| ▲ | jillesvangurp 3 hours ago |
| One consequence of the transition to renewable energy and electrified transport, is that oil imports will start to decline. And the dollar is of course the currency of choice for that. The US economy and other countries that export fossil fuels will feel the impact over the next decade or so. The energy transition might go a lot quicker than people seem to expect. Currently about 20% of global car sales is electric. In some countries it's well over 50%. China of course being one of them. And they are making rapid progress with electrifying freight as well. This is already impacting their fossil fuel imports. They still import a lot. One effect that I think people underestimate is that while it will take a long time for all the ICE vehicles to disappear, the new ones do most of the driving. So, new EVs have a relatively large impact on fuel consumption and imports pretty early on. E.g. Chinese diesel imports apparently already are being impacted by their rapid deployment of tens of thousands of electrical trucks. Soon hundreds of thousands. That's already a third of the market in China and will probably head for well over 50% in a few short years. The EU is not that far behind. The ripple effect that's going to have on oil trading, refinery capacity, etc. is going to be substantial. Of course current geopolitics is speeding things up massively. LNG and oil scarcity is causing a lot of issues globally and countries are accelerating moves to reduce their dependence on that. |
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| ▲ | thelastgallon 3 hours ago | parent | next [-] |
| Demand destruction will collapse profits and accelerate the oil/dollar downfall. Saudi Arabia can profitably pump oil probably under $10/barrel. If demand drops, thats where oil should be. China with [EVs|Solar|BESS|Turbines] will replace all of the fossil fuel countries (US, middle-east, Russia). This is probably the biggest transition in the history of mankind. This is energy production, storage and all the appliances that use electricity. After this, its incredibly hard for any other country to compete. |
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| ▲ | samrus 2 hours ago | parent | next [-] | | > China with [EVs|Solar|BESS|Turbines] will replace all of the fossil fuel countries (US, middle-east, Russia) I dont agree with china having the same position as the FF exporters. Simply because with renewables, you export the means to produce energy rather than the energy itself. So in terms of monetary value, china will be selling alot less panels than the FF countries sell oil. And other countries can also manufactor renewables tech themselves, while with oil they couldnt materialize it under their feet Basically i think the paradigm of the energy trade being cornered for politcal controll wont exost with renewables. Renewables are decentralized and so not controllable | | |
| ▲ | rzerowan 2 hours ago | parent [-] | | ACtually no , even with the export of primary goods that go into the manufactue of renewables like solar the price differential still favours China. A recent example is the boom of local solar manufacture in India whil relies on solar modules imported from china.The assembled panes are still 2X the price of a similar fullly aseembled one from China.
And not due too subsidies of labour - a lot of the value chain is highly automated and densely colocated diffrerent from other industrail setups where complimentary industries are geographically separeted which increase final costt by adding unreliable transport and delays into the mix.
So at scale and with high volume will continue to be the dominated by China , wear and tear even with renewables will continue to favour the first mover as tech evolves over time.The solar modules/batteries of 10-15 years ago are not the same effficency as those of today. | | |
| ▲ | yorwba an hour ago | parent [-] | | China indeed makes very cheap solar panels, inverters and batteries, but that just means that they take up a smaller share of the cost of a complete installation, which also includes labor and additional hardware for the mounting system. So solar panels doubling in price won't double the cost of new solar capacity, let alone the cost of electricity from existing installations. That reduces the political leverage a lot compared to oil, where a supply disruption affects prices on fairly short time scales. |
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| ▲ | toomuchtodo 3 hours ago | parent | prev | next [-] | | Saudi Arabia needs oil prices at ~$86.60/barrel to balance their budget, per Bloomberg. It is not the marginal cost to pump a barrel, but what a country needs to support their sticky spending from previously assured energy exports. Governments will collapse long before we approach low single digit oil prices on the global market. The World Is Awash With Oil and Prices Are Poised to Keep Falling - https://www.bloomberg.com/graphics/2025-global-oil-supply-pr... | https://archive.today/hkhtI - December 18th, 2025 (Control -F "Crude Price Forecasts Are Below Levels Needed for Budgets") > China with [EVs|Solar|BESS|Turbines] will replace all of the fossil fuel countries (US, middle-east, Russia). This is probably the biggest transition in the history of mankind. This is energy production, storage and all the appliances that use electricity. After this, its incredibly hard for any other country to compete. Strongly agree. China is replacing petrostate economic demand with demand for their clean tech products, which keeps their deflationary economy afloat, provides them soft power, and will transition the yuan to a global reserve currency. Today countries by dollars to by petroleum ("petrodollar"); tomorrow, countries will want yuan to buy "manufacturing fiat," to trade with the world's factory (China is 1/3rd of global manufacturing capacity, as of this comment). Stocks of assets vs flows of energy. | | |
