Oil crisis: It’s only just begun

Peak-oil theory is controversial. Many think it alarmist. Yet even Big Oil is starting to gird itself for possible fuel shortages: Chevron, the nation’s second-largest oil company, has bluntly declared that “the era of easy oil is over” and is warning energy-hungry Americans that “the world consumes two barrels of oil for every barrel discovered.”

Aboveground, things look little better. Most petro states, aware that crude supplies are growing increasingly valuable, have limited drilling rights to their own oil companies.

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