That's why I drive an old Eagle Summit for my commute. Gets 36-40 mpg. Yeah, it's got absolutely no amenities (I paid more for my lawnmower than I paid for it), but it runs and saves me over a hundred bucks a month on my commute.
If the enviro-weenies would let us drill for oil, we wouldn't even need to rely on outside oil.
http://www.tomvalentine.com/html/karrick2.html
The process was perfected by Lewis C. Karrick, an oil shale technologist at the U.S. Bureau of Mines in the 1920s. LTC is a pyrolysis process that involves heating coal, shale, lignite, or any other carbonaceous material, including garbage) to about 800o F. in the absence of oxygen. Oil is thus distilled from the material, rather than burning as it would if oxygen were present. After treatment by the Karrick process, a ton of coal will yield up to a barrel of oil, 3000 cu. ft. of rich fuel gas, and 1500 lb. of solid smokeless char (semi-coke). The economics of the process are such that the oil is obtained for free!
The smokeless char is an excellent substitute for coal in utility boilers, and for coking coal in steel smelters. It yields more heat than raw coal, and it can be converted to water gas. That gas can be converted to oil by the Fischer-Tropsch synthesis-process. The coal gas produced by Karrick-LTC yields more BTUs than natural gas because it contains a greater amount of combined carbon, and there is less dilution of the combustion gases with water vapor. The phenolic wastes are used by the chemical industry as feedstock for working up into plastics, etc.. The process produces no pollutants other than carbon dioxide.
See links above for rest of the story! And it's in the United States!
Nuclear power plants to give cheap energy needed for the coal gasification process.
I'm not too worries about peak oil. I am worried that the rate of increase in demand will be far greater than any production increases. If that is the case, peak oil will be moot.
We have been in one for quite some time. Between a government that does not give a damn about the future of the country or a comprehensive energy policy that satisfies our energy needs, and the outright greed of the oil companies (are we down to just two now?) --- the industrial/government complex is doing quite a job on us. To say nothing of the cost of heating fuels...
Energy crisis -- hell yes.
"I think we are probably beyond the point where we can avoid the consequences of peaking. I think what we need to do now is to simply minimize the consequences of peaking. I don't think we have a prayer of avoiding the consequences of peaking."
I think you just like to say the word "peaking".
The law of supply and demand will continue to function, so long as the government lets it.
If the price of gasoline rises we will each make our individual decisions how to cope with it. Those decisions will add up to a far better set of outcomes than anything government action could provide.
Of course the paid off bastards in our House and Senate could give a flip. Ie: No drilling for oil, no incentive for R and D for Alternative fuels etc. Bought and paid for by the energy companies.
Gawd, I hope so. Otherwise all this gloom and doom handwringing and whining will be for naught. All it takes is one mullah farting to goose up the price of oil these days. Sheesh.
AND.....if they quit all the SPECIAL configurations for gasoline for different areas......gas would be a lot cheaper.....sheesh....it's like ordering a cup of coffee vs a double tall, soy mocha with half the chocolate....the second COSTS LOTS MORE cause it's a SPECIAL ORDER!
You can make oil out of turkey guts. So much for the "finite resource" idea.
Six months ago world news was full of this stuff. Then the Saudis announced they were ramping up production and pressures eased for other reasons. Well, the Saudis haven't been able to deliver - not even the heavy, sour stuff let alone light, sweet crude. Meanwhile demand has continued to increase so here we are with $71 a barrel oil and no relief in sight.
What's likely to happen? The worst.
First, the failures of major industries highly sensitive to energy prices; airlines, major auto manufacturers, tourism.
Second, failure of secondary industries as disposable income disappears in the face of rising food prices and loss of jobs.
Third, general economic collapse.
Fourth. War.
...This scenario doesn't consider massive climate change (man-made or natural) which seems imminent.
How likely are we to be insulated from the worst of it? I don't know.
The article misses the main point. The theory should not be known as Peak Oil but Peak Easy Oil. The peak is not yet here, but could arrive within a decade no matter what, or tomorrow if war breaks out. When it does, easy oil will be past and any alternative is more expensive, be it coal, nuclear, solar, or tar sands. Nothing is so cheap to produce as Saudi oil. The next basis of the economy will cost much more than easy oil, and the whole economy will be injured disproportionately.
I think in the next few years Peak Oil will be the least of our worries.