mplaut

Where Have All the Peak Oil Believers Gone?

The opponents of peak oil always represent the theory as claiming that we will run out of oil.

But the proponents of the theory do not assert that. They only say that world production will PEAK and then will plateau and/or GRADUALLY decline. What this will do to prices depends of course also on demand, but since the world has critically depended on a growing supply of oil, this will require significant changes.

The market for oil is very large and very obscure. So it is hard to tell if peak oil has been reached or will soon be reached. Matt Simmons says that the first step to be taken should be to get good production data.

The peak oil practical policy recommendations with which I am familiar are only that a US energy policy be established and followed.

At this point, it seems to me that there is little controversy about the facts, but only about what to do about them, if anything. But if peak oil proponents are correct, the issues will soon overwhelm any immediate problems of global warming.