The Oil Drum

100 comments on Sunday open thread

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Glenn on March 5, 2006 - 8:16pm

Since PO is going mainstream, what does everyone think will happen next?

My feeling is that until $100/barrel, there will just be a lot of talk and little action.

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The Interloafer on March 5, 2006 - 10:43pm

I think Brian Schweitzer is going to keep making headway with his coal-to-liquids idea.

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davebygolly on March 5, 2006 - 11:28pm

Yes, coal is going to happen next. This is the great tragedy. We've used half of the perfect fuel for transportation, somewhat less than half the perfect fuel for heating, and now we will return to a much inferior fuel that exists in much greater quantities. Because our whole infrastructure is built for the perfect fuel, we will not use the inferior fuel directly, but rather we will convert it to the perfect fuel, with the attendant losses, compounding the disaster.

The American way of life will be preserved -- for a far smaller number of Americans however. The remainder will be reclassified as un-Americans and put on the do-not-walk-around-free list.

Is that what you meant by "what will happen next"?

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Nate Hagens on March 5, 2006 - 11:54pm

Very well put. Though Murphys law will rear its ugly head regarding coal - Im not so sure the ease and accessibility to large high quality, dense reserves is as abundant as we are led to believe. SASOL has been doing this for a long time and yet only is producing 150,000 barrels a day of FT Diesel. The pollution is mind-boggling.

We need to educate the public on the tradeoffs - would you rather carpool to work every day and live the rest of your life as you do now? Or would you rather drive to work every day and live the rest of your life breathing through a surgeons mask and wearing white clothes to keep cool? These questions need to be asked ahead of time, with advocacy and science united to paint the pictures.