Re gas: From Kunstler, THE LONG EMERGENCY
"To aggravate matters, American natural-gas production is also declining, at five percent a year, despite frenetic new drilling, and with the potential of much steeper declines ahead. Because of the oil crises of the 1970s, the nuclear-plant disasters at Three Mile Island and Chernobyl and the acid-rain problem, the U.S. chose to make gas its first choice for electric-power generation. The result was that just about every power plant built after 1980 has to run on gas. Half the homes in America are heated with gas. To further complicate matters, gas isn't easy to import. Here in North America, it is distributed through a vast pipeline network. Gas imported from overseas would have to be compressed at minus-260 degrees Fahrenheit in pressurized tanker ships and unloaded (re-gasified) at special terminals, of which few exist in America. Moreover, the first attempts to site new terminals have met furious opposition because they are such ripe targets for terrorism."
Paul Phillips
Michael Perelman wrote:
Massimo suggests natural gas. I don't know how nat. gas supplies will hold up under a massive conversion to that fuel. I had not heard until recently about converting nat. gas to diesel. Nat. gas is a valuable feedstock for industrial use. I suspect that it has not been explored for as intensively as oil, so I have no idea when a Hubbert's peak would occur.
I am sure we have an expert here. -- Michael Perelman Economics Department California State University Chico, CA 95929
Tel. 530-898-5321 E-Mail michael at ecst.csuchico.edu
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