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[–] rwbj 0 points 1 point (+1|-0) ago 

And in 20 years there's a good chance we will have gone a long ways towards moving beyond fossil fuels.

For people that haven't seen the latest in pure electronic cars check this out. That's technology that's already for sale today in a car that never requires gas. You can charge it at any regular wall outlet or for free at a variety of stations across the country. Right now the price point of those cars is outside the reach of your average consumer but it's coming down, fast. Tesla expects a mainstream viable pure electric within 3 years. On the international front China's been facing an increasing amount of internal backlash over them turning large swaths of their country in oil burning hotboxes. And even countries like Saudi Arabia have made it a goal to start transitioning to renewable energy.

It's my opinion this is a large part of the reason for the recent drive to exploit our domestic oil reserves. That black gold going to go back to just being black goo is not a question of if but a question of when. The low oil prices are the only thing slowing down research and development in things like solar and electric. Right now solar is not cost efficient (although it's also trending rapidly downward in price) but if oil prices were to rise it would instantly become not only a clean renewable source of energy but also a more economic model as well. Use it, or lose it.