Text 4313, 72 rader
Skriven 2010-02-01 23:57:27 av Michiel van der Vlist (2:280/5555)
     Kommentar till en text av Bob Ackley (1:300/3)
Ärende: Fox stoops even lower
=============================
Hello Bob,

On Sunday January 31 2010 06:01, you wrote to me:

 MvdV>> Where are you going to get oil?

 BA> Texas, Louisiana, Oklahoma, Wyoming and California.  Offshore wells in
 BA> the Gulf of Mexico and off the southern California coast.  Of course
 BA> it will be a LOT more expensive...

Maybe not if you do not just count the cost of drilling and transport, but also
the cost of all the "collateral damage" that comes from getting oil from
countries with unstable and/or  unfriendly regimes....

 BA>>> It occurs to me that reneging on those debts just might be
 BA>>> the best thing that could happen to the US domestic
 BA>>> industrial base.

 MvdV>> How? If you have no oil?

 BA> Coal if nothing else.  I think that it can be converted to oil if
 BA> necessary.

Yes, it can be done. When I was in RSA in the early seventees you could buy
gasohol. A synthetic fuel made from coal. South africa has lots of minerals,
including coal, but no oil.

 BA> The US has one of the largest reserves of coal on the planet -
 BA> sufficient for well over 100 years of use at present consumption

Hmmm...

 BA>  (its primary use is fuel for power plants).

Not for the trains? ;-)

 BA> Converting motor vehicles to run on 85% or even 100% ethanol will
 BA> help. There's a pilot plant up and running south of here that uses
 BA> algae rather than corn to produce ethanol, that sort of thing can be
 BA> scaled up.  There's at least one plant here in Iowa that produces
 BA> diesel from soybeans, and there are a few folks that recycle used
 BA> cooking oil (the overwhelming bulk of which is discarded) for use in
 BA> diesel engines.

Using for transport what could be used for food is tricky business. There is a
shortage of food and diverting resources to transport may substatially raise
the price of food with all sprts of  problems.

 MvdV>> What other than military might do you have to sell to pay
 MvdV>> for the oil?

 BA> Conquer enough of Venezuela to obtain the oil there.  And, I suppose,
 BA> Aruba...

Aruba? You must be joking. Aruba is Dutch territory. If there was any oil, WE
would be drilling there.

 MvdV>> It would indeed probably solve the illegal immigration
 MvdV>> problem. Because nobody will *want* to come to the US any
 MvdV>> more. On the contrary, people from the USA will go to
 MvdV>> Mexico because life is better there.

 BA> A lot of US citizens already have.  Not so much better as cheaper.

That is only of interest for the retired. Lower cost of living is no good if it
goes with a low income.


Cheers, Michiel

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