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Comment by giantg2 | Hacker News Reader

The big question in my mind, is what are we going to build roads out of? Most of them are still using petroleum products. Concrete is a CO2 emitter too. What's left? Is there a point to creating electric cars if we find out that we need to do away with the infrastructure they require, or did we not think that far ahead yet? I'm genuinely curious what options exist to deal with this.

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The problem is not petroleum products themself, the problem is burning the petroleum products. Even if we move the whole energy economy away from fossil fuels we'll still be using oil for lubrication, plastics, asphalt, and a bunch of other things. That is fine.

Eventually it is a problem - they are not renewable. Are all the components usable for these other uses? I thought some distillates only worked for some uses (can the gas portion be used for asphalt?).

I would also imagine there is immense heating from the road surfaces. Not to mention the fumes, chemicals used in the processing, and all the transportation.

If we're not burning petroleum for heating/electricity anymore I imagine our reserves will be enough for thousands of years of roads, chemicals, synthetic materials, etc. By then we'll have developed alternatives, if not sooner

I think that's wishful thinking on the timeline and a very hopeful outlook for technology to save us. It also doesnt answer the question of if some of the byproducts are only useful for burning. If I remember right, gasoline was originally considered a byproduct.

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