Miscellaneous > The Lounge
Should the US government do anything about the financial crisis?
SiMuLaCrUm:
Ah, so it would be too much trouble to make such a conversion. Maybe take baby steps?
worker201:
Well, we've been doing that. Many city's buses now run on natural gas because they burn cleaner and the bus can run all day on a single tank. Texas actually burns natural gas for electricity in some places, and they are planning to do that more.
But back to the original point, a little pressure helps a lot. We had hybrid cars before gas prices went up, but they were expensive and unpopular. Now everybody wants one, every manufacturer is making them, and SUV and Hummer sales are way down. All because gas prices were artificially high for a few months. Probably, some of the newer models will be phased out if gas prices stabilize at a low level.
Lead Head:
I still believe crude oil is much more abundant then natural gas. If we had a cheap efficient way to get the oil shale to a useful sate, we (the U.S) could have enough oil to power the world for the next hundred years or so.
Coal is actually still the most abundant fossil fuel around. If they can come up with a cheaper way to convert into oil/gas, then we would be set on that as well
worker201:
According to Wikipedia, oil is only marginally more abundant than gas, but way more heavily used. In the following stats, gas volumes have been converted to barrels, and the most generous estimates of reserves have been used:
Proven Reserves:
Oil - 1371 billion barrels
Gas - 1161 billion barrels
Usage:
Oil - 84 million barrels/day
Gas - 19 million barrels/day
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Fossil_fuel#Levels_and_flows
Of course coal is way up there, and there's a shitload of it left. But it's so filthy and environmentally destructive. If you've never visited a coal mine or a coal pit, you ought to sometime. They're the most foul horrorscapes on the planet.
FYI, Wyoming is capable of creating over 85,000 MW of wind electricity. Their current production - less than 450 MW. That's where we need to be. When free energy is just flowing through the air, grab it and do something with it.
Aloone_Jonez:
Measuring quantities in barrels is silly, the only fair comparason is what the energy reserves are in terms of oil gas and coal,
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