quote:

Originally posted by Gator:
I think we need to just drill our own and let the middle easterners pay us $50 bucks per loaf of bread. I also think that in 50 years when we think the wells will have run dry, that we will have developed technologies to drill even deeper.
Lator.....

I'm sure by then we won't have to drill anymore.

quote:

Originally posted by Crunk Ride:
What are the potential consequences of the Earth being depleted of oil? To me, it seems as if the oil is like the blood of the Earth. We know what would happen if we animals were to run out of blood.

Less oil seeping to the surface to make tarpits( no MOre La Brea), less oil to pollute surface waters in the SAnta Barbara Channel, the dieing off of natural bacteria that eat oil fer dinner....


Should we all go back to living in caves and wikiups and riding horsies ?

quote:

Should we all go back to living in caves and wikiups and riding horsies ?

Yes,... Burn up all the oil then worry about the next method of energy....

quote:

Originally posted by LordBiotree:

quote:

Should we all go back to living in caves and wikiups and riding horsies ?

Yes,... Burn up all the oil then worry about the next method of energy....

That assumes that we could burn it all up, which isn't proven, and that there's no work's being done on alternative supplies of energy- which isn't the case ,either.

All of the above is the way to go

Personally I think we need to come up with an alternative energy method. It needs to be something which produces more energy by volume than gasoline/crude oil.

The other day I asked the fuelers at work how much oil they go through in a day. Easy day is ~10k gallons of jet fuel. Heavy day over 25K gallons.

I primary work on helos at a smaller air field. I can only wonder how much jet fuel the local international air port goes through. I'm sure a 727 holds 50K+ pounds of fuel.

quote:

Originally posted by hillbille:

Less oil seeping to the surface to make tarpits( no MOre La Brea), less oil to pollute surface waters in the SAnta Barbara Channel, the dieing off of natural bacteria that eat oil fer dinner....
Should we all go back to living in caves and wikiups and riding horsies ?

perhaps. . . then maybe we wont have any questions about the right to bear arms. And we can challenge our favorite politicians to a dual at high noon.

quote:

alternative energy method

Like what? pumping goo out of the ground is an incredably cheap way to get energy. All other forms (wind, solar, nuke, geyser) are all more expensive, with the exception of hydro.
When it comes to a fuel, what do you think can replace something as easily found as crude? My truck can run off of peanut oil, but there's not enough peanut oil to go around.

aren't the other methods expensive, only because they're not seen as sufficient replacements to the "easy energy"? If everyone focused on including them, wouldn't the cost to generate energy from them, go down?

quote:

Originally posted by Crunk Ride:
aren't the other methods expensive, only because they're not seen as sufficient replacements to the "easy energy"? If everyone focused on including them, wouldn't the cost to generate energy from them, go down?

Yup, I've read reports that state PV will supercede solar in a year or two as far as bang for the buck. They've developed PV thin film paint that's much cheaper than traditional silicon cell PV.

quote:

Originally posted by Crunk Ride:
aren't the other methods expensive, only because they're not seen as sufficient replacements to the "easy energy"? If everyone focused on including them, wouldn't the cost to generate energy from them, go down?

There's a certain point where that no longer applies. Once costs hit the ground floor, that's that. I'm in the Electrical Utility business so I know a bit about it!

Take wind for example. It's currently the most expensive form of getting electricity. How can that be, you ask? Windmills are hundreds of years old. Old hat right? Electric generators are over a hundred years old. and the prop blades too right? All these parts are mass produced too, so it should be cheap.
But windmill power is already at the baseline, and it's still the most expensive out there. A single windmill represents thousands of dollars in parts, more in labor to set it up, and high maintenence to keep the parts lubed, working, and even pointing into the wind. A single windmill generates very little power, so you have to fill hillsides with them. This causes another problem, now that you have hundreds of electric motors working together, you have to make sure that the electricity they're pumping out is at 60Hz, and that they're all TIMED together. Thus each one of this windmills requires a set of complex electrical gear(expensive) down at the base. Oh, and there's the need to build access roads, often get easements, rent land from the property owners, etc etc.

there's no question that pumping crude out of the ground is the easiest. Issue is as a civilization we need to start finding or using alternative methods of energy. Oil is not going to be around for 100's of more years.

At best we might have 100 years left of crude.

Estimates I'm hearing is 150 years.

Personally, I think it's asinine that we burn up crude to generate electricity. Sure it's cheaper, but it's a gross misuse of an easily portable source of energy. All of it should be used as fuel for things that move on thier own power.

Electricity should only be generated by more immoble sources such as Hydro, Nuclear, Wind, Solar, and biomass.

Word I'm hearing now is that Nancy Pelosi( besides being a biotch) has a vested interst in natural gas- courtesy of TBonePickens.


She's raking it in w/ high gas prices, therefore her socialist stunt in the House of Representatives on Aug 1 was understandable.
http://www.humanevents.com/article.php?id=27845

She doesn't want a vote to occur on drilling!


http://www.moonbattery.com/archives/2008/08/pelosis_getting.html

http://www.google.com/search?hl=en&q=pelosi+pickens+natural+gas

http://dontgomovement.com/2008/08/11/nancy-pelosi-inves...-by-t-boone-pickens/

A side note on this very good discussion--Datz's Granny struck oil this week.