| ▲ | thelastgallon 2 hours ago | parent | next [-] | | Indeed. Electricity will be the only abstraction layer of energy, all end uses (transportation, cooking, heating, cooling, appliances) will switch to electricity. Electricity can be generated from any source (dirty + clean), but the abstraction layer of electricity will allow the grid to continuously increase the clean fuels. It helps that the cleanest is also the cheapest. Solar panels are cheap as dirt. In 1975, a solar PV module cost $128.27 per watt. In 2026 it costs $0.1 - $0.2 per watt, a thousand times cheaper. In 1975, only satellites could afford solar. Today, its the cheapest source of energy. China will be an electrostate. Are there any other electrostates? Maybe Bhutan, Costa Rica, but they are too small. | | |
| ▲ | toomuchtodo 2 hours ago | parent [-] | | > China will be an electrostate. Are there any other electrostates? Maybe Bhutan, Costa Rica, but they are too small. China for sure. The rest will come as they replace the last of coal and fossil gas with anything low carbon, solar, wind hydro, as well as the necessary battery storage and transmission for energy orchestration and agility. Like Norway is already at 100% of EV sales and other countries are still close to 0%, we're simply observing a global energy transition horse race. Exciting time to be on the timeline imho. Ember Energy: Global Electricity Review 2026: Solar surge halts fossil generation rise as clean power meets all demand growth and renewables overtake coal - https://ember-energy.org/latest-insights/global-electricity-... - April 21st, 2026 The ‘profound’ global impact of China’s rise as an electrostate - https://www.ft.com/content/013e8a27-ade5-48ed-8f2e-ffbf70cc5... | https://archive.today/J0bew - October 10th, 2025 |
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| ▲ | wbl 2 hours ago | parent | prev | next [-] | | If you buy yuan just to turn around and spend them you aren't holding the yuan. | |
| ▲ | _DeadFred_ 2 hours ago | parent | prev [-] | | But China is already in decline before reaching this ascendancy. I think new models will result in new structures, not just a switch from the US to China. | | |
| ▲ | toomuchtodo 2 hours ago | parent [-] | | China's population is declining while building and operating the largest fleet of manufacturing robotics in the world. The US population is not declining as quickly while having limited capability to do anything. A recent example is $500M of taxpayer dollars spent on a munition manufacturing facility that did not build a single munition. The US has coasted just about as far as it can go on it's exorbitant privilege while failing to invest in the future. TLDR China builds, and will continue to build long into the future, the US prospers (for now) from financialization but cannot build, nor has the will to attempt to. China Makes AI-powered Robots Core of National Strategy: China´s 15th Five-Year Plan (2026-2030) marks pivot to innovation - https://ifr.org/ifr-press-releases/news/china-makes-ai-power... > Frankfurt, May 05, 2026 — China has launched its 15th Five-Year Plan by placing robotics at the heart of its modern industrial system. The aim is to pivot its AI research towards physical applications with robots as main drivers for economic growth. This is a next step in the country´s strong automation development: China´s manufacturing industry already has an operational stock of around 2 million units — approximately 4.5 times more than the global no. 2, Japan. 54% of annual industrial robots installed worldwide were deployed in China. This is according to the World Robotics 2025 Report, presented by the International Federation of Robotics (IFR). General Dynamics Failed to Build Artillery Shells for the Army - https://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=49281711 - August 2026 Wikipedia: Exorbitant privilege - https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Exorbitant_privilege |
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| ▲ | soco 2 hours ago | parent | prev | next [-] | | But, how much of the extracted oil becomes ICE fuel? Because other transports cannot be converted that quick (air, sea...) and most if not all petrochemical industries will still need to exist even if all cars drive electric. So how big will be the effect of crashing fuel demand? | | |
| ▲ | Symbiote 2 hours ago | parent [-] | | 25% of oil production is for cars 16% for trucks and buses 7% for aviation 4% for shipping 2% for rail and domestic waterways 25% + a chunk of the 16% (city buses, shorter distance or smaller trucks, etc) is a good amount. https://www.statista.com/statistics/307194/top-oil-consuming... | | |
| ▲ | soco 2 hours ago | parent [-] | | You mean a good amount of the 46% consumed by road transports. So my napkin says, when we all switch to driving EV the oil demand will drop by 15%. It's something for sure, but not overly dramatic (to me). | | |
| ▲ | toomuchtodo a few seconds ago | parent | next [-] | | Every 24 months of EV production in China destroys 1 million barrels a day of global oil demand. | |
| ▲ | realityking 11 minutes ago | parent | prev [-] | | Trucks and buses are starting to be electrified as well. Some boating as well but that‘s a rounding error. |
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| ▲ | 4gotunameagain 2 hours ago | parent | prev | next [-] | | If the price were to drop all the way down to $10/barrel, demand would skyrocket. The future where oil demand is so low and and will remain low even after low prices is much further ahead I'm afraid. | |
| ▲ | rsanek 2 hours ago | parent | prev [-] | | China is much more of a "fossil fuel country" than the US. They've got a ways to go to even catch up. https://ourworldindata.org/grapher/energy-mix?tab=stacked-di... | | |
| ▲ | pnut 13 minutes ago | parent | next [-] | | I think you're not telling the full story with that chart.
