It’s time to stop doing nothing about oil depletion

Have you noticed that grocery prices have increased drastically in the last two years since Katrina drove gas prices up? If the price of gasoline keeps rising, what will happen to the cost of everything else that depends on petroleum?
It’s hard to think of anything that we use that doesn’t depend in some way on cheap petroleum. Most clothing contains artificial fibers made from petroleum. Clothing is transported from China to the U.S. in diesel-powered ships. What will happen to the price of shirts and socks as oil prices rise? Then there is food.
The world’s super giant oil fields – Cantarell in Mexico, Ghawar in Saudi Arabia and others – are now in decline. Recently discovered oil fields are smaller and harder to get to. It’s not possible to keep producing oil indefinitely at the current rate, let alone increase production.
Don’t expect that the deepwater oil found under the Gulf of Mexico is going to save us. The amount of oil is probably not as much as optimists claim, and it’s going to be very difficult and expensive to get the oil out and transport it to refineries. Oil companies don’t lay pipes that far from shore.
Don’t expect that ethanol is going to save us. It’s simply not possible to produce nearly enough ethanol to power our economy, and without government subsidies ethanol is still more expensive than gasoline.

Black Hills Pioneer