The December 2005 issue of Wired had a big article generally on peak oil - "Why $8 gas is good for America" or something to that effect. They generally acknowledge that without more breaktrhoughs, either in drilling technology or new energy sources, that cheap energy is in jeopardy - but their stance is more towards 'start funding research like mad'. They glance at several possible petroleum alternatives. One is Methane Hydrates. Apparently there's several gazillion billion trillion cubic feet of the stuff but it can't be accessed yet. Other possible alternatives are glanced at too, but none in great detail (detail we not the objective for this article). Has anyone heard what the environmental impacts of methane hydrate use would be? Releasing unspent methane in huge amounts into the atmosphere would be ... bad, no? What's the enviro-impact at the source (extraction / packaging / etc) and what's the impact at the destination (tailpipe / power plant / etc)??
-Tom