Word: petroleum
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...more invulnerable to oil shocks, and the country remained an oil exporter until 1993. Today, however, output from China's top four oil fields is in decline. By some estimates, the country's current proven reserves will be depleted in as few as 14 years. Meanwhile, largely untapped petroleum pools believed to lie beneath western China's desolate Tarim Basin are uneconomic to drill, even with prices at $50 a barrel...
...energy needs with coal and boasts the world's largest coal reserves. But to keep the increasingly oil-dependent economy racing ahead?and to ease some of the pollution that comes from burning coal for power?China's leaders are forced to seek ever-greater supplies of petroleum from overseas. More than half of China's oil imports currently come from the volatile Middle East, making oil security a pressing concern in Beijing. China has begun building up a strategic oil reserve that it hopes to fill with at least 30 days' worth, and the country has several pipelines planned...
...many ARS researchers, the future is all about waste, particularly as an alternative to petroleum. The feather project, for example, can replace some of the fossil fuels used in plastics. Likewise, a surplus of soybeans inspired researchers to develop SoyScreen as an alternative to petroleum-based sunscreens. At ARS's flagship facility in Beltsville, Md., biodiesel, derived from vegetable oil, powers fleets of tractors and lawn mowers for the farms and even heats some of the buildings. Indeed, petroleum is prohibited in the carpeting (which is instead held together by soy-based urethane). The only permissible hand soaps and cleaning...
When short-term shocks do threaten to raise prices noticeably, people have a way of getting pissed, and the administration is usually quick to take action. Only four months ago the President refused to tap into the nation’s Strategic Petroleum Reserves, arguing that doing so “would put America in a dangerous position in the war on terror.” But Bush changed his mind after Hurricane Ivan disrupted oil imports. It was probably the right policy move on the merits, but let’s not fool ourselves about the administration?...
...chairman of Chrysler, sees the peril of another oil shock. Says he: "We've been burned twice before, and we see the elements of No. 3 taking shape." ... The oil bust has spoiled the economics of alternative energy as well. Many of the ballyhooed 1970s-era programs to extract petroleum from oil shale and tar sands have been mothballed because they cost too much to operate. The hundreds of mom-and-pop solar-power companies that sprang up in the past decade have mostly folded, even in the Sunbelt. Says Susan deWitt, executive director for the California Solar Energy Industries...