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Hypothetically Speaking

If someone finally invented a power source that can go in Cars,Planes, Etc.

That was FAR more efficient than natural gas and cheaper ,that it threatens to put ALL Oil and Natural Gas Companies and related companies out of business across The Entire World.

1. Will his invention be suppressed?
2. Will Those Multi Billion Dollar Industries Assassinate him?
4. Will nothing happen and he successfully puts all those Billionaire out of business?
5. Would the US government allow such an invention currently?
6. Does the US government profit from oil?
7. Would such person become a trillionaire?

Corporate espionage by oil companies who want the technology would leave him destitute unless he was already extremely wealthy and could bring the product to market en masse before anyone else. No one anywhere benefits from suppressing it.

Originally posted by Symmetric Chaos
Corporate espionage by oil companies who want the technology would leave him destitute unless he was already extremely wealthy and could bring the product to market en masse before anyone else. No one anywhere benefits from suppressing it. Yes he is wealthy enough to bring it to the market by himself

Originally posted by Colossus-Big C
Yes he is wealthy enough to bring it to the market by himself

Then he becomes insanely rich. That won't stop people from stealing the technology (unless he's an Ayn Rand character who's so super-duper-special no one else can understand it) but he'll be absurdly wealthy before anyone else can get involved. Its possible that the US government (or others) would force him to make the technology public for vaguely human rights reasons but he'd still be extremely rich.

A lot of the newer potential power sources are being backed by large companies or major universities now so they aren't being suppressed. For example, Bill Gates and other billion/multi-millionaires are behind some major scale bio fuel farms. There are some large industrial motor companies behind hydrogen cell power trains.

You do need to understand that even if we discovered a pollution-free, easily manufactured fuel system tomorrow it's not like it could instantly come into play. It would destroy the entire world economy if the petroleum industry were suddenly shut down to make way for something new. It will be a gradual transition over decades.

It wouldn't destroy the world economy. It would change it.

Originally posted by Omega Vision
It wouldn't destroy the world economy. It would change it. Destroy

Originally posted by Colossus-Big C
Destroy
How ?

Originally posted by TheGodKiller
How ? lets say the company decides to keep the technology secret so only they can manufacture it and sell it.

What are those gas companies going to do?

Originally posted by Colossus-Big C
Destroy
Are you roleplaying as a Hulk villain or something?

Originally posted by Colossus-Big C
lets say the company decides to keep the technology secret so only they can manufacture it and sell it.

Either you keep it a secret or you sell it. You can't do both. Once its out in the world people will reverse engineer the technology.

Originally posted by Symmetric Chaos
Then he becomes insanely rich. That won't stop people from stealing the technology (unless he's an Ayn Rand character who's so super-duper-special no one else can understand it) but he'll be absurdly wealthy before anyone else can get involved. Its possible that the US government (or others) would force him to make the technology public for vaguely human rights reasons but he'd still be extremely rich. Wrong Rand.

If he were Daniel Rand he would punch anyone who tried to copy his invention out of existence.

Originally posted by Colossus-Big C
lets say the company decides to keep the technology secret so only they can manufacture it and sell it.

What are those gas companies going to do?
The only way they can do that is by ensuring a strict enforcement of patent laws. This way they'll likely end up monopolizing this ground breaking new tech then .

They'll go bankrupt eventually. Doesn't mean that the economy gets destroyed.

Originally posted by Omega Vision
Are you roleplaying as a Hulk villain or something?
He's roleplaying as himself.

Originally posted by Omega Vision
It wouldn't destroy the world economy. It would change it.
For all intents and purposes it would be utterly destroyed for a time. People would dump all stock in automotive companies if petroleum-based fuels were not going to be used in any way, shape, or form from the date of release of this new technology on. People would dump large amounts of shares in companies like BP, though of course crude would still be of value for things like plastics and such, but that wouldn't by any means be enough to keep them on the top of the food chain. Millions and millions of workers would lose their jobs everywhere from oil rigs to gas stations to tanker transport companies to shipping crews. People would also be scrambling to purchase vehicles that ran on this new source and resources that are normally used steadily over time would be stressed because of their need for the production of cars that run on whatever new fuel has been developed.

Of course, I'm ridiculously over-exaggerating this because it's not like all the already pumped crude and processed fuel wouldn't be used, but regardless trying to do an instantaneous switch from gas to another fuel source would be disastrous for every major economy in the world. Fuel prices spiking over a period of months or years can have a major impact on the world economy, so suddenly removing that commodity entirely and replacing it with another one would be more than noticeable in its scope of effect.

They can use water instead of gas for vehicles to run.