In the 1950s the American Petroleum Institute furnished the barrel, and Bob Tiffany and I rolled the aluminum prop out for luncheon club presentations. Rotarians, Kiwanians, other luncheon club members in the Abilene area listened to our message:
“Crude oil makes plastics as well as gasoline.”
We demonstrated from our opened upright barrel. Used the furnished chemicals and produced plastics from crude oil in a chemical beaker. Plastics were new in the 1950s.
Remembered when we made test-tube plastics after I read in the Wall Street Journal:
…If they can compete in the market, why not turn some sunlight into electrons? But the real macro story over a decade and a half is that we’ve replaced a lot of coal with a lot of natural gas. And now in 2022, natural gas was 39% of electricity production.
…add to that a second thing, which is that we’re only talking about electricity here, which is not even including jet fuel or gasoline or plastics or chemical production. Or any of the other very incredibly useful things that fossil fuels do to contribute to modern life.
Tiffany went on to become an Etna insurance agency New York officer. My TV experiences led to me professing as a broadcast and film university professor.
Plastics, what we demonstrated as a use of crude oil, create a disposal problem today. Instead of banning oil production, we need to encourage those who would find a use for plastic waste. Turning used plastics into other products could be a barrel of fun.
Photo at Shutterstock
