Why Don't Some People Get It?

[ConstipatedVigilante]

Originally posted by: tenshodo13


However, nothing much comes close to the energy density of oil. Nuclear Power is there, but arguably, its even worse than oil. Estimates put plutonium reserves to hold out for 70 years if all the power was given by nuclear energy, under our current energy demand.

Can't we make a lot more plutonium? It's made from enriching uranium, right?

 

[uclaLabrat]

Enriching uranium leads to enriched uranium, not plutonium. Fission of uranium can lead to plutonium...someone correct me if I'm wrong

 

[Chadder007]

Originally posted by: Brainonska511
For all those claiming we should drill for more oil - couple of things, if refineries are currently working at full capacity, we would need more built to increase the supply of gasoline. And beyond that, we would probably have to wait 10 years before a sizable amount of oil is flowing from those wells, so there would be no immediate relief at all.

They said it would take 10 years to get oil another 10 years ago as a reason not to drill.....We might as well pump it now. It will be needed eventually.

 

[ChAoTiCpInOy]

Sooner or later the oil companies/governments of the world are going to start drilling there when they can't find anymore. Hopefully before that happens we can get nuclear energy back up and running.

 

[AccruedExpenditure]

Originally posted by: buck

Originally posted by: AccruedExpenditure

Originally posted by: sandorski

Originally posted by: AccruedExpenditure
Gas will be under 3 dollars a gallon and oil under 60 dollars a barrel by 2011
/thread

...and if it isn't?

It will be, i've got a number of running bets with friends that it will be, if it isn't, i'll be down a couple grand.

I certainly hope you win the bet.....

I won this bet. Called it.

 

[Throckmorton]

There is plenty of oil drilling, here, in California, Alaska, everywhere.

http://www.jakubiksurveying.com/oil_well.jpg

 

[slpaulson]

What does it even matter if we drill here? Oil is traded on a global market, and OPEC and traders can still do a lot to control the price of oil. It isn't like we're getting some kind of discount on oil produced in America. The only people that would really benefit from new American oil fields are the ones that own and work at these new oil fields. Other than from a psychological aspect, I really doubt any oil we can add to the market is going to do much for prices.

Either that, or just as likely I just don't understand how it all works.

 

[Modelworks]

Drill all you want to.
It doesn't matter if we had a million gallons for every citizen.
You still can't convert it to useable product any faster since our refinery system is ancient.

 

[Kirby64]

Lol at the last 3 posters. Check the post dates

 

[Red Squirrel]

Drilling for more wont do much. OPEC/arabs decide the price, they're making the money, they'll continue making money.

What we need is to fight against the oil industry for patenting all the alternatives that we could have been using 10+ years ago, and start developing alternatives that they cannot patent, for whatever reason we can find (loophole in patent law or something). It's all a big money game, we need to completely break loose of oil dependency for energy. The technology is there, we just have to put effort and use it. Sure it may cost more at first but eventually it will be cheaper.

Though until patent law is changed to disallow patenting stuff to never use it, I doubt we have much hope in seeing alternatives completely replace gas vehicles, sadly. Some guy in his garage comes up with something, the minute it goes public, the oil industry just patents it, the guy is probably shot, his prototype/plans destroyed, and it's never to be heard of again.

 

[NoShangriLa]

Funny how you guys blame OPEC for your demise.

It is OPEC that have been saving America ass for the last 30-40 years, and recently Saudi Arabia held back their plan of trading oil in Euro dollar (more or less at US gun point) therefore the rest of OPEC countries also file away their trade in Euro.

OPEC do not have control over oil price as many ATOTers like to believe because the last 2-3 oil cut/increase from OPEC didn't affect the market oil price.

World oil market challenges OPEC -- 26 May 2008 - Issue : 783

US President begging in public view before the Saudi royal family, holding hands with them, literally, in the hope of persuading the kingdom to increase production to bring soaring oil prices down was humiliating to Americans around the world.

allowing George W Bush to save face, the Saudis decided to increase their production by 3.3 percent (300,000 barrels a day). But oil prices climbed up further, shrugging off Saudi Arabia?s pledge to boost production.

Could OPEC drop dollar for euro? -- December 19, 2007

on the eve of the OPEC meeting, Saudi Foreign Minister Prince Saud Al-Faisal said dropping the dollar from oil transactions is "a sensitive issue". "It will cause the dollar to drop further, thus complicating the problems we are facing from the dollar's fall," he said.

The Saudis have $20,000 billion in oil reserves and $800 billion in US dollar reserves. The whole Gulf countries have $3.5 trillion under management.

 

[ConstipatedVigilante]

Alternative fuels are good, but we can't just abandon oil. So many things are made from oil it isn't funny. And there's no shortage of oil in the world. There's a lot of it in shale form, but we have to figure out how to refine it. And the Middle Eastern countries know that once we find good, cheap alternative fuels they're not going to be sitting on a golden calf anymore. That's why the Saudis are being smart about not fixing prices - they know that if oil stays expensive, we'll just switch faster.

Edit: And people won't care about environmentalists once the fuel problem starts affecting their daily lives again. There will be cries for drilling on our soil and developing new means simultaneously.

 

[Red Squirrel]

Lot of stuff depends on oil (such as plastic) but if we can at least eliminate the need as far as transportation/energy goes that's a huge chunk we don't have to obtain/buy.

 

[BeauJangles]

Originally posted by: RedSquirrel
Lot of stuff depends on oil (such as plastic) but if we can at least eliminate the need as far as transportation/energy goes that's a huge chunk we don't have to obtain/buy.

Lots of that stuff can be made from alternatives.