Posted by MoparNorm on Saturday, November 03, 2007 at 10:46:37 :
In Reply to: We'll be drilling eventually. posted by David Sherman on Saturday, November 03, 2007 at 02:29:52 :
I've read that the US may have as much as 80% of the worlds known coal reserves and could have as much as 60% of the worlds know oil (counting what we already have extracted since the 1800's).
One thing you wrote may be proved to be old school thinking: Geologists are starting to discover that old, dried up and abandoned old fields are once again filling with oil, Either the oil is seeping in from untapped areas, or the process that creates oil in the first place, is an ongoing process that happens faster than we previously assumed.
Scientist no longer think that oil came from the dinosaurs, but from decaying plant matter, and whatever forces are at work, continue to be at work.
The amount of oil in Alaska is estimated to be a 50 to 100 year supply, it's unknown until exploration is allowed. The amount of oil off both coasts and in the gulf is unknown and untapped, but these four sources of $30* a barrel oil would give us plenty of time to develop alternative means to power our vehicles and power plants, if we only had the will to do it.
* approximately what the price of oil would drop to if we brought this oil and new refineries to the market.