[Revi]

We were thinking of a Peak Oil get together. Would anyone be interested in a train trip to the Oil Heritage Region of Pennsylvania? Possibly starting as a train trip from Boston to Erie, PA. There is a narrow gauge small railway that takes you on a trip from Titusville through the oil valley. It needs to be in June, because a lot of things are closed until then.

I envision a rolling Peak Oil discussion on the train getting there as well. What do you think?

[Revi]

We would be using less fossil fuel to get there if we take the Amtrak train to Erie, rented a van, or got a ride somehow to Titusville and stayed at the caboose motel. ( stay in cabooses. Really)

[ROCKMAN]

Revi - Sounds like fun. My input: get some state politicians on board. And once you get them trapped on the train ambush them with questioning the lack of a state severance tax of oil/NG production. A severance tax that has earned Texas and Louisiana tens of $BILLIONS.

[Revi]

I was hoping to see if we can get James Howard Kunstler to put in an appearance. We might make it like a whistle stop tour ad see if we can get people to meet us at the train stations if they aren't up for the trip. I would love to find some people to talk about the history of oil in Titusville. It's where it all began. I know that some of the first families of oil started in New York and PA, then went down to Texas and eventually to the middle east looking for and developing oil fields.

[Revi]

I would love to know what is going on with oil and gas production nowadays as well around there. Maybe we could get some people to tell us something about it in Titusville. Anyone have connections around there?

[Revi]

It turns out that Pennsylvania is a newcomer to oil production. There was a guy who started it in 1735 in France! And that field is still producing:
http://uk.reuters.com/article/france-oi ... 4N20141001

Maybe we should have a trip there too!

[Revi]

Here's a NY Times article from 1880 about that region:
http://query.nytimes.com/mem/archive-fr ... 838B699FDE

[Plantagenet]

I'd love to join you Revi---thats a great idea.

Let me know when you schedule the date for the trip. I'll be back from Italy in late January.

Cheers!


Titusville PA oilfields back in the day

[ROCKMAN]

Revi - Some stats: since 1980 PA oil production hit 5 mm bbls in 1985 and bottomed out at 1.3 mm bbls per year in 1997. And then back up to 7 mm bbls in 2015.

https://www.eia.gov/dnav/pet/hist/LeafH ... rfppa1&f=a

FYI: 7 mm BBLS X $40/bbl X 4.5% (Texas severance tax) = $12.6 million
7 mm BBLS X $40/bbl X 12.5% (Louisiana sev tax) = $35 million

[Revi]

Wow! Pennsylvania is really missing out on some revenue. Why didn't they have some kind of tax to begin with? Was it Rockefeller? I'll bet it was.

I'll let you all know when is a good time to go to PA. I think maybe the third week of June. Like maybe the 23, 24, 25th. It has to be on a weekend that time of the year to do the scenic railway.