America ‘unnecessarily at risk’ by looming fall-off in petroleum

… The endless calls by politicians for “energy independence” are perhaps the most striking example of how little this issue is understood by the people in charge.

Former oil men George W. Bush and Dick Cheney cannot be among those in the dark on this, though they clearly have chosen not to make it an issue for reasons we may not find out until they publish their memoirs. By then, they may have a lot of explaining to do.


Everyone in the industry knows that the United States cannot drill itself to energy independence. There simply is not enough oil left in the ground.

U.S. domestic oil production peaked in 1970. Not even the subsequent pumping of oil from the large North Slope fields of Alaska was sufficient to bring U.S. production back to where it had been.

Production in most oil producers outside the Middle East also has peaked, including Norway, Great Britain, Mexico and Indonesia.

The Patriot-News (Pennsylvania)