The oil companies must want to sell energy in the future.?

Question

Aren't they looking into alternate forms of energy, I mean, income? Sure, I know, they want to milk as much revenue as possible from oil because they have the infrastructure in place for petro-dollars.

Wouldn't they look forward to the development of solarvoltaic or wind or, my favorite, Geo-Thermal?

The state and federal governments give tax incentives and rebates to people putting up solar voltaic panels to cover up to 70% of the cost. Add to that a Geo-thermal heat pump that reqires little more than electicity to heat and cool your house and an electric car and the savings in not having to buy heating oil or gasoline will have repaid the cost of the solar panels in five years.

Take the long view people.

Answer 1

In my opinion the most important information that you need to answer this question is accurate cost data for the alternative forms of energy..

I have found that accurate cost data is the most difficult information to come by.

Each form of alternative energy has its fans, however when it comes time to discuss actual cost, the information that you need is nowhere to be found.

I find comparison cost estimates in the term of an energy equivalent equal to the amount of energy contained in a gallon of gasoline to be the most helpful.

This is becuse that is one of the major fuels that I hope we will replace with another source that does not produce greenhouse gas emissions and can be produced in this country so we do not have the balance of payment problems and the funds to terrorist problems that we have with imported oil.

Curently the cost data that I have indicates that wind energy will produce elecricity at a cost equal to approximately two dollars ( $2.00) for an amount of electricity that has an energy content equal to one gallon of gasoline.

Industrial scale solar photovoltaic will produce electricity at a cost equivalent equal to ten dollars ( $10.00) for a unit of energy equal to one gallon of gasoline.

Small scale solar photovoltaic of the size that you have on your roof will produce electricity at a cost equivalent of fifty dollars ($50.00) for an amount of electricity with an energy content equal to one gallon of gasoline.

I do not have any cost data for geothermal. If you have cost data for geothermal, I would be very interested.

Currently as I see it, only electricity produced by windpower has a cost of production low enough to make it economically competitive with gasoline at this time.

In my opinion, the cost of electricity produced by a solar photovoltaic system is too high to be competitive with the cost of gasoline at this time.

the cost of electricity produced by wind does appear to me to be very competitive with the cost of gasoline.

Answer 2

Sure, oil companies are already investing in R&D to research future energy sources and alternative energies. There is a lot of development into these, but it's not really financially going to be a good business move to try to bring such things to the forefront right now. Most would be too expensive and oil is extremely cheap (yeah, yeah, prices are rising and whatnot). A lot of it is going to need a lot more investment and a lot more "working out the kinks" to get products that are going to be profitable. Also, the whole infrastructure for everything to be supplied with oil is all here right now, the demand is there, and they can continue to turn profits with oil without worry. Oil companies will have futures in alternative energies as well...

Answer 3

They say if you build a better mousetrap, the world will beat a path to your door.

Well, at least they used to before they got AGMPE (Anthropogenic Global Mouse Population Explosion) under control. Bravo, IPRC!!

The point is, nothing is stopping the widespread use of alternative energies or technological efficiencies more than the lack of demand. I'd love to see an enormous reduction of SUVs and trucks - it'd make it a lot safer for those of us who ride motorcycles or drive smaller cars. People are more likely to change away from the giant gas guzzlers because of the enormous added cost per mile than the unrecognizable effect on the environment.

If the oil companies had any real choice, they'd be lowering prices to keep those guzzlers "practical". If prices continue to climb, the demand for the inefficient behemoths will go down, and people will end up buying less gas. In other words, they lose money. I'm sorry, I can't buy into this conspiracy that that the oil companies are behind this suppression of alternative fuels or technological efficiencies.

Besides, the oil companies' service stations would be the easiest to convert to alternative fuel distribution like hydrogen - they are already doing it with ethanol, E-85, biodiesel, and LNG.

Answer 4

You might want to have a look at my previous answer.

