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BBC have your say on gas price rises: my comment...
Posted: 02 Aug 2008, 16:18
by Rasputin69
So I just had a fleeting glance at the 'have your say' section of the BBC website and felt rather shocked by just how stupid some people are. Decided to post the following comment and am waiting on responses heralding the 'doomsayers not welcome here!'
Here's what I said (roughly):
We are at the peak of glbal fossil fuel production. All further extractions of natural gas and oil are always going to be more expensive and difficult which is going to perpetually increase the prices time and again, thusly effecting everything from food to fuel. We need to de centralise our energy systems, re-localise our food production and dare I say it, come to accept that inexorable monetary growth on a finite planet is impossible and should be regarded as detremental to the quality of ours and our children's lives.
Posted: 02 Aug 2008, 21:44
by Toadstool
Good answer. I looked for your comment through HYS but couldn't find it. Even though prices are going up because of resource depletion, I think that the energy companies are capitalising on the problem, raising prices even higher than they should be to get profits. They know about the problems too, after all.
Posted: 03 Aug 2008, 09:51
by syberberg
Toadstool wrote:Good answer. I looked for your comment through HYS but couldn't find it. Even though prices are going up because of resource depletion, I think that the energy companies are capitalising on the problem, raising prices even higher than they should be to get profits. They know about the problems too, after all.
Shareholder value and making hay while the sun shines.
Posted: 03 Aug 2008, 12:18
by Andy Hunt
syberberg wrote:Toadstool wrote:Good answer. I looked for your comment through HYS but couldn't find it. Even though prices are going up because of resource depletion, I think that the energy companies are capitalising on the problem, raising prices even higher than they should be to get profits. They know about the problems too, after all.
Shareholder value and making hay while the sun shines.
Exactly. We have to remember it's the end of the line for the FF companies.
Posted: 03 Aug 2008, 12:25
by Vortex
Exactly. We have to remember it's the end of the line for the FF companies.
???
We still have 50% or so of the fossil fuels remaining.
Plenty of time to make LOTS of money .... as long as the National Oil Companies don't take away your toys!
Shell etc may fail in due course ... BUT
Putin Oil & Gas and also
Middle East Fossil Fuels Inc will do very nicely for many decades to come.
Posted: 03 Aug 2008, 15:46
by skeptik
Andy Hunt wrote:syberberg wrote:Toadstool wrote:Good answer. I looked for your comment through HYS but couldn't find it. Even though prices are going up because of resource depletion, I think that the energy companies are capitalising on the problem, raising prices even higher than they should be to get profits. They know about the problems too, after all.
Shareholder value and making hay while the sun shines.
Exactly. We have to remember it's the end of the line for the FF companies.
'the end of the line' conjurs buffers and a full stop in my mind. I don't see it like that. More of a long, very profitable decline into irrelevancy. Barring anything catastrophic, we're talking many decades, not years. Exxon could, quite conceivably still be turning a very nice profit margin at the end of this century, but at a tenth of its current size. We are talking PO not the end of oil - the tail out is going to be a long one.
Posted: 03 Aug 2008, 22:15
by Andy Hunt
Fair comments, I suppose I was taking the 'long view' - and definitely NOT trying to excuse profiteering!!
Just thinking about the Western oil majors buying back their shares . . . they are 'in liquidation' in a sense. Even 'unconventional' oil requires a different skill set, it seems.
But yes, I'm sure any company able to extract some kind of fossil fuel or other will be able to command an increasingly hefty premium for doing so, pretty much forever.
Posted: 03 Aug 2008, 23:12
by skeptik
Andy Hunt wrote:
But yes, I'm sure any company able to extract some kind of fossil fuel or other will be able to command an increasingly hefty premium for doing so, pretty much forever.
Even when we've stopped burning hydrocarbons as an energy source (the sooner the better!), they're still going to be in demand as petrochemical feedstock and as lubricants. I don't think the oil industry is going to disappear in a hurry!
Re: BBC have your say on gas price rises: my comment...
Posted: 03 Aug 2008, 23:15
by RGR
Rasputin69 wrote:
We are at the peak of glbal fossil fuel production.
Posted: 03 Aug 2008, 23:16
by RGR
Vortex wrote:
???
We still have 50% or so of the fossil fuels remaining.
Re: BBC have your say on gas price rises: my comment...
Posted: 03 Aug 2008, 23:24
by Eternal Sunshine
Rasputin69 wrote:and am waiting on responses heralding the 'doomsayers not welcome here!'
What kind of a response did you get?