Deffeyes: President Obama

President Obama’s inaugural address contained several lines relevant to the peak-oil problem. Here are some comments:

“Let it be said by our children’s children that when we were tested, we refused to let this journey end . . . “

The most common question that I get in my e-mail traffic is, “What about my grandchildren?” My generation grew up with the premise that we would enjoy a standard of living higher than our parents. That’s probably no longer true, or at least severely in doubt. Predicting a progressively lower standard of living is not a way to get elected President.

” . . . the ways we use energy . . . “

It’s still out there; world oil production has ceased growing. The Obama administration might be able to fix the banking and financial situation, but the financial freezeup is a symptom and not the disease. Oil production ceased to grow in 2005, as I predicted. I expected a gradual rise in the price of oil; the abrupt jump from 2004 to mid-2008 came as a surprise. Oil prices had already doubled before the first mortgage funds got into trouble. A gradual price rise would have caused a few homeowners at a time to become unable to meet their mortgage payments. The sudden energy price increase caused lots of delinquent payments, all at once. Even if the Obama administration puts in 90 percent of their attention and 200 percent of the available money to fix the financial structure, the world oil situation could turn around and trash the financial system all over again.

Hubbert’s Peak, Current Events