Big Oil joins the debate

…Hofmeister and his executives toured 25 U.S. cities last year conducting meetings with local residents and public officials. The results were sobering, he said.

“I was shocked at how many people actually believe in the peak oil theory,” said Hofmeister, of a point of view held by some that the world is at the tipping point of supply and that extreme worldwide crude oil shortages are looming.


The energy industry and Cambridge Energy Chairman Daniel Yergin, whose book The Prize is considered the definitive history of the world oil industry, have hotly disputed the theory.

Hofmeister said he and other industry executives recently met with new House Speaker Nancy Pelosi, D-Calif., and, in Hofmeister’s words, “invited ourselves to be part of the dialogue” over energy issues.

Dallas Star-Telegram