Bttt.
5.56mm
The idea that one day we’ll find all our tanks and oil wells dry has always annoyed me. It CANNOT happen in a free market that allows continued exploration (and the exploration/drilling doesn’t have to be in the US).
If supply does get low, what happens is very simple - prices rise, people use less, and money becomes available to find more oil, drill deeper, open up formerly unprofitable wells, etc. And if the price keeps rising, market forces will move consumers to other products that don’t use oil.
...but there will always be oil, at least if the Globalists (Ukraine supporters) are kept in check.
But we will get to peak lithium. There is enough for 10B leaf car batteries. I think teslas are twice as big.
Oil is not a fossil fuel. Studies show depleted fields replenished years later.
Land is a finite resource and large amounts of land are needed to support wind and solar farms. Some land is not suitable for much such as mountains, but viable land that could support agriculture is also the prime land used by wind and solar farms especially in the Great Plains. Wind and solar farms thus are taking agricultural land out of production. Add to that the drive to get rid of cows that can graze on marginal lands the green utopia could mean starvation.
Good article and discussion within.
I would emphasize one point that deserves more attention.
We always view the future within the framework of the world today. In other words, we predict what our world will be in 50 or 100 years based on our current technology because we do not see the new technologies that will most certainly emerge.
The growth in technology increases every year and this includes all things energy - how we obtain it, how we use it, and how we store it.
The Earth is full of “energy” and when it is needed or economically viable due to new technology we will harness them - think hydropower, thorium, hydrogen, space, recycled hydrocarbons, ocean currents/tides, and other sources beyond my imagination. Theoretically, we have underground aquifers in many parts of the worlds where mountains transition to lowlands that could provide incredible sources of hydropower even using todays tech.
There are many advances being made now that will fundamentally impact our world in the future such as new magnets, nanotechnology, more powerful computing, energy storage, 3D printing, AI, and the list goes on. We are also continually improving the efficiency of things that use energy within the current contruct.
We should have confidence that if our world remains relatively peaceful and prosperous new technology (and our abundant resources) will not only provide the energy we need, but make our use of that energy more efficient.
“ According to some estimates, there are “trillions” of barrels of shale oil in the U.S. alone. However, the actual energy return on energy invested (EROEI) to extract and refine shale oil is so poor that there has been no serious commercial exploitation of oil shale to date.”
This paragraph followed the admission that “fracking” has made the commercialization of shale oil possible and it has immeasurably increased the amount of global proven reserves.
Semi-interesting but long winded read.
And it mentions various types of crude but does not discuss the different schools of thought as to how that crude is created. Some may be from ancient biological remains. Some may be from bacteria. Some may be from forces deep within the earth.
Before oil the world ran on coal, wood, whale oil, peat, and dung.
Liberty is the most valuable resource and it is running out at an alarming rate.
The question is how much cheap oil is left? But our technology is continuing to improve. Shale oil. We have drones and robots that we can use to work on the oil fields. So we have to factor all of that in the cost of per barrel.
bkmk
Old drill sites fill up again with oil.
Or not. Such blather