.

It is commonly said that the automobile replaced the horse and buggy. I would add that normal people didn't ride around in buggies. Prior to the industrial revolution, most people couldn't afford a horse, and walked. Furthermore, most people spent their entire lives within 50 miles of where they were born. There is simply no comparison.

 

^...  True. Even farmers often didn't own buggies; they hitched a team of draft horses to the same wagon they used to haul hay and grain, and when they went to town it was a major effort that was made once a week at most and covered all the in-town business needs in one trip. My great-grandfather lived into the 1930s and never owned a car. He didn't even get a buggy until he retired from farming.

 

Most working-class city dwellers lived within a short walk of their jobs, and for that matter, so did business owners until streetcars came along. The invention of the safety bicycle, the bike as we know it today with relatively small wheels and chain drive, made a big difference in the lives of city folk of modest means

Here's a "killer" article...

_________________

 

Simmons: "BP is a pending Enron"

 

Aug. 9 (Bloomberg)

 

 

Article removed for lack of link

You're right KJP, that guy should sink an abiotic well and retire.  I've read some claims that some old oil reservoirs have magically filled back up with abiotic oil.  Gee, somehow, this has escaped the big oil companies as I don't see any of them sinking new wells in these supposed old fields.  It would be a heck of a lot cheaper than deepwater exploration...

 

Seriously, the abiotic theory of oil has been refuted in profesisonal and academic geology circles (there was an article on this very subject in Geotimes a few months back).  As someone with geology degrees, I can say that it made perfect sense.  The idea that abiotic oil coming to save us from the inevitable peak and decline is a pipe dream, or more bluntly put: a hallucination. 

 

 

Third U.S. Conference on “Peak Oil” and Community Solutions: Beyond Energy Alternatives

 

YELLOW SPRINGS, Ohio – Friday, Sept. 22 – Sunday, Sept. 24, 2006

Join us for this annual educational and networking opportunity for all individuals concerned about Peak Oil and working to make the change in their lives and communities.

 

    * Learn the latest information on Peak Oil and climate change and how it will affect our economy and our lives.

    * Discover the truth about the proposed energy alternatives.

    * Hear about solutions for food & farming, housing, and transportation, and how you can get involved.

    * Explore the concepts of relocalization, sustainability, agrarianism, and more.

    * Strategize with fellow Peak Oil activists, academics and community organizers in the largest gathering of the Peak Oil movement in the country.

 

Current speakers include:

 

    * Richard Heinberg – author, The Party’s Over and Powerdown

    * Vicki Robin – author, Your Money or Your Life; president, the New Road Map Foundation

    * Julian Darley – author, High Noon for Natural Gas; Director, Post Carbon Institute, co-author, Relocalize Now!

    * David Orr – chair, Environmental Studies Department, Oberlin College

    * Jeff Christian – director of Oak Ridge National Laboratory’s Building Technology Center

    * Peter Bane – publisher, Permaculture Activist magazine

    * Richard Olson – director, Sustainability and Environmental Studies Program, Berea College

    * Sharon Astyk – Community Supported Agriculture farmer, peak oil writer and activist

    * Pat Murphy – executive director, The Community Solution

    * Faith Morgan – director, The Power of Community: How Cuba Survived Peak Oil

    * Megan Quinn – outreach director, The Community Solution

 

Register at www.communitysolution.org

How much money did we spend on the Apollo missions? Manhattan project?

Iraq?

We spent the equivalent of about 45 billion dollars on the Manhattan project. I don't even want to know about space exploration. Our federal budget for energy research should be in the tens of billions per year. We're talking about the future of the world here. Other nations are growing fast and gaining economic power and we will be competing for a limited amount of oil. The problem with America is we only look a few years ahead and people like Bush think with their wallets and not their brain :[

CITY CLUB

Shell exec promotes new view of gas use

Saturday, August 26, 2006

John Funk

Plain Dealer Reporter

 

Shell Oil Co. wants you to become a conservationist.

 

The American division of the European-based oil giant Royal Dutch Shell is sending its president and top leadership team to 50 U.S. cities to help foster a "culture of conservation" - a change in your values about energy use at home, on the road and in the workplace.

