Fuel prices may be at a 5 year low right now, but it’s only a matter of time before the oil barons get greedy again. I was thinking about that this very morning, when the news came on the radio about strikes at some oil refineries in Scotland, and I thought, “here we go again”. This is exactly the excuse the oil industry was looking for to get prices up again, with oil workers on strike it creates the illusion that oil is now in short supply. The way the whole oil industry regulates its own pricing, reminds me of the old salesman’s trick of ‘We’ve only got 50 left and we’re not entirely sure if we can get anymore? so we want top dollar for these!’ It still amazes me that the general public think that the oil industry actually knows how much oil there is left in the world? Scientist’s don’t even know what’s at the bottom of the deep sea yet, never mind what’s below the sea bed. With the sea covering two-thirds of this blob we live on, i’m fairly well convinced they’re just taking wild stabs in the dark with guestimates. When I think back to 20 years ago, scientists then (commissioned and funded by oil barons) were predicting that we would run out of oil in the next 20-25 years, they’re still singing the same tune today with estimates of 20-25 years. They just beef up the price of oil by creating the illusion of scarcity, it would’nt surprise me if they had paid someone to instigate the damn strike themselves! I also think that Gordon Brown won’t be too happy about the strike, as he’s working hard to keep prices down, how else will the economy recover? Oh yeh, if we all just ‘get up to our eyeballs in debt’ and use our credit card’s ‘like it’s free’, the economy will recover just fine. I almost soiled myself yesterday, when a newsreader on ITV (uk news channel) announced that the government may be about to announce that we’re ‘officially in a recession’. I think the banks collapsing around us and billions being lost on the stock market were a big clue!
Posts tagged Price Of Oil
Like oil and algae
2008
Written by admin
With the price of oil on its see-saw journey up and down the charts and the British motorist stung into rueful self-censorship on unnecessary journeys, something has to give.
Oil was riding high at 0 a barrel not so long ago, but now it’s half that. Will we see the difference on the forecourts? Well, there has already been some change, and perhaps once the savings trickle down through the refining process there will be more. But I’m guessing the price you or I pay at the pumps will be somewhat more than half of what we were paying in those heady days in the height of summer.
And it’s a good thing if people think carefully about using their cars when petrol is so expensive, concluding they will scrub off any superfluous driving around, even if this is driven by their pockets, rather than any ecological concerns.
But surely there must be a better way.
When there is no genuine alternative to oil in keeping the world spinning everyone is a loser – our pockets and the planet. It is all well and good making appropriate sounds about soybean or corn biofuels, but they are a charming diversion, rather than the definitive answer to the world’s energy problems.
But help could be at hand. Today sees the launch of the Algae Biofuels Challenge by the Carbon Trust with the intention of commercialising algae-based biofuel as an alternative to traditional fossil-based oil by 2020.
This is an initiative which could see the Carbon Trust giving away up to £6 million in funding in the initial stages.
Instead of the huge areas of arable land which would have to be given over for growing biofuel crops, algae-based fuel would not compete with food for all-important growing space.
And the Carbon Trust has big plans for it, suggesting that by 2030 they could annually replace around 12% of jet fuel consumption or 6% of road transport diesel, leading to an annual carbon saving of more than 160 million tonnes of CO2.
For those us caught between the Scylla and Charybdis of our green conscience on the one hand, and our indolent unwillingness to actually walk anywhere on the other, guilt-free petrol sounds like the perfect answer to having your cake and eating it.
IMAGE by Nieve44/La Luz
