Oh California...

[Ragnarök_62]

(08-28-2019, 08:11 AM)Anthony Wrote:

(08-28-2019, 08:04 AM)pbrower2a Wrote:

(07-24-2019, 02:03 PM)David Horn Wrote:

(07-24-2019, 11:39 AM)Eric the Green Wrote: They (Alberta) will have to walk away from it. Oil will not be permitted as a fuel much longer, or it will be taxed to make it unprofitable. Especially such dirty oil as from tar sands. As I said, the oil industry is drying up. People won't be buying it, since cars will use other fuels. So although I know their traditions and cultures are more like Alaska and Texas, they won't have the oil money as a reason to keep them in the red state fold. At least, if the rest of Canada agrees to let the US coasts join, they won't be able to block it. They will be outvoted, and they won't secede from Canada to join Montana and Idaho and the rest of Red America.

I think your optimism is misplaced.  Yes, fossil fuels will be banned at some point, but it won't be soon.  Someone somewhere will still buy the stuff until the entire world threatens them with extinction if they don't.  I expect to see a mostly fossil free future in my lifetime, but total?  Not likely.

There will be specialized uses for fossil fuels that depend upon their portability and easy transmission. Whale oil went out of vogue as the whales became nearly extinct due to hunting.

We will eventually see governments even in America tax the Hell out of it much as European countries do.

That's if America doesn't become something like this:

https://www.salon.com/2015/03/02/my_libe..._debunked/

When I lived in Houston in the 1980's there were prototypes, called gated communities.

https://www.masonluxuryhomes.com/i/avalo...eal-estate

The Libertarian nightmare of 3rd world mass transit kinda presents some real dilemmas when it comes to taxing fossil fuels.When nobody can afford to go to their crap jobs, the economy will have some real problems.

Got Lead?  Lot's of drinking water does.
https://www.nakedcapitalism.com/2019/08/...lints.html

Let's see.
1. Questionable water supply.
2. Poo in the streets. San Francisco, Seattle.   Questionable sanitation standards.
3. Measles outbreaks.  OK, questionable public health
4. Corruption. Epstein,  pay to play, campaign finance.
5. Assorted oligopolies. Amazon, Faceplant, Google, Big Pharma, Big Oil, and other Big this and thats.

So yeah a banana republic sort of future is quite plausible as well.