After petroleum fades, what will the next economy run on?

Question

What if the huge factor of energy is reduced or negated by something like fusion? Won't that create even more efficiency? Isn't that a good thing?

Answer 1

Red Tape. Red tape will be cast into large steam boilers.

But seriously. Fusion has not been proven to work. "They have yet to see a watt of power from fusion delivered to any grid anywhere." Nuclear power is the only viable option to power the world. No nuclear reactors have been given a permit since the three mile island disaster. We should be starting construction on a new nuclear plant every month. We can't grow enough crops to be turned into fuel.

Answer 2

Politically I consider myself a libertarian, or a constitutionalist. However, I believe too many people debate the energy policy of this country based on whether or not we have enough oil resources to carry on the way we have been and at the prices we have had. The truth is that it matters not what happens in the oil industry, we need to find and utilize an energy source, or multiple sources, that do not include anything that will add more harmful chemicals to our environment. I am a very conservative person, not a liberal by any standard, conservative in the way I live and in the way the things I do effect those around me. Why do we assume the economy has to "run" on energy? Do we really want the next form(s) of energy to even be something that can be held by a few huge corporations? Eventually the economy of the world will run on food, like it truly has since time began. This "industrial period" we currently live in has been but a short time in the history of man. I believe that as efficiences improve , which is innevitable, we will at some point use our solid resources so well that nothing will be wasted. At this point there will be no more money to be made in "making" things, instead we will become what we were, people that "do" something. Perhaps there won't be the opportunities there once were to become wealthy overnight, or perhaps those opportunities will just be different. The one thing that is for certain is that just as now, there will always be those few greedy ones and then the rest of us just trying to live our lives and find happiness of a sort. What we need to remember is that historically those greedy few are quite willing to destroy your happiness and mine to gain even one more "dollar" of wealth or power. So, we must be careful what, if anything, we are willing to give up for that so called security.

Answer 3

Yup, absolutely. Unlike what these doomsayers think, we will not destroy our economy thru abandoning fossil fuel. The electric car was actually designed 30 years ago, and we have the capabilities to produce energy through green means now.
Like it or not, change is here. These deniers can hang on to bows and arrows if they like, but the scientists and financial whizzes are looking at "guns" such as biofuel, solar/wind, even nuclear power and ways to make it safer. These people apparently were not awake when the Industrial Revolution was taught in class: Change Creates Prosperity. As long as we apply ourselves to this challange and stop denying it, we will better our planet, create new companies and jobs, and change the way we live. These deniers are really just scared to death, and they respond like a deer in the headlights, pretending a mac truck isn't speeding at them. The majority of the world is looking for answers. The company BP (Beyond Petroleum) has committed 8 billion to this question. Energy companies had best follow suit, or go the way of the dinosaur!

Answer 4

Fusion souinds grea, but I must admit my ignorance to the schematics of it. I believe the next energy souce will be GARBAGE. The world has plenty of it, and we are sure to create more. With nanotechnology we can seperate and manipulate elements, with that in mind, and Argoone National Labs building a isotope machine. We can supply the world with whatever materials we would need for energy, like nitrogen or hydogen or anything.

Answer 5

Nuclear energy is good. President Bush has tried hard to cut the red tape created by the previous adminstration.

Nuclear Hydrogen Initiative Overview
http://www.hydrogen.energy.gov/pdfs/review04/3_nhi_overview_henderson.pdf

Advancing the Nuclear Hydrogen Initiative
http://www.inl.gov/docs/factsheets/producing_hydrogen_with_nuclear_energy.pdf

About oil, it isn't predicted to fade away for centuries. "Peak Oil" was proven to be myth.

Most people don't know that Canada has more oil than Saudi Arabia.

Also, there is enough oil to last America for decades just off the West Coast and off the shores of the Gulf Of Mexico. The problem is there are laws that block drilling in those areas.

There is also nearly a trillion barrels of oil locked in shale rock in the Rockies. China, Brazil, and other countries have been successful in extracting oil from shale. Dutch researchers from Shell Oil are currently working in America on a new process for shale oil extraction.

Answer 6

Well, if not for global warming, we could've looked forward to another hundred year run off some renewable crop such as corn. But when the full effects of that hit, you'll be lucky to get a blade of grass to grow outside a special climatically controlled sphere.

Answer 7

Call me a nut (not a peanut, though, since that's you), but I believe fusion is already viable, including cold fusion. The oil companies are just trying to squeeze every last dollar out of petroleum.

Answer 8

Given current rates of oil consumption and growth, we have fifty years of proven oil reserves. By that time, we'll probably have much more efficiency and probably we'll have better developed technology for energy sources like solar power, nuclear power, soybeans, whatever.
Anyway, in fifty years I'll either be dead or in my eighties, so I likely won't be driving as much.

Answer 9

Sure.

We have enough oil in the US to provide energy for hundreds of years.......
IF-----Democrats would allow us to drill.

In 200 years, we should start thinking about alternative energy.

Democrats will also not allow us to have Nuclear Power or Refineries.

Democrats know what they are doing. They always have a reason for their actions.

Support Democrats, or suffer.

Answer 10

alternative energy sources, of course