https://ourworldindata.org/grapher/energy-mix?tab=line&stack... | |
| ▲ | dopa42365 22 minutes ago | parent | prev | next [-] | | 87.5% vs 83.1% Renewables have to go up by 10x (or more, with electrification of all the things) everywhere pretty much in the coming decades. | |
| ▲ | scottLobster 17 minutes ago | parent | prev [-] | | Uh, that chart shows they source a greater percentage of their power from renewables than we do with the exception of nuclear and biofuels. Their wind, solar and hydropower bars are all wider, and they're building more nuclear. They just don't have our easy-access shale fields. If it wasn't for fracking our coal percentage would likely be just as high |
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| ▲ | pjc50 3 hours ago | parent | prev | next [-] |
| > In some countries it's well over 50%. China of course being one of them As always with these stats, I like to check whether that includes plug in hybrids, and it does. Those are still mostly dependent on fossil fuels, although they use less. Pure BEV adoption seems to depend on your radius from Norway: https://www.autonergy.co/blog/global-ev-adoption-leaderboard... (France should really be doing better, after all migration away from fossil fuels was a motive behind the Pompidou/Messmer nuclear buildout in the 70s!) |
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| ▲ | thelastgallon 3 hours ago | parent | next [-] | | Thats personal vehicles. But if China is going full speed with electric trucks, that will be the fastest gamechanger. Diesel trucks run 300K miles, under 5mpg, consume a gazillion gallons. Electric truck fuel costs are probably 10%. Its really sad that India is pro fossil fuel, it has an opportunity to follow China's strategy. | | | |
| ▲ | johanvts 2 hours ago | parent | prev | next [-] | | Those numbers are from before Mr Trump decided to do his very best to convince the world to stop using oil. Which happened to coincide beautifully with VW group, Stellantis and Chinese firms having an all out price war on smaller EVs, which have until now been the underserved segment of the market. In Denmark it’s certainly not 36%, its probably closer to 90% of new cars being EVs, it’s simply financial suicide to buy a new ICE car here. | |
| ▲ | jddj 3 hours ago | parent | prev [-] | | Wow. On mobile Firefox I have to use two fingers to scroll that site. | | |
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| ▲ | mekdoonggi 3 hours ago | parent | prev | next [-] |
| I had never considered the demand destruction effect of EVs on fuel like that. It makes sense though, because the biggest users will justify switching to electric faster because the payoff time is quicker. |
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| ▲ | _heimdall 2 hours ago | parent | prev | next [-] |
| I'll be surprised if renewables overtakes oil for energy production anytime soon. I could see nuclear doing that, but I never can get past the challenges of maintenance and replacement costs for solar panels, turbines, and especially for storage. I will be very happy to be proven wrong here over time though. New battery technology could make a big improvement. And I keep hearing that AI will give us answers to all our technical challenges and lead to an age of abundance where we all make a high income, so there's that too. |
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| ▲ | nemomarx 2 hours ago | parent | next [-] | | Are we using that much oil for energy? The leading non renewable power source now is natural gas or similar, which I didn't think interacted much with the oil market. So even without nuclear, if the future is natural gas pipelines for baseload oil would still be mostly a manufacturing and vehicle fuel deal. | |
| ▲ | imtringued 2 hours ago | parent | prev [-] | | Ah yes, nuclear is known for having cheap replacement costs, especially Fukushima was known for being particularly cheap. Solar power is the worst, it gets more expensive every year. Regarding batteries... It's over for sodium based batteries (the ones promising us cheap battery storage) because dry coated Lithium ion batteries are coming onto the market which means sodium batteries are an economic dead end. |
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| ▲ | jmyeet an hour ago | parent | prev | next [-] |
| There's a lot of rosy or false assumptions here. For example, if every road vehicle became an EV tomorrow, global oil demand would drop from 100M barrels per day ("Mbpd") to... ~60M. And that assumes EV replacements for things we don't have EV replacements for yet, like long haul trucking. We also have avgas, for which there's no replacement, and global shipping. But beyond fuel there's a significant range of non-fuel usages (eg industrial, plastics, construction). There's another factor here too and that is that the oil economy props up the weapons economy. Nobody goes to war over a solar panel [1]. That sounds like a good thing (and it is) but you have to realize there are forces who like that oil drives war became war is a huge profit opportunity. [1]: https://www.theenergymix.com/no-one-goes-to-war-over-a-solar... |
