Jed wrote: > If cold fusion starts to succeed in a big way, then I expect many > people in the fossil fuel industry will begin to fear it
Thanks again for excellent post! But I think that even this is exaggerating, because in oil industry people who has there real power are also immeasurable wealthy. And also they have usually more realistic view of the real world, unlike poor people who might irrationally be afraid of better world. This means in practice that airplane that has E-Cat steam engine and can fly through stratosphere is far more convenient than kerosene propelled jet engine that loses most of its power in 10 km and above. Therefore I am sure that any powerful people in oil industry will welcome the technology that makes them unemployed, because this would increase greatly the overall quality of life. They will get other powerful jobs or just retire and enjoy some quiet family life (ok, this would not happen, because they are often power hungry workaholics). Of course little people around the oil industry who has no other expertise than oil engineering or are common share holders might suffer a minor loss in short term. But on the other hand they do not have any means to influence to anything. If too good to be true E-Cat is there for real, it will open up absolutely huge new economic niche into market as ALL airplanes, locomotives, ships and trucks must be upgraded immediately, because oil driven technology is just too expensive to upkeep. This means that anyone who can produce any components for E-Cat steam engines, can have everything sold instantly and regardless of the price tag, because markets will suffer years to come because supply just is unable to match with demand. Therefore there is plenty of market potential even for oil companies and most of them are already moved in direction of general energy industry as everyone knows that peak oil will come sooner than later. ―Jouni
