RE: If this is the best we can do, we're hosed.
July 7, 2014 at 4:23 pm
(This post was last modified: July 7, 2014 at 4:30 pm by The Grand Nudger.)
(July 4, 2014 at 8:44 am)Blackout Wrote: Governments will only take the research on alternative fuels serious when they are very close of running out of oil. Until then oil is magical
Not true, take a look at the whale oil episode in our country's history. We never really "ran out" because it was always a luxury item to begin with. There were competitors, and those competitors comprised the majority of fuel used. Our government actually decided that petroleum would be a better fuel source when the prices of said luxury item got high (crunched due to our civil war and ships having business elsewhere - in addition to overhunting) - and thusly decided to tax it at a vastly reduced rate. This helped petroleum (a relative newcomer and a minor player in the energy scene at the time) beat out it's competitors - which did not, properly, include whale oil.
In this manner, our oil industry (petroleum) was literally born with a silver spoon in it's mouth-as an alternative energy source which received subsidy even in the presence of clear competitors that were in no way crunched themselves, for raw material.
So, while it may be "the invisible hand" of the market or government interventionism that ultimately shifts the balance in favor of alternative energy sources there's no reason to assume that it will only do so when the very last drop of oil has been squeezed out of the very last rock. We've been here before.
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