it costs about $3 a gallon for gas. If we convert to electric plug-in which is the next wave of cars coming in the next 10 years the cost falls to a mileage equivalent of 60c a gallon (this is based on using the electricity from our coal fired power plants, if we went to more nuclear plants the cost would be closer to 12c a gallon equivalent). We save huge amounts of money and oil. The other 30% of oil is used for plastics and industrial processes.
Each 42 gallon barrel of crude produces about 19.5 gallons of gas, so $10 gas ceteris paribus would translate to $330 oil. At $330 oil the financial incentives to use solar, wind, and electric vehicles would be massive. The incentives to use synthetics in manufacturing plastics etc instead of oil would be massive. The incentives for investment in green alternatives would be massive and the resultant innovations would further reduce the reliance on oil.
At $330 oil the oil sands of Canada would be even more commercially viable than they are now.
From the CBS story...
"There are 175 billion barrels of proven oil reserves here. Thatâs second to Saudi Arabiaâs 260 billion but itâs only what companies can get with todayâs technology. The estimate of how many more barrels of oil are buried deeper underground is staggering.
"We know thereâs much, much more there. The total estimates could be two trillion or even higher," says Clive Mather, Shell's Canada chief. "This is a very, very big resource."
Very big? Thatâs eight times the amount of reserves in Saudi Arabia"
http://www.cbsnews.com/stories/2006/01/20/60minutes/main1225184.shtml
Obviously we all know that resources on earth are finite and that a growing population is putting pressure on those resources but we are decades away from having to worry about the type of doomsday scenario that peak oilers are preparing for as if it is going to happen next month (like that idiot filling up 5 gallon jugs of gasoline more likely to burn down his house long before any peak oil crisis shows up). In those ensuing decades the innovation that will occur especially if the price of oil remain around $10) will make the effects of peak oil mute.
