This planet is running out of oil

Brian Fisher, executive director of the Australian Bureau of Agriculture and Resource Economics, says alternative fuels will ensure that, in real terms, oil prices will stay below $US40 for the next 50 years.

If this is so, this is fabulous news: we can keep the Pajero and roll out more motorways, and large fuel users such as Qantas need not fret about $900 million more a year in fuel costs. Coal liquification and 30 to 40 per cent of our best crop land devoted to oil seed will do the trick. There’s a hell of a lot of energy out there, says Dr Fisher, thousands of years of supply in fact.

Thousands? One has the uneasy feeling that ABARE is talking about a different planet.

The Age