Will We Have Enough Oil And Natural Gas?

[4dsc]

Heads up people. Serious questions are now being asked and they need to be answered..

http://www.energybulletin.net/11870.html

Secretary of Energy Samuel Bodman has asked THE question. Will we have enough oil and natural gas to keep our economy going? In a letter to Lee Raymond, Chairman of the National Petroleum Council (NPC), Bodman has asked the Council to predict the future:

1. "What does the future hold for global oil and natural gas supply?"

2. "Can incremental oil and natural gas supply be brought on line, on time, and at a reasonable price to meet future demand without jeopardizing economic growth?"

3. "What oil and gas supply strategies and /or demand-side strategies does NPC recommend the U. S. pursue to ensure greater economic stability and prosperity?"

Energy Secretary Bodman's letter describes several key issues: "Perspectives vary widely on the ability of supply to keep pace with growing world demand for oil and natural gas, the point in time at which global oil production will plateau and then begin to decline ("peak oil"), the implications these may have for the U. S. and world economy, and what steps should be taken to achieve more positive outcomes."

[apple_ridge]

1. Uhhh....NO

[Ready4Change]

2. Good questions, but perhaps asked of the wrong people?

Particularly question #3. Could one really expect the National Petroleum Council (NPC) to recommend things like improved energy conservation and increased efforts to develop viable alternatives to oil and NG?

Just seems like asking a Hummer salesman what car one should buy to decrease ones gasoline expenses. Are you going to be suprised when he says something other than "buy a small Honda or Toyota?"

Or do I have the wrong opinion of the NPC?

[Oversea Visitor]

3. They will run out

Alternative energy is now a must look into area for a lot of country. Nuclear seems to be a stop gap measure but then again there is just so much uranium. Renewable energy source might be the future trend but ultimately we might end up with multiple energy sources. We just too dependent on energy.
Going to buy myself a bicycle :)

[RC]

4. Mined Uranium is not needed for nuclear power generation.

Worse cast, you had better acquire enough land to grow your own clothes. When the oil runs out, the world economy is going to collapse because of leap frogging prices of energy - Any energy, renewable or otherwise. No one is doing enough to develop alternative energy sources and the US is working to slow down or otherwise undermine development of replacement energy sources.

[DrRang]

5. More basic question is . . .

can we keeping trying to maintain an economy that depends on endless growth? Nope. We're exceeding the world's capacity to renew itself by 30% every year now. The result is plundering more and more of the remaining resources. We are running out of planet, regardless of what happens with oil and gas.

[Dogmudgeon]

6. Predicting the future?

Here's a timetable of what we can reasonably expect:

2005: Energy is expensive when energy producers can get away with it, like when a hurricane hits Louisiana.

2009: All analog TV broadcasts end in USA and UK, ushering in an era of unprecedented reading.

2010: Energy is expensive.

2012: Facing mass insurrection from the newly-educated population, governments of USA and UK subsidize the digital TV industry, with several massive TV give-aways.

2015: Energy is REAL expensive.

2017: Energy is REALLY REAL expensive when energy producers can get away with it, like when a hurricane hits Alaska -- near the Alaskan National Oil (formerly Wilderness) Reservation.

2020: Poor, working class, and lower-middle-class people start living "low-energy" lifestyles, including no-heat winters and episodic hunger. Epidemics become commonplace in the "third world" and begin to ruffle feathers in developed nations. The world economy begins to fall apart, but not in the USA (yet).

2025: Food production is down 75% as climate change "whipsaw" effect brings in an era of Global Cooling and Drying.

2027: First diet book written advising people to eat more food and gain weight.

2030: Lots of people start to die, but it's OK, since most of them live in other countries.

2035: Lots of people start to die, but it's not OK, since a lot of them live HERE.

2037: Most "post-holocaust" video games are re-rated "G" or "Family" due to recent real-world events.

2040: General third-world anarchy and "radio silence".

2047: Surviving members of Greenpeace mount an all-out effort to Save The Plankton.

2050: The Federal Governments of most "developed" countries have gone to emergency status; widespread "silence" from most of their sub-administrative areas (e.g., states and provinces).

2075: World population stabilizes at 350 million.

2097: The Psychlos invade and enslave Mankind using psychiatry, after killing all the surviving Scientologists and sci-fi writers.

Okay, I wasn't serious about that last one.

--p!