The Coming Energy Wars

This aticle is pretty scary, but what we don't need is more reactionary policies, ethanol etc. People can buy a high mileage car or drive less but diesel is what keeps the economy going. Nobody is talking about algae farming. I've heard that we can get up to 20,000 gallons of vegetable oil per acker. If this is true, it has been said that if we used the land mass equal to 10 per cent of New Mexico, it would supply ALL the transportation needs of the United States and algae eats carbon dioxide. The government would have to get involved, doing all it can to make it happen. Complete oil independence

the only problem with methane is that it is also a green house gas producer... but i agree that natural gas is an alternative... in the short term

The era of cheap oil is finally over. The world has squandered a wonderful natural resource that in reality was much more valuble then to just burn it. But that is done and there is nothing we can do about it now. As the article states we are going to experience a very painful process of change.
The solution is going to be achieved by many changes in the way we use energy and transportation. Everybody talks about electric cars, new batteries, hydrogen cells, and ethanol. The whole ethanol boondogle just baffles me. Dosn't our government have any advisors worth their salt. While some of those technologies may be part of the answer, eveybody is missing the obvious. All of those technologies take energy to produced. And a very significant portion of that energy is produced by natural gas.
Methane is one of the most abundant materials in the universe. Right now, more methane is burnt off around the word as a "waste" gas then is consumed. The only limitation right now with natural gas is the delivery infrastructure. More then 80 percent of the gas used in the United States is produced in the U.S. The governments number one priority in energy should be in the development of natural gas resources and infrastucture.

The era of cheap oil is finally over. The world has squandered a wonderful natural resource that in reality was much more valuble then to just burn it. But that is done and there is nothing we can do about it now. As the article states we are going to experience a very painful process of change.
The solution is going to be achieved by many changes in the way we use energy and transportation. Everybody talks about electric cars, new batteries, hydrogen cells, and ethanol. The whole ethanol boondogle just baffles me. Dosn't our government have any advisors worth their salt. While some of those technologies may be part of the answer, eveybody is missing the obvious. All of those technologies take energy to produced. And a very significant portion of that energy is produced by natural gas.
Methane is one of the most abundant materials in the universe. Right now, more methane is burnt off around the word as a "waste" gas then is consumed. The only limitation right now with natural gas is the delivery infrastructure. More then 80 percent of the gas used in the United States is produced in the U.S. The governments number one priority in energy should be in the development of natural gas resources and infrastucture.

But we are drilling for oil in the Rockies... there are very few areas that are off limits for drilling the Mid america area..

I am not a highly educated man in the academic sense , I do however have a good base of common sense. With that being said I think that if we have enough oil in our own backyard why then are we not developing ways to tap OUR resources. We should, at the same time use the savings of cheaper oil from home to invest in new technologies for our childrens future energy needs. Using our resorces would help our needs now and "BUY" us enough time to to recover whatever prevents us from drilling here in the US and send our kids in the right direction for future energy needs. As long as we stay the way we are then politicians and big oil company execs are going to do what they are best at doing. Making Big money on not solving problems but pointing the finger and instilling fear.

China is drilling off the coast of Cuba, we should be drilling in our sacred cows. California could only benefit by going into full production and we need to begin the drilling process in Alaska. For the immediate future we have to forego special fuel requirements for California. As others have reported-that is a stop-gap solution. We need to go green in the long-term. Israel is going full board and we need to copy what we can.
Now, we also need to pressure the oil companies by choosing one and not buying from them for a long period of time. The astronomical profits these kings are making to us serfs deserves retaliation. Other long-term solutions may be requiring us to lose freedoms such as not working more than ten miles from work. I do not these type of stipulations unless all others have been contemplated.

Take a drive through West Texas and look at how many oil wells are Not pumping. WHY!! We are told that they are only allowed to pump so much a day, then they have to shut down. This is one reason we are being ripped off by the oil company's There is plenty of oil on American soil but we don't use it. We just keep buying from OPEC and they laugh all the way to the bank, which they own. We can do a lot to get the price down, but someone in DC needs to get off their duff and move the ball!!
Wayne in San Angelo Texas

I'm a fiscal conservative. I'm hardly a liberal, left-wing environmental wacko. However, let me tell you... we are in seriously deep crap right now. This is just the beginning. We have reached Peak Oil. Over the next months/years, oil prices will continue to rise.

