Posted on 10/27/2008 6:44:33 PM PDT by NormsRevenge
Not everyone likes seeing oil prices plunge.
This decade's historic high prices for oil and natural gas have stoked the rise of renewable power and alternative fuels. As fossil fuel prices smashed record after record, options like ethanol, hybrid electric cars, solar power and wind looked better and better.
Now oil costs less than half what it did this summer. Ditto natural gas. If prices keep dropping and stay down, future fuels like cellulosic ethanol and biodiesel will have a harder time competing. So will solar and wind power projects, which compete against power plants that burn natural gas. Public interest in alternative energy may dwindle as well.
"The excitement has subsided in the last few months," said Brian Youngberg, senior energy analyst with the Edward Jones investment company. "When oil comes down, there's still interest, but it's not as passionate. That's a potential risk."
To many in the alternative energy world, it feels like a rerun of a movie they've already seen, one with an ugly ending.
American interest in renewable power and alternative fuels swelled during the oil shocks of the 1970s, which exposed the country's deep dependence on imported petroleum. But after the price of oil hit a record high in 1981, it crashed and took the country's interest in alternatives with it.
Alternative-energy entrepreneurs hope this time will be different. No matter how far oil drops, the fear of global warming won't go away, they say. That should keep both the public and the government interested in tapping energy sources that don't add to climate change.
(Excerpt) Read more at sfgate.com ...
Hate to even say it, but the bottom will be $36
breaks muh pee-pick’n lil heart.
surprise, surprise!
been here, and done that!
Pickens comes across as a self-serving, Wall Street broker scamming the public on national TV.
Reminds me a little bit of Ross Perot.
JMHO.
Any of those windmills off of the East or West Coast or were they just coming through the Red States?
I wouldn't bet money on Gore's hoax. The emperor has no clothes. We've gone 8+ months with no sunspots. That has been a precursor to an ice age in the past. The record low temperatures last winter might have been related.
Unfortunately it takes the urgency out of drilling here as well. (at least it looks that way)
That's if we had leaders. From Obama and McCain; from Bush, Pelosi and Reid; from anybody else but maybe Boone Pickens: total silence.
“I wouldn’t bet money on Gore’s hoax. The emperor has no clothes. We’ve gone 8+ months with no sunspots. That has been a precursor to an ice age in the past. The record low temperatures last winter might have been related.”
I seriously wonder what they are going to say when the temps drop across the board? Are they going to say that they went to far and created this global cooling? Or are they, most likely, going to say that it’s “climate change” as they do now instead of “global warming”?
What a twisted mental wreck Nancy Pelosi must be while contemplating this revelation with a political mindset.
Sad, so sad...
For what it's worth, he does give a boatload of money to Oklahoma State athletics.
Drill here, drill now!
“Hate to even say it, but the bottom will be $36”
Why do you think that? It seems to me that OPEC countries would cut production again long before that happens and send prices higher. They need oil at $50 or higher a barrel just to pay their bills. I’m not counting on prices staying low for very long. These cartels with all the oil won’t allow it. I’d like to think we’ll be awash with cheap oil for a few years, but my gut is telling me this is just temporary. OPEC will cut production more, demand will come back up and prices will soar again.
Ummm... if “alternative energy” was actually efficient and cost-effective, there would be no snag.
I bet Bush’s poll numbers go up now. I don’t know why McCain doesn’t just make a campaign commercial with Obama saying it doesn’t bother him that gas is at $4 a gallon only how fast it rose. To many people cheap gas is sacred.
I saw that on 60 Minutes, but again I think his long term vested interest is putting his windmills in Oklahoma.
The Huskers are a State Wide Passion and his boatload of money could do a lot to eliminate the “NOT IN MY BACKYARD”
syndrome.
Wonder if Pickens would give a check back to each citizen of every State he places his windmills in with his alternative energy plan? Similar to what Alaskans get from their oil revenues?
Have not wasted my time to go the to the Picken’s Plan website. But I'd speculate that's not in his proforma package.
“It is only temporary; temps will start rising again in 10 years, when the El Nino Phenomenom returns...”.
Just ask Doctor Hanson, et al.
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