If oil is a fossil fuel

[jaded]

Oil comes form algae and plankton and is buried in the depths of the ocean's floor.

http://www.livescience.com/3400-chemistry-life-oil.html

[rorymac]

It is, but the methods of extracting it have improved and dropped in cost. Which is why we're starting to do so much of it west of San Antonio, Texas and up in the Dakotas.



It is probably the cleanest, cheapest and safest forms of energy production currently available that can come anywhere close to fulfilling our electricity requirements. France produces 80% of her electricity from nuclear, yet most of our nuclear plants are towards the end of their useful lives. For some reason we're not willing to build new (safer, more efficient) plants or oil refineries for that matter.

I will have a proper converation tomorrow. The powers thta be are scared of nuclear

[Jim Jeffries]

Oil comes form algae and plankton and is buried in the depths of the ocean's floor.

http://www.livescience.com/3400-chemistry-life-oil.html

Okay and those have existed continuously for hundreds of millions of years, correct? So oil would not then be a finite resource?

I will have a proper converation tomorrow. The powers thta be are scared of nuclear

Yeah too much policy in this country is influenced by powerful lobbyists.

[Boxingtech718v2]

(And I'm not certain that it's not.) Then why are they routinely finding oil at depths of between 6 and 7 miles below sea level? And if the US proven reserves of 20 billion barrels is a meaningful quantity, then why was it only 5 billion barrels a hundred years ago and just a tiny fraction of what we can extract from oil shale (over a trillion barrels.)

Half of the electricity in the US is made from coal. Why don't we copy France and replace that with nuclear. Convert all of that coal to gasoline. Convert all semi trucks to natural gas (saving 3 million barrels per day.) And become completely energy independent within the next decade. These high fuel prices are hitting the poor disproportionately in the form of not only energy, but food, clothing, just about everything they buy.

Food for thought:

http://www.pnas.org/content/99/17/10...=&FIRSTINDEX=0

The problem with nuclear these days isn't how clean it is but the fact that the plants are huge targets for terrorism. The fact is researchers have already developed cleaner more efficient ways of using the resources we already have. The reason we aren't using them is because it would affect the bottom line of corporations. No invention is allowed to go to market if it's going to affect the money.

[jaded]

Okay and those have existed continuously for hundreds of millions of years, correct? So oil would not then be a finite resource?

That depends. If your talking about the oil from lands wells which were once covered in ocean water...then yes there is only so much in those wells and oil will not regenerate where there is no algae. Where oil is forming such as ocean floors ...it does so at a pretty slow pace and when it is being consumed at a rate faster than it can be generated...then you run out inevitably.

Alternatively...it can be produced by engineering.
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Algae_fuel

As well there are many alternatives for energy...but as long as there is a supply of oil somewhere to exploit the industry will thrive. The powers that be have always prevented any successful attempt to bring alternative energies to market. GM killed both the electric trolly and electric car (although they now are trying to market the electric car again)...Rockefeller and Standard Oil killed the diesel engine (although it made a resurgence eventually) and literally tried to kill it's inventor Rudolf Diesel. It's an old story and will never change. It's possible that in the next 10-20 years all cars will be electric and the oil industry will dry up. But then you can bet that the oil industry will have a monopoly on the electric industry by then and the price of electricity will make you wish you had a good old gasoline run car.