Barreling Toward Peak Oil

The amount of oil consumed in the world is unbelievable—85 million barrels a day. And we are not making more of it.

People throw around the term "peak oil," but that doesn't mean the system will run out of oil. It means the amount of oil you're gaining by finding new oil fields—and bringing them onstream—is equal to the losses you're taking as other fields run down. The U.S. was the first country to peak in 1970, but that was a seamless transition since the oil companies just brought in more oil on tankers. Now the U.S. is importing about 67 percent of its oil.

The business of peaking is now usual: There are 30 non-OPEC countries with significant production. Thirteen of these have peaked or are about to peak, and they contribute some 52 percent of the oil volume outside OPEC.

http://www.businessweek.com/magazine/content/10_23/b4181086607101.htm

and our Michael Klare "Resources War" in Iraq-Afghanistan are strong evidence that we attained peak oil.

"Now, let me make one broader point though, about energy. Um, the fact that oil companies now have to go a mile underwater and then drill another three miles below that in order to hit oil, tells us something about the direction of the oil industry! Extraction is more expensive and it is going to be inherently more risky. And so, that's part of the reason you never heard me say, 'Drill, Baby, Drill!' Because we can't drill our way out of the problem. It may be part of the mix as a bridge to a transition to new technologies and new energy sources. But we should be pretty modest in understanding that the easily accessible oil has already been sucked out of the ground. And, as we are moving forward, the technology gets more complicated, the oil sources are more remote, and that means that there's probably going to end up being more risk. And we as a society are going to have to make some very serious determinations in terms of what risks are we willing to accept. And that's part of what the commission, I think, is going to have to look at. I will tell you though, that understanding we need to grow, we're going to be consuming oil for our industries and for how people live in this country, we're going to have to start moving on this transition! And that's why when I went to the Republican Caucus just this week, I said to them, 'Let's work together'. You've got Lieberman and Kerry, who previously were working with Lindsay Graham, even though Lindsay's not on the bill right now, coming up with a framework that has the potential to get bipartisan support. And says, yes, we are going to still need oil production, but you know what? We can see what's out there on the horizon and it's a problem if we don't start changing how we operate."

http://americanjudas.blogspot.com/2010/05/president-obama-cautiously-spells-out.html