Get Ready For Life Without Oil | Alternative Energy | Forums

We need hemp and hydrogen

Saudi Arabia isn't the nicest ally to have. The desert kingdom just handed out a sentence of 1,000 lashes to a blogger for running a website devoted to freedom of speech. Not exactly the kind of regime we want to have in our circle of friends, especially once you figure in their financial support for Islamic State and other radical Islamist groups.

But you go to war with the allies you have, not the allies you wish you had. And in the global oil price war against Russia and Iran, Saudi Arabia is the U.S.’s indispensable ally. By continuing to pump the black stuff at an undiminished rate, the Saudis are repeating the trick they pulled in the mid-'80s, allowing oil prices to plunge in response to Western supply increases, thus depriving their rival (Iran) and ours (Russia) of revenue -- and, in the process, temporarily tanking the U.S. shale industry.

It would be nice if we could escape this cycle -- to say nothing of limiting global carbon emissions. But oil remains the indispensable commodity, without which industrial civilization will be thrown back to the coal age -- or worse. So we’re stuck with the Saudis, stuck with Russia and Iran, and stuck with our dependence on a single nonrenewable pollution-generating resource.

But what if we had a real-life Iron Man, to build us magical “arc reactors” and solve our energy needs forever. Well, we do have the man who inspired the movie version of Tony Stark --Tesla founder Elon Musk.

http://www.bloomberg.....ithout-oil