Basically there's a lot more oil reserves than some people like to admit. If we continue consuming oil at the present rate we'll be okay for 100 or so years. There's lots of proven reserves that we're ignoring for the time being because it's quicker, cheaper and easier to extract oil from reserves that are currently being tapped.

I would guess than when reserves really are running low that will be when the big oil companies pay serious attention to developing alternatives.

The other possibility is that the public demand alternatives and make it financially viable for big oil to start developing alternative energy sources.

Answer 5

"milk as much revenue as possible from oil"
Of course they do that is what they are in business for. (which I as a green do not condone).

What I find hard to grasp is the fact that the U.S.A has a leader who has somewhat more than a casual interest in the oil business.
Such a vested interest - which is both environmentally and politically hyper sensitive would disqualify him from office in the UK without question.
Therefore I believe the answer lies in the hands of you the Environmentalists in the US - to educate the American voter and field and support their own candidates to the fullest extent so that a seed change is brought about.
Ask yourselves - what policies would be implemented if the USA were to inaugurate a "Green President".
This is where the beginning starts for you in a major way - you are a democratic nation, let the world see that your country and it's grassroots population have really identified where the true stumbling block lies.

Answer 6

M-B and other manufacturers were developing alternative fuelled vehicles 30 years ago during the 70's Oil Embargo. Their funding came directly from the Saudis.

Since the Saudis are the majority shareholders of the entire US (~12%), I would guess they have determined it is not in their best interest to have their biggest customer develop the technology before them.

Geothermal is out, aquathermal will soon be in.

Answer 7

Most of alternative fuel programs, all over the world now, are government-sponsored or government-mandated. With various summit happening, which are held everywhere and every now and then, a number of countries are made conscious of preserving our environment and the delicate ecological balance to prevent further disasters from wreaking havoc in our lives.

Sure the oil companies will want to cash-in on their efforts to discover feasible alternatives they can put in place for our benefit. Most of these companies spend millions, if not billions, to research on efficient fuels to generate energy ; that we will not be too dependent on fossil fuels which are mostly from the oil-rich countries. This has, in fact, caused the uncontrollable imbalance in wealth distribution on a global scale and it has to stop eventually to bring back peace and harmony in the world.

There are now many business ventures developing biofuels ( ethanol, biodiesel, etc), hydroelectric, hydrogen-fed engines, solar-cells, wind-powered engines, etc.

Surf the internet to find some of these projects already being implemented as we speak.

Answer 8

Most of the oil companies are like us, tied to OPEC for the price of oil. The companies that produce in the US is only a fraction of the oil we need. Off the coast of California and Florida is plenty of oil and gas, but the environmentalists keep tight reign on drilling. The oil companies spend lots of money doing exploration and development and even with record high oil prices, their cost of doing business goes up too.

Example: Transocean has a drilling platform that, two years ago, would charge $188,000.00 per day to drill wells for companies. NOW, that rate is $750,000.00 because the price of oil is so high.

Government wont tell you that almost 75% of the cost of gas is taxes and cost of meeting clean air act emissons. There is no silver bullet, and America, for defense of the country, requires oil and its associated products. If the oil companies ever drill off the coasts and in Alaska, we would have many more years of oil available and every barrel we pump from the ground, is one less we have to import from the Middle East.

Any other source of energy is very expensive and the average person would not be able to afford it. Look at the price of Hybred cars, very expensive for what you get out of them.

Answer 9

I guess its more that the Governments do not encourage these oil companies to invest in renewable energy development. If you read the articles on the pages of this site http://www.ozenergy.net you will see that although there is companies willing to invest in renewable energy development they get little if any support from the government. The major oil companies do have interest in Renewable Energies but until it is profitable for them to do so they will only tinker with the ideas.

Answer 10

They can't pretend there isn't wind they way they pretend that oil is "scarce" and jack up the price 40 cents a gallon over a weekend. It is all manipulation and politics. The Bush's have their money in oil--what incentive is there at the top to create any other energy plan?

Answer 11

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