What good is it toshuffle capital investments from oil to coal or naturalgas when these fossil fuels R linked?

Question

Fully-worded Q is this: What good is it to shuffle capital investments and labor from oil to coal or natural gas when these fossil fuels are price-linked ? Also being carbon fuels they, when combusted,add to atmosphere's CO2 concentration level and increased thermal energy retention. (ie Global Warming). Pls avoid politically-based useless responses-only economic-based-on science comments are wanted!

Answer 1

Actually, solar energy isn't the only clean source.  Wind, water, and geothermal energy are all clean and economical energy sources as well.  We should be exploring all of these.

Answer 2

It's not. The only clean fuel is solar! And it's free! Now we just have to support companies that will use it so that the price of the technology will come down so it we be more widely available and feasible for the average person and not just big businesses - someone's going to have to make a sacrifice -but will they? Let's hope so!

Geting political seems to be the only way they will listen - I don't want that either but if people don't pull there heads out real soon we will have to to save our environment from become a giant sewer!

Answer 3

From an economics point of view, you have to consider availability and risk as factors in the price of fuel.

First when I use the word efficient, I mean economically efficient - the lowest possible cost - but we can include negative externalities in the cost such as COs emissions.

Availability of these resources is very different.  For example, if I build a new house and there is no natural gas line running to it, it would be better (and more economically efficient) to use electric heat - even if the efficiency of the electric heater is lower than a gas heater.

So, if we have coal (or hydro, or wind) available nearby and can spend less transporting it, that may be a more efficient solution.

Risk is the political component of the reasons to shift.  All energy supplies have some risk premium built into the price (which is why wars in the Middle East cause the price to go up).  If the risk premium gets very high it may be better to switch fuels since the savings can be applied to other economic activities.

Ultimately, we need a diverse portfolio of solutions which give us flexibility between fuel sources.  Flexibility yields price pressure to keep fuel prices low and also increases energy supply reliability.