Quote:
Originally Posted by cjm_2008
I don't think many people realise just how close we are to total meltdown.
the governments of the US and the UK daren't admit that we've reached peak oil - and the stuff that's still in the ground will cost an absolute fortune to refine. the OPEC countries will keep the last of the good stuff for themselves. a close friend of mine works in the oil surveying industry and gets a lot of inside info... but this isn't isn't a particularly well kept secret.
the fact that this has been coming for a very long time makes governmental incompetence even more annoying! if funding was ploughed into alternatives to fossil fuels, we'd have a viable alternative to use by now. but it's a catch 22 - our government relies on the motorist to prop up the benefit system.
this is a bit deep for an RC forum but it vexes me  |
I can't agree with this on so many levels, and tend to agree with the posters that followed.
The Governments don't have to admit to something that isn't true - there is oil in the ground. The refining capacity is an issue, so even if it was pumped out, there might not be enough capacity to refine it.
This is not Government incompetence, it is our incompetence! We have not done anything to change our behaviour in the near-40 years that this has been known. In 1975, they said there would be no oil by 2000. In 1995, they said there would be no oil by 2010. The fact is we don't know the truth, and anyway, the truth is that truth depends on where you are sitting looking at things at the time.
OPEC countries have no intention of keeping anything to themselves. They don't want high oil prices, because then it means that alternative fuels become more viable, and alternative fields (Alaska, Bearing Sea, deep North Sea, etc.) become viable too. They have striven for years to keep oil prices affordable so we wouldn't go down those roads.
The tax revenues from North Sea oil was spent by the Thatcher Government on income tax cuts for the rich. Now that revenue stream has dried up. Those taxes have to be replaced. The last Tory Government peaked at 42% of GDP taken in tax, and this Government has only just reached the same figure. You can only raise moeny from people who have it - what else would you tax if not motoring? Do you want your basic rateof tax to be 35% (to replace the motoring taxes added by this Government. Get real!! The tax we pay has to go up because the revenue streams from North Sea oil taxes are drying up - get used to it.
The remedy lies with us. Governments are fundamentally incompetent, so how do you think they are going to suddenly become clever and get us out of this? You can't call them stupid and then expect them to solve the problem. The answer lies with us, and the sound ideas the posters above are talking about. Do something - stop bleating like a victim.