There is always a substitute

by Russ Roberts on May 22, 2008

Economists usually argue that as oil gets more expensive, there is an incentive to discover new technologies and to switch to existing technologies that are only financially viable when oil prices rise. This innovation would fall into the latter class. (HT: Gil Arno)

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Mesa Econoguy

Or, pragmatically,

cos-trust.com

Gil

Not to mention other alternatives - pushbikes, walking, horses & buggies . . .

Marcus

Build you own electric motorcycle:

El Chopper

Garrett Schmitt

Link:

http://www.skysails.info/
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brian

Really, Kook? I feel like I see it all the time. Yesterday, Arnold mentioned the "counterproductive ethanol subsidies" in his post on Cap & Trade. It may not be an entire post dedicated to it, but still...

I agree that nuclear and coal look like good substitutes (look at France--they have the best nuclear power in the world and run the whole country on it), but we need to be careful about the externalities associated with it.

Of course, you hit on a very important issue when you said: "Earth receives several million times the energy we have consumed since the beginning of oil age, on a daily basis." Solar panels would be an incredibly efficient (and clean) method of collecting this energy. I don't have the statistics on hand, but if we converted all the fields currently used for growing corn for ethanol into giant fields of solar panel, I'm sure we would collect more energy than is gained now from US biofuels.

Garrett Schmitt

They're considering reviving the Age of Sail, too. It's a bit less elegant than the old clipper ships, though.

Kook

Energy is a different kind of commodity. Petroleum is nothing but stored solar energy. Earth receives several million times the energy we have consumed since the beginning of oil age, on a daily basis. So our planet is not a closed system. We will find alternatives - liquid fuel will likely to remain a problem for the foreseeable future. We should remove all restrictions on nuclear and coal. Stop subsidising ethanol. I have not seen the cafe post anything criticising the ethanol humbug.