 

But you don't have to scrap your SUV - unless you don't like paying so much to fill the tank. That would be the marketplace in action.

 

http://www.cleveland.com/business/plaindealer/index.ssf?/base/business/1156581363303530.xml&coll=2

Study: Hybrid cars will pay for themselves over time

With higher gas prices and tax incentives, some hybrid vehicles make economic sense, Edmunds.com says.

DETROIT (Reuters) -- Some hybrid cars will make up for their premium cost because of higher gas prices and tax credits from the U.S. government on the more fuel efficient vehicles, a study released Tuesday shows.

 

Hybrid cars and trucks, which get improved mileage in city driving by running on a combination of gas and electric power, cost between $1,200 and $7,000 more than traditional versions of the same vehicles, according to auto Web site Edmunds.com.

 

Edmunds.com is a partner providing data and content for CNN.com's automotive Websites.

 

http://www.cnn.com/2006/AUTOS/08/22/bc.autos.hybrids.reut/index.html 

 

I don't think a car owner would break even in only three years. If a person pays 5k extra for a hybrid version, they're paying a lot of interest on that extra 5k.

WOW!  That's a pretty comprehensive article!  On Bloomberg nonetheless.

http://www.steorn.net/en/technology.aspx?p=5

Thoughts?

http://www.steorn.net/en/technology.aspx?p=5

Thoughts?

 

Oh, gee! Now we're going to have to scrap all the physics texts and forget all the science we ever knew!

 

:roll:

 

Where can I buy stock in this company?

 

:weird:

Those who were prepared to complete testing have all confirmed our claims; however none will publicly go on record.

 

That should tell you something right there. In the Old West, such claims of more than 100 percent energy efficiency would earn for the braggard the brand of "snake oil salesman."

Haha. They claim they're publishing their findings in The Economist because they want to reach the general public.

Because average everyday people read The Economist...

 

They're putting their article there because foolish investors follow "The Economist" a lot more than "Scientific American".

Newton schmewton!  I just cut this guy a check for $10 grand!!!  I'll send you guys and your fancy "laws of thermodynamics" a postcard from the beach of my private island when this thing takes off!!!  :lol:

Chevron: More oil Gulf of Mexico

 

http://edition.cnn.com/2006/BUSINESS/09/05/chevron.reut/index.html

 

NEW YORK (Reuters) -- Chevron Corp said on Tuesday it had successfully drilled for oil in the Gulf of Mexico's deep waters and analysts said the find suggested there may be more oil in the region that provides a quarter of U.S. output.

 

During the test at record depths and pressure, the Jack No. 2 well flowed at more than 6,000 barrels of crude per day, Chevron said. That puts it on a par with discoveries in exploration hotspots such as the waters off Angola.

 

With U.S. oil output in decline, big new fields are increasingly rare and oil companies are widening their search to more difficult places. Chevron, the second largest U.S. oil company, did not give an estimate of the field's reserves.

Some brainwashed communist told me today that oil is in unlimited supply and that Russian scientists have proof to back up these claims and work for the Russian oil industry (the largest supplier)...

 

I wish I had a Soviet education.

^^ So what the media is saying is :"Yay! Now we don't have to give up our wasteful suburban lifestyle! Oil crisis solved!"

 

Glad to see they're doing their job of informing the public.

^^ So what the media is saying is :"Yay! Now we don't have to give up our wasteful suburban lifestyle! Oil crisis solved!"

 

That would certainly be the response of a drug, er, oil addict!

^^ So what the media is saying is :"Yay! Now we don't have to give up our wasteful suburban lifestyle! Oil crisis solved!"

 

Glad to see they're doing their job of informing the public.

 

That's not the motivation for such a claim. They're just trying to prove that the evil capitalistic western world is lying about the peak oil concept.. He said something about "self-renewing oil fields" in Russia and that in Russia they don't believe in peak oil.

