BF2S Forums What technology are we closest to wean ourselves from Oil?

Pug wrote:

jonsimon wrote:

Just to clarify, it is possible to tax a firm, but a portion of the tax can be passed to the consumer depending on the elasticity of demand for their product. So, in an industry that is relatively inelastic, the whole tax can be passed on to the consumer, but in the case of elastic demand, the supplier must pay the tax.

This is true. 

I do think that if we wanted to "curb" oil use then making it more expensive will encourage new development.  I'm not a big fan of targeting the tax at the product, but more into making better use of what's already collected.  A sort of loose comparison would be like taxing tobacco products - to make it more expensive to smoke.  However the "Sin" tax is paid by the consumer and not by the company.  I'm not sure if oil falls into that category since is bundled with the economy.

I would prefer the consumer pay the tax myself, because if the company pays it, then they'll add their markup on top of it...which would be more expensive for me.

But you're right, people would still pay quite a bit more for oil in both cases.  Oil's still cheap...

If oil was taxed, the tax would be almost completely dumped on the consumer. Not only is demand for oil relatively inelastic, but the industry is corrupt to begin with. Taxing oil would be a balancing act. On one hand you have short-term isolation of the poorer classes and a decrease in disposable income in the middle class, however, on the other hand you have long-term economic growth and renewable portable energy, and on top of all that, you've got corrupt corporations breathing down your neck.

Am I fan of taxing oil for long-term growth? Yes. Am I confident in the government to manage it? No.

Besides, at the pace the monopolies are moving at, oil will be expensive enough to meet the goal without the government's help.

In short, I think we're on the same page here.

Last edited by jonsimon (2006-11-13 19:18:05)

Blehm98 wrote:

i was thinking more along the lines of melting it into glass bricks and dropping those bricks into subduction zones.  100 million years from now we might get slightly radioactive lava shooting out of volcanoes

You need to study geology a bit more, the lava would be no more radioactive than it is now.  Their are two reasons that the earths core is hot, one is that it's left over heat from the creation of the earth, this is the biggest reason it's hot.  The other reason it's still hot is that there is a TON of radioactive material, mostly uranium still in the earths mantle and core.  All this radioactive material gives off a lot of heat.


And I will say again, hydrogen is not feasible as a mass market item at the moment.  One it's expensive as hell to extract, and another problem it has, to keep enough to power your car requires extreme pressures.  Imagine driving around with a tank in your car at 10,000psi.  Get in a wreck and your sitting on a bomb, no flame needed.  Hydrogen also has the nasty tendency to leak, through just about everything.  It's the lightest element in the universe, and also the smallest atomically.  It can actually leak through the walls of what ever material is holding it.  Imagine letting your car sit for a couple months with a full tank, to come out and find it's empty.

Ethonal as a replacement for gasoline just is not feasible.  You would have to pretty much dedicate the entire Midwest to growing corn or other ethonal crops, and like it was stated earlier, they use the entire crop, not just the corn cobs, so nothing is getting recycled back into the soil.  Don't forget the lessons of the dust bowl.


Electric is really the only feasible option as a replacement for gasoline.  It would require more power plants, but it's far easier to keep pollution in check from a few large producers, than several million small producers.  And nuclear really is still a viable option for pollution free power plants.  There are new designs available that are essentially impossible to have a meltdown in.

kr@cker wrote:

Stingray24 wrote:

Must be nice to have money to buy a car that runs on E85.  I can't afford it.  Both my cars are paid for, no rust, and run good - though they're both over 10 years old.  It will be at least 5 years before I could afford to buy a new car and I want to buy a house first.  When the technology is more common and affordable, I'll look into getting it on the car that replaces my current one.     

That's what this is about - affordability. Not big oil blah blah blah

ford's been making them since the 90's, everytime you see one with that leaf thing on the trunk/tailgate that's what that means, they're not that expensive. the problem has been finding gas stations that sell it.


DIRTY CHEVY LOVER!!!!!

Chevy makes em, too, but as you said, good luck finding stations that sell it.  One here where I live, but if you're traveling, you can't guarantee what you'll find.