Hi XIII

With regards to:

"One of the lattest big misinformation campaigns has been against ethanol and renewable energies, those behind are simply those who do not want to loose their business, big oil… "

 Renewable liquid energy resources, at this time and into the foreseeable future, have limited potential to achieve the magnitude of volume necessary  to replace the projected declines in petroleum liquids.  Ethanol has been hyped as a replacement for gasoline but until there is a proven process to synthesis it from cellulosic  raw material instead of corn, it is a resource drain rather than a legitimate energy source.  When refined from corn, some studies have shown that the energy going into making it is more than the energy you get out of it.  Ethanol made from sugar cane is a little better, but not much.

When you look at alternative energy sources you have to look at the return on energy invested.  Most of the alternative energy resources mentioned in the press have roei indexes not much better than 3 and some are barely over 1.  Compare that to some of the Saudi oilfields with roei’s over 100.

There have recently been some reports of Big Oil getting out of the renewable energy game.  I hypothesis that this may be to focus on another energy source that is very seldom mentioned in the press but has the potential to become a major source of energy in the future.  That resource in geothermal mining.  MIT has just completed a study commissioned by the US Department of Energy evaluating this resource.  The complete report “The Future of Geothemal Energy” can be found at :

  http://geothermal.inel.gov/publications/future_of_geothermal_energy.pdf

Big oil has the infrastructure and the drilling technical expertise to exploit this potential resource.

There have also been some major break throughs in thin film solar cells that may make solar a viable energy source at a competitive cost basis.  If the potential of geothermal and solar is realized and there are some slight improvements in battery technology, electrical energy will probably replace a significant portion of oil related products for both electrical generation and automobile transportation.  For a “dream” all electric vehicle that is now going into production see the Tesla Roadster at http://www.TESLAMOTORS.COM/

For a practical family transportation vehicle (all electric propulsion but hybrid) see General Motors Chevy Volt going into production in a couple of years.