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| ▲ | 0xbadcafebee an hour ago | parent | prev | next [-] |
| > One consequence of the transition to renewable energy and electrified transport, is that oil imports will start to decline Unless Jevons Paradox. Cheaper energy might mean more oil use. 1) Never underestimate the world's hunger for energy; renewables and electrification have huge disadvantages (you can't get close to the energy density of gas/diesel). 2) Oil is used for most products. 3) Even if its use declined, that would raise the price without making it less important. |
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| ▲ | chaostheory 2 hours ago | parent | prev | next [-] |
| EVs don’t need renewables. What makes them attractive despite the bad marketing in the West is that they can be powered by anything that can create electricity, like coal; which is something China has a lot of The transition to EVs is key to the national security of many countries that currently do not have energy security like China and even most if not all member countries in the EU. |
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| ▲ | trimethylpurine 3 hours ago | parent | prev | next [-] |
| All those EVs but demand is higher than ever. https://www.statista.com/statistics/271823/global-crude-oil-... |
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| ▲ | csomar 2 hours ago | parent | prev | next [-] |
| https://ember-energy.org/data/china-cleantech-exports-data-e... Meanwhile everyone is being confused with AI-slop. |
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| ▲ | codedokode 3 hours ago | parent | prev | next [-] |
| What's good in electric cars? If a large power plant is destroyed how are you going to charge your electric car to escape? |
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| ▲ | thelastgallon 3 hours ago | parent | next [-] | | There is no need of large powerplants. Thats the legacy grid, only to make Warren Buffet rich. New grid (that needs to be built) will have solar panels, BESS + EVs for storage, either off-grid or a small community grid. The new grid is distributed and indestructible. | |
| ▲ | jmuguy 3 hours ago | parent | prev | next [-] | | I hope its strictly an American fantasy to think you're driving out of anywhere when something like that happens. Buy a bicycle. | | |
| ▲ | skinfaxi 2 hours ago | parent | next [-] | | Following Hurricane Sandy, many were left without power and ultimately even gas was strictly rationed. So it's not out of the ordinary to imagine an event like that happening. https://www.nj.com/news/2012/11/sandy_gas_ration_12_counties... | |
| ▲ | ButlerianJihad 2 hours ago | parent | prev | next [-] | | In Phoenix we all live in the shadow of the Palo Verde nuclear generation plant. And once on the radio I heard some pundits discussing contingencies if PV should glitch out and have a life-threatening disaster. And they matter-of-factly said, "you're gonna be walking." And that would be the truth; in a full-scale evacuation of a city like Phoenix, the freeways are not built to accommodate traffic like that, and yours truly has no car anyway, so I would be packing light and walking in the opposite direction, and/or ignoring the orders, to meet whatever fate awaits. But I bet there would be a lot of bicycle and vehicle theft going on, in such an event. | |
| ▲ | soco 2 hours ago | parent | prev [-] | | I know I have a problem with "suspension of disbelief" but I find it always weird in those dystopian movies where they all drive monster trucks on an apparently endless supply of scavenged fuel and spare parts. But I'm positive exactly this Hollywood spirit is what fuels (pun intended) most of those hyper-optimistic answers. | | |
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| ▲ | thelastgallon 3 hours ago | parent | prev | next [-] | | And your gasoline pump works perfectly fine without power? Or the refineries? | | |
| ▲ | codedokode 2 hours ago | parent | next [-] | | Gasoline is much easier to store (you can keep a reserve in your cellar) and much easier to carry and trade than electricity. | | |
| ▲ | nemomarx 2 hours ago | parent | next [-] | | Do you keep gasoline in your cellar? my understanding is that it goes bad relatively fast, so be careful to keep cycling it yearly at least. | |
