OT two+ buck a gallon gas AAARRRGGGGHHH

[Ray G. Miller]

On Mar 17, 2004, at 2:14 PM, Frank Leahy wrote:

>>We moved to England from San Francisco last September and bought a 
>>Ford Galaxy, 7 seat mini-van, diesel, that gets 45 miles to the 
>>gallon, and can cruise all day at 110 mph (I've driven 100+mph from 
>>Cornwall to London several times -- try that in California without 
>>spending all day looking in your rear view mirror).  (And why is it 
>>that the same car gets under 20 miles per gallon in the States?)
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Frank, don't you really mean 45 km/gal? And 100 km/hr? Barreling down 
the A4 at 100 miles per hour really boggles the mind! ;-)

Richard and others: I've bitten my tongue long enough; I can't stay out 
of this "energy" debate even tho it doesn't really belong here.

First, thanks for posting the google search results. Most people have 
little idea what the energy game is all about.

I've been in the oil business for 40+ years. My background includes 
nuclear and geophysics. I've served as president of two medium-sized and 
one fairly large (2500+ employees) energy company. Currently, we are not 
exploring for new oil and gas in this country (too long a story to tell 
here) but are "reviving" old or abandoned pools. As you may or may not 
know, 70% of the oil of ALL the oil field discovered has been left in 
the ground. And that is a conservative estimate. That's three times the 
amount of oil we've consumed is still there. But that is another long saga.

One of the primary reasons these so-called "alternative energy" aren't 
in use is because they are very expensive. Solar panels cost more 
environmentally, as well as monetarily, than digging and producing and 
refining oil. Oil and gas are cheap. When I started out in the oil 
business, crude oil was selling for $3.00 per barrel (42 US Gal.) and we 
were lucky to get 25 cents per thousand cubic feet (MCF) of natural gas. 
That was in the early '60s. Today's price of crude is less than $38 per 
barrel and natural gas is about $5 per thousand. Discounted to the 
present money value, that's about $3.50 per barrel and 50 cents per MCF 
and the US public is screaming for lower prices.... go figure.

I agree, the price of crude oil is way too low. About $70 per barrel 
MIGHT get the SUVs parked. That would get gasoline prices up to the 
$5/gal the Brits and Europeans are paying now. It would also slow any 
growth in the world economy to a dead crawl at best.

The Alternatives Are Coming
The Hydrogen Economy is THE answer! Not so fast, Tonto. The "hydrogen" 
alternative doesn't begin to meet the minimum energy balance 
(get-more-out-than-you-put-in). The binding energy of water is three 
times greater than the "hydrogen energy" it would release.And stripping 
hydrogen from natural gas is throwing away at least 2/3rds of the energy 
of the methane molecule (aside from the fact that vehicles running on 
methane/propane is about as environmentally clean as it gets.)

What else is there? Well, there's solar, biomass, water (dams), coal, 
wind, nuclear and fusion. Without all the tax gimmicks, which one holds 
the best promise to deliver cheap, reliable, safe energy to the moving 
consumer? Hint: it ain't corn which costs more to produce 
(environmentally and monetarily) than crude oil. It's that old, nasty 
energy balance thing again. Diluting gasoline with ethanol actually 
lowers the efficiency of the gasoline. But don't tell that to the 
Congresscritters from the corn belt.... Shhhhs.

Solar to hydrogen:
http://www.usc.edu/CSSF/History/2002/Projects/J0710.pdf
presents an interesting case of solar to hydrogen. Not likely but 
interesting.

I've been looking for decades for alternatives. I'm open to new ideas. 
Someone once mentioned unobtainium.... ;-)


Ray

P.S. I, too, walk to work every day.

Ray G. Miller
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