Peak Oil is being debated across the planet and globe and has been for at least several years and probably longer. In spite of arguments against it, it seems all too probable global oil production has peaked and will start to noticeably decline within a decade. Most of the easily accessible oil has certainly already occured and most existing wells are near or past the point of having production increases. Calls by some to open up environmentally sensitive areas to drilling is not likely to occur not should it. The risks are far too great and the destruction to these treasures are not worth it. Policymakers, politicians, corporations, and citizens simply need to realize it is time to make an intense effort and investment into new mainstream fuels for transportation as well as the need to turn to other products for the byproduct consumer goods which oil and petroleum goods have increasingly supplied in the last half century and more. Some of the more promising alternatives for those consumer goods are from hemp and corn. Transportation alternatives for a fuel source to replace oil is a challenge but not insurmountable. Already promising findings exist with electricity, new battery technology, hydrogen, and even natural gas. The coming two to three decades will be a vital transition era from the energy of the nineteenth and twentieth centuries to the those of the twenty-first century. The transition will not be easy and require increased expenses for consumers which may be too much for many to bear. Add in the vitally critical component of climate change and it makes the problems all the more challenging.-
http://www.washingtonpost.com/wp-dyn/content/article/2008/07/28/AR2008072802905.html?hpid=artslot
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