[Twilight]

$this->bbcode_second_pass_quote('Concerned1', 'F')irst off, we're not running out of oil now or anytime soon! There's plenty of it left.

[BigTex]

I'll pile on a little here...

Oil is special. Natural gas is special. Coal is special. When they're cheap they are REALLY special.

The days of them being cheap, both in monetary terms as well as in net energy terms, are behind us.

The more expensive that fossil fuels get and the less net energy they deliver, the more of a chokehold our economic systems will feel.

Every recession of the past 35 years has been preceded by an oil price spike. In response to the recessions, oil prices collapsed every time, which set the stage for more economic growth. Once the peak of world production is reached, however, there is no reason to believe that there will be cheap oil on the other side of an economic downturn. If demand destruction doesn't outpace production decline, you might even see prices rising, even as people use less and less.

Thus, we may see our past cycles of economic growth in reverse--a short period of economic growth followed by several years of contraction. And what is bad is that this is the best case scenario under our current system.

[VMarcHart]

$this->bbcode_second_pass_quote('Twilight', '')$this->bbcode_second_pass_quote('Concerned1', 'F')irst off, we're not running out of oil now or anytime soon! There's plenty of it left.

[ROCKMAN]

That's just how I see it Big Tex. I survived in the oil patch during the price bust in the mid 80's while watching millions of folks in the rest of the word suffer/die as a result of the demand destruction/recession brought on the oil price spike of the 70's. But this isn't 1986. PO is close at hand. It's easy for me to explain the oil price run up: Saudi have the swing production volume just as they did in 1986 when the opened their wells and flooded the world with $10 oil so they could reclaim market share they had lost to other OPEC members. Today they could do the same to some degree but are content with their present market share. If they remain content in the advance of significant demand destruction we could see a world no one has experienced and very few could anticipate: a severe US/global depression and high energy costs. World wars have been started for lesser reasons.

[Buggy]

$this->bbcode_second_pass_quote('ROCKMAN', 'W')orld wars have been started for lesser reasons.

[Jenab6]

$this->bbcode_second_pass_quote('vilemerchant', '')$this->bbcode_second_pass_quote('jlw61', 'w')alking 30 miles to work... in the snow... uphill... both ways... and they like it!. :mad: