With the western world on the brink of collapse, will access to gasoline/fuel be a problem? Should we consider getting a horse and learning to use it?
Do you have any idea how hard it is to maintain a horse and a buggy? There are not enough horses, buggies or fuel for horses(feed) to support even smallest city. Plus there is no structure to move the products food from the suppliers to the customers.
Besides, if the current market where suppliers set prices mostly freely then all we will see is gasoline go up in price, perhaps rather tremendously. This will spur people to find alternates in a much faster manner than the current centrally planned alternates. Also, the best alternate to gasoline from crude oil is natural gas and there is a lot of it and it can be moved around the US easily in pipe lines.
Now lets assume that the current crop of wealth destroyers is as economically ignorant as Nixon, Ford and Carter. Then they will institute price controls and at that point you will see shortages. The shortages will get progressively worse as they crack down on hoarders. Then maybe a horse and a buggy will be required?
We have 11 TCF of natural gas in storage now. This is a historic high. While we get most of our oil from overseas sources we get all of our natural gas domestically. Switching to nat gas would at least prolongue the feasibility of fossil fuels.
Thinking bicycles and buses…
Don’t we have the oil reserves in various forms to supply ourselves? I mean I know Congress gets in the way to “protect the environment”, but from what I understand, the oil is there.
One of the world’s biggest consumers of oil is the U.S. military. Now if the US collapses and the army can no longer pay to be supplied, that is going to put a lot of fuel on the market.
Not even close. Environmental regulations typically don’t really stop us from drilling… they just raise the cost of doing business.
Maybe what you’re referring to is the billion or so barrels we have under the rocky mountains. Good luck recovering that. Low perm and hazardous drilling conditions…
The future of oil is offshore and in unconventional reservoirs (black oil, tight gas, etc). We just don’t have the tech to make many projects economical at the moment. But when the tech gets invented or the price gets high enough, it’ll get produced.
Here’s a great idea that is way overpriced but yet they’re sold out (wake up Cannondale): http://www.twike.us/