"The energy limit we are running into is a cost limit ... The Wall Street research firm Sanford Bernstein recently estimated that the non-Opec marginal cost of production rose to $104.50 a barrel in 2012, up more than 13 per cent from $92.30 a barrel in 2011.
US consumers still cannot afford to buy high-priced oil, even if we extract the oil ourselves ... Also, it is doubtful that the supposed carbon-saving benefit is really
there, when all of the follow-on effects are included. Buying wind
turbine parts, solar panels, and goods that use rare earth minerals
(used in many high-tech goods, including electric cars and wind
turbines) helps to stimulate the Chinese economy, adding to their coal
use ... I would argue that we are dealing with a situation that is essentially unfixable ... Thus, the issue we will need to mitigate will be debt defaults, loss
of jobs, and possibly major changes to governments. If we are dealing
with a financial crash, oil prices may in fact be lower, but people will
still be unable to afford the oil because of other issues, such as lack
of jobs or lack of access to money in their bank accounts.
Because neither political party can fix our problem, I expect that
most of our responses will necessarily be individual, personal
responses."
Zum Artikel von Gail Tverberg, erschienen auf Our Finite World (30. Mai 2013) »
Zum Artikel von Gail Tverberg, erschienen auf Our Finite World (30. Mai 2013) »
