Peak Oil is You
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Page added on February 12, 2013
Peak Oil: Evasion
An observation worth noting … and pondering, from Abraham Lincoln:
You cannot escape the responsibility of tomorrow by evading it today
At some point, the realities of geology and economics will become unavoidable to all but the genuinely delusional among us.
Our oil production upswing has been occurring in recent months because oil prices have been high enough to justify the added investment expenditures by oil companies to extract from unconventional reserves.
Certainly ingenuity and technology have played their important roles. These harder-to-extract-and-produce fossil fuels would otherwise remain underground or underwater. That’s a given. But there are limitations built in to the exploration and production of oil—conventional or otherwise. No producer will make any investments without some reasonable assurances of profit.
Today, that happens because prices are high enough. The problem is that high enough prices for them is often too high for the rest of us. The only practical solution for them is to lower prices for us. And thus their quandary and our problem.
Perhaps we and they might consider our responsibilities to the future by giving more serious consideration to the relentless geological and financial restrictions we’re facing, and then engage in some just-as-serious conversations about what to do, how, and when.
Plan is not one those four-letter words.
5 Comments on "Peak Oil: Evasion"
BillT on Tue, 12th Feb 2013 3:21 pm
They plan alright…for the next quarterly profits. They know where we are in the energy game and they also know that if they tweak just a bit off the blind path and venture into reality, the game will be over.
Can you see the CEO of BP going on TV and announcing that the age of cheap, plentiful oil is over? That from now on, it will only get more and more expensive and scarce? That the days of big oil dividends and profits are ending?
The oil age would end the next day when the Stock Market Casino opened and everyone sold their oil stock. End of the petroleum story and civilization.
GregT on Tue, 12th Feb 2013 4:04 pm
“At some point, the realities of geology and economics will become unavoidable to all but the genuinely delusional among us.”
That point has already been passed. Delusion and denial are epidemic.
Arthur on Tue, 12th Feb 2013 4:43 pm
Fracking/shale/unconventional means delay of execution of 2-6 years US consumption, gas and oil. After that you can build your wind turbines on poisoned soil and enjoy your strangely flavoured tea for years to come.
BillT on Wed, 13th Feb 2013 1:44 am
Arthur, do you think that the EU is immune to reality? Last time I looked, most countries there were up to their eyeballs in debt and the same problems that the Us has. Too many people and not enough good paying jobs. Climate change is going to hit Europe as it does everywhere else on the planet. And you too will share in the misery and suffering the rest of the century will bring.
SOS on Wed, 13th Feb 2013 11:30 am
At some point, the realities of geology and economics will become unavoidable to all but the genuinely delusional among us.
…………
The inconvenient truth is that we have all the conventional energy we need. The laughable claim, supported by no facts, we have used all the low hanging, easy to get energy, is disproved every day. Peak oil is a political tool not a fact.