Peak Oil is Snake Oil!

Friday of last week I had occasion to do brief battle on CNBC Morning Call with Steve Andrews co-founder of what is considered the most influential organization supporting “peak oil ” the Hubert curve theory which predicts future oil availability. Surprisingly there is more than one such organization. And why should that be? The Wall Street Journal summed it up succinctly in an article appearing in the Sept. 14, 2006 issue, stating:

“That argument known as ‘peak oil theory’ has provided intellectual backing for the boom in crude prices.”

My contention was that the fabricated drama of “peak oil” goes back to the very beginnings of oil history, to 1855 when crude oil was bubbling to the surface in Pennsylvania and transformed into patent medicine for Samuel Kier’s “Rock Oil”. The “Rock Oil” people pointedly cautioned buyers:

“Hurry, before this wonderful product is depleted from nature’s laboratory”.

And that refrain, in one version or another has been a constant theme of the oil peakists for over a century now.

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