Exactly how long would the US of A last without oil?

[ussfletcher]

Well I guarantee there would be a ton of work extracting oil shale.

"the United States has the largest known deposits of oil shale in the world, according to the Bureau of Land Management and holds an estimated 2,175 gigabarrels of potentially recoverable oil"

 

[Texashiker]

Well I guarantee there would be a ton of work extracting oil shale.

For the extraction of oil shale to be profitable, the price per barrel has to be quit high.

But then again, if opec were to cut us off, the price would go through the roof.

 

[Gooberlx2]

Excluding military options, I think most of the points have been made:

Short term:
- Rationing
- Huge increase in uses of coal, natural gas, debates about shale oil would end abruptly and be cleared.
- Absolute economic chaos world wide.

Long term:
- Cease exports of food, which would cripple or kill a lot of other countries faster than we'd be crippled by lack of oil...specifically in the ME.
- Massive effort in alternative fuels.
- Certain ways of life change. Cities are built taller, metro areas become more densely populated. Consumer sales of large/low-efficiency vehicles outside of work requirements essentially cease.
- Perhaps a return to a healthier population from more walking/riding and increased costs of food.

Regardless, we'd survive.

 

[NuroMancer]

We up here in Canada have 179,000,000,000 bbl in reserves.

I think we'll all be ok.

 

[Imp]

More like USA has no need to invade. Our government is happy to sell all our oil to USA, then import it back after it has been processed...

facepalm (on us)...


Now look at these numbers

2010 US Military budget $663.8 billion
2010 Canadian Budget C$280.5 billion

That's right, the US Military Budget is more than twice the entire Canadian Federal Budget.

I'm a bit perplexed that Canada has a combined active and reserve compliment of 80k (120k) soldiers, but a budget half that of the US of A with about 1.5 million.

 

[Patranus]

Well we have oil, only the "progressive" stonewalls every attempt to get it out of the ground.

 

[Whisper]

I'm a bit perplexed that Canada has a combined active and reserve compliment of 80k (120k) soldiers, but a budget half that of the US of A with about 1.5 million.

sdifox presented the ENTIRE Canadian budget, not just their military budget.

 

[Fayd]

Driving to work this morning, looking at gas at $3.44/gallon, it made me wonder how easily the world could gang up and cripple the US by saying, "No soup for you!!!" and cutting off the supply of oil. Obviously the strategic reserve would only help a very minimal bit, since that will be first and foremost designated for military assets.

But how quickly would the economy hit the shitter given our limited ability to produce crude nationally? I think it's what, something like 20% tops of our yearly gross oil consumption can be handled by domestic oil? A full cutoff would instantly drive prices through the roof, grinding most of the US to a standstill economically. It's scary to think about how precarious of a position we're in. I know I can't afford $5+/gallon gasoline, let alone the other 80% of products that use some form or other various petrochemical on a daily basis.

the USA has some of the largest oil reserves in the world, and they just sit relatively untapped. ANWR is just one of them. we also have some of the world's largest reserves of coal oil. (sorry, meant oil shale)

basically, if the world decided to cut us off, it'd only be a few environmental policy changes and a few months of exploratory drilling before we're back in business...

and then we decide what to do with their oil reserves after killing whoever tried to cut us off.

 

[sdifox]

I'm a bit perplexed that Canada has a combined active and reserve compliment of 80k (120k) soldiers, but a budget half that of the US of A with about 1.5 million.

Err, the budget I am showing for Canada is the Federal budget, not the military budget. That is our entire national federal government expenditure...

 

[Patranus]

the USA has some of the largest oil reserves in the world, and they just sit relatively untapped. ANWR is just one of them. we also have some of the world's largest reserves of coal oil.

basically, if the world decided to cut us off, it'd only be a few environmental policy changes and a few months of exploratory drilling before we're back in business...

and then we decide what to do with their oil reserves after killing whoever tried to cut us off.

Nope. It will take 5 years.
Look at the gulf. Because of the blanket stoppage by Obama, much of the equipment left and isn't coming back.

 

[ussfletcher]

the USA has some of the largest oil reserves in the world, and they just sit relatively untapped. ANWR is just one of them. we also have some of the world's largest reserves of coal oil. (sorry, meant oil shale)

basically, if the world decided to cut us off, it'd only be a few environmental policy changes and a few months of exploratory drilling before we're back in business...

and then we decide what to do with their oil reserves after killing whoever tried to cut us off.

We have more oil in oil shale than all other proven oil reserves on earth combined.

But, in the near term you would see fuel rationing with the majority of our domestic oil supply going to food production and the shipping and manufacture of vital supplies. All oil-burning power plants would be ordered shut down within the first couple days and there would be calls for people to severely curb their power consumption. Things like mowing your lawn with an electric or gasoline powered machine would be illegal. There would be a strong push for immediate public transportation systems to be put in place, like buses. Air traffic severely reduced, things like overnight shipping would be indefinitely suspended. Trains burning coal would be put back into production to help with some of the switch to a new energy policy. Oil shale would be extracted at a feverish pace to offset some of the demand. As a ripple effect, consumer goods would have to be produced domestically as it would be far too expensive to ship from overseas. Telecommuting and teleconferencing would become a normal aspect of daily life as companies attempt to adjust. Also, natural gas is used to replace heating oil in the north east.

In the long term, fast electric trains are used to link cities. Urban areas see a revitalization and massively grow in size. Driving becomes somewhat of a luxury because of the cost of either oil or lithium-ion batteries. The world would not be the same place. Countries in the Middle East that rely on oil sales become poor overnight. China, India, and most of the rest of the world for that matter have trouble feeding their citizens. International travel, outside of visiting close countries, means taking weeks off of work because the most affordable means of transportation would be on an Ocean Liner.

All this though, may be where we will be heading anyway as global oil demand surpasses easy oil production.