Will this actually happen?

[TitanMike]

https://news.bloombergtax.com/daily-...t-2-per-gallon

It's a long read but some points are made.

[Dan_Frisbie]

The “Peak Oil” theory is rehashed every few years and is proven wrong over and over again.
There is simply no cheaper and more efficient energy source than petroleum.

[cboss]

Originally Posted by Dan_Frisbie

There is simply no cheaper and more efficient energy source than petroleum.

You mean at today's technology..right?

[Guspech750]

[NMWildcat]

Y'all must be really bored to read articles like that

[fipntdot]

I grew up around the oil industry. This topic gets brought up every so often, then some new big discovery of oil or improved extraction technology appears and suddenly the "run-out" date is extended. Many industries do not really address the "true cost" to the world or environment and oil/gas is no different. It's possible we may raise tases to represent this cost, but I doubt it.

More than likely we will eventually get to the point that something else is simply cheaper and or better and people will move to that, just like we no longer rely on steam to move trains. Non-steam trains were not really mandated through taxes, just a good business decision.

As someone mentioned already, there currently isn't a great alternative for stored energy that is as good as gas/oil when weight is brought into the question. This is a particular problem in aviation.

Hard to go too far down this road without violating the no politics rule on the forum.

One thing that always concerns me is what will we use to replace plastic if oil runs out. We (the collective) love our plastic and use it for everything partly because it is still real cheap. Will it stay cheap if oil becomes scarce? but I ramble....

[tomkatb]

The sky is falling, the sky is falling!

Head for the bunkers.

You know this country has made great strides forward on the pollution thing. To be proud of. Others have not done doodly squat.

[TitanMike]

Originally Posted by fipntdot

Hard to go too far down this road without violating the no politics rule on the forum.

Hopefully the focus of the responses will remain on Science and Economics.

I don't believe the world will run out of oil as soon as some say but I do believe that we're running out of cheap oil rapidly.

Wells have to be drilled deeper and other production costs are rising rapidly. The list goes on.

[Nick Danger]

Originally Posted by tomkatb

The sky is falling, the sky is falling!

Never let a false or manufactured catastrophe go wasted.

[Dan_Frisbie]

Originally Posted by TitanMike

Hopefully the focus of the responses will remain on Science and Economics.

I don't believe the world will run out of oil as soon as some say but I do believe that we're running out of cheap oil rapidly.

Wells have to be drilled deeper and other production costs are rising rapidly. The list goes on.

I worked in the offshore oil and gas industry for 10 years.
What was unobtainable 20 years ago is now easily pumped. Technology makes it possible to go deeper and deeper economically. That trend will continue.
We will find ways to find and obtain petroleum reserves that we never knew existed 5 years ago. There are reserves that we currently cannot detect, but will in another 5 years.
Drilling is not nearly the gamble that it was 20, 10, 5, even 2 years ago. The technical evolution is on par with medicine and consumer electronics.

[clr]

Late last year I read an article the China was going to build 43 new coal fired power generation plants. This while the US is closing coal fired power generation plants due to carbon footprint. This is one planet if we spew carbon any were in the world we all share in the increased carbon in the air. It does little to correct the overall problem with global warming if more and more carbon is spewed into the air on the other side of the globe. The US is trying to be a good example for the world and reduce carbon, but at what cost to us. The US has one of the larger oil and gas reserves in the world but we are not currently allowed to exploit it.

[MevetS]

Originally Posted by cboss

You mean at today's technology..right?

Not really. Consider that California already has rolling black outs, and are depleting the water supply (they claim). I'm sure the population will decide that they would rather reduce the use of their AC's just so they can drive their eV's. And wind and solar will then have to displace the land used for agriculture, a insignificant part of the California economy, in order to conserve water and not waste it on something as trivial as agriculture.

It's more complex then the protagonists would like the situation to be. Tech will help some, it takes time and government subsidies. And often the proponents only push the positive and ignore the negative.

[NMWildcat]

One of my hobbies is looking back through history. It is amazing how often history repeats itself. The sky has been falling in many areas as far back as you want to look.
The amazing part is the general populace (aka worker bees) always keep on keeping on, moving the world forward and keeping the train on track.
I find at my age I tend to shut out the Chicken Little voices and refuse to go down their rabbit hole.
Amazing how simple things can be out on the farm or the wilderness, away from the noise