Should money be spent developing alternative fuel while oil is so abundant? (excerpt from article below)?

Question

Larry Kudlow observes in National Review Online, neither presidential candidate seems to have grasped this. They're still talking about "cap and trade," which for all but the celebrity-wealthy means "get your cave now, because we're headed back to the Stone Age."

And as Kudlow explains, "Then there's the oil nobody is talking about. The Bakken fields beneath North Dakota, Montana and Canada hold an estimated 400 billion barrels of oil. In comparison, Saudi Arabia's biggest field, Gahawar, has an estimated 55 billion barrels, while ANWR has an estimated 10.4 billion barrels."

Answer 1

Larry Kudlow observes in National Review Online, neither presidential candidate seems to have grasped this. They're still talking about "cap and trade," which for all but the celebrity-wealthy means "get your cave now, because we're headed back to the Stone Age."

And as Kudlow explains, "Then there's the oil nobody is talking about. The Bakken fields beneath North Dakota, Montana and Canada hold an estimated 400 billion barrels of oil. In comparison, Saudi Arabia's biggest field, Gahawar, has an estimated 55 billion barrels, while ANWR has an estimated 10.4 billion barrels."

Answer 2

I think the US should do both. Dig for our own oil and also work on longer battery life for electric vehicles, say 300-400 miles per full charge; so we can have both option in the years to come. But we do need to be very careful and learn from our mistakes in the 90's and mandate a fuel economy avg of 5-10 mpg every 4 - 5 years afterwards. Pretty much every new redesign by law should have a increase of at lease 5 mpg.

Answer 3

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Answer 4

The best way to lower the price of anything is to have competition.  If we start having solar and other alternative fuels competing with oil, it will make oil cheaper.

(not to mention we won't be screwed when the oil dries up in a hundred years or so)

Answer 5

I'm so glad you asked this question.  It exposes the sheer ignorance of some of the commentary.

The Bakken fields do not hold oil, they hold oil shale.

Oil shale is not oil.  It is kerogen, a precursor to oil.  It can be make into a superior light sweet oil product of nearly pure single molecular weight.

However, the shale has to be retorted to get the oil.  The energy balance is no better that 3-1 or 2-1, possibly 1-1.

It would take the entire coal reserves of North America to provide the energy to retort all the oil shale into oil.

And in any case, by the time we get through the 55 billion barrels in Saudia Arabia and the global average temperature is up by 6c there won't be much left to save anyway.

Answer 6

It should be left to the private sector.

Answer 7

i think so because maybye the prices of fuel will go down and that is good for both the company the consumer and the seller with time we will have the technolagy to make alteritive fuel at a very fast rate and then everyone wins i perfer bio fuel bit those prices are threw the roof and the more oil means the more money the country will make i dont know if your talking about canada ANWR or Gahawar