How not to prepare for peak oil

Now that the price of a barrel of oil has topped $115, the words “peak oil” can be found just about anywhere — including in the headline of an April 16 Financial Times editorial.

But “Preparing for the age of peak oil” offers little in the way of advice for how civilization might face up to a carbon-constrained future through such measures as conservation or energy efficiency or alternative energy technologies. Instead, the editorial recommends that Russia, which recently shocked the world by acknowledging that its domestic oil production appears to have peaked, should disavow its cold shoulder to foreign oil companies and cut domestic taxes holding back the oil industry:

In Russia, the problem is not so much a lack of oil but an investment drought. This has been caused by high taxes and hostile treatment of foreign and some domestic companies by a government reasserting control over its energy sector.

Russia will have to act quickly if it is to avoid a long-term decline in oil output. Bringing on stream untapped reserves in the Arctic and eastern Siberia will take years.

There you have it: the Financial Times’ recipe for peak oil preparation is to pump more oil out of the ground now.

Salon