There’s Oil in Your EV, But What Does That Matter?
Here’s an interesting article on the petrochemicals that we use to light-weight our vehicles — electric and otherwise.
While there is plenty of interesting information here, I’m not sure what to conclude. As we know, our process of extracting crude, then refining it and burning it is rapidly causing climate chaos and other forms of environmental catastrophe, but that’s hardly the case when the carbon in oil is sequestered in car parts for hundreds of years.
At this point, no one knows what will happen in the oil markets when the demand for gasoline and diesel decline past a certain point. The most logical assumption is that a vicious cycle will ensue, similar to what’s happening with the power utilities. When demand falls as people turn in their gas-burning cars for EVs, suppliers will need to raise prices to maintain profitability, providing more people to make the switch.
Craig,
Thanks in part to the “peak oil” theory, and other factors over the last 5 decades, oil companies have been long prepared for a time when phasing out sales of gasoline, diesel, heavy fuels and kerosene would occur.
For oil companies, such an event would not be a negative. While sales of fuels for energy usage brings high revenues and cash flow, fuel sales remain the least profitable sector of the oil business.
Selling gasoline was originally a convenient method for disposing of an otherwise waste product!
The modern oil industry produces more than 350,000 products. These include lubricants, paint, plastics, even food and medicines.
The Petro-chemical industry is much larger and more profitable than the energy business which has huge logistical and overhead costs.
The oil industry has spent decades preparing to transform out of fuel technologies.
The oil industry has been warning governments about the wanton practice of diverting natural gas for electricity generation, instead of coal fired or nuclear generation.
The oil industry would prefer Natural Gas was reserved for the production of fertilizer and industrial products.
This doesn’t mean oil companies are adverse to the making profits from any petroleum product, nor they responsible for driving demand, but as realistic and pragmatic planners, they can foresee the day when base energy products may no longer be either profitable or in demand.
The question you should be asking, is what will governments do without massive fuel tax revenues ?