Matthew Simmons on the Price of Oil

All quiet at the gas pump: author Matthew Simmons on the coming oil shock.

Category:

Education

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• Business
• TVO
• TVOntario
• Canada
• matthew
• simmons
• oil
• price
• shock

[endofsuburbia]

Simmons: "We need to learn how to travel less."

Paikin: (awkward pause) "That's, uh...no one wants to do that, people love to travel, people love to get out, they love to get around, they like the democracy of being able to go wherever they want, whenever they want."

Wonderful moment!

[sdavis3398]

Nat gas is great and the recent surge in production is welcome. I actually drive a car that uses it. But that doesn't mean that its enough to replace oil. It simply cannot.

We need a very aggressive energy strategy and we need it right now. 'Drill baby drill' is NOT a strategy.

[christo930]

@prod1gy3000 You point out some of the many reasons I don't support the tar sands, my only point of contention was that is was not a net energy loser.

[prod1gy3000]

@christo930

That's an optimistic ratio. And no one knows for sure. The talk of nuclear power to refine it is just talk. And that eroei doesn't take into account the use of water. And the fracI'm not debating the fact that there's plenty of it. The increased production of tar sands yields optimistic (IMO overly optimistic) numbers. But the ramped up production is being done, more than anything, to hedge the decline of Canada's own conventional oil wells.

[christo930]

@prod1gy3000 I am not a fan of the tarsands project, but you are wrong, it has on average, a 7 to 1 ratio eroei. The end product is a very heavy oil which is then upgraded with NG to create a synthetic light sweet crude. As to using NG to separate the sand from the bitumen, they are considering using nuclear as source of heat rather than NG.

[donteatthefishsticks]

@christo930 I agree, and the end of cheap energy it will cause a tremendous amount of pain in the short term because we have built our cities and our countries around it.

[christo930]

What we really need to ask is how much money should a product that was made 110 million years ago cost and who should get the money. I believe in capitalism, but I think our petroleum resources belong to the people. The people who pump the petroleum should get some money, but most of the profits should go to the people. How can you "own" something that was created 110 million years ago?

[prod1gy3000]

Tar sands aren't light crude, they aren't even heavy crude. Extraction is so difficult its actually a mining operation. And the refining of the junk requires billions of gallons of FRESH WATER which is heated by NATURAL GAS to boil it down. There is a gigantic net-energy loss when talking about shale and tar sand. Say you're an animal that just burned 2000 calories in order to chase down another animal that only gave you 1000 calories to eat. Repeat over and over again. The end is obvious

[rstevewarmorycom]

@kermitcintronsucks If the alternative is 9 billion people

on earth, sea rise, drought, famine here in this country,

and the oil running out, then yes, communism, socialism,

fascism, anything that makes people stop breeding would

be an answer.

[kermitcintronsucks]

yeah, communism is the answer.

[mexicano7771000]

@rstevewarmorycom Wtf are you talking about? I just said hemp makes more paper per yield than trees! Your a ignorant prick who can't read apparently. Hah low-rider. What makes you think that? My account name? Seriously. Grow the fuck up man. And do some damn research!

[rstevewarmorycom]

If we all restricted childbirth to one child per couple, then

our numbers would half every generation. THAT'S the

REAL answer to all this that nobody is talking about!!