Originally posted by lazs2
who says it needs to? how do you know how much we will need? You are going by what we need today. All sorts of alternatives are available like solar and nukes and ethenol and... well..... who knows...
It would take years to recover the oil in the ANWR - even if the go ahead was given to plunder it. As to the other energy alternatives, I'm sure their development will be spurred on by rising oil costs, but it's still going to be years before these enter the mainstream at a level which can replace 13 million barrels of imported oil every year. What I want to know is not what's going to happen in 20 years, but in the more immediate future - say the next 2-5 years to begin with. Are you still going to bury your head in the sand when crude hits $150/bbl, and pretend that there will be a bottomless oil well at the end of the rainbow, somewhere?
Look at the guys who paid mucho bucko's for glorified golf carts in the 70's and ended up junking them when things got better.....
When things got better? What, you mean like 1985 when Reagan dropped the CAFE requirements for vehicles in order to boost the US oil industry? IIRC, Reagan's energy policy was based on what would be "popular".
The oil party is almost over. The hangover is about to kick in...