Originally Posted by
Cosmoline
You can't get something from nothing. Oil was the planet's battery, formed over billions of years. Our demands on the battery are fast outstripping supply. Alternative energy sources require a great deal more effort and energy to obtain, and come at a trickle compared with gasoline. Folks (like GW) who imagine some magic new juice replacing cheap oil and gas are going to be sorely disappointed. There will of course be alternatives, but they will be expensive and hard to get.
Well said. I'll add that those who imagine a miracle "alternative" fuel also don't realize how large and important a role oil and its derivatives play in our lives.
To quote Jim Kunstler, "We are not going to run Wal-Mart, Walt Disney World, and the interstate highway system on hydrogen, coal synfuels, tar sand or oil shale distillates, bio-diesel, ethanol, recycled french-fry oil, solar electricity, wind power, or nuclear fission. The stark truth of the situation is that we are simply going to have to make other arrangements."