The site is maintained by Energy Division s Center for Transportation Analysis, led by David Greene. We are not going to one day just run out of oil. That s not how it is, Greene says. It is true that at current rates of consumption the world s resources of conventional oil would be used up in 50 years. But much of the oil in wells is left in the ground, and technologies for retrieving more of that oil are improving.
Natural gas is a promising transportation fuel.
You can use shale oil and coal tar to make transportation fuel, but they come with their own environmental problems and are more expensive. Before we run out of oil, prices will rise and other energy sources will be substituted. The question is whether we want that transition to be disruptive to our economy and damaging to the environment or clean and economical. If we want the latter, we need to be developing the technology today. However, Greene, whose office d cor includes leftover 50th birthday party favors, says talk of our having a 50-year supply of oil reserves is pretty shortsighted.