Deffeyes: To The Peak Oil Community

…Many of us are hoping that President Obama will be another FDR. If the oil trap snares him, he could be forced into the Herbert Hoover mold. Maybe Karl Marx was right.

Don’t nobody tell, but Oil & Gas Journal (November 17, 2008) reports that Henry Waxman, the new chairman of the House Committee on Energy and Commerce, is an opponent of the hydrofrac technique. Frac jobs have been around a while; Hubbert and Willis published on frac physics in 1957. Anybody know where Waxman stands on water flooding and drilling mud? Don’t ask, don’t tell.


I promise not to relay the many postponement or cancellation announcements of energy project construction, drilling campaigns, or equipment manufacture. If the investors can’t see the bottom of the oil-price drop, they won’t put up the money. Matt Simmons, for good reason, has proposed a minimum support price for oil and natural gas. Forewarned is forearmed.

This morning’s New York Times reports on page 1, above the fold, that the Standard & Poor’s index of 500 stocks dropped more that 6 percent on both August 19 and August 20, 2008. Not to worry, that has happened before. Most recently, it happened on July 20 and 21 of 1933. Try not to worry about it.

Hubbert’s Peak, Current Events