Viable alternatives:
Coal to liquid fuel.
Mining the ocean bed for Methane Hydrate, a source of natural gas.
Reclamation of the petroleum content from oil shale, by using in-place techniques that cause minimal soil disturbance.
Use of Thermal Depolymerization to convert various organic wastes into kerogen, a substance much like crude oil, but without all the sand and gunk.
Use of plasma waste disposal, with the two-fold benefit of generating electricity directly from trash, and total destruction of practically all kinds of waste except radioactive elements. One other by-product would be aggregate suitable for road construction or concrete, which is drawn off as a slag from the conversion process. This process also generates huge quantities of gaseous hydrogen, the “fuel of the future” that is to power our homes and transportation. The other product, carbon monoxide, is an excellent fuel to power industry, with NO fly ash, no waste and essentially a “carbon-neutral” balance on exhaust emisions.
Oh, and by the way, carbon dioxide is NOT a pollutant in earth’s atmosphere. It is an essential compound in the balance of life. This superstitious fear of CO2 is on the order of a similar dread of all bacteria.
Yet without bacteria, you could not digest much of your food. Several pounds of your body weight is made up of these microscopic symbiotes.
Actually, the ultimate alternative is oil-laden algae. From these algae we can easily refine diesel fuel, heating oil, and even kerosene. And the “waste” from the processing can be refined into ethanol. I think with improving technologies to clean up diesel exhaust expect within 10-15 years the majority of the world’s new-production motor vehicles to have diesel engines, with an increasing mix of fuel-cell powered vehicles further down the road.