I've often wondered about this. What would happen, were we to exhaust our petroleum resources? What concerns me, is that petroleum has many uses, fuel being th

I've often wondered about this. What would happen, were we to exhaust our petroleum resources? What concerns me, is that petroleum has many uses, fuel being the main one. By restraining petroleum use as an energy source, we could keep using it for other purposes, such as deriving petrochemicals (plastics in particular). Now, some might say that plastics and other petroleum products are bad for the environment, and should be replaced / avoided. I'm no petrochemical expert, and I don't know much about the alternatives, but I think plastics still have some important uses in many field, and I'm not sure how feasible it is to do without them. http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Petrochemical http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Petrochemical http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Petroleum_products http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Petroleum_products