Article

2017-07-29 Economy

Peak Oil: What Ever Happened to Hubbert's Peak?

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Posted by g(r)omgoru 2017-07-29 04:49|| || Front Page|| [11132 views ] Top

#1 "Peak oil" is a conceit and an edifice designed to:

1) Gin up fake demand for other types of energy production to hurt an industry that tends to donate to Republicans and conservatives.

2) Scare people into support for a "carbon exchange" that leads to more financial instruments from which money can be skimmed by the financial services industry, which is firmly Democratic in their leanings these days.

Always keep in mind that despite what conventional wisdom might be, the Democrats always, ALWAYS have superior accountants than the Republicans do.

Posted by no mo uro 2017-07-29 05:18|| 2017-07-29 05:18|| Front Page Top

#2 ...When the Dems take Congress back - and sadly, I think it's going to be next year at the rate things are going - watch for a full-court press to throttle back anything even resembling energy exploration. Can't lose the narrative, ya know.

Mike

Posted by Mike Kozlowski 2017-07-29 05:36|| 2017-07-29 05:36|| Front Page Top

#3 In the Victorian Age we had "Peak Lubricants" where the early Industrial Age was running out of bear grease, whale oil, palm oil and other lubricants -- then the Age of Petroleum. The naysayers always seem to ignore the power of technology to search for and find a substitute.

Posted by magpie 2017-07-29 07:37|| 2017-07-29 07:37|| Front Page Top

#4 the Democrats always, ALWAYS have superior ~~accountants~~ crooks than the Republicans FIFY no-mo-uro.

Mike: I also worry that the Pubs will snatch defeat from the jaws of victory. They don't seem to have caught on that the Pubs have been winning with Trump's MAGA agenda.

Posted by JohnQC 2017-07-29 09:52|| 2017-07-29 09:52|| Front Page Top

#5 A brief history of American oil production would note that our government first warned that we needed to wean ourselves from ground based hydrocarbons because the were certain to run out a full 10 years before the 1st oil well was even drilled, or the midst of the Mexican War. Move on to the 1880's and one of the largest stock transactions, one of such magnitude that it took nearly 2 years to complete involved the number 3 man in Standard Oil selling out completely. His reasoning? the most learned scientists of his day had warned of the narrowly finite resources of oil and that in their opinion he should get while the getting was still good.

Not enough? In 1897 or perhaps '98 the preeminent geologist in the country announced to a conference of prominent businessmen that he could say with total assurance that there would be 'no commercially viable discoveries of hyrdrocarbons west of the Mississippi in North America'. In 1900 a group of concerned scientists ran an editorial about the dangerous and irresponsible trend of drilling into salt domes which they went on to say could only result in the maiming and death of innocent and hard working crews and the ruin of good equipment. The next year Spindletop came in from a salt dome.

1923 the US government issues an urgent cry to use less oil, at the rate of driving and manufacture the current supply would not last beyond 1940. Then there was the renowned nitwit Hubbert in the 1950's and a continuing line of Luddites who know as much about oil production as they do the end of the world.

Posted by Cesare 2017-07-29 10:56|| 2017-07-29 10:56|| Front Page Top

#6 ...the Democrats always, ALWAYS have superior accountants than the Republicans do.

That hurts, man...

Posted by Raj 2017-07-29 13:35|| 2017-07-29 13:35|| Front Page Top

#7 With the obvious glaring exceptions.

Posted by Shipman 2017-07-29 14:19|| 2017-07-29 14:19|| Front Page Top

#8 Cesare, that was masterful. I hadn't realized the concern went so far back.

Posted by trailing wife 2017-07-29 18:27|| 2017-07-29 18:27|| Front Page Top

#9 The peak is real - it is a finite resource - but rising price and improved technology have pushed the peak further out into the future for many decades. IMO we should be taking advantage of that time extension to develop alternatives, probably a combination of nuclear, solar and energy storage technologies. But government should not 'pick inners' or define the solution, just define the goal and get out of the way.

Posted by Glenmore 2017-07-29 20:31|| 2017-07-29 20:31|| Front Page Top

23:32 Dron
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