SOUTH DENNIS

THE MORE OIL we use, the more there seems to be. This ostensibly implausible scenario runs counter to all we have come to believe about oil: that the supply is finite, that eventually the world will run out of it, and that it is produced over millions of years from the decay of plant and animal matter.

There is another theory that suggests our notions about the origin of oil are all wrong, that it is not a product of the decay of organic matter, but a natural product of the Earth. The late Dr. Thomas Gold, founding director of Cornell University Center for Radiophysics and Space Research, and author of the book The Deep Hot Biosphere, asserted that oil is “a renewable, primordial soup continually manufactured by the Earth under ultra-hot conditions and tremendous pressures.”

This theory paints a picture of oil as renewable energy, a radical notion that has won support from other scientists, both in America and abroad, and that it is not a “fossil fuel.” The theory is supported by the fact that known Middle East oil reserves have doubled in the past couple of decades, suggesting not that oil is formed quickly by any means, but that besides the usual suspects such as old ferns and dinosaurs there may be another source. Also, oil samples extracted from different depths in the same oil field have the same chemical composition. Their chemistry does not vary as one might expect from the variations of the fossils found at different depths.

The theory maintains that oil and coal are not remnants of ancient surface life that became buried and subjected to very high temperatures and pressures but, rather, are produced from primordial hydrocarbons dating back to when the Earth was formed.

Gold claimed that the volatile gases migrate towards the surface through cracks in the crust, and either leak into the atmosphere as methane, become trapped in sub-surface gas fields where they are extracted as “natural gas,” or lose their hydrogen to become oil, tar or coal. If correct, vast fuel reserves exist far in excess of the quantities that the gas and petroleum industry estimates.

Oil formed at the requisite temperatures and pressures would be formed between the Earth’s mantle and the crust, or roughly 20,000 feet below the surface. What oil we have discovered so far is thought to have been seeping up or, in some cases, gushing up from these depths toward the Earth’s surface. In view of these suppositions, some companies have started deep oil drilling in Alaska and the Gulf of Mexico, with a modicum of success.

Fossil fuels or not, the fuels we burn are polluting fuels. And renewable energy it is not. No matter how much oil actually exists, it is certainly not being formed at the rate it is being burned, so it is not an inexhaustible source. Also, whatever is there must be extracted and refined to be used.

The danger of this theory, even if it proves to be true, is that those who profit from “fossil fuels” may jump on the bandwagon and try to convince people that other forms of energy are less important than we had supposed. That would lead to disaster in many ways: continued pollution and menace to global health, continuous political kowtowing to oil producers whose civilizations and interests are inimical to ours, and to an increase in global warming if, in fact, a connection to the amount of carbon dioxide in the atmosphere is actually proven.

We all know where we are heading for true, clean, renewable and inexhaustible energy: the wind and the sun. We won’t be rid of so-called fossil fuels for a generation or more, but we certainly do not need to increase or maintain our reliance on them.

Even if the myth of “endless” oil proves to be reality, it won’t matter. Technologically, we are already there with wind and solar energy. We just need to have the powers that be, both federal and state, give the right push with credits and incentives to usher in a new energy age.

Solon Economou, a frequent contributor, is an engineer and Cape Cod-based writer ( capecodder1@hotmail.com).