The Gulf discovery doesn't refute peak oil at all. Drilling 20,000-foot wells beneath 7,000 feet of water is a pretty good example of going after oil that wouldn't have been considered economically recoverable twenty, or probably only ten years ago. Advances in exploration and drilling technology are less significant factors than escalating prices in making this sort of project attractive.

I saw $2:17 a gallon in Loveland today. Hopefully it lasts a while.

I bet SUV sales are already going up.

That's not the motivation for such a claim. They're just trying to prove that the evil capitalistic western world is lying about the peak oil concept.. He said something about "self-renewing oil fields" in Russia and that in Russia they don't believe in peak oil.

 

That's called the abiotic oil theory and is laughed at by all geologists.  The theory states that oil is somehow generated by the earth and bubbles up towards the crust so we can keep harvesting it.

 

I think it dates back to Stalin's days in Russia.  It makes sense that some Russians still believe in it too.  They damaged thier fields so badly during the Cold War by injecting massive amounts of water to keep the field pressure up.  They took some despirate measures (like the US) to keep thier massive machine running.  Twenty years later, the water and oil are separating out, and they can go back in and extract some of the oil left in the ground, hence thier belief that the fields "regenerated". It won't last forever though.  Oil still remains finite.

^^ So what the media is saying is :"Yay! Now we don't have to give up our wasteful suburban lifestyle! Oil crisis solved!"

 

That would certainly be the response of a drug, er, oil addict!

A picture is worth a thousand words

 

Well done!

This sounds more promising...

 

http://www.renewableenergyaccess.com/assets/images/story/2006/9/7/1332_chapple-USE.jpg;jsessionid=73A176B1238E343A71FF685C00168984

 

Purdue researchers believe that hybrid poplars and similar trees planted like row crops could be processed into ethanol as a renewable fuel.

 

Photo: Jake Eaton, Potlatch Corp.

 

 

Fast-Growing Poplars Could Be Ethanol Source

September 7, 2006

 

West Lafayette, Indiana [RenewableEnergyAccess.com] Purdue University researchers are using genetic tools to design trees that can readily and inexpensively yield the substances needed to produce ethanol. The Department of Energy's (DOE) Office of Biological and Environmental Research is funding the $1.4 million, three-year study.

 

A hybrid poplar tree is the basis for the research that is part of the DOE's goal to replace 30% of the fossil fuel used annually in the U.S. for transportation with biofuels by 2030.

 

The Purdue faculty members Clint Chapple, Richard Meilan and Michael Ladisch are focused on a compound in cell walls called lignin that contributes to plants' structural strength, but which hinders extraction of cellulose. Cellulose is the sugar-containing component needed to make the ethanol.

September 6, 2006

Big Oil Find Is Reported Deep in Gulf

By CLIFFORD KRAUSS

 

An announcement yesterday by three oil companies of a successful production test in the Gulf of Mexico — potentially the largest American oil find in a generation — was seen by experts as ushering in a new era in ultra-deepwater offshore drilling.

 

Chevron, Devon Energy and Statoil ASA, the Norwegian oil giant, reported that they had found 3 billion to 15 billion barrels in several fields 175 miles offshore, 30,000 feet below the gulf’s surface, among formations of rock and salt hundreds of feet thick.

 

While it is too early to know exactly how big the fields are, the oil companies expressed hope that they had the potential of being even larger than those at Prudhoe Bay, off the northern coast of Alaska.

 

http://www.nytimes.com/2006/09/06/business/worldbusiness/06oil.html?ex=1315195200&en=aadad2b19fb28e40&ei=5090&partner=rssuserland&emc=rss

^ As was said earlier...this actually shows peak oil at work.  A few years ago, this field wouldn't have been close to being economical to go after.  Remember, peak oil doesn't say that the world is running out of oil, only that it is running out of cheap oil. 

 

Also, this entire deepwater region may only produce a few hundred thousand barrels per day...and the US uses something like 20 million barrels per day.  You have to remember to look at production numbers, because as they say, you can't put reserves in your gas tank.

