Peak Oil Denial: Abundant Nonsense

Two sides to a story … hell of a concept!

 

All the Information?

 

Imagine if we could have honest dialogue about energy policy and/or public policy where all the facts were offered for public consumption. Imagine if the high-art of cherry-picking and “spin” were relegated to back-room ideological debates where partakers recalled the “good ’ol days” when citizens were informed only to the extent it preserved the best interests of the few.

Imagine if citizens were actually given the opportunity (and respect) to make up their own minds about matters of importance—affecting them now and/or in the years to come—if both sides of public issues were offered in the same forums. Ideological “principles” might suffer, along with their small group of proponents, but think of the good to the overwhelming majority of us.

Even better: what if media shills either took time themselves to appreciate all the facts [ever the optimist am I], and even found some integrity, dusted it off, and explained to their followers that there is indeed a world of “other” facts to be considered? I suspect many of the shills would be paralyzed by the thought that their comfy little world of pseudo-facts, half-truths, and carefully-scripted stories wasn’t actually that beneficial, and that reality impacts them as well!

 

Truth Only, Except When….

 

On that note, the freight train of oil-abundance forever rolls along, rolling over too many others in the process. Truth would be a good thing to share now and then….

Oil: Production data for April show how fracking has shattered not only the shale rock in formations like Texas’ Eagle Ford and Permian Basin but also the myths of ‘peak oil’ and petroleum as an energy source of the past….
In only 2-1/2 years, the Lone Star State has doubled its crude output, making it what [Mark] Perry dubs Saudi Texas and reversing a 23-year decline that fueled speculation that the maximum rate of petroleum extraction has been, or will soon be, reached….  
As of February, the most recent month for which international oil production data are available, Texas would be the 12th largest oil producer in the world if it were a separate country, only slightly behind Kuwait and Venezuela. This is due to an oil boom that’s added the equivalent of the Bakken formation in North Dakota to the state’s output in just the past 16 months.
At the current pace of output gains, Texas’ production will likely surpass 3 million bpd by year-end, pulling it ahead of Venezuela, Kuwait, Mexico and Iraq to become the equivalent of the ninth largest oil-production “nation” in the world. [1]

Why just 23 years? Odd number, isn’t it? And once again, a Happy-Talk-energy-abundance-forever storyline mentions not one word about the facts of this oil boom. No mention of the rapid decline rates from the wells producing this abundance; no mention of higher costs; no discussion about the problems, challenges, and consequences; no explanation about higher well costs and the fact that so many new wells must be drilled annually just to keep pace; no hint that the energy invested is much greater than that of conventional crude production—itself plateaued for almost 9 years now.

Nope! Facts screw-up the ideology. This is the story that sounds good today. Why mess with it by introducing a thought or two about what happens tomorrow and all the days thereafter, Right?

 

Obligatory Nonsense

 

And what’s a good piece of fossil fuel nonsense without a [false] cheap shot at the President: “The shale oil and gas boom unleashed by fracking — short for hydraulic fracturing — has saved the Obama economy from complete collapse.” Say what? Aaaahh … the joys of living in a world where one assumes no responsibility for their contributions to the mess. Always good to have a bulls-eye painted on the Left!

A bonus cheap shot: the author of this BS managed to toss in a fan-the-partisan-flames observation about the “dunes sagebrush lizard,” whose elevation to endangered species might have some impact on oil production—apparently all by itself! If this is the best they can do….

 

Another View

 

Here’s an observation better-grounded in reality [that other-side-of-the-story meme, complete with supporting facts and everything!]:

Too much optimism can be a dangerous thing.
Sure, it’s easy to sit back and say everything is fine and dandy for the U.S. oil industry right now. After all, success stories from our oil patch are saturating media headlines….
But seeing the glass as half full in this case can lead to delusion. And delusion allows people to blindly accept whatever story the media or politicians are spewing on any given day — that U.S. oil production is booming! — instead of educate themselves with the details behind the U.S. shale boom. [2]

Keith Kohl (author of the above) then pointed out some of those annoying facts that muck-up the Happy Talk: North Dakota and Texas accounted for 83% of the production increase from 2007-2012; 12 of the states which experienced increases actually produced less than 20,000 barrels per day. “So yes, the U.S. is still enjoying a boom — but only in a select few regions.”

That’s an issue, and not a minor one. But why mention that? Citizens and investors might ask questions….

~ My Photo: flowers – Orlando, FL – Thanksgiving Day 2005

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