exploitation of oil.....created crisis

I do agree that the oil supply will come to an end sooner than people think. I think that the increase in oil prices is a way for the companies to maximise profit before this end. On one hand we see prices rise and people complaining of the added expense. Yet....the sale of SUV's and big engined cars still continues.
For years the technology for alternative portable energy sources such has been in existence...yet the development of these technologies have not received substantial funding until recently.
Also, how many of you out there have heard of palm oil cars and ethnol based fuels???
Cars can be run on palm oil, as proven in experiments in Brazil and Malaysia, which is a renewable resource...but the major producers of palm oil (termed rat oil by some US politicians) are in the developing or 3rd world. There is no western interests in this form of fuel as the potential monetary loss is too great. It has been estimated that up to 5 million acres of plantation would be needed to fuel the current world's demands. With the current level of plantation across the world, there would be no problems in meeting this demand.
What about ethanol-gasoline mixtures in 80-90%:10-20% mixtures? Ethanol can be cheaply produced by a variety of means. This fuel mixture has been proven to be 30-40% less polluting than pure gasoline and release less in carbon dioxide, carbon monoxide and sulphur emmisions. And there are cars out there that do run on this mixture (eg: almost 2 million vehicles produced in Brazil since the 1970's)
I think that the oil companies see a future where alternative forms of fuel are going to replace good 'ol gasoline and they want to profit while they can.

yah, I agree. Its supply and demand, and almost everyone needs gasoline, but gas is a limited recource. They probobly will not start to use a new fuel until every last drop of gas is used up.

I work in a mechanical workshop and engine manufacturers we deal with warn that the use of ethanol/methanol blended fuel causes severe degredation of rubber/synthetic parts in fuel systems etc.I don't know how much of that is rubbishing the new fuel to scare potential users off.
We have in Australia a fledgling ethanol industry which has been receiving government grants but has so far not produced a drop for commercial sale.
Liquid petroleum gas has good penetration into the market especially for taxis and couriers,but it will be a long time before ethanol use is common.
The local manufacturers seem to be heading in the petrol/electric hybrid direction instead.

One problem with biofuels is that the amount of land that would be needed to grow enough product would be extremely great. For example, if we look at ethanol which is produced from corn, 1 acre of land would yeild about 328 gallons of ethanol.

(from science.howstuffworks.com...)

So for arguments sake, lets say the average vehicle holds 15 gallons of ethanol. That means that this 1 acre of corn would only fill up about 21 cars. Then the corn needs to be replanted. I don't know how many crops of corn you can get each year, but I think it is just one. So that one acre will only fill up 21 cars once per year.

I think if someone sat down and did the research (or maybe someone already did on some website) the amount of land needed to supply enough fuel would be astronomical!

EDITED: for added clarity

[edit on 7/26/2005 by DCFusion]

Yes the Bush Administration suggests artificial democracy via use of our brave soldiers for control of the world's raw materials at expense of all humanity for the greedy, wealthy, powerful and controlling.(BUsh BUddies)