| Author | Message | ||
     Mikexlr650 |
pretty diverse group here, curious on peoples thoughts of this one. pretty scary stuff if it's even marginally correct. | ||
| Natexlh1000 |
Our rate of consumption is going up all the time. Our rate of oil production is also going up all the time(so far). The relative rates of production and consumption are not directly linked. In other words, it cost me $11 to top off my X1 and I am looking into alternate methods of heating my house besides oil. | ||
| Mikexlr650 |
some say production has already peaked, or is about to? it takes a discrepancy of only a few percentage points to really send the price out of the ballpark. oil is involved in absolutely every aspect of modern life. there's got to be some guy's in the industry here on badweb. the demand goes higher every day. the rate of new oil found has been going down for 30 years. at some point they will cross. i'm not in the industry so i don't know if "peak oil" is just another doomsday cult or what. some pretty impressive people discussing it if the sites are quoting properly(honestly)??? | ||
| Oldog |
all: part of the "theroy" is that after we reach some peak that the oil cos' will know about we will be in declining oil production / reserves and escalating prices and scarceity (sp). This makes sense the planetary oil reserves are finite, My .02$ most of it is 1. some common sense 2. some specualtion 3. some blatent political posturing 4. lots of gloom and doom "because they (oil co's) never do the right thing, they are all a bunch of greedy bastards" We can hope that the entrepanures will figure it out that there is good money in Oil alternatives. Corn produced alcohol and Bio diesel sound good for starters [ now might be a good time to get into farming and farm equipment, grow that motor fuel just like Brazil ] methane from sewage and trash decay [ natural gas ], Storing heat from the sun. Nuclear, use higher enrichment than 2% so that the plant is fueled about 1 time in 50 years ( less trash maybe ) and MY favorite Controlled continuous hydrogen fusion, can you say WARP SPEED! I would like to see this funded and pushed hard! Me I want a "Mr Fusion" for my back to the future Buell, Gas: its been 10$ for a while for the X1 thank God that the GWFT uses regular, and runs fine on EL cheap - O, The higher the Gas goes the better, This will start a bigger demand for alternative power sources for vehicles and electricity more motor cycle and at some juncture some one will wake up and realize that we dont need suvs for a trip to get the mail ( I use my bike unless raining ) The less dependent on oil we are, (most of it produced else where), the better off we are. when a BBl (42 gallons) of oil costs 70$ the cost per gallon for the raw materials IS $1.666 of that 30% or less makes Gasoline, and here in NC taxes Fed State and Local come to almost 1$ per gallon. The peak theroy goes on about our economy is pretty well oil based (true for the most part)and that No alternatives can possibly work, Bull$hit! We collectively need to 1. Demand an accounting and accountability of the government and business, remember the press loves big headlines, have the oil co's made big money yes, look at how much product we are using, what % of the total income is net profit before the fancy accounting? My only bitch? what does the Cheif what the fcuk do at humma humma Oil co that is worth over a million dollars a year?, I understand why pro athletes who may have 15 years to earn their lifetimes living command huge salaries,(IT MAKES SENSE ) But what does chief WTF do that is so valuable? NONE OF THE CURRENT EXECUTIVES OF THE LARGEST 3 OIL CO'S ARE THE FOUNDERS AS FAR AS I KNOW 2. seek out responcible alternatives when every thing is battery powered the batterys going into the waste stream are going to cause problems, Fuel Cells, Bio fuells are short term solutions. more efficent vehicles and mass transit are others 3. Quit bitching and finger pointing and start looking for a solution, working With the oil co's and other businesses to provide reasonable and honestly workable answers. 4. the biggest thing I see in this situation like many others in my life GREED and DISHONESTY, you cant ask a bunch of crooks to stop it either, Each of us must do some small part. I ride, use compact fluorecent lamps at home, and try to be a good steward of what I have. I cant do it my self but I make an effort, Now If I could find a reasonablly priced home here near work any ideas? a tent is beginning to look like the way out. | ||
| Diablobrian |
