We have a huge oil supply here in the states, bigger than the middle east has but the tree hugging fanatics in the government wont let anybody drill it
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If only that was the problem...
As i am sure OT will attest too, there are lots of theoretical or known supplies of oil...
our limitations are almost entirely technology to reach it (extreme deep water drilling).. or costs of getting it out of the ground (oil shale)...
These are both very expensive..
Most of the huge oil supply your talking about are oil shale deposits.. which previously when oil was cheap, made oil shale too expensive to even think about using..
Now that oil prices are going up and up, these reverves are becoming a more viable source...
Irony is, in order for these supplies to be viable, prices have to stay high...
So, if we seriously wanted to get these oil supplies tapped out by private business, basically, we would HAVE to subsidise big oil, to make it profitable at lower costs..
There are actually MANY resources in trapped in this way (to expensive to mine)..
Rare Earth Materials are another biggie, and much more likely to become scarce before oil.... China the largest rare earth materials provider in the world, for the last 10-20 years intentionally flooded the market with rare earths, driving the prices down..
Basically, making it impossible for other countries and companies to compete, they recently announced intentions to start decreasing exports of all rare earths, to drive the prices up again... These materials are in all sorts of products we use...
Two other elements that are on the brink of turning the global economy on its head.... Indium and Helium..
Yeah you read that right, Helium..
Indium is scarce, very scarce, and being gobbled up left and right in things like LCD screens, cell phones, etc. and unless new sources are found, scarcity problems are projected at around 2020 given current usage/supply information...
As for helium, it is primarily a by-product of natural gas production... something america tends to be VERY good at, which is why america produces nearly all of the helium in the world currently...
HOWEVER.. projected laws require, and resources allow for all helium to basically be used to the point of extreme scarcity by 2030-2040.. a HUGE problem...
I hate to say it, but oil scarcity is the least of our worries, technology seems to be keeping up for finding new sources currently, as well as alternative fueling systems... IT WILL BE EXPENSIVE, but oil will be around, assuming nothing in the geopolitical landscape changes dramatically..
However, there are LOTS of raw materials, such as various metals, etc. that will be soon causing serious problems... as those prices will impact our production costs much more severly than will oil for instance..
just some food for thought...
. you dont think producers have any control in pricing?
