Posted on 04/02/2012 4:44:48 PM PDT by Olog-hai
But Norbert Reithofer, the CEO of BMW, seems surprisingly relaxed for an executive whose company's products depend on gasoline and diesel. … The Munich-based automaker has invested billions of euros in fuel-saving technologies, such as efficient engines, brake energy recovery and ultra-lightweight carbon fiber car bodies. …
Airbus CEO Tom Enders uses a similar argument. He ought to be upset about high kerosene prices. They have sharply affected his customers, the airlines, whose profits are shrinking and who are investing less money in buying new planes as a result. Nevertheless, Airbus has never had as many orders on its books as it does today. …
… (I)n most countries of the world, especially the emerging countries, economic growth and energy consumption still go hand in hand. A global change of course is overdue, according to the German Advisory Council on Global Change. "The carbon-based world economic model," say the scientists on the council, constitutes "a normatively unsustainable situation" and is as morally reprehensible as slavery or child labor. …
(Excerpt) Read more at spiegel.de ...
Fossils......right.
Abiotic oil, duh!
To all you Leaf driving, solar powered appliance users....THANKS! It means more gas left for my gas guzzling BMW.
Glad someone is finally admitting it..
A world with oodles of oil that we aren’t allowed to get - due to “global warming” idiocy.
I’m still waiting for the battery powered passenger airplane.
This is patently ridiculous. We may run out of oil but no now. We need to start the move away from oil and to electricity in some places but where does the electricity come from? Not solar or other feel good crap.
We have called for Thorium for some time now. The time is past for it.
No plastics, which means no cars, computers, ipads, ipods, etc.
“The carbon-based world economic model...is as morally reprehensible as slavery or child labor”
But until someone comes up with a replacement, Der Spiegel will continue publishing and distributing its product using whatever oil it takes to make a profit.
Yes, and then they’ll compare the new “model” to “slavery or child labor” when they feel that it’s politically expedient to do so.
If they are, it's only because the government has perverted the incentives.
The Imaginary Famine.
We shall never run out of petroleum. It is a compact, relatively safe, High-energy-density power storage medium. It works well in the presence of sufficient oxygen to fully release its energy potential, and best of all, it is renewable.
And not merely with the relatively slow action of algae converting carbon dioxide and other foodstuffs into an olefin substance (not yet particularly efficient), but by abiotic methods that have worked well in laboratory and to a limited extent, on an industrial scale. Plus the earth itself, down at the discontinuity that lies between the molten center and the rocky surface crust, the reaction proceeds continuously. “Empty” oil wells refill over time, and geologically, in not very much time at all.
Methane, which is found on the sea floor in vast quantities in the form of Methane Hydrate, is being reformed all the time from the anaerobic decomposition of other organic material, and even the less optimistic estimates of its total accumulated amount still indicates that from four to ten times the amount of energy found in all the coal and petroleum, and natural gas trapped in rock formations, is in this Methane Hydrate. All we have to do is mine it, and with the technology we now have, this should become a reality within a generation - the Japanese and now the Chinese are looking into ways of recovering the trapped methane efficiently and economically.
And methane itself is a practical source of building up longer-chain hydrocarbons. By controlling the rates and procession of the reaction, a very specialized output may be exercised in the production of a vast preponderance of a particular compound, like gasoline composed mainly of iso-octane, a form of hydrocarbon more efficiently burned in a spark-ignition engine.
Of course, methane itself, stored as a compressed gas, is an excellent motor fuel, but engines have to be modified and tuned to burn it efficiently.
Our Royal Masters and their Praetorian Guards will never want for fossil fuels....
There is one driver in my household and I'm driving a 7.3L Powerstroke F-350 and an SVT Raptor.
Eat my emissions.
Really? Do you have convincing proof of these things or do you simply wish them so? I’m well aware of arguments for the abiotic origins of hydrocarbons and even was involved in the Siljan Ring well. Thomas Gold’s ideas have some credence.
I have been drilling oil and gas wells all over the world for the last 35 years. There are places untapped and underexploited and it always gets harder to find. Technology has pulled a lot of rabbits out of the hat.
As for your statement, ““Empty” oil wells refill over time, and geologically, in not very much time at all.” I’ve only seen it once somewhere off Main Pass. West Texas is having a resurgence but not by replenished reservoirs. Relatively short geologic time may help someone but it won’t help us nor reverse the production of the last 100+ years in a very helpful way.
Methane hydrates are a huge resource but getting them is a massively complex problem that I have also worked on in Alaska. You don’t simply mine them. They are horribly unstable and the huge expansion potential needs to be contained until ready for use.
“It is a compact, relatively safe, High-energy-density power storage medium. It works well in the presence of sufficient oxygen to fully release its energy potential, and best of all, it is renewable.” You’re kidding me. For true? I did not know what petroleum is. Just amazing.
I probably agree with your position that the price of petroleum is being manipulated. The events of 2008 were mostly artificial and contrived. There was no shortage. This situation now will soon be over again by next spring I’d say. Either by the economy having been destroyed or simple demand reduction from the price. Prices are hitting many very hard. You posted and I tend to agree though I don’t know who is behind this. http://www.freerepublic.com/focus/news/2862465/posts?page=15#15
I have not seen a more condescending post than this one of your in a long time. Do you often attempt to talk down to people and how is that working out for you?
Everyone who buys into the Left’s energy scare and lies and invests in non-existent alternative energy, goes bankrupt. That includes nations.
Divest from these wacky, Marxist CEO’s before they take you down with them.
Disclaimer: Opinions posted on Free Republic are those of the individual posters and do not necessarily represent the opinion of Free Republic or its management. All materials posted herein are protected by copyright law and the exemption for fair use of copyrighted works.