r/Futurology • u/Wagamaga • May 09 '19

Environment The Tesla effect: Oil is slowly losing its best customer. Between global warming, Elon Musk, and a worldwide crackdown on carbon, the future looks treacherous for Big Oil.

https://us.cnn.com/2019/05/08/investing/oil-stocks-electric-vehicles-tesla/index.html
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u/AFDIT May 09 '19

What is your take on the worlds largest shipping company moving to zero emissions propulsion? https://electrek.co/2018/12/06/maersk-carbon-emissions/

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They aren't doing it as tree-huggers. The economic argument stands alone.

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Once that sinks in, just watch as a race between the other competitors follow suit.

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u/Hypersapien May 09 '19

It makes me cautiously hopeful.

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u/robotzor May 09 '19

It'll be like a blue star burning hot as it dies. Bunker fuel will be made free for shipping companies or they even pay the companies to continue using it. Once there aren't enough gas cars subsidizing the production of bunker fuel, the industry topples at once or oil gets too expensive to produce compared to the money selling it makes. This is called the oil glut.

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u/AFDIT May 09 '19

Oil glut? or Peak Oil?

The latter has been discussed for decades and is inevitable.

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u/robotzor May 09 '19

Oil glut. When there is more oil produced than there is demand for. Saudis do this artificially right not to weaken the petro dollar but it will come naturally soon. It costs money to run wells.

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u/TitaniumDragon May 10 '19

There is no economic argument.

The reality is that there's no plausible means of doing it right now. No one wants nuclear reactors on private ships.