The oil crisis is over!!!!!!!

[Jenos Ridan]

The added supply will drive prices down a bit, sure, but that won't stop the speculation on the commodities market unless something major happens that makes oil just as plentiful as dirt. Of course, this microbe might be able to do just that, so who knows?

In any case, I would much prefer we keep developing alternative fuels and higher mileage cars simply for conservation and green purposes.

A Microbial process to create petrol? Intriging. Ever hear of the Fischer-Tropsch process?

If we can get people to realise that petroleum is easy to synthisize, we can stop drilling.

[bbqpenguin]

it really does upset me that prices are the way they are. between drilling in ANWR and off the coats, increasing refinery capacity, nuclear energy and the huge advancements in technology (things like yoru bacteria link, solar energy, etc.) we could be COMPLETELY energy independent in less than 10 years if congress would just get its useless ass off the couch and do something.

[InkL0sed]

I just briefly saw a report on Countdown with Keith Olbermann about a car in Japan that's fueled by water?? And the developer is expected to be assassinated? Wtf? Haven't I heard about this already?

[Simon Viavant]

A car in France went 60 miles on a gallon of compressed air. I don't know how much oil it took to compress that air, though.

[herndawg]

I heard once there is already oil in the ground.
But maybe you will get more horsepower from bug poop.

[Juan_Bottom]

I just briefly saw a report on Countdown with Keith Olbermann about a car in Japan that's fueled by water?? And the developer is expected to be assassinated? Wtf? Haven't I heard about this already?

There was a guy in Europe who invented a modified Tesla Coil that sucked power from thin air. He was assassinated a couple of months ago, though I can't seem to find the article.

They never explained his machine at all though. It looked like a torpedo space heater.

[wrightfan123]

Apologies to Captain Obvious.
But oil prices are, over the long term, just gonna go up and up.
Cos -drum roll - i don't think there is infinite oil.

We need more nuclear power stations.
Utterly safe.

Keep dreaming. The gas/oil situation is gonna stay as is untill we stop using gas all together.

I vote we start using shit as fuel... oh wait... that's what the article was about.

[Hologram]

The added supply will drive prices down a bit, sure, but that won't stop the speculation on the commodities market unless something major happens that makes oil just as plentiful as dirt. Of course, this microbe might be able to do just that, so who knows?

In any case, I would much prefer we keep developing alternative fuels and higher mileage cars simply for conservation and green purposes.

A Microbial process to create petrol? Intriging. Ever hear of the Fischer-Tropsch process?

If we can get people to realise that petroleum is easy to synthisize, we can stop drilling.

Oh, I know that it's easy to synthesize. But it'll take a while for anything to be able to be used unless Congress gets out of big oil's pocket and starts looking out for the needs of the people.

But yeah, I've heard of at least three instances of people being able to synthesize oil efficiently and cheaply and yet for some reason nobody ever hears about it. And I don't even actively search out these articles, that's how easy it is to get a hold of this information.

[Nickbaldwin]

Of course this could work in favour of the people that hold the technology to synthesise oil. Once oil is rare or has run out completely, there will be a massive surge of demand for synthesised oil. Big bucks for the lucky people who know how to do it

[The Weird One]

I'm not sure if it's been mentioned in the thread already [I'm too damn laxy to read it all] but oil prices are so high right now due to the fact that most of the major oil-producing companies have peaked in production...

[brooksieb]

The oil prices are still pretty high in England (i'm speaking for the Whole of Europe when i say this about 135 dollars a barrel at it's peak so far.

[heavycola]

Of course this could work in favour of the people that hold the technology to synthesise oil. Once oil is rare or has run out completely, there will be a massive surge of demand for synthesised oil. Big bucks for the lucky people who know how to do it

Why don't we just wring out some adolescents?

[Snorri1234]

We need more nuclear power stations.

Word.

This "oil-crisis" will resolve itself as people will just start using nuculur when the pros outweigh the cons.

[DirtyDishSoap]

Unbelievably, this is not science fiction. Pal holds up a small beaker of bug excretion that could, theoretically, be poured into the tank of the giant Lexus SUV next to us.

Not that Pal is willing to risk it just yet. He gives it a month before the first vehicle is filled up on what he calls "renewable petroleum." After that, he grins, "it's a brave new world."

The very word i hate in that sentence.

[Hologram]

I'm not sure if it's been mentioned in the thread already [I'm too damn laxy to read it all] but oil prices are so high right now due to the fact that most of the major oil-producing companies have peaked in production...

Actually, it's due in large part to speculation on the Commodities Market which has artificially driven up the price of oil, even though supply has remained more or less the same and demand has actually dropped.

[SlayerQC]

Isnt it brazil that took 20 years to almost fully convert to ethanol?
Whoever did that is probably laughing at the entire planet, as their fuel is renewable.

