Oil will run out 100 years before new fuels are developed

Wondering what to get your kids for Christmas?  How about a science kit so they can develop a new fuel to replace petroleum.  A new study suggests it could make them rich.

Okay, so your kids probably aren't going to discover some new fuel source (or will they?).  But a new study reported in that great science source (Yahoo! News) suggests that we better get started looking for a new source, because we're going to run out of oil long before we find something to replace it.

If the world's oil reserves were the 1.332 trillion barrels they were estimated to be in 2008 and oil consumption was some 85.22 million barrels a day and growing at 1.3 percent a year, oil would be depleted by 2041, says the study published online last week in Environmental Science and Technology.

Then researchers from the University of California at Davis analyzed share prices of 25 oil companies and determined (to no one's surprise) that much more money is put into the conventional energy markets than to renewable or alternative energy markets.  They then "used advanced pricing equations" and calculated that "there would not be a widely available replacement for oil-based fuels before 2140, which, even if the more optimistic date of 2054 for oil depletion is retained."  All of this means that "there could be a nearly 90-year gap when it might be difficult to run a motor vehicle."

The Yahoo! article can be read here.  The original study can be found in the journal, ES&T, is published by the American Chemical Society.