From: pgf@srl03.cacs.usl.edu ("Phil G. Fraering")
Newsgroups: sci.space
Subject: Following up on SPS argument...
Date: 15 Aug 92 00:23:09 GMT
Article-I.D.: cs.Bt0140.9E2.1
Distribution: sci
Organization: [via International Space University]
X-Added: Forwarded by Space Digest
Original-Sender: isu@VACATION.VENARI.CS.CMU.EDU

I'm sorry, I've lost the various levels of attribution.

>|> Consider oil, for example, where the reserves in many places are
>|> well into the second, and working on the third level of extraction.
>|> (For oil, level 1 is when it comes out the ground for you.  Level 2
>|> is when you must pump it.  Level 3 is when you have to force water or
>|> mud down, to get any oil up.)

>But, in fact, it is getting cheaper to produce oil, because
>of improved reservoir modeling, horizontal drilling, and so on.
>In any case, the cost of oil is dominated by how much OPEC thinks
>it can charge without stimulating alternatives.  The cost of
>production in the Saudi Arabia is less than $3/barrel.

\So the price of oil depends not just on the ease of getting it, but also
/the market, labor schemes, etc.  Imagine how cheap shuttle launches would
\be if the workers were paid comparably to Arabian oil workers.  And $3.00
/per barrel still doesn't include x-port, refining, pollution (or pollution
\control), etc.  Sure, we'll continue designing and modelling, and finding
/cheaper ways to do it.  But oil is fundamentally limited.  It will become
\permanantly more expensive, possibly in our life-times.

I think you are misinformed. Low pay isn't the difference between
oil production in Saudi Arabia and here. In Saudi Arabia, it still
flows out of the ground, from a couple thousand feet underground.
No pumping needed.

And the Saudis have cash reserves, and would use them to sell the oil
at a loss until we reach the point where so much of our drilling 
equipment is sold overseas (and it's going, fast) that it would take
us years and years to get production back up again in this country
(while at the same time some of the less scrupulous OPEC countries
would be nationalizing oil drilling equipment owned by American 
companies drilling in their country).

American oil producers were required by law during the last oil
crisis to undersell the foreign producers. This helped get rid
of the last oil crisis, and the cash reserves of domestic 
producers.

Most of those domestic producers no longer exist. No drilling is
going on here.

You people obviously don't want local production to be able to
save you from the next oil crisis, since in the last 15 years
you've not only let the local oil industry go to hell in a
handbasket (_during_ a time period where saving it would have
cut the cost of the S & L Bailout by over 50 % , since it was
heavily fueled by collapsing real estate prices in the oil
patch) but have also not built one new power plant.


[Flame^2 mode on]:

What in the name of God Above do you plan to do next time?
Start selling daughters?

[Flame^2 mode off]

\I can see a pretty good argument against SPS, along the lines of "We are
/not yet at the point where SPS would pay high, and, therefore, we'll never
\be able to finance the start-up project".  But I get the feeling that
/this approach is not what I've seen here.  It seems more along the lines
\of "SPS will never be worth it."  Maybe I'm mis-interpreting, but that's
/what I see.

SPS, like all alternative energy research in this country, and this
country's oil industry, and nuclear industry, is dying of neglect
and artificially low energy from a foreign country very much opposed
to our way of life and existance as a free nation. All the blather
about the takeover by "Japan Inc." is just a smokescreen, and also
prob. meant to keep Japan and the US antagonistic towards each other.

And the retard out-of-work car workers, Lee Iaccocca (or however it's
spelled), and a million half-rate politicians and would be half-
rate politicians (Ross Perot) eat it all up.

Just think: how else do you keep the two most technologically adroit
nations on the planet from teaming up and possibly inventing something
else that might make all that goddamn tar Allah gave you to buy the
infidels with totally worthless?

If Japan has all the money, why do we always here about the Japanese
Economic Menace? Perhaps this is something thought up by a real 
economic menace, to distract people?

Phil Fraering pgf@srl0x.cacs.usl.edu where the x is a number from 1-5.
Phone: 318/365-5418
SnailMail: 2408 Blue Haven Dr., New Iberia, La. 70560
"Sweet dreams and fine machines in pieces on the ground" - James Taylor
Neato scorchomatic sci.space quote of the week: "No, Fred's article
was meant to introduce some reality into your thick headed but 
narrow-minded skull. _This_ is a flame." - Nick Szabo


-- 
Phil Fraering pgf@srl0x.cacs.usl.edu where the x is a number from 1-5.
Phone: 318/365-5418
SnailMail: 2408 Blue Haven Dr., New Iberia, La. 70560
"Sweet dreams and fine machines in pieces on the ground" - James Taylor
Neato scorchomatic sci.space quote of the week: "No, Fred's article
was meant to introduce some reality into your thick headed but 
narrow-minded skull. _This_ is a flame." - Nick Szabo
Newsgroups: sci.space