Oil

[low_delta]

When a particular reservoir is being drained, when it is half empty, the cost to keep extracting oil from it increases. Experts believe that we have reached this halfway point on worldwide production.

George Bush says that since oil prices are so high, we need to increase production.

I think the opposite is true. Since we're running out, shouldn't we start saving oil for later? Shouldn't we keep production low, to make our supply last longer? I mean, why drill full bore until the week before we run out? Why don't we slow down now?

Many people seem to think that technology will save us. They say that by the time the oil is gone, we will have developed alternatives. I think that we would be much better off if we had more time to develop this new technology. And of course, nobody wants to fund this research unless they see a real demand for it. Not only that, but if we have more time to develop it, there would be less shock to our culture when we switch over, but our oil might last longer anyway.

Comments

[vlinker.livejournal.com]

with world oil prices (and profits) high, the oil companies can afford to explore new regions.....just because they think oil is there, there is no guarantee until a hole is bored in the ground to check it out......i think it important to quantify our energy sources.....to plan for the future.....and as long as energy prices stay high, there will be people researching methods to get part of that pie.....developing new technologies......all driven by the quest for a buck......my friend pete has a hybrid honda car......it's not the rig he uses to drive 200 miles from town to a ski race in winter, but he uses it as his daily driver, and gets about 60-70 mpg...pretty nice as long as you live on the flatlands.......a business in town, will subsidize employees who buy a hybrid car (enough to offset the higher car payments) because the owner (he has a toyota hybrid - only 40-45mpg) feels it is the right thing to do......

[banana.livejournal.com]

Those figures don't seem very impressive. Plenty of smaller cars in the UK will get well over 40 mpg from an ordinary engine. This is from www.honda.co.uk <th colspan="3"> Fuel economy - mpg (man/auto) </th>

	1.4i S	1.4i SE
Urban	34.0	34.0 / 28.5
Extra Urban	52.3	52.3 / 49.6
Combined	44.1	44.1 / 39.2

Re:

[vlinker.livejournal.com]

the figures weren't meant to impress anyone......

indeed, i used to drive an 82 VW Rabbit diesel that got upwards of 45mpg on the highway...and high 30's in town....and my 78 honda civic cvcc would get similar milage....

driving here, is prolly a little different than the UK.....the weather is a bit more harsh and people do like to commute in a warm auto....and for any engine life, that engine should be run a bit after starting to allow it to get up to operating temperature.....unless, you have a heated garage that you actually use as a garage.....if my vehicle is not kept in the garage, i plug in the electric engine heater for an hour prior to starting....not only does this prolong life of the vehicle, it helps to decrease the tailpipe pollution at start-up.....

Economics

[banana.livejournal.com]

As oil becomes scarce, the price rises. When it's really scarce, the price is really high. So it will never run out, it will just become unavailable to most of us. Finally car companies will have to come up with alternatives if they aren't to go out of business.

This is pretty simple economics, but it can be messed up by market meddling politicians trying to keep the price down.