Let's see, battery technology is getting better all the time, However we need electricity to charge the darned things. But nuclear power is on the decline in a big way. Coal power is also declining because of pollution issues. It takes more energy to split hydrogen fuel from the molecules than what we get back from it in return. The EPA mandates huge studies and there are legal hassles involved with any NEW hydroelectric or geothermal power plants. Can you say environmental impact survey? (Could you imagine the protests if they were to build the Hoover Dam now? That's prime kangaroo rat habitat you know.) Bottom line, the technology will catch up, alternative power is coming, it will just take a while. In the meantime, why aren't we using the resources we have in places that hardly anyone has EVER seen instead of continuing the current trade deficit? Northern Alaska, according to geologists is on top of (potentially)a larger reservoir of high grade crude oil than anywhere else on the planet. A national reserve is nice, but at when is the right time to tap it? Kind of like keeping a keg in reserve during your superbowl party. what if there's overtime? what if the game's a blow out and everyone leaves by half time? (except for those people that showed up that no one seems to know) I don't have all the answers, no one person does, but it will work out. Humans have only existed on the planet for a geological eye-blink. The current technological age is only picking up speed. remember when battery powered drills were a joke? and a pocket calculator was science fiction? We have no idea what the future holds, but I'm sure there is a clean plentiful power source in our future. It wasn't that long ago that horses were the prime movers, war machines, units of trade. | ||
| Oldog |
Actualy there are nukes in the planning stages now for future construction. the issue is what to do with the toxic and hazardous spent and contaminated items. what if the fuel were more enriched and lasted a lot longer? I live about 10 miles as the crow flies from one at Southport NC, I'm glad that we have it electricity is reasonably priced here. seldom do we have black outs, a second unit was planned but never built if the area continues to grow I hope that it gets built. | ||
| Road_thing |
http://www.energybulletin.net/primer.php rt | ||
| Bomber |
I've heard (but do not have the knowledge to be able to judge the veracity of the claim) that E85 and Biodiesel use more fuel to produce than they save in the car/truck/scoot whatever the next energy source may be, we gotta make sure the system is sustainable (not just one [art of it), and we also gotta understand that the government can't mandate science | ||
| Buellzebub |
i really do not think we have peaked yet, there are vast areas (in Canada)that have not been exploited yet. only problem is that this oil and almost all alternative paths have a fairly long leadtime. not to mention the NIMBY's who want it all but are not prepared to give an inch. we were given a wake up call in the 80's but no one took really it very seriously and not all that much research was done. now 20 odd years later it's deja vu all over again and we are sitting in a worse situation. now we deal with countries where petrobux are the means to an end for those trying to increase their various war chests before the attack on the great satan. one hundred buck oil buys much more weapons than the $20 barrel buys, and the mecenary capitalists of the world are bending over backwards to supply whatever technology is asked for. i wonder what would happen to the various movements if oil suddenly was back at $10/barrel. in my biased opinion the price of oil is where it's at mostly on hype, fear mongering and greed by speculators. | ||
| Nemesis |
reading that report says to me that our children are screwed! | ||
| Raceautobody |
fusion, It will be done.http://www.fusion.org.uk/info/ne.html Al | ||
| Panic |
"Corn produced alcohol" The only reason why 85 etc. are even being discussed is easy to understand, it's all explained in a single stock ticker symbol: ADM. Archer Daniels Midland owns 1/2 of Congress and is the biggest supplier of ethanol. Its P/E is currently 23.29, and selling at its all-time high. The problem is that using alcohol in a car is just a very long extension cord. Burning alcohol does not save energy, it wastes energy, since it takes more BTU to produce it than are liberated by combustion. We still need to consume more of some other fuel in order to make ethanol. This is all, repeat all, fixable. For those who don't remember their civics and econ: "the power to tax is the power to destroy". Step 1: add $1.00 tax to gas price, $.50 of which is to retire the national debt, $.50 as incentive for other fuels. Step 2: raise income tax on profits of more than $1B per 1/4 to 75%. See who in Congress votes against this, then kill them. Step 3: $.50 incentive is used as matching funds to assist clean-up of coal, of which we have enough for 300 years. If you don't care what it costs, technology will fix this. Coal-fired electric plants means less imported fuels used to produce ethanol. Step 4: Iraq owes us (last count) about 1 trillion dollars (Wolfowitz promised they would pay for the war, since they have all that oil). At a fair market rate of $10. per barrel that's 100,000,000,000 barrels, or 1,000 barrels per motorist. I want mine now. | ||
| Blake |
Where there is money to be made, there will be alternate fuels and more oil to be found. It's that simple. If we can convert coal and corn into ethanol, that may be a winner, on account of we have mongo hordes of coal and it is cheap. | ||
| Buellzebub |
Bingo Blake, that's why there is so much time and effort being spent on NGC (Natural Gas from Coal) or CBM (Coal Bed Methane). Lots of issues currently, mostly due to dewatering, but nothing insurmountable. R&D is fun... time to RTFM |
