Question on drilling for Oil

[DigitalShadow]

Originally Posted by john doe

I'm somewhat familiar with electric cars. Yes, the technology is a huge hurdle that may or may not be crossed in the next few years. It's really hard to say. But to throw all our eggs into one basket(electricity, batteries, or even hydrogen) while denying yourself access to a proven basket(oil) is foolish, and poor energy policy. Oil has been proven to work, it is here, it is constantly improving. God did not give us this vast source of energy just to have us lock it up and throw away the key.

Leaving all our eggs in one basked (oil) that we know is not going to last forever is equally poor policy. I'm not advising we all immediately jump ship on the internal combustion engine, only that we ween ourselves off it as new, more efficient and renewable technologies emerge. God did not also give us more renewable energy sources to last for generations for us to short sightedly ignore them.

[john doe]

The figure I heard on the radio this morning (I can't verify it, so don't ask) was that there is enough oil under the US to last us for 250 years at our current use rate. 250 years, if that number is accurate, is plenty of time to come up with a better resource. I have heard shorter times which may be more believable, closer to 100 years, but still, that is plenty of time to figure things out. There is no reason to limit our use now for fear that we won't have any next month.

[DigitalShadow]

Originally Posted by john doe

The figure I heard on the radio this morning (I can't verify it, so don't ask) was that there is enough oil under the US to last us for 250 years at our current use rate. 250 years, if that number is accurate, is plenty of time to come up with a better resource. I have heard shorter times which may be more believable, closer to 100 years, but still, that is plenty of time to figure things out. There is no reason to limit our use now for fear that we won't have any next month.

I'm not sure about that statistic either, and even assuming it is accurate, as the natural supply goes down it will be harder to find and extract it, combined with increasing demand as emerging economies like China start consuming even more, I think it is really hard to estimate how long oil will continue to be economically viable (a somewhat different question than how long it might "last").

In any case, I'm not suggesting anything be forced and I'm not calling for fearmongering over the issue. I'm only saying that other technologies may quickly become far more economically viable and overtake the market naturally. I personally think that money would be far better spent investing in battery technology research and mass producing nuclear plants rather than expanding oil drilling and infrastructure, but I doubt that will happen as the status quo has far too much momentum and influence. Whether that's a good thing or not, no one can say for sure