Tipping Over Peak Oil

Forget the Mideast for a moment. Imagine if someone attacked the single most important oil pipeline on American soil. The supply shock wouldn’t be small. Just under a million barrels of oil flow from Alaska each day — about 17% of daily U.S. production.

Now imagine that the attack is successful; it completely shuts down the pipeline. Amidst an already tense geopolitical atmosphere, oil prices would soar. Wouldn

The Marginal Value of Peak Oil

Many say yes, including the elder member of the NY Times editorial staff whose “Talking Points” article on “The End of Oil” appeared on March 1. After all, he writes, this is peak oil we’re talking about — the “almost certainly correct” idea that crude supplies have peaked and may now be at that magical tipping point. Even a small disruption in the supply chain could have dreadful consequences.

To wit, the Times piece cites conclusions made in early 2005 by “a bunch of Washington heavyweights at a symposium called