| ▲ | oytis 2 hours ago | parent | prev [-] | | African continent is probably the last place in the world where this is relevant, and they are on track to fix it. |
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| ▲ | mschuster91 3 hours ago | parent | prev [-] | | > And your gasoline pump works perfectly fine without power? Most decent emergency / contingency plans will have the fire department, police or whatever local group show up at one or two designated gas stations to provide power, or require these stations to have on-site emergency power. | | |
| ▲ | mirmor23 3 hours ago | parent | next [-] | | > Most decent emergency / contingency plans will have the fire department, police or whatever local group show up at one or two designated gas stations to provide power, or require these stations to have on-site emergency power. this is just nonsense. https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/2025_Iberian_Peninsula_blackou... while traveling i got caught up in this. no restaurants, no credit cards working, no grocery stores, no cell connection, no navigation with phone, no gas station. the goddam list goes on. fortunately this was less than 16 hours. | | |
| ▲ | Al-Khwarizmi an hour ago | parent | next [-] | | As a local, it was actually rather fun. And my kid was amazed. For a traveler it must have sucked, though (and also for some people with special needs, and in places where it's actually common, etc.). | |
| ▲ | codedokode 2 hours ago | parent | prev [-] | | If you used cash as a reasonable person you would not even notice that cards aren't working. | | |
| ▲ | hombre_fatal 2 hours ago | parent | next [-] | | The only place I've been where that might happen is rural mountainous Mexico where the "gas station" is a huachicolero funneling fuel into your car from a plastic water bottle next to a construction paper sign with "GAS" scribbled on it. Everywhere else, gas stations aren't open if there's no power because nothing works, not even the cash register. But I'm starting to see the uni freshman libertarian vibes here having been there once myself. | |
| ▲ | mirmor23 2 hours ago | parent | prev | next [-] | | > If you used cash as a reasonable person you would not even notice that cards aren't working. lol. i see. gas stations were closed since pumps were out. similar story with other facilities. luckily, gas station snack shops accepted cash, so buying some water/snacks was possible. cash is of no use if facilities are not open. now that everything has been spelled out, i'm sure you are able to comprehend ;) | |
| ▲ | soco 2 hours ago | parent | prev [-] | | How many shops will be open without power? No till, no light, no refrigerator... not sure how much will help you having cash, beyond a couple of very basic needs - I can't even tell which, nor can you, it's gonna be an adventure either way. | | |
| ▲ | codedokode an hour ago | parent [-] | | Bread doesn't need a refrigerator and you can sell it directly from a truck. |
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| ▲ | thelastgallon 3 hours ago | parent | prev | next [-] | | If your refinery is taken out, it might take years to rebuild it. | | |
| ▲ | ben_w 2 hours ago | parent | next [-] | | If it was that easy, Ukraine would have already brought Russia to its knees. Because the Russian government is still telling themselves they can win and don't even bother trying to negotiate with Ukraine but instead the USA, this must not be the case. | |
| ▲ | codedokode 2 hours ago | parent | prev [-] | | Not years. |
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| ▲ | vel0city 3 hours ago | parent | prev [-] | | As someone who has actually lived through multiple major catastrophes where fuel couldn't get delivered for days and electricity was out for days, when the pumps stop working there is no gas. Don't assume the gasoline the police and fire department have will be there for you. It's there for the first responders. They don't have infinite supply. Their supply is extra expensive to handle compared to when things were working. You've now got many thousands of families all trying to get to the two or three operating fuel stations...trust me they're not open to the public! When you're out of gas, you're out of gas. Meanwhile, those with solar panels not reliant on grid-tie, they can continue to charge their vehicles. |
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| ▲ | 3 hours ago | parent | prev | next [-] | | [deleted] | |
| ▲ | vrganj 3 hours ago | parent | prev | next [-] | | You can have solar panels and batteries right at home. You can't have an oil rig at home. | |
