alt.energy.renewable

On Feb 25, 11:55=A0pm, "Ivan" wrote:
> wrote in message
>
> news:975c0bd4-e049-4aa9-a509-a172386cd114@72g2000hsu.googlegroups.com...
>
>
>
> > The technology to do this has evolved tremendously. You can make just
> > about any fuel out of plant matter, from Natural gas to methanol to
> > diesel =A0 to DME (for plastics). =A0Synthetic biofuels from crop waste,=

> > timber waste and garbage =A0is definitely a smarter way to go than grain=

> > alcohols. If done intelligently and done at sufficient scale can
> > certainly compete with $2. to $3. a gallon at the pump.
>
> However whatever way one looks at it I honestly can't see any alternative =
as
> cheap and simple as sticking a pipe in the ground and pumping out decades
> worth of dirt cheap, incredibly versatile and relatively secure energy
> supplies.
>

Like most, you underestimate the real cost of crude oil recovery
because you're not counting the cost of equipping armies in the field,
the cost in lives of the conflicts in the middle east over the years,
the cost in lost productivity in road traffic injuries, the cost of
air pollution, and the massive costs imposed every day as people sit
for longer and longer in commuter traffic made necessary by urban
sprawl which in turn became possible because of cheap fuel.

And of course, the huge petrodollar sums wind up substantially in the
hands of violent criminals of one kind or another, and the need to do
high tech national security against the citizenry infringes on the
freedom of the populace. None of that is cheap.

And of course, at some point, the cost of recovery will force the
supply down and the price up and start new rounds of price shock
inflation.

> I have to confess to not knowing very much about the subject, but looking =
at
> the figures in the OP it would appear that when the oil rich Middle East w=
as
> opened up in 1908 the world boasted 1.7 billion people and 'compared to
> today' a minuscule demand for oil based products.
>
> If there is any truth in the predictions that we have about reached the
> halfway mark in recoverable oil resources, then where would we be now if s=
ay
> 100 years ago we had started pumping Middle East oil from a base of world
> demand standing at its present level and a global population of 6.6 billio=
n
> (expected to grow to around 10 billion within the next 50 years) with many=

> of them expecting their governments to deliver our Western style standard =
of
> living?
>
> Lastly I would hazard a guess that it's very unlikely that given the ever
> increasing global demand whatever we do with bio, coal, oil shale and
> remaining sources of oil and gas that we're ever going to go back to the
> halcyon dirt cheap energy that even I can remember.
>

Time to find another way. It's not that hard, but a start must be
made.

Fran