Why Oil Really Fell Today—and Could Keep Falling

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The problem with this "great idea" is that solar power is still very expensive. Several breakthroughs appear to be close, but even then direct use of the electric power produced would seem to make more sense.

jack Dixon of FL 3:57AM August 10, 2008

I would love to get Picenns take on this subject Can we get his opinion? PLEASE! He is the guru on on altrnate energy.

philip Lirel of GA 8:46PM August 09, 2008

Half the time, we are told that water is a precious resource, and that there is not enough to go around. World Wars will occur over water. More people, less water.
Where I live, the population seems to be rising faster than our ability to deliver water. Everyone must conserve. Don't waste it, there is hardly enough to go around as it is. The price is going through the sky already, in order to force everyone to use less.
Now the dimbats want to use the water to create energy? This will result in the cost of water to the consumer to rise by a factor likely to exceed 1000%. You want to wash your clothes? Take a shower? Fill your swimming pool for a hot summer? You better hope you are at least a US Senator, or you won't be able to afford any of those things.

John of UT 3:23PM August 07, 2008

Perhaps your readers would be interested in watching a 10-minute video about the Nocera-Kanan discovery. It’s the pilot for a project called Chemical Explorers, a series of Internet videos about interesting developments in modern chemistry. Because it’s intended for a general audience, the video doesn’t go into the kind of technical detail that some of the earlier posts do. But it does allow viewers to hear directly from the two chemists behind this discovery, it shows the cobalt catalyst in action, and it tells the interesting story of how the discovery came about. The video can be watched at the following site:
http://chemicalexplorers.blip.tv/#1150780
Steve Lyons

Stephen Lyons of MA 2:57PM August 07, 2008

For those of you unfamiliar with electrolysis and its history, this is not as exciting as the media is making it seem, for many reasons. Its not all BS, but not even close to practical technology. Nickel films on steel work better than what they've found, and cobalt oxides have long been known to electrolyze water.
http://www.journalarchive.jst.go.jp/jnlpdf.php?cdjournal=bcsj1926&cdvol=51&noissue=7&startpage=2183&lang=en&from=jnltoc
That being said, we do need a manhattan project to encourage scientists to team up toward practical energy solutions. As of now we are working in small groups, trying to get our papers out so we can convince funding agencies to keep our work afloat. There is not nearly enough investment in revolutionary renewable energy research, and there needs to be.

RuBipy of CA 2:55PM August 07, 2008

You have no idea what you are talking about. The media, yourself included, continue to amaze me at the shear magnitude of stupidity. I don't know what it is with the MSM corporate media. I find myself asking: "Are they intentionally lying to us?" I suggest you actually READ what the MIT professors proposed before spouting off on the "real reason" oil dropped below $ 120. You are flat out wrong. It amazes me that you actually get paid to put your opinion on paper. What a waste of space.
Oil is on a long term systematic price correction not to $ 20-40 a barrel like many prognosticators predict but to $ 200+ per barrel. You need to get used to more expensive energy because it's only going to get more expensive. There's NO MAGIC TECHNOLOGY BULLET. The reason oil is increasing in price is because we've reached peak oil production. It's that simple. No voodoo reasoning here. There is simply not enough oil to satisfy demand so we have a long term price increase to compensate for the lack of additional oil. You have 2.2-2.5 billion Indians/Chinese who also want to share in the stuff. That tends to not help prices. It has nothing to do with speculation. It has nothing to do with magical technology. In my view, the price declined because the U.S. economy is in a recession and even U.S. Federal stats (which we all know we can't really trust) show a steady decrease in gasoline consumption.

Eric Engel of WA 12:33AM August 07, 2008

Hydrogen is not a source of energy--oil & other carbon fuels ARE sources--it is merely a carrier of energy and a lousy one at that.
This stuupid article reminds me of cold fusion.

john of CA 10:59PM August 06, 2008

I'm a physicist turned energy investor. James Pethokoukis' article or speculation is total nonsense. First, correlation is not causation. He's ideologically committed to a particular line of thought, he read about a scientific finding, and that oil markets are down a bit, and he decides to connect them without any evidence at all.
It's terrible journalism and should not be allowed.
Oil markets are up and down all the time. Stop finding correlations where none exist.

Captain Quirk of CA 8:43PM August 06, 2008

Energy problem solved! We can use the electricity from the space solar farm that we are going to build, beam it down, feed it into some water, and voila!

Graham of OR 6:37PM August 06, 2008

Those who propose non fossil fuel solutions always deny the arithmatic. Yet it's really all about numbers, not ethics, which is a pity. Lukas relies on the sun. So do all fossil fuels which are merely stored sun energy. Green plants know how to convert sunshine into sugars. We don't. So we plant crops and feed animals both to later eat. We didn't create this system Unless we realize we can change "God's will" we will face the end of our civilization.

Don Hirschberg of AR 2:22AM August 06, 2008