| ▲ | mschuster91 3 hours ago | parent | prev | next [-] | | > If a large power plant is destroyed how are you going to charge your electric car to escape? Solar panels and home battery storage. This is also going to seriously screw over electrical grid and especially powerplant operators... residential will, at least in suburban and rural areas, not need a grid any more except during prolonged phases of low solar yield. | |
| ▲ | wyre 3 hours ago | parent | prev | next [-] | | What are you afraid of happening? This is such a perverse and anxious fear imo | | |
| ▲ | mschuster91 3 hours ago | parent [-] | | A reasonable scenario might be a cyberattack taking down large portions of the grid for a prolonged time. It's not impossible to achieve something like that, Stuxnet proved the concept of corrupting PLCs driving powerplants ages ago. Alternatively, even outside a cyberwar scenario, bad weather has been shown to take down power grids for entire regions for days, sometimes weeks. | | |
| ▲ | jameshart 2 hours ago | parent | next [-] | | Meanwhile the oil supply system is immune to outside threats https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Colonial_Pipeline_ransomware_a... https://shippingtelegraph.com/shipping-news/adnoc-reports-15... https://news.un.org/en/story/2026/08/1168121 | |
| ▲ | kalleboo 2 hours ago | parent | prev | next [-] | | > bad weather has been shown to take down power grids for entire regions for days, sometimes weeks Where I live, we have typhoons which depending on the direction they arrive in can result in all the gas stations being out of gas for 2+ days. Meanwhile the grid keeps on ticking. | |
| ▲ | vel0city 3 hours ago | parent | prev [-] | | If they've taken down large portions of the grid for a prolonged period of time you're also not going to have much gasoline left. > bad weather has been shown to take down power grids for entire regions for days, sometimes weeks Once again, as someone who actually lived through those scenarios multiple times, when the gas pumps go down you're usually shit outta luck on getting gas. When the grid goes down for days, the gas you have in your gas car + any random fuel tanks you have in your garage is what you have. Don't expect anything else unless you plan to take it at gunpoint. |
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| ▲ | cevn 3 hours ago | parent | prev [-] | | Are u serious? If ur oil refinery is destroyed how are you going to pump oil to your house? | | |
| ▲ | codedokode 3 hours ago | parent [-] | | You can buy it on a black market unlike electricity. | | |
| ▲ | thelastgallon 2 hours ago | parent | next [-] | | Yes, buy crude on the black market and build your own refinery. Or you can run your own DIY fracking rig in your backyard. There must be some yt videos. | |
| ▲ | gspr 2 hours ago | parent | prev [-] | | Are you suggesting we plan our global energy infrastructure based on attributes like "how well it fares in a post-apocalyptic barter economy"? | | |
| ▲ | codedokode 2 hours ago | parent [-] | | Are you thinking that there are no wars and power plants do not get destroyed? If you live in a non-nuclear country the chances are non-zero and it is not smart to depend on large, centralized, easy to destroy power plants. It actually dumb to build those large plants instead of decentralized smaller plants. For example, a president of a certain country threatened to make a "power plant day" in another certain country. |
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| ▲ | DrBazza 2 hours ago | parent | prev [-] |
| I did a lazy ask google, and it thinks less than 3% of crude oil is used for energy. The vast bulk of oil being used: 'transportation (gasoline, diesel, jet fuel), heavy machinery, and non-energy uses like asphalt and plastics rather than power plants'. That is of course, one of the big problems of 'going green' - electricity production is low hanging fruit and understood by the general public. When that's 'solved' (solar, wind, geo, nuclear), how do we solve the other 97%? Oil really isn't going anywhere. It will be a slow tail, perhaps too slow to stop emissions. https://www.iea.org/world/oil |
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| ▲ | Al-Khwarizmi 2 hours ago | parent | next [-] | | Around 50% is used for road transport, though, which is poised to be replaced and was one of the parent poster's main points. | |
| ▲ | chabska 2 hours ago | parent | prev [-] | | We knew how to make synthetic hydrocarbon one hundred years ago. Nazi Germany used the Fischer Tropsch process to make synthetic fuel after the Royal Navy blockaded their oil import. The only reason we're still digging up fossil fuel is because it's cheap. According to some calculation, green hydrocarbon from atmospheric CO2 and electrolytic hydrogen could be commercially viable when fossil petroleum reaches $200/barrel , which is really not that far off. |
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