Let's pretend we drill for every drop of oil?

Question

Let's the say the environmentalists all quit or give up and america totally drills the h**l out of everything. the arctic, anwr, every national park.

Then we get a supply of oil that will last us a few years tops, providing none of it gets sold overseas.

then what? after all THAT oil is gone (and it will go quick the way americans waste it with hummers and 5 mpg trucks) then what to do?

then you HAVE to switch to dreaded "stone age" technologies such as Hydrogen, wind, and solar electric anyway right?

Answer 1

Actually, if we start and open absolutly everything up for drilling TODAY, we won't start to see that oil for at least 10 years or so.  That is because oil fields take time to discover and then drill, hire all the new workers, build all the pipelines and other equipment to actually get the oil to the market.  This can not be done over night!  And you are right, once these resources are depleted, and they eventually will be, then we have to start relying on other technologies.  

Fortunately, things like wind power, solar, geothermal and advanced battery technology for hybrids are much farther along and in many cases competitive in price with fossil fuels.  So we can either tear up our country trying to get one last fossil fuel fix, or we can really put all of our efforts behind alternatives and lead this world away from fossil fuels.  That may not actually be what happens, but it would be nice in a perfect world!

Answer 2

Then we run out of plastic that takes years to decompose, chemical fertilizers that pollute our rivers.  But ha by then the politicians will have turned the water rights over to the big cooperation to make hydro zine or some other hydride so they can still make there big profits.  They are already making auto upholstery out of bio-mass to replace the oil used for poly vinyl chloride.   Gas and diesel are just a by product.  mostly waste that the industry has figured out a way to sell.  hydrogen makes up 10% of the Univerce when burned in an internal combustian engine the exhast  is water.

Answer 3

As a working man trying to support his family and earn a decent living, I would gladly switch to any of those stone age technologies, such as hydrogen, wind and solar, if and when you show us a way to do so.

To the best of my understanding, there is not a car on the market that will get me from my home to my workplace, about 40 miles, that does not use a oil bassed fuel.  Do you know of One?  Mass transit?  sure 300 miles away in Knoxville Tn,  or 400 away in DC.

wind?  You have a home turbine that will produce the power my modest home requires that I could afford,  $5000 or less then I would jump all over it.

Solar?   Doesn't work.  There not enough land for miles to get the usless stuff to work.

So what options that WORK do you have to offer?  or should we all just quite stay home, sign up on welfare and hope for the best?    Do you think we enjoy working half a day just to pay for the fuel to get to work?

think about it.

Answer 4

It won't be that big of a deal, because this is the sort of problem we're very good at solving.  Petroleum is mainly fuel for transport, but not the only one: for years we had a nation filled with trains and streetcars and didn't use oil for anything but lighting lanterns.  

And so we'll figure it out again.  The morning after the oil runs out, they'll begin stringing wires above the Interstate highways for trackless electric vehicles carrying passengers and freight.  There will be a few more nuclear power plants to run these, and life will go on as before.  Railroads will become quite popular again, and they'll be electrified as well.  

But none of this sort of thing happens quickly, so we'll have more alternatives than these.  Petroleum is an exceedingly handy substance, but never the only alternative.

Answer 5

Once we ran out of oil we would be completely screwed.  That's one of the many reasons we should be converting to alternative energies as soon as possible.  The longer it takes us to consume the available oil, the easier the transition will be.

Answer 6

Every drop of oil would last several hundred years & I won`t be around when it runs out. Plus, my truck gets 12 mpg!!

Answer 7

Yes , Or we can switch now and save the time of drilling !

Answer 8

What good is the oil doing in the ground? Do you understand how BIG Alaska is? (not the little circle in the corner of your map) I consider Carter, and Clinton swear words for locking up Alaska. How do you feel about the villagers that can not legally pick berries for food because of the parkland. And now the polar bears are protected. Will listing them change the sea ice? No matter how you feel about hunting, there are no supper stores in the villages to buy steroid pumped meat product. Every polar bear that suffers a long painful death by starvation is on the heads of enviro terrorists and their supporters. Instead of feeding a family, just rotting carcases. Talk about waste. My truck gets 17mpg normal, can get 22+mpg on the open road void of stop lights.

By your argument,, There is no reason to thaw out a moose steak for dinner, it will only get eaten.

Answer 9

UHM. NO!!! We need that oil to stabilize the economy until the technology advances enough and the infrastructure is built for the alternatives.

Answer 10

I can't stay quiet any longer about the politics of this land.  I have been contacting my senators and congressman about a couple of issues, and they were very glad to hear from me.  Here are the 2 issues:



1.  The senate is voting soon on the Supplemental Spending Bill for the Iraq War, and Diane Feinstein put in an amendment to grant amnesty to 1 million ILLEGAL immigrants because the produce is not getting picked in time.  Our economy is in so much trouble, and there are lots of LEGAL citizens that need the money and would be willing to work in agriculture.  There are plenty of youth that need good, hard-working jobs to earn them the money they need for college, cars, etc.  Feinstein's amendment is very inappropriate.  Once you start the amnesty policy, there will be no end.  I just saw a presentation on how excessive immigration will undo our country in many ways...too far to mention.



2.  Our country has lots of oil reserves in many states and out in the surrounding oceans.  We have the technology to drill for it in a responsible way to conserve the environment.  The Dakotas, Wyoming, Colorado, and Utah have oil shale that can be successfully developed for oil, and the Energy Policy of 2005 directed the BLM to lease these lands to those willing to develop the shale oil.  Now a moratorium was imposed as part of the Consolidated Appropriation Act of 2008 to NOT allow the BLM to lease land for shale oil development.



It is my opinion that we should be calling our representatives and letting them know we will not vote for them if they don't allow us to glean our own oil resources in our own land and help our own people and our economy.  To go begging to Saudi Arabia for more oil is humiliating and unnecessary.  This is the biggest transfer of wealth in the history of the world to take our money by the billions and give it to countries that are not friendly to us and then prohibit our own people from providing for themselves.



I have sent this out to many in different states.  If we each do our part, and spread the word, something can be done about this situation.  We the people are still in charge if we will take the responsibility.  I had a very good experience calling my representatives, both Republican and Democrat.  Their phone numbers were in the phone directory.  



Thanks for reading, and I hope you will take action.