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Surprising Science

Could Oil Be Green Energy?

“As counterintuitive as it may be to say so, oil is a green fuel, while ‘green’ fuels aren’t,” says Jonah Goldberg, who makes a sobering and conservative assessment of America’s need for black gold.
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“As counterintuitive as it may be to say so, oil is a green fuel, while ‘green’ fuels aren’t,” says Jonah Goldberg, who makes a sobering and conservative assessment of America’s need for black gold. “If you remove the argument over climate change from the equation, one thing becomes incandescently clear: Fossil fuels have been one of the great boons both to humanity and the environment, allowing forests to regrow (now that we don’t use wood for heating fuel) and liberating billions from backbreaking toil. The great and permanent shortage is usable surface land and fresh water. The more land we use to produce energy, the less we have for vulnerable species, watersheds, agriculture, recreation, etc.”

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