Section » Peak Oil Review
Optimism, Harsh Realism, and Blind Spots—10 years later
By the Peak Oil Review team Ten years ago, energy analyst Steve Andrews challenged widely respected energy guru Amory Lovins via email for what Andrews thought was an overly optimistic vision-about coal consumption trends, evolution in the auto industry, future world oil production, etc.-articulated in the Rocky Mountain Institute’s Spring 2000 newsletter. RMI published the subsequent email exchange
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Lloyd’s adds its voice to dire ‘peak oil’ warnings
http://www.guardian.co.uk/business/2010/jul/11/peak-oil-energy-disruption Business underestimating catastrophic consequences of declining oil, says Lloyd’s of London/ISS report One of the City’s most respected institutions has warned of “catastrophic consequences” for businesses
Paul Krugman, author and New York Times columnist
“We are now, I fear, in the early stages of a third depression. It will probably look more like the Long Depression than the much more severe Great Depression. But the cost - to the world economy and, above all, to the millions of lives blighted by the absence of jobs - will nonetheless be immense.”
EIA’s first Peak Oil statement—how was their vision a decade ago?
Back in 2000, the EIA developed their first power-point presentation covering the topic of peak oil (http://tonto.eia.doe.gov/FTPROOT/presentations/long_term_supply/index.htm). A version of it was presented by EIA Administrator Jay Hakes to the American Association of Petroleum Geologists. The two images below are excerpted from that presentation. What was the EIA’s rationale at the time? How
Review July 5, 2010
Download Full PDF Peak Oil Review 1. Oil and the global economy Oil prices fell 8 percent last week from a high of $79 on Monday to close on Friday at $72.14. After it became apparent that hurricane Alex would stay well to the west of Gulf oil production, concerns over future economic growth took over and drove
John R. Boyce, University of Calgary economist
“The data resoundingly rejects … peak oil. In all aspects, I find the peak oil model an inadequate empirical representation of historical patterns. This is not to say that oil production may eventually peak. It does say that the peak oil model will have little, if anything, to say about it.”
Review June 28, 2010
Download Full PDF 1. Oil and the global economy After the brief euphoria following Beijing’s un-pegging of the Yuan on Monday, oil prices slipped lower for most of the week. On Friday, however, concerns about the effects the first gulf hurricane of the season might have on oil production sent prices sharply
Review June 21, 2010
Download Full PDF 1. Oil and the Global Economy Oil prices continued to move upwards this week from the low of $70 two weeks ago. On Wednesday oil touched $78, then closed at $77.18 on Friday. US crude inventories rose by 1.7 million barrels the week before last, raising concerns about long-term oversupply.
Ferdinand Banks, energy economist and widely published author
“What some observers call the shale gas ‘revolution’ might turn out to be no more than one of those mammoth ‘spin’ jobs that are mainly concerned with increasing somebody’s money and power. Personally, for reasons given below, I remain skeptical to a large part of the shale gas song-and-dance, but admittedly I could be completely wrong.”
The Oil Spill in Perspective
The oil spill resulting from the explosion of the Deepwater Horizon rig in the Gulf of Mexico is more than an environmental disaster–it’s a clear signal that our dependency on oil has reached a critical breaking point. The spectacle of the disaster, and the wrangling over who’s to blame for it, are distracting us from the serious discussion we should be having about the future of our energy