[dewey316]

If we can get people to realise that petroleum is easy to synthisize, we can stop drilling.

Oh, I know that it's easy to synthesize. But it'll take a while for anything to be able to be used unless Congress gets out of big oil's pocket and starts looking out for the needs of the people.

But yeah, I've heard of at least three instances of people being able to synthesize oil efficiently and cheaply and yet for some reason nobody ever hears about it. And I don't even actively search out these articles, that's how easy it is to get a hold of this information.

Or maybe it isn't easy to sythesize petroleum on a large enough scale to make it commercialy viable.

And, I know we all like to jump on congress, or the president or whoever for oil prices. I would ask though, what do you honestly expect the U.S. congress to do, to cause the global price of crude oil to drop. Or even the price of a gallon of gas in the U.S. to drop? I hear a lot of talk about "we have to do something" or "change" or "we will do something to reduce gas prices". I have yet to hear an actual plan that will do that.

[Hologram]

If we can get people to realise that petroleum is easy to synthisize, we can stop drilling.

Oh, I know that it's easy to synthesize. But it'll take a while for anything to be able to be used unless Congress gets out of big oil's pocket and starts looking out for the needs of the people.

But yeah, I've heard of at least three instances of people being able to synthesize oil efficiently and cheaply and yet for some reason nobody ever hears about it. And I don't even actively search out these articles, that's how easy it is to get a hold of this information.

Or maybe it isn't easy to sythesize petroleum on a large enough scale to make it commercialy viable.

And, I know we all like to jump on congress, or the president or whoever for oil prices. I would ask though, what do you honestly expect the U.S. congress to do, to cause the global price of crude oil to drop. Or even the price of a gallon of gas in the U.S. to drop? I hear a lot of talk about "we have to do something" or "change" or "we will do something to reduce gas prices". I have yet to hear an actual plan that will do that.

Easy. We have government funding for various scientific studies and whatnot. Congress could just as easily give the same kind of money to people trying to find viable ways to synthesize oil. But like I said, Congress is in the pocket of big oil, along with every other "big" out there. Such is the way of the free market I suppose...

[dewey316]

Sure, Congress could dump all the money they wanted to into stuff, but that money has to come from somewhere. I do think they could have acted diffrently. The bill passed in 2005, could have given more money to alternative energy research, instead of money to petrolium production. (1.7 billion to alternative energy, 2.8 billion to fosile fuels productions). I agree with you on that one. But, how much money do we through at something, while we ignore some other problems. We know that we will run out of oil, we know that oil prices are going to go up, so alternative energy's are going to come. The million dollar question that people seem to ignore is, how much money do we spend to try to keep refining space up, in hopes of keeping gas prices down vs. the ammount of money we spend in research for new energy.

I just don't see Congress or the Pres. being able to fix this. It is a global market, the U.S. can only do some much. They could dump trillions of dollars into research, that doesn't fix the problem today. That may not fix the problem for 20 more years (I am not saying we shouldn't be researching, don't take that wrong).

The issue here, is that even as/if our demand goes down, China's goes up, and so the market speculation, and the futures trading prices keep rising. U.S. policy cannot make china's oil demand go down. We can't make the rest of the worlds oil demand go down. That stuff is out of the hands of the goverment.

[Hologram]

Sure, Congress could dump all the money they wanted to into stuff, but that money has to come from somewhere. I do think they could have acted diffrently. The bill passed in 2005, could have given more money to alternative energy research, instead of money to petrolium production. (1.7 billion to alternative energy, 2.8 billion to fosile fuels productions). I agree with you on that one. But, how much money do we through at something, while we ignore some other problems. We know that we will run out of oil, we know that oil prices are going to go up, so alternative energy's are going to come. The million dollar question that people seem to ignore is, how much money do we spend to try to keep refining space up, in hopes of keeping gas prices down vs. the ammount of money we spend in research for new energy.

I just don't see Congress or the Pres. being able to fix this. It is a global market, the U.S. can only do some much. They could dump trillions of dollars into research, that doesn't fix the problem today. That may not fix the problem for 20 more years (I am not saying we shouldn't be researching, don't take that wrong).

The issue here, is that even as/if our demand goes down, China's goes up, and so the market speculation, and the futures trading prices keep rising. U.S. policy cannot make china's oil demand go down. We can't make the rest of the worlds oil demand go down. That stuff is out of the hands of the goverment.

Haha, well we could nuke China....

But in all seriousness, I do hear you there, and I do think that the situation will be resolved one way or another. But I still think synthesized oil will need to be figured out for various reasons. Life for the military. I can't imagine a viable alternative to the jet engine that uses non-petroleum based products, or plastics, etc.

