[TheForge] OT biodiesel now hydrogen

[Justin Fellenz]

A friend of mine was telling methe other day that we have passed the
oil peak, the point at which demand permanently outstrips possible
supply of oil...happened sometime in the 70's, apparently. Same article
by some economist argued that at somewhere around 5 bucks a gallon a
big chunk of the country won't be able to get to work--so there will be
a migration closer into jobs, a depopulation of the countryside,
inflation--basically a big economic nightmare. I've heard 30-50 years
till the oil's gone from a variety of sources, none of them too
reliable; but the important date is much sooner, when the price goes
up.

Now, people are pretty resourceful and I tend not to put too much stock
in these doomsday predictions, but if something like that were to
happen, and the answer was an expensive technology like hydrogen, I
wonder if we won't see some significant changes in the next few years.
Interesting to speculate on the effect of a huge rise in price of
perhaps the most fundamental of products.

Hmmm. Horses? Maybe those Amish folks are on to something. 

Just musing,

Justin
> 
> IMHO, what will happen is that even when gasoline dissappears off of
> the
> face of the earth, hydrogen and other materials will be used to make
> a
> gasoline equivalent.  You can't beat it for power density and ease of
> transport<G>.  Possibly the same could be said of diesel also.
>