[QUOTE="SaudiFury"][QUOTE="superfluidity"]
The only real solution to peak oil at this point would be to mandate a phaseout of gasoline powered passenger vehices in the near future and transition to electric vehicles. That would bring demand down to a level where oil could be extracted sustainably for quite a long time - long enough to begin using alternative materials for most things.
Of course, I can't imagine a government being managed coherently enough to accomplish something like that. I fully expect a major world crisis in the next 20 years or so.
ristactionjakso
agreed. and personally speaking , i really regret not taking upon the elective class on solar energy at my engineering college. Really wished i had just taken it and learned what i could out of it, so when i work in the energy sector i could be more useful as far as R&D'ing the technology. bull.....we just recently found a oil field bigger than the ones in the middle east......America now has the most oil reserves in the world that could easily last us 200 plus years.......but the ever so powerful and intellegent EPA blocks a lot of drilling and processing of our own oil, which in turn we can only buy from foreign countries...gas could be a whole lot cheaper if the EPA lost a lot of its power. Seeing how i'm studying in safety for my Master's, and part of what i do is understand how EPA works. lemme just say the EPA is pretty pathetic as is.as far as your second link goes, it doesn't distinguish whether this is pocketed gas and oil under the earth or this is simply the oil tar sands. All i kept seeing was "technically recoverable oil".
As far as i understand the US and Canada have an immense amount of this oil tar sands, even heard the phrasing that the US is the world's Saudi Arabia of oil tar sands. Problem, however, is it is more expensive to extract and get oil out of these tar sands pits. Not to mention by admitting to the fact that were moving onto these "immense tar sands" just tells me just how little new finds of the new oil deposits either.
For instance every year in Saudi, Saudi announces new finds of oil and gas pockets, but nothing to the degree found in the early 30's, the largest find since the 60's was the Hata oil field.
Then i must say that the amount of oil doesn't mean much either, prices are rising, yes partially inflated due to speculation. But also demand is rising.
Take a step back and look at the world stage. Third world countries like Indonesia, Vietnam, India, Bangladesh, Oman, Saudi Arabia etc. etc. the list goes on. Have been experiencing a dramatic rise in quality of life in the last 20 years. As far as material goods go, a person can live just fine in some of these countries. The projections for consumption and demand have been wrong and demand always higher, ever rising.
China, India, Brazil, and Russia are big players on the world stage, and will be requiring more consumption for their own needs. America alone consumes around 25% of the worlds oil and gas. and Saudi Arabia's #1 oil partner is China, followed closely by the US and India.
and i do not buy the argument for a second that EPA stands in the way. The US's government works at the beck and call of big business, if you don't believe me and you think reality at Washington is different. I suggest going to your state capitol on a day that the legislators are meeting, ask around to the lobbyist's who they work for. Personally done this twice in my life, and on both occasions it's mostly big business, fast food, coal industry, union lobbyist's.
I do not buy that there is some conspiracy for not drilling or extracting oil in the US. the amount of money to be made, and it being at home would be too much of a sweet thing to pass on.
big business would make sure it got it's way.
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