The Lounge"...Where the parking lot of the Igloo meets the concourse of the Nassau County Coliseum and the bathroom line of the Skyreach..." - Wickedbsfan
I recently did a report on the oil sands for school (NOT A GOOD ONE!) and it was generally assumed that the price would be consistent for the next 5 years.
I didn't put a timeframe on it. I'm sure that's a possibility (though I hope you checked out your sources to make sure you weren't using oil company PR BS). Still, the end will come.
I didn't put a timeframe on it. I'm sure that's a possibility (though I hope you checked out your sources to make sure you weren't using oil company PR BS). Still, the end will come.
The problem with sources on this information are that it's going to be biased one way or another.
So obviously I used the source that best benefited my report. I used a report done by the accounting firm Ernst & Young. Who I would hold to certain high level of standards because of how I view the accounting profession.
I agree with you though, the end will come one day. So why not use the time we have to best benefit the nation? Pretending that oil and gas isn't helping our nation's economy would be silly. It could give time to the manufacturing (and other sectors) to innovate and become viable again.
No, the point is that the oilsands are so inefficient (there's no actual oil in there; they have to extract the sand and then "process" it into oil, and for every amount of sand they process they only get a small fraction of it in oil out) that they require the price of the commodity to stay above a certain level. If it falls below that level, they're no longer viable, and the fields will shut down. Temporarily at first, but if/when the price stays low enough long enough, permanently, and Alberta goes back to being one of the "have-not" provinces.
Its bitumen, which is a form of petroleum. There are lots of different way to process it with technologies improving and getting cheaper and more efficient all the time. SAGD for instance, melts the bitumen with steam injected into the ground and then separates the oil from the water.
When was Alberta a "have-not" province anyway? 40/50 years ago?
No, the point is that the oilsands are so inefficient (there's no actual oil in there; they have to extract the sand and then "process" it into oil, and for every amount of sand they process they only get a small fraction of it in oil out) that they require the price of the commodity to stay above a certain level. If it falls below that level, they're no longer viable, and the fields will shut down. Temporarily at first, but if/when the price stays low enough long enough, permanently, and Alberta goes back to being one of the "have-not" provinces.
Of all the theories on what might happen when humanity stops using fossil fuels, I've never once heard that it might become too cheap again for the oil sands to be profitable. You're right in that it's incredibly expensive to extract there and that limited its development before but it's unheard of to think the price will return to that level and even crazier to think it'd stay there for an extended period of time. You're also completely disregarding the possibility that they will make their operations more efficient, another reason why it's such a boom now when the oil was known to be there for decades before.
Of all the theories on what might happen when humanity stops using fossil fuels, I've never once heard that it might become too cheap again for the oil sands to be profitable. You're right in that it's incredibly expensive to extract there and that limited its development before but it's unheard of to think the price will return to that level and even crazier to think it'd stay there for an extended period of time. You're also completely disregarding the possibility that they will make their operations more efficient, another reason why it's such a boom now when the oil was known to be there for decades before.
One would assume that as things like Hybrid & Electric vehicles become cheaper and more viable it would eventually lessen the demand for Fossil Fuels.
When the demand goes down so will the price. If a profit can't be made extracting the expensive oilsands oil then they'll stop extracting it.
No, the point is that the oilsands are so inefficient (there's no actual oil in there; they have to extract the sand and then "process" it into oil, and for every amount of sand they process they only get a small fraction of it in oil out) that they require the price of the commodity to stay above a certain level. If it falls below that level, they're no longer viable, and the fields will shut down. Temporarily at first, but if/when the price stays low enough long enough, permanently, and Alberta goes back to being one of the "have-not" provinces.
Lol, I work in the oil/gas industry and there is plenty of oil being produced in Alberta outside of the oilsands for much cheaper.
I'd imagine most of the world hasn't chosen a side in the 'would you rather live in Saskatchewan or Arizona' debate.
Was going to post this, but you beat me to it.
No one gives a damn about Arizona or Saskatchewan. They are both equally irrelevant in the minds of the rest of the world, just like pretty much every other part of the world.
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You can take my wings, but I'm still gonna fly
One would assume that as things like Hybrid & Electric vehicles become cheaper and more viable it would eventually lessen the demand for Fossil Fuels.
When the demand goes down so will the price. If a profit can't be made extracting the expensive oilsands oil then they'll stop extracting it.
The only reason hybrid and electric cars are around at all is because they're heavily subsidized by governments. Without that they're not remotely competitive and won't be for a long time. Even then, there's still far more to fossil fuel use than just cars - if the price drops for a sustained period of time due to the full adoption of electric cars, we'd likely see other uses for fossil fuels become more economical and pick up until the oil really starts to run low.
As Canadians we also have a skewed perception of how viable electric cars are - I'm not sure about Ontario but electricity is dirt cheap here in Manitoba. It's not only more expensive pretty much everywhere else, it's also not from clean renewable sources. Even if competent electric cars were widely available at prices comparable to regular cars, there may not be enough incentive either economically or environmentally for many people to accelerate the transition.
Nobody else thinks its cool that people can trick themselves into "Smelling Smoke?". The brain is a very cool thing. If only i had a Science thread to talk about this...oh wait! I DO have a Science thread to go talk about this. See ya later. Have fun with your bickering, i'm off to go discuss important things with intellectuals!
Regina. 
