[outcast]

There's no evidence coal or natural gas is peaking.

[Concerned]

$this->bbcode_second_pass_quote('outcast', 'T')here's no evidence coal or natural gas is peaking.

[Cloud9]

Can you imagine the cost of transitioning ten percent of the gas burning vehicles to natural gas. This is going to be a long difficult slog and is what makes this depression different from the last several recessions. This is more than just the end of a business cycle.

[Maddog78]

Yeah, I can imagine it.
It would be a lot less than TARP.

There is n. gas for 100 + years and maybe even 100's of years.
See the n. gas threads on this site if you want more info.

[vision-master]

$this->bbcode_second_pass_quote('pstarr', '[')url=http://www.forbes.com/2009/07/24/peak-oil-production-business-energy-nelder.html]Forbes-The End Of Fossil Fuel[/url] The Capitalist Tool has become a Doomer's handmaiden.
$this->bbcode_second_pass_quote('Forbes', 'Y')ou will never see cheap gasoline again. You will probably never see cheap energy again. Oil, natural gas and coal are set to peak and go into decline within the next decade, and no technology can change that.

[outcast]

$this->bbcode_second_pass_quote('Cloud9', 'C')an you imagine the cost of transitioning ten percent of the gas burning vehicles to natural gas. This is going to be a long difficult slog and is what makes this depression different from the last several recessions. This is more than just the end of a business cycle.

[TheDude]

10% NG conversion of US vehicle fleet would be around $175 billion. Seemingly a pittance; while we're at it we could twice over electrify and massive expand the rail system, with LR/CR/Interurban systems that would cut oil consumption at least 10% and likely more. Alan Drake detailed all this extra-exhaustively in his article Multiple Birds – One Silver BB. Can't do that! (either option) We have OTC derivative counterparties to prop up, and that's who pays for political campaigns.

The figure I give for NGVs is for the 250 million vehicles we have here, more than half of which are redundant, plus economies of scale would quickly bring the price down, which as it stands is ca. $7k for a conversion or new car. I'm more sanguine about E85 and FFVs, if consumers are going to do the deed en maase - that's about 10% as expensive. We'll likely not produce enough ethanol ourselves, but if tarrifs were lowered imports could perhaps be increased; plus Chu's nuts for lignin. 3rd world laborers striving to produce cheap sugar cane so we can dump it in our SUV's tanks and tool across town to see the new Adam Sandler flick is a pretty nauseating spectacle to contemplate, but this at least seems semi-possible, until GW makes all that tropical cropland non-arable that is.

[shortonsense]

$this->bbcode_second_pass_quote('outcast', 'T')here's no evidence coal or natural gas is peaking.

[shortonsense]

$this->bbcode_second_pass_quote('vision-master', '')$this->bbcode_second_pass_quote('pstarr', '[')url=http://www.forbes.com/2009/07/24/peak-oil-production-business-energy-nelder.html]Forbes-The End Of Fossil Fuel[/url] The Capitalist Tool has become a Doomer's handmaiden.
$this->bbcode_second_pass_quote('Forbes', 'Y')ou will never see cheap gasoline again. You will probably never see cheap energy again. Oil, natural gas and coal are set to peak and go into decline within the next decade, and no technology can change that.

[Carlhole]

Forbes: "Don't Bet On $800-A-Barrel Oil

$this->bbcode_second_pass_quote('Forbes', 'A') tsunami of fuel innovation will be unleashed well before gasoline costs $20 a gallon.

[JJ]

email today from my mudlogger friend, currently in Louisiana:

Glad it went ok, and your headache is better as well.

Mine is still here .... Eat Sleep Work Repeat .....

Hopefully I'll keep getting paid ..... if I can just keep my sanity.

Had some Suits from Shell on location today .... The word is:

Push Natural Gas as a source of Motor Fuel because we have
a lot of it, and it will help us keep our jobs.
Alternate Translation: Oil is going away fast, but we can hang
on a little longer if we switch to Methane.

There was some talk about building large Power Plant sized
Fuel Cells near the Gas Fields, The idea is to use the gas
in place, and ship the electric power. Since the fuel cells
are relatively pollution free it may be an alternative to Nuclear.
Yeah, but what about all of that Water Vapor? No Free Lunch.

[Carlhole]

$this->bbcode_second_pass_quote('pstarr', 'C')ornies vs. Doomers.

Cornies have nanotechnology and quantum computing on their side, technologies that don't rely on energy, except a little what you'd expect to find in an expensive tightly-held Bakken methane formation that declines precipitously after the first year. And some hydrates.

Doomers have a finite planet and thermodynamics on theirs.

[Carlhole]

$this->bbcode_second_pass_quote('pstarr', 'Y')ou don't have the faintest idea what you are talking about. You do not understand the nature or limits of biofuels. I can explain them if you are interested?

[Carlhole]

$this->bbcode_second_pass_quote('pstarr', 'T')hey do not know what they are talking about. Or rather (and this is conspiratorial, and right up there with the bioengineered algae) they would prefer to have you, the oil-purchasinig consumer, believe Business-As-Usual will continue forever so you don't CONSERVE.

Couldn't have that Oh know. Mustn' t let Precious think something is wrong.

[shortonsense]

$this->bbcode_second_pass_quote('Carlhole', '
')$this->bbcode_second_pass_quote('pstarr', '
')
Tell it to Exxon, Dow and the Airlines. They're the ones making $600 million investments in algae fuels. All that money is hiring the best expertise around (like Craig Ventner's Synthetic Genomics).

Maybe if you called up Ventner and all the PhDs working for him and you educated them about algae fuels, they would thank you for setting them straight about this technological pitfall.