This was in the Sunday paper down here along the eastern edge of "oil country."

http://www.2theadvocate.com/news/business/3872607.html?showAll=y&c=y

 

Technology could recover 'stranded' oil

 

By TED GRIGGS

Advocate business writer

Published: Sep 8, 2006

 

The U.S. Department of Energy calls it a “Game Changer,” a technological breakthrough capable of doubling the amount of oil a field can produce by conventional methods.

 

Current production methods leave two-thirds of a reservoir’s oil below ground, or stranded, according to DOE. In Louisiana alone, 12.1 billion barrels of oil are stranded onshore; nationwide, 374 billion barrels of oil are considered stranded.

 

A process developed by Dandina N. Rao, an LSU petroleum engineering professor, would allow energy companies to recover 65 percent to 90 percent of the stranded oil. At today’s prices, that would be at least $550 billion worth of oil, just in Louisiana.

Saudi official: 82% of crude is untapped

 

http://www.boston.com/business/globe/articles/2006/09/14/saudi_official_82_of_crude_is_untapped/

 

By Associated Press  |  September 14, 2006

 

VIENNA -- The world has tapped only 18 percent of the total global supply of crude, a leading Saudi oil executive said yesterday, challenging the notion that supplies are petering out.

 

Abdallah S. Jum'ah, president and chief executive of the state-owned Saudi Arabian Oil Co., known better as Aramco, said the world has the potential of 4.5 trillion barrels in reserves -- enough to power the globe at current levels of consumption for another 140 years.

 

snip..

 

``The world has only consumed about 18 percent of its conventional potential," Jum'ah said, contending that should lay to rest fears that the world is in danger of being tapped out within a few decades.

 

Many experts estimate that the planet's recoverable oil resource is at least 3 trillion barrels and potentially more than 4 trillion barrels. If global consumption rises about 2 percent a year from today's levels of about 85 million barrels a day, they say, the low end of that range would only be enough to last until roughly 2070.

 

Rex W. Tillerson, chairman of Exxon Mobil Corp., said world demand for oil will increase by 50 percent in the next decade.

 

``When nations threaten to stop this flow, it stops economic progress worldwide," Tillerson said.

Not sure if this was posted yet but it is worth a watch on the Discovery/Times Channel

 

http://times.discovery.com/convergence/friedman/addictedtooil/addictedtooil.html?clik=times_leftnav

 

Addicted to Oil: Thomas L. Friedman Reporting

 

This one-hour documentary, reported by Pulitzer Prize-winning foreign affairs columnist, Thomas L. Friedman, explores his ideas for a "geo-green alternative," a multilayered strategy for tackling a host of problems, from the funding of terrorist supporters through our gasoline purchases, to strengthening our economy through innovative technology.

 

Addicted to Oil examines a wide variety of developments taking place across the energy spectrum, from hybrid car enthusiasts who are converting their autos into "plug-ins" and getting 300 miles to a gallon of gas, to the current state of the hydrogen fuel cell. Other areas explored include "flex-fuel" vehicles that can run on an assortment of biofuels such as ethanol, which emits virtually no greenhouse gases and can be made from almost any biomass — like sugar cane, corn and even certain types of grass. (For example, in Brazil, 40 percent of all fuel used by drivers is ethanol.) Solar and especially wind power have made great advances in practical technologies that are increasingly being used throughout the world. We'll also look at new "clean and green" coal plants that are being designed to sequesterallcarbondioxideemissions.

 

Global warming is no longer a matter of debate, but a proven problem of potentially catastrophic proportions. As Friedman discovers in the course of our program, there is much we could do immediately, with technology at hand, to break our addiction to oil — and developing technologies promise a future free of a sole dependence on fossil fuels, a truly post-oil era. It can be done, if we have the will and leadership to do it.

 

I was disappointed with Friedman's "Addicted to Oil." He succumbed to talking about trite, overused issues and didn't delve more deeply, which I would have expected from someone of his caliber.

Gas tumbles, but don't get used to it

Lundberg Survey: Pump prices fall nearly 15 cents a gallon, but colder weather will drive them back up.

October 8 2006: 5:23 PM EDT

 

ATLANTA (CNN) -- Gas prices declined an average of nearly 15 cents a gallon in the last two weeks, but are expected to begin rising as the winter approaches, the publisher of the national Lundberg Survey said Sunday.

