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The United States Is Now the Largest Global Crude Oil Producer

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61–70 of 259 posts

Re: The United States Is Now the Largest Global Crude Oil Producer

#61

Earlier quoted context omitted.

Oil is not going away anytime soon. While there will be significantly more electric vehicles on the road in twenty years and gas and diesel vehicles will be much more efficient. There will still be millions and millions of vehicles burning gasoline and diesel. Plus that doesn't even factor in all the uses of oil outside of transportation and energy, for instance pharmaceuticals, plastics, nylon, polyester, asphalt, f…

How much more room for improvement is there in gas and diesel?

consider the expansion of plug in hybrids, similar to the Volt, Clarity, Prius, and Kona, all extend the viability of the petrol engine. In many cases it moves into the roll of a range extender because its weight combined with fuel is drastically less than what battery technology can accomplish; an example is the Model 3 which has nearly 1100 lbs of batteries for 310 miles.

engines directly? variable valve timing will be common place and variable compression has debuted. more forced air systems and better injection tuning all present themselves. there is even ongoing work on two strokes and some of them are delivering better performance and emissions than four strokes.

Re: The United States Is Now the Largest Global Crude Oil Producer

#62
post #41

Earlier quoted context omitted.

Rashid bin Saeed Al Maktoum: "My grandfather rode a camel, my father rode a camel, I drive a Mercedes, my son drives a Land Rover, his son will drive a Land Rover, but his son will ride a camel" https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Rashid_bin_Saeed_Al_Maktoum#De...

Keep in mind a decent camel starts at $55k and a thoroughbred goes for $10m to $30m

It’s much easier to get access to the materials for camel production, though.

Re: The United States Is Now the Largest Global Crude Oil Producer

#63

Good on them. But what a sorry state to be in, when global warming and sea level rise related problems already are a reality in Miami or - of all places - Norfolk's naval base.

10 cm are already a problem? did I miss some news / tides?

Check out the increase in tidal flooding on the US east coast: https://www.nytimes.com/interactive/2016/09/04/science/globa...

Re: The United States Is Now the Largest Global Crude Oil Producer

#64
There is not much here about whether or not the US can sustain this position long term but in the short term this development puts in an advantageous position geopolitically. NATO is very reliant on Russian oil and if the US is a top producer we can export more to Europe, although Russia will most likely remain the preferred exporter.

Also, this allows us to have a more aggressive stance with Saudi Arabia, especially when it comes to their disastrous human rights record in Yemen. Although the issue with that is that the current administration has shown no interest in SA's human rights record and defense contractors would lobby strongly against any sort of stirring of the relationship.

Re: The United States Is Now the Largest Global Crude Oil Producer

#65
This is a political disaster. Fracked crude is only profitable because the externalised costs of the catastrophic environmental damage are born by others.

This is another direct wealth transfer from the general population i.e. 99% to the 1%.

If instead of allowing fracking we invested massively in renewables we'd have more jobs, a path to much-cheaper-than oil energy, and we wouldn't be leaving toxic residue all over our water tables to make our children and grandchildren sick with any number of diseases.

As usual capitalism is taking the quick easy cash with large externalities because they aren't affected by them.

Re: The United States Is Now the Largest Global Crude Oil Producer

#66
post #2

Looking at China and India, I forget how big the US actually is compared to an average country. Same goes for our abundant natural resources which we don’t really talk about much (in the media at least).

I'm curious what you mean relative to China. China is almost the same size as the US (10 million square kilometers) as the US, though of course normal distorted projections make the US look much larger.

With over a billion people! That’s the point the US is huge, massive urban areas and modern wealth yet it’s old fashioned commodity wealth is still massive.

Easy to forget the sheer scale.

Re: The United States Is Now the Largest Global Crude Oil Producer

#67
post #54
post #37

Earlier quoted context omitted.

How much range do people need before there's no longer range anxiety? People used to complain about 200 miles not being enough then Tesla released 300 miles then they said that's not enough either.

Personally, about 1800 miles. I'm sure there are others who might need more. I take a yearly drive to utah (~1400 miles each way, straight through only stopping for fuel). I'll have an ICE vehicle until range is sufficient to get me there plus a few hundred miles for exploring/getting back to a city where I can charge.

Why not rent a gas car for the one day a year you need that distance?

That's sort of where I'm ending up. Not w/ electric vehicles, but with bicycling. I bike commute year-round & use it for most of my travel, but for the rare case when I need to use my car for longer trips it's nice to have. However, paying the cost of upkeep & monthly insurance for something I use so infrequently is starting to make less sense.

Re: The United States Is Now the Largest Global Crude Oil Producer

#68

Earlier quoted context omitted.

Oil is not going away anytime soon. While there will be significantly more electric vehicles on the road in twenty years and gas and diesel vehicles will be much more efficient. There will still be millions and millions of vehicles burning gasoline and diesel. Plus that doesn't even factor in all the uses of oil outside of transportation and energy, for instance pharmaceuticals, plastics, nylon, polyester, asphalt, f…

How much more room for improvement is there in gas and diesel?

He didn't say it was due to more efficient motors. Just compare the average MPG of the cars on US roads, running on subsidized gasoline, vs. those on European roads, running on heavily taxed gasoline.

Re: The United States Is Now the Largest Global Crude Oil Producer

#69

Earlier quoted context omitted.

How much more room for improvement is there in gas and diesel?

consider the expansion of plug in hybrids, similar to the Volt, Clarity, Prius, and Kona, all extend the viability of the petrol engine. In many cases it moves into the roll of a range extender because its weight combined with fuel is drastically less than what battery technology can accomplish; an example is the Model 3 which has nearly 1100 lbs of batteries for 310 miles. engines directly? variable valve timing wil…

That's simplified as an engine + exhaust system + gas tank + gas + transmission weighs hundreds of pounds more than an electric cars engine alone. Electric cars do weigh more, but the difference is not that massive.

You can actually drive further using gasoline to turn a gas turbine > electricity > electric cars battery than using that same fuel to operate a normal IC car. But, nobody does that because wind/solar/coal/nuclear are all far cheaper than gas.

Re: The United States Is Now the Largest Global Crude Oil Producer

#70
post #24

Earlier quoted context omitted.

Most people I talk with in my peer group wouldn't even think of getting an all-electric car (except maybe as a secondary vehicle), due to range anxiety. However, what I think will happen over the next 20 years (with battery improvement, etc) is more and more hybrids and plugin hybrids. For example, see Ford's plans starting in 2020. But the plugin hybrids won't be sold as "fuel efficient", but sold as "more powerful"…

Why would gas pumps not be gradually replaced with charging points?

Because they're incredibly slow and you'd need a giant facility to accommodate what even a tiny 4 pump gas station currently does? I live in Seattle and there are tons of Teslas, but the nearest Supercharger is way out in the suburbs at a mall so you can do something with all your waiting time.
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