Yeah, but how much did the average person make back then? 
Don’t forget to factor in Inflation - if you include that, gasoline is actually very cheap these days.
Also, the Wilkopedia link claims that the thermal depolymerization process allows one to get more energy out of making the oil than is need to produce it - for every 100 barrels of oil produced, you need to burn 15 barrels to make, leaving you with 85 barrels left over to for other purposes. Also, the test plant is using turkery offal for the carbon source, meaning burning oil produced from this plant doesn’t add any net carbon into the atmosphere.
Still, it almost sounds too good to be true, so I want to wait a bit and see how it turns out.
…thast barely -remebered scandal of the 1920’s. It concerned a trategic oil reserve in Wyoming, set aside for the US Navy. Anyway, I heard that the US Governemnt still has oil reserves (areas where oil drilling/pumping is prohinited). A guy I once new told me that the USA could double its oil production OVERNIGHT! if these reserves were opened to production.
Anyway, we (in the USA) have LOTS of depleted oilfields-if we used advanced recovery technologies (like acid/steam injection, nuclear explosives) we could increase domestic production significantly. The fact is: Middle Easren oil is just too cheap-it costs Saudi Arabia less then $0.20 a barrel to produce oil…and until the world price rises, there is absolutely NO sense in persuing high-priced oil.
Well…, there are already hydrogen powered VW and BMW vehicles. Germany is undertaking plans to install a hydrogen transport system to support the new vehicles. More hydrogen powered cars are in production and research by both those companies, and Mazda is to put hydrogen-rotaries in their new generation of Rx-8 sports cars.
Personally, I’m of the opinion that Americans spend way too little on gasoline as compared to any other nation. I’ve always thought it would be a good idea to begin increasing taxes on gasoline, while trying to support alternative energy research. With hydrogen powered and hybrid vehicles hitting the mainstream, I think it’s feasible. I’m not particularly concerned about the possibility of running out of gasoline, but the side-effects of it are becoming more pronounced, and it seems the biggest perpetrator are consumer vehicles.
Posted by ralph124c:
Are you talking about the Alaska National Wildlife Refuge? That’s the only place I’ve heard of in the United States where there is a significant amount of oil under the ground but drilling it is illegal. The Bush administration tried to open it to drilling, and Congress shot it down; but I don’t recall the administration claiming that drilling in ANWAR would double our domestic output of oil. Cite?
Don’t forget biodiesel. Most, if not all, tractor-trailers run on diesel, and I’d venture to say that most ground shipping runs on diesel. It would be easy, not to mention environmentally sound, to convert this fleet to biodiesel, as well as a significant number of cars. As it becomes more economically viable, more diesel cars would be used, driving both the cost and the fossil fuel dependance down further.
Another renewable source of energy with vast potential is (don’t laugh) hempseed. There is reportedly ten times as much energy yield in an acre of hemp bred for seed as there is in an acre of corn for methanol production. It also comes in an easy-to-use form. Pellet stoves are already available and in use that could easily be converted to this fuel.
As with thermal depolymerization, recycling of biomass will contribute resources, and of course reduce waste at the same time. Of course, conservation will be an important part of any solution to our energy problems…we waste incredible amounts of energy & other resources in the US.