The US economy cannot absorb price spikes like this. At $4/gal, people are starting to feel the pinch. Virtually all discretionary spending has ceased among the middle class. The price is going to continue to rise. $5/gal by labor day, end of the year at the latest. Home heating oil is already $4.50, expect $5.50 or higher by the winter heating season.

Prices of foodstuffs will continue to rise. This coming winter, people are going to go hungry, or freeze to death. Some people will do both.

Complete economic collapse and a prolonged depression is a real possibility. Food shortages are also a real possibility.

Over the past 4 months, I've invested over $20k for items to weather out the coming apocalypse. Stock up now... guns, ammo, food stuffs, barter goods, fuel, heating supplies, survival gear.

Its going to get bad. Real bad.

Apparently most people in the United States dont understand the concept of non renewable resource. As an independent Oil producer here in the states.. it can be assured that there ARE production limits and the Saudis along with most other OPEC members have reached peak production and are actually at the point of declining production. To prevent $200 oil, there will have to be a dramatic change in our current way of life.

Looks like all we can do is to bend and take the big oil dikc right up the azzhole,welcome to the new world order

The petroleum robber barrons are not dumb. They see the hanswriting on the wall. The technological chikens which Nicoli Tesla and Dr. Westinghouse hatched at the start of the 20th century, have come home to roost. New nano tube lithium ion battery technology from companies like Toshiba and others will TOTALLY REVOLUTIONIZE ENERGY SOURCING AND USAGE. High gain pv cells, wind and wave energy and other ambient sources of energy will virtually relegate internal combustion engines to the scrapheap of history which should have happened twenty years ago.

The idiots who are touting hydrogen, ethanol, LNG and other stupidities such as automated, battery switching "service stations" are just ogres making lame attempts to preserve their corner gas station, tanker fleets (both ships and trucks), gallon-based liquid infrastructures. Their worst nightmare is an electric automobile which can do 0-60 in four seconds, go 135mph, get 220 miles from one charge, and run off of ordinary house current augmented by solar cells on the owner's roof. If we can put a man on the moon...bla, bla, bla...we can tell the robber barrons to stuffit in about five years.

Then, petroleum (which someone once said "...is too valuable to burn") will be used for plastics manufacturing and not allowed to poison everything it touches. Massive, sufficiently funded manufacturers of sports cars, family sedansand light trucks will be starting production in the next two years. $200 per barrel oil is just their way of sticking it to us one more time before we discover that the internal combustion engine was just a temporary abberation, and they are run out of town...as they should be.

I like how everything is blamed on oil, but in reality it is the governments (or lack of) that are where oil happens to be found. Venezuela, Middle East, West Africa, these regions have tons of issues, and it isn't caused by oil, but oil wealth may exacerbate it certainly. I have yet to hear of any ethnic cleansing in Alaska, for example.

Why not drop a couple of neutron bombs on Saudi or a few of the Gulf States and then let Halliburton pump out the oil for shipment to the US at $32/barrel? Fewer terrorists and cheap oil for us: a real win/win.

Is Newsweek's story more about facts or selling magazines? Write about it to fuel the fire ??? Sometimes the media does more harm than good.

Without question the American economy, as resilient as it is, is becoming vunerable to lesser countries. This is only the beginning of the transfer and redispostion of our national wealth to to oil rich nations along with China and India where we have already transfered significant domestic production.

We have been totally irresponsible in not maintaining a strong balance sheet for our economy. Just like the over extended consumer, the United States can only handle so much debt. With the rise living standards in the rest of the world an our energy dependence we have put ourselves in a financial mess.

The current administration has no clue how to negotiate with any other country, and these wars are a total drain on our resources. It is going to get alot worse before it gets any better.

The rich will get richer and the poor poorer.

I hope the new admiinistration, whoever it is will realize they are inheriting a real crisis.

Yes, the sky is falling.

Is Newsweek's story more about facts or selling magazines? Write it to fuel the fire ???