We normally produce 80-million+ barrels a day, and half the world (the rich half, mostly) is under lockdown.
Do we need 3/4 of the oil we did? 1/2? 1/4?
20-million+, 40-million+ or 60-million+ barrels/day less?
A year or more from now, when we (hopefully) have a vaccine?
How much will our consumption habits have changed by then?
How much renewable power will have been installed?
How many vehicles will be hybrid or electric?
Then look at the underlying math for oil coming out of this era, which is even worse.
How much money would we save on an annual basis if we swapped out fossil fuels for renewables in this instance?
They then take a loan where the payments are substantially below the easily assessed savings.
They save money every month.
The Pentagon/US Federal government has tremendous credit, of course.
But there's a ton of institutions which could do this.
Businesses. State and local governments.
De facto negative cost.
What if the Federal government provided a zero-interest loan with payments that are again *below* the monthly saving accrued, w/payments beginning only once the system is purchased and installed?
In areas where renewables are viable, this would be swift.
But how many major intersections *have* to stay open in a small city during power failures to avoid instant gridlock?
20? 30?
You don't have to change out everything.
Swap out the lights at key intersections, and just keep re-using the grid-dependent lights, elsewhere, replacing them as you can budget it in.
Homeland security demands a considerable budget. Could some of these demands be combined and offset?
Again, a cost of less than zero.
futureimperative.blogspot.com/2008/05/how-ch…
Even without getting into radically improved methods, like cheap superconductive power cells or generating all our natural gas using algae in biodigesters.
You can dump algae into biodigesters & produce all the methane (natural gas) that you need.
Conventional GTL tech converts NG to oil at $25/barrel *without* pricing in de facto free energy or feedstocks.
futureimperative.blogspot.com/2011/07/amazon…
An odd declaration, seemingly out of nowhere.
What do they know that most didn't?
npr.org/sections/money…
Yes, without counting an effectively free feedstock & energy source for the conversion.
The real cap is presumably lower than $25/barrel.
chemlink.com.au/gtl.htm
Raw heat, sand & a bit of recycled copper make pure-silica solar panels; less efficient than rare earth, but literally printable… from *sand.*
#3DPrinting
Or simply cast. The cheap, if less exotic method.
The greatest cost to recycling metal, paper, plastic & glass? Again, raw heat, now virtually free.
Clean, almost free fuel/fertilizer/electricity for world’s poor is the best investment imaginable.
No one owes you a market. Much less a toxic, $3 trillion+/year revenue stream that is killing the planet.
Which brings us back to Russia.
Russia’s economy - her per-capita GDP - fell 40+% from 2013 through 2015 in the wake of the 2014 oil crash.
google.com/search?q=russi…