By Farron Cousins is a senior staff writer for The American Trial Lawyer magazine, and his writings have appeared in publications such as California's Information Press, and Pensacola's Independent Weekly. He has also worked for the Ring of Fire radio program with hosts Robert F. Kennedy, Jr.www.energyboom.com
If researchers at the University of California, Davis (UC – Davis) are correct, the world could run out of oil close to 100 years before alternative fuels are ready to take over.
According to their new report, UC-Davis researchers predict that the current rate at which alternative fuel sources are being developed is not fast enough to keep pace with current oil consumption.
Raw Story provides the following analysis of their findings:
"If the world's oil reserves were the 1.332 trillion barrels they were estimated to be in 2008 and oil consumption was some 85.22 million barrels a day and growing at 1.3 percent a year, oil would be depleted by 2041."
Unfortunately, researchers say that the stock market is leading them to believe that investment in true alternatives to oil is so low that they won’t be able to take over for oil until the middle of the next century. Oil companies continue to dominate the market, leaving little room for alternative energy companies to gain ground.
But these numbers only hold true if the current rates of investment continue, and as reports are showing, investment in alternative fuel sources continues to rise. From 2004 to 2008, investment in clean energy companies quadrupled in the United States, reaching US$155 billion in 2008. That same year, an estimated US$425 billion in total was invested in alternative energy as a whole. Last year, alternative energy investment rose by another 59%, topping $678 billion by the end of 2009.
These numbers are promising, but as long as oil companies continue to dominate the market, oil will remain the chief source of energy until wells across the planet are tapped dry.
Tags: United States, USD, alternative energy, alternative fuels, biofuels, Farron Cousins, investment, Money, oil, Raw Story, renewable energy, renewable fuels, stock market, University of California, California, energy, oil, University of California, Davis