[dewey316]

Sure, it is going to come. Demand will do that. That is the way free markets work, when there becomes a enough finicial reason for companies come up with a synthetic petrolium that can be done on a large scale, they will do it. For all we know, it has been devoloped, but oil prices haven't hit the critical mark yet, where it becomes profitable, so we haven't seen it yet. I would also find it hard to beleive that the LARGE oil companies, aren't using their huge resources to come up with alternatives. They know their days are numbered, and they need alternatives to stay in business in the long term. I doubt that the higher-ups in these multi-billion companies are that short sighted.

Honestly, if this whole oil price thing bothers you that much, vote with your dollars. People are real quick to jump on the government, yet they aren't willing to leverage the greatest thing they have in a free market, which is their dollar. You really want to drive change. When the Chevrolet Volt comes out in 2010, buy one. Show GM that there is money to be had in cars like that. If they see the profit potential, it will drive inovation. In the end, I don't think we can blame the any particular government for this. We can blame ourselves. We all sit here driving our 16mpg SUV's that we "need", if it bothers you enough that you think the government should be involved. Do something about it.

And yes nuking China should still be on the table. . We have enough nukes we can solve all our problems, we can nuke NK, Iran, China and them darn Russians!!! (I kid also)

[Hologram]

Oh, I plan on it. I don't want electric necessarily, but I plan on getting a motorcycle for the great mileage and some sort of hybrid or hydrogen fuel cell car in the future.

And of course, I always have my bike and my two perfectly good legs. All that cardio will be good training for the Corps.

[dewey316]

Exactly, I have noticed a TON of small motorcycles and scooters around (I ride an old Honda CB450, it gets about 60mpg, but it still fun to toss around too). But I also drive/race a camaro, and a Jeep. I am trying to not be a hypocrite, because trust me, I am not happy when I have to put $100 worth of gas in my cars each week to get to and from work. But, if it bothered me enough, I could very well do something about it. So, I don't have anyone to blame but myself. I think that the people of the U.S. (and Europe, Asia, or wherever) who are up in arms about the lack of alternative energy, or the lack of congress to do something, or how President "Dubya" isn't doing anything. Need to take a long hard look at what THEY are doing. At some point, we have to figure out that someone else isn't going to fix this. You don't want to spend $4.50/gal for fuel, then don't. Ride public transit, buy a little car that gets 60mpg, or whatever. So long as we globaly keep pushing the demand up, the prices are going to go up. That is the way it works. If the demand of crude oil was low enough, the OPEC nations couldn't give the stuff away.

[Hologram]

Exactly, I have noticed a TON of small motorcycles and scooters around (I ride an old Honda CB450, it gets about 60mpg, but it still fun to toss around too). But I also drive/race a camaro, and a Jeep. I am trying to not be a hypocrite, because trust me, I am not happy when I have to put $100 worth of gas in my cars each week to get to and from work. But, if it bothered me enough, I could very well do something about it. So, I don't have anyone to blame but myself. I think that the people of the U.S. (and Europe, Asia, or wherever) who are up in arms about the lack of alternative energy, or the lack of congress to do something, or how President "Dubya" isn't doing anything. Need to take a long hard look at what THEY are doing. At some point, we have to figure out that someone else isn't going to fix this. You don't want to spend $4.50/gal for fuel, then don't. Ride public transit, buy a little car that gets 60mpg, or whatever. So long as we globaly keep pushing the demand up, the prices are going to go up. That is the way it works. If the demand of crude oil was low enough, the OPEC nations couldn't give the stuff away.

Oh, I agree wholeheartedly. I think it's ridiculous that people need their cars to go everywhere, even if it's just a few blocks down the way. That's absolutely ridiculous, and I'm actually kinda glad for the high oil prices for that reason.

[muy_thaiguy]

Exactly, I have noticed a TON of small motorcycles and scooters around (I ride an old Honda CB450, it gets about 60mpg, but it still fun to toss around too). But I also drive/race a camaro, and a Jeep. I am trying to not be a hypocrite, because trust me, I am not happy when I have to put $100 worth of gas in my cars each week to get to and from work. But, if it bothered me enough, I could very well do something about it. So, I don't have anyone to blame but myself. I think that the people of the U.S. (and Europe, Asia, or wherever) who are up in arms about the lack of alternative energy, or the lack of congress to do something, or how President "Dubya" isn't doing anything. Need to take a long hard look at what THEY are doing. At some point, we have to figure out that someone else isn't going to fix this. You don't want to spend $4.50/gal for fuel, then don't. Ride public transit, buy a little car that gets 60mpg, or whatever. So long as we globaly keep pushing the demand up, the prices are going to go up. That is the way it works. If the demand of crude oil was low enough, the OPEC nations couldn't give the stuff away.

Yeah, we really don't have public transit of any sort in Wyoming. And them little cars are pretty expensive. Motorcycles and scooters though, would do alright during the warmer months, but once winter rolls in, right back to trucks and the like.