I've been thinking of how to better explain Peak Oil and one of the things I think impedes people's understanding of Peak Oil is the remoteness of oil supply from their everyday experience. Oil is a global "commodity" and the gas you pump at the gas station can be refined from oil shipped from many different places, such as Saudi Arabia or Mexico or Venezuela.
So, to make things more tangible, let's suppose all the oil you consume comes from oil production within your State borders. If oil production within your State hits a maximum and remains flat thereafter for a prolonged period of time, wouldn't you be worried? After all, how can you have economic growth without an increasing energy supply? How can more cars be put on the road without more oil? Without more cars, how can you have more houses or appliances sold? Without more houses and autos and appliances, how are you going to have job growth, or even maintain jobs? How can tax receipts go up to improve roads and schools?
Now, you also know when an oil field, or a collection of oil fields, reach a peak in production and then stay flat for a prolonged period of time, oil production will start to decline at some future time. You don't know exactly when, but you do know it's just a matter of time. Now you're really worried. Forget growing the economy, now you have the prospect of a contracting economy.
This is the situation that exists on a GLOBAL level. World oil production has been flat since 2005 despite increasing oil prices. I'll let people figure out the rest. |
