The looming oil crisis will dwarf 1973. Commentary: Forces converge to create worldwide woes

CBS.MarketWatch.com ^ | Last Update: 8:02 PM ET May 5, 2004 | By Paul Erdman

[BMiles2112]

A) CAFE standards on the entire US auto fleet must rise. People say, "but SUV's are safer." I say "not for anyone they collide with." Burn less gas, fund fewer jihaddis.
I don't think the gov't has any business dictating fuel economy standards.

B) Lower speed limits back to 65. Cars are much more fuel efficient at 60 MPH than at 80 MPH. See comment A on funding the jihaddis.
C) Governments at all levels should operate only hybrid vehicles whenever possible. That would save massive amounts of taxpayer money that Government on all levels spends on gasoline.
These two require higher costs for the taxpayers. Lower speed limits would simply generate more speeding tickets. People tend to drive at what they feel to be a comfortable speed for the driving conditions. At current gas prices, you would need to drive a hybrid an estimated 200,000 miles before there is a payoff. This assumes the hybrid requires no additional maintenance beyond what a gas engine would require. Again, I think both of these would simply cost us more in the end.

[buwaya]

In the US, very little electric power is generated with petroleum products - less than 2%.

Petroleum imports into the US are mainly used as vehicle fuels, and the remainder as heating oil and chemical feedstock.

Electric power generation in the US has very little to do with the Middle East.

[crv16]

Apocolyptic Scare-Mongering makes for wonderful Sci-Fi and crappy policy guidance.

A) Whoever toppled the House of Saud would quickly realize that yea, verily silicon was not edible or potable. They would have Saudi oil production back on line w/in months unless it was toasted by a nuke.

B) We've got 15 centuries of coal in The Rocky and Appalachian Mtns just waiting.

Can't fuel our cars with coal, though...

Several nuclear power plants have been stone-walled by radical greens. The stone walls will come down when the air conditioner fails in some tenured environmentalist's $500,000 palatial estate. In a word, oil is very replacable if it ever really does run out.

Yeah but look at the YEARS it would take to get nuke plants online. In the meantime it could devistate our economy. We need to start building nuke plants NOW!

2) On the other hand, we should all stop gripping about fuel and energy prices unless we are willing to work towards two goals; to reduce oil demand severely and rapidly augment our supply. Our biggest problem with oil prices is that we are on a course to burn through 2.5 mil barrels more this year than last. If you pick out at the buffet table, the restauranteur will naturally jack up the prices.

A) CAFE standards on the entire US auto fleet must rise. People say, "but SUV's are safer." I say "not for anyone they collide with." Burn less gas, fund fewer jihaddis.

Amen. Technology exists TODAY to improve fuel economy 30%. Diesel engines.

B) Lower speed limits back to 65. Cars are much more fuel efficient at 60 MPH than at 80 MPH. See comment A on funding the jihaddis.

Nah. Automakers need to put more emphasis on aerodynamics. Increasing CAFE will result in this.

C) Governments at all levels should operate only hybrid vehicles whenever possible. That would save massive amounts of taxpayer money that Government on all levels spends on gasoline.

Nah. Hybrids are almost never cost effective, high city-driving percentages excluded. The fuel savings a Hybrid creates never surpasses the increased cost of the Hybrid itself.

D) Drill ANWAR like a $10 hooker.

Amen

E) Put up every off-shore drilling rig we can manage. OPEC would whine like a Greenpeace Demonstrator at a spotted-owl shoot.

Amen

Energy policy is another issue where we all want the trip to heavan, but nobody is willing to go through dying. Either we sacrifice something, or we get used to filling up at $2.50 a gallon and make it a part of all our weekly budgets.

Amen

So while the problem is nowhere near as bad as the scaremongers and bunny-huggers want us to believe, the solution rests in our hands alone. That's probably why we will all drop the ball, buy the tricked-out hummer, and piss and moan on the same webblogs next year about the overbearing price of heating oil and gasoline.

You left one out - axe all ethanol subsidies. It is proven that it takes $1.30 to generate $1.00 worth of ethanol. This ends up costing us money, and using more crude oil than if we didn't support ethanol production.

[krunkygirl]

bump and save for later

[buwaya]

Absolutely correct.
And sustained higher prices will reduce this even more, as US, Canadian and Venezuelan production will increase.

[DeaconRed]

I agree
I am still working hard on my car than runs on milk
everytime I get close the f---ing price of milk goes up.

[norraad]

...you'll be surprised at how little oil the U.S. gets from Saudi Arabia.

Only 2~3 boatloads/month of towelhead juice comes to our local refinery, most from other sources.

[citizen]

One point to keep in mind is that gas prices are about the same or lower price as they were when I started buying in 1968 at 24 cents per gallon based on one's 1968 income in raw dollars being on average 1/10th what it is today.

Factor in gubmint taxes and gas is certainly lower today.

[KevinDavis]

Nope...

[.cnI redruM]

As I said in #1 "the new rulers of Arabia would quickly realize that yea, verily silicon was neither edible nor potable and oil production would be back on line within months." To expand on that, they would also realize that transubstantiation was not feasible, and they also needed to sell as much of that oil as they could move. They may hate our decadence, but they sure don't mind what funds the lifestyle.

[buwaya]

It is very possible to create gasoline and diesel from coal. Synthetic fuel plants like this are old technology - Germany had them in WWII, and South Africa depended on them in the sanctions years.
Sustained higher oil prices - $30-40 per barrel - should make these plants economically feasible in the US.

[gipper81]

the "boy who cried wolf"

This guy has been crying wolf for 30+ years. Short ALL of his ideas. (That is not to say that oil prices won't trend higher for a while).

[norraad]

It is proven that it takes $1.30 to generate $1.00 worth of ethanol!

It'll cost even more to fix your engine wrecked by ethanol, it sucks don't ever use it!

[.cnI redruM]

I've been roundly criticized and openly called a liar for making this point on this forum before. Even in a FreeRepublic, a certain political correctness still applies.

[Petronski]

We're doomed. Doomed! DOOMED!!!

[Petronski]

(Florida has a system, where when you enter the highway, you take a ticket with a time on it. Then when you leave, you give the ticket to a person. If your Distance/Time is too high, they'll ticket you).

That's asinine.

[Dane]

toward non-OPEC producers in Africa like Nigeria

Nigeria is an OPEC member.

[Dane]

List of OPEC members.

Link

[kaktuskid]

I think you're pretty damn right about everything except that we can't run cars and buses on coal. We got a lot of coal, that's true. But it doesn't help to lubricate my engine.

You turn the coal into OIL ...ever heard of SASOL?

[Sender]

F) Rediscover the sheer joy of simple 50cc motorcycles.