Friday, February 24, 2012

Oil Scarcity

As of now, the price for a gallon of gas seems to be at around $4 a gallon.  This is the point where people start to lose it, as we've seen before, back in '08.  But what if you couldn't get gas, at any price?  Supply chains drying up has the potential to be very real, and this is a good read from 3 years ago outlining a scenario that was based on what happened in the southeast U.S. back in the fall of '08.  This is an especially good article, as it could have been written today and I wouldn't have known the difference. 

My only point of contention is that the author assumes that "over an extended period of time", alternatives like solar panels and electric cars will be available and we'll be able to return to some degree of normalcy.  I strongly question this.  Implementing these alternatives, especially on a massive scale, would be very difficult in a crisis like the author is describing.  Some would say it'd be difficult in a relatively stable situation, as our time to transition to a system and infrastructure dependent on a different type of energy is long since past. 

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