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Originally Posted by TSGracchus
USMC, you're right, it's not shale oil, I misread your link. However, it's not cheap-to-extract oil, either, or anything that wasn't already known. The only reason anyone's taking a look at it now is because oil prices have risen to the point that it can now be extracted at a profit. That doesn't do us much good, though, because we're still out of cheap oil.
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I disagree, sure it wasn't cost efficiant to pump in the past do to tech. limmitations. Now it is a different story. there are bisusses that are starting to set up camp and invest capital in order to get to the black stuff.
Will it ever bring oil down to $10 a barrel...no oil will never be that cheap as long as we are using it as fuel.
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Nuclear power -- not to start, no. It may come to that eventually, but it's way down the list of the best ways to produce energy, because of the very high capital cost, long development time, and environmental concerns. It is better than fossil fuels, though, so if we exhaust other means, then we may have to turn to nuclear.
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Why not? High capital cost and long development times is a non issue. there will always be those out there willing to invest the time and money if there is a profit. Environmental concerns is also a non issue which is displayed by the Navy's ability to operate without incident since the first nuke power boat.
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The place to start is with improved efficiency. We currently have an overall energy efficiency of approximately 10%. That means that of every 10 units of energy we produce, 9 are thrown away and only 1 actually used. It would not be that difficult to increase our efficiency rating to 40%, and if we did we would effectively quadruple the value of the energy we produce.
If we did that, we might well be able to supply all our needs without nuclear power. But as I said, if not, then as a last resort nuclear is still better than fossil-fuels.
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I agree in part, Advances in efficiency and a reduction in unneeded oil use (such as power plants) needs to be done at the same time. Nuke power can reduce the demand for oil while technology can find a way to improve the efficiency of other fuel sources.