The Oil Drum

BenjaminCole
The high price of oil is already encouraging or forcing conservation. World oil consumption will likely flatline in this price regime, or perhaps drop. There are huge amounts of heavy crude and tar out there, and bio is coming on. Any energy problem is political, not geological. (Saudi Arabia has heavy deposits which dwarf its light deposits)
And you are right: We can attain higher living standards while cutting fossil fuel consumption, The plug-in hybrid vehicle will likely break the back of the oil cartel, if we can just get behind it in the United States. In Europe, they will move to plug-in diesel and 20 percent bio within 12 years. That will radically curtail fossil fuel consumption. Sheesh, flourescent bulbs and hybrids alone could ra
dically alter the world oil picture. Toss in some solar and bio, and it's a brand new ballgame.
Taxing fossil fuel going forward is a great idea, so as to transfer revenues to the US Treasury rather than to oil importers. Check out new cattle-ethanol-corn plants. Ethanol can be way energy positive, and I suspect we will see soon pig-potato-ethanol plants (in Russia, that's called vodka).
The future is actually very bright. There is so much technology out there now, let alone coming on. If the United States even develops a mediocre energy program, we will be able to hand our children a better world.