Quote:
Originally Posted by Iron Lung Jimmy
I think we were supposed to be out of oil by now  |
Only according to people who didn't understand what 'recoverable reserves' are (they are mostly dependant on the price of oil, not the availability of it). Or who believed that no new technology or innovation would make it possible to extract oil that was previously inaccessible (which is different proceeding as though technology will not magically save the day). The world will never run out of oil. But it can become so expensive to extract that its no longer viable as a fuel. And that cost doesn't have to be money, it could very well be energy. A barrel of oil has nearly 6 million BTUs of energy. If getting that barrel of oil out of the ground and refined into gasoline and diesel takes 6.1 million BTUs of energy (from any combination of sources), you're better off not extracting the oil in the first place.
But back to what you quoted. The issue in the oil crisis wasn't that the wells were drying up. Iran and other OPEC nations simply reduced their production. The reasons differed from 73 to 79, but the end result was pretty much the same either way. CAFE was intended to at least reduce America's dependence on these foreign sources of oil, specifically for gasoline (which middle east crude is particularly good for, in contrast to say Canadian tar sands which are better suited for industrial uses). It wasn't the only thing done, because complex problems require complex solutions. But that is the background, to the best of my knowledge.