[quote=spdrun]Wouldn’t we be better off if peak oil HAD hit 20 years ago and we were updating the nation’s electric grid to handle (say) 75% of vehicles being electric, electrifying freight lines, converting all oil heating systems, etc? Also, we’d have more clean, safe, and modern nuclear reactors as well as renewable power right now.
Cheap oil and gas are crutches that keep us from developing cleaner energy technologies.[/quote]
unfortunately even if there was a dramatic reduction in liquid fossil fuels (i.e. gas, diesel and JP4) due to crude extraction constraints,… CO2 levels would have and will continue upward (w/ various chaotic effects on the environment) because coal could be converted into a liquid fossil fuels via the Fischer–Tropsch process
basically we’re rushing in uncharted territory w/ unappreciated risks (by the public in general) where the interaction/feedback of economics/finance are not included in the calculus
