The cost is what's required to create it.
The price is what it exchanges for.
These are three independent attributes.
Generally, though, sustainability comes when cost <= price < value.
https://www.reddit.com/r/dredmorbius/comments/48rd02/cost_va...
The horrors of oil being all used up and energy cheaper than ever.
I asked you to complete the information required to back up the claim and you rejoined with some aside about how there were multiple ways to interpret one of the words in my question.
My framing is sloppy (because I only talk about the future value of oil rather than the cost of obtaining the equivalent), but I think the point survives it, because the value of oil would drop to the cost of obtaining the equivalent.
I'm not sure if you're aggreeing with me, disagreeing with me, or purple the unicorn umbrella ran ran syzzygy!!!
If you've got a specific question or point you'd like to make, please make it or ask it.
But to clarify, my statements above are made in all earnestness and as my best-faith effort to model and understand the world I see.
You?
Natural gas as feedstock to the Haber-Bosch process and coking coal in steel production, for reducing ore, are both much more formidable. They account for a large fraction the consumption of both (15% in the case of coal), and substitutes are difficult.
The story of where Earth's crustal iron comes from, when, and how, particularly as banded iron formations, is another interesting story.
It's important to know that when considering the factor of 5 million you toss out there.