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It won't be a smooth transition, but it will happen sooner or later (later given government meddling in the economy that make it difficult for truly market-based alternative energy companies to take off).
But the key is trusting the markets to do their work. And therein lies the rub with our country's current state of affairs, unfortunately...
The peak oilers all have an agenda of power and control, nothing more.
Assuming for a moment it was announced that in five years there would not be a bit of oil left anywhere in the world. Well not a problem.
We have an endless supply of coal that can be converted. Ethanol technology works and has been dramatically improved. We have natural gas out the wazoo and it is not hard to convert your current car to natural gas(it's a common fuel in Australia). Algae fuels work and are quickly being refined. Algae eats CO2 and can be refined into biogasoline or biodiesel. Biodiesel can be grown or made from many different sources.
So there are really endless alternatives and algae fuels have the most potential to completely replace gasoline in cars in 10-20 years and there will be no need to go and find oil in the ground.
Location: We_tside PNW (Columbia Gorge) / CO / SA TX / Thailand
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50 MPG since 1976, no Dinosaurs or OPEC required (or food crops. Algae and waste cooking oil works fine (better than making it into Lipstick, Cosmetics is the usual product of lard)...)
Check your neighbor's brier patch. I've found several Rabbits (diesel ) that way. Many for under $100. Once you get two and park them next to each other, then you seem to get MORE (I only have 28, but I have a friend with over 100 )
Bad Rabbit Habit
Enough Rabbits could solve Peak Oil, and there are never enough Rabbits !
Whatever happened to fusion as a potential energy source? Back as a kid in the 70s, that was the big hope for the future. Now we seem to be pushing very low tech alternative energy sources( solar, wind, bio fuels) which can be utilized but have limited efficiency or cost effectiveness. We just seem to be looking backward for answers.
I listen to Coast to Coast AM with George Noori and they have a theory that oil can replenish itself by geological processes in the earth. Do I believe that? I'm not sure, but I am pretty sure we have alot more oil than we think we do.
-- peak production (not peak oil reserves) may be around mainly because of lack of develpment of infrastructure, which takes time and is expensive. It is not because we are about to run out of oil
Conspiracy theories are nice, but consider the source. Some people think Saudi actually under-reports reserves so that it is not a juicy target to outside powers. There is really no need to panic. However, no one can guarantee lack of short term fluctuations. A bigger problem is the oil prices going up because of the weakening dollar and this is not likely to stop anytime soon.
Do you ever wonder why there has been no new infrastructure built in the last 30 years? The refineries in my town (Salt Lake City) routinely catch fire and blow up because they are so old and worn out. If there really is a 100 years of oil left it would make sense to replace them and even build more. But the oil companies know there will only be less oil as time goes on, so they don't thow money away by building more.
Also, there are over 2 billion people aching to own and drive their own cars in rising countries like China and Inda, which will virtually guarantee oil consumption will continue to rise exponentially.
Oil will not completely disappear, but it won't be long before rising demand vs falling output makes oil completely uneconomical as a fuel source. This is not tin foil stuff, this is common sense. Meanwhile, the entire country is totally dependant on gas burning vehicles to function, and no real, practical alternative had been brought to light. Unless something major changes really soon, only the very wealthy will be driving in the near future.
Do you ever wonder why there has been no new infrastructure built in the last 30 years? The refineries in my town (Salt Lake City) routinely catch fire and blow up because they are so old and worn out. If there really is a 100 years of oil left it would make sense to replace them and even build more. But the oil companies know there will only be less oil as time goes on, so they don't thow money away by building more.
Also, there are over 2 billion people aching to own and drive their own cars in rising countries like China and Inda, which will virtually guarantee oil consumption will continue to rise exponentially.
Oil will not completely disappear, but it won't be long before rising demand vs falling output makes oil completely uneconomical as a fuel source. This is not tin foil stuff, this is common sense. Meanwhile, the entire country is totally dependant on gas burning vehicles to function, and no real, practical alternative had been brought to light. Unless something major changes really soon, only the very wealthy will be driving in the near future.
The reason for no additional refineries is NOT the lack of oil or its running out. In fact, sometimes you can seel the petroleum price drop but the local gas price increases if there is an event in a refinery. Why would oil companies not build and leave profits to foreign companies who refine and keep these profits?
Whatever happened to fusion as a potential energy source? ....
They have yet to create a sustained controlled fusion reaction that lasts more than a second or so. Barring some sort of scientific breakthrough, it will probably be another 50 years before they get there.
I agree that peak oil (supply) is complete nonsense. There will come a day, probably in my lifetime (I'm 31) when oil will no longer be used for most transportation, but there will be plenty of it left in the ground for industrial purposes. Easy oil is, for the most part, over and done with, so once the cost of extracting what's left grows higher than the cost of alternatives, then the alternatives will take over. It's simple market economics.
Thank you for saying this. I was thinking the same thing. There are plenty alternatives out there. But they're going to squeeze as much relatively cheap oil out of the ground as they can before anyone bothers to perfect alternative technologies.
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, no Dinosaurs or OPEC required 
(or food crops. Algae and waste cooking oil works fine (better than making it into Lipstick, Cosmetics is the usual product of lard)...
)
) that way. Many for under $100. Once you get two and park them next to each other, then you seem to get MORE
(I only have 28
) 
