OT oil shortage was: Celebration (Not intended to be offensive, possible humor)

From: joe <rigdonj_at_intellistar.net>
Date: Mon Jul 9 08:25:26 2001

      Sorry for continuing this thread but I couldn't let this one pass!

At 03:00 PM 7/8/01 -0400, Chad wrote:

>Joe,
>
>I originally meant to send this a few days ago. I wrote it off-line and
>it has been sitting in my out-box, but here goes :-)
>
>I don't think "crisis" is quite accurate. The oil industry has had
>several refineries burn, and who knows, maybe some of them are old or
>undersize.

    I think you need to do your home work. The oil companies have been
shutting down refineries. They've shutdown almost 30% of the refineries in
this country in the last ten years.


> They may need to build more. or rebuild burned ones. The
>electricity problems comes from growing and growing use, without
>appropriate updates on the power system.

     That's very true but the problems with the electrical power industry
are due to a shortage of generating stations (particularly in California)
and has NOTHING to do with oil refinery capacity or any supposed oil shortage.


>Drilling in new locations isn't supposed to increase refinery capacity.
>It is part of a longer range solution.

    Horseshit! They're closing down wells everyday and have been for
years! Take a drive through Lousianna sometime! I was in Alaska a couple
of years ago and toured nearly the full length of the Alaskan pipeline.
Even it's only running at about 40% of it's capacity. The only reason that
they want to drill in ANWAR and GOM is because the oil companies want a
CHEAPER source of oil so they can increase their already record profits!
That's the same reason that the US continues to import oil from the middle
east. Even with their price increases it's still cheaper to buy their oil
than it is to produce our own.

    If the government is serious about a "long range solutions" then they
should mandate that ALL cars achive 30mpg by say 2006, then raise it to
35mpg by 2011, then 40 mpg by 2016, etc until we achive the best practicle
mileage. 50 mpg is very possible, a number of standard production cars
have already achived it. That's only one step, there are hundreds if not
thousands of other practicle solutions. Another solution would be to
mandate solar hot water heaters in all homes. I have one in my home and
it's been my only source of hot water for over 15 years and I've never run
out of hot water.


> Drilling in new locations is
>something a lot of countries are doing.

    Sure, because they all want to be independent of foreign sources and
because it's a huge source of revenue.


> Drilling in the North Sea is
>being done now, or maybe deeper water than normal..... I don't recall.
>I have seen a show on Discovery or TLC about the building of the
>platform. It was a huge engineering feat the way they built it.

   Yes, the engineering is impressive but again that has nothing to do with
the "nessesicity" for drilling in ANWAR or GOM.


>Personally, I'd like to see a move away from oil, not totally, but maybe
>a diversification. I'd like to see cars powered by grain alcohol,
>although I admit, I don't really know any specifics.

     I know a good bit about alcohol powered vehicles, I've been
experimenting with them since the late 60s. Alcohol is not nearly as
powerfull, cost effective or as efficient as gasoline. Alcohol also has
major incompatibilities with the components of automotive fuel systems. A
number of companies have tried selling gasoline with alcohol added
but AFIK they're all dropped it due to the cost, performance and other
problems.


> Something might
>have to be done about people drinking the contents of ones gas tank :-)


      That would cure the population problem! Nearly all of the alcohol
sold in this country, including that used in fuel, is either nearly pure
methyl alcohol or has methyl alcohol, formaldahyde or other poisons added
to it to "de-nature" it. "De-natured" is a polite way of saying that it's
poisonous! The government requires that expressly so that people won't be
able to drink it. Let's burn gasoline in our cars (at least till something
better comes along) and save the grain alcohol for drinking!

      Joe
Received on Mon Jul 09 2001 - 08:25:26 BST