Rejecting the Real Snake Oil

Last Friday I spent three or four minutes on CNBC’s Morning Call explaining what the concept of “peak oil” is to their viewers and arguing a bit with Raymond Learsy about the cause of our growing troubles with oil. Mr. Learsy, not content with that sound bite, wrote “Peak Oil is Snake Oil!” for this site on Monday to expand his attack on the logical notion of oil resource constraints.

It seems Learsy thinks small non-profit groups like ours — the Association for the Study of Peak Oil and Gas/USA — are in cahoots with the oil companies, joined at the hip in a conspiracy to hype the “fabricated drama of peak oil” in order to drive up oil prices and profits. This is a delusional notion with zero substance that deserves no further comment.


Except for those in extreme denial about our oil problems, even casual observers looking at the facts and trends listed below should see that we’re on the front edge of an enormously challenging energy transition…

Huffington Post