 

The national average for a gallon of self-service, regular gasoline was $2.28 on the Oct. 6 survey date, compared to $2.42 two weeks earlier - a decline of about 14 cents, Lundberg told CNN.

 

Gas prices declined a whopping 75 cents during the eight weeks between Aug. 11 and Oct. 6, she added. The average gas price on Aug. 11 was $3.03 a gallon.

 

http://money.cnn.com/2006/10/08/news/economy/lundberg/index.htm?cnn=yes 

 

A couple of places in Fort Wayne hit $1.99 for regular unleaded, but that only lasted for a day or two before it headed back up. I didn't go anywhere today, but yesterday I think I saw $2.19 most places.

Seeking Alternative Energy Solutions

A convenient truth

Aart de Geus, Carl Guardino

 

Monday, October 16, 2006

 

San Francisco Chronicle

http://www.sfgate.com/cgi-bin/article.cgi?file=/chronicle/archive/2006/10/16/EDG6PKDSLQ1.DTL

 

John Muir said nearly a century ago, "When we try to pick out anything by itself, we find it hitched to everything else in the Universe."

 

That's the good news. It means that each of us can address overwhelming challenges, complex issues and diffuse responsibilities by taking action. It means we can do it both right now and right here. And it is especially true, and convenient, as we look at what we must do as individuals, businesses, communities and governments to develop alternative-energy solutions to tackle issues ranging from reducing America's dependence on foreign oil to taking on global climate change.

 

That's why this year the Silicon Valley Leadership Group looked at our long-term mission of reducing traffic congestion, supporting public transit, improving energy efficiency, enhancing our environment and increasing housing through smart-growth policies. Taken together, we realized it is a very strong foundation for regional leadership to reduce greenhouse gases.

Integrating Energy, Transportation, and Land Use:

 

http://nyc.theoildrum.com/story/2006/10/1/164022/722

Here's an outstanding article that I hope everyone will read.

 

_________________________

 

http://thearchdruidreport.blogspot.com/

 

Published on 26 Oct 2006 by The Archdruid Report

 

Politics: imperial sunset

by John Michael Greer

 

 

The coming of peak oil is driven by geological factors, not political ones, but the cascade of consequences that will follow the peaking and decline of world petroleum production can’t be understood outside the context of politics, on global, local, and personal scales.

 

As a religious leader who believes devoutly in the separation of church and state, it’s been my practice to keep politics out of these commentaries, in the probably vain hope that other clergypersons will notice one of these days that the barrier between religion and politics is there as much to protect them from politicians as it is to keep them from abusing their own positions.

 

Still, it’s impossible to make sense of peak oil outside of its political context, and so a few words on the subject can’t be avoided here. This is especially true on the global level, the subject of this week’s Archdruid Report, where the preeminent political fact of the age of peak oil is the impending decline – and, at least potentially, the catastrophic collapse – of America’s world empire.

I did read it KJP on Energy Bulletin.net.  I've read similar views on the empire stuff by quite a few others.  Unfortunately, it's a sound and likely accurate argument.   

World oil production may have peaked-executive

 

First few paragraphs:

 

World oil production may have peaked-executive

Scott Malone, Reuters

BOSTON - World production of crude oil may have already peaked, setting the stage for declining output that could lag demand, a top advocate of the "peak oil" theory said on Thursday.

 

Matthew Simmons, chairman of Simmons & Co. International, a Houston-based investment banking firm specializing in the energy sector, said U.S. government data showed that the world oil supply has declined through the first half of this year.

 

Energy Information Administration data showed world supply of crude oil has declined to 83.98 million barrels per day in the second quarter after hitting 84.35 million bpd in the fourth quarter of 2005.

 

"If you basically have another six to ten months of that decline lasting, then I think for certain we would look back and say, 'Guess what? We actually reached a sustainable peak in crude oil production in December 2005,'" Simmons said at a meeting of the United States of the the Association for the Study of Peak Oil and Gas.

(26 Oct 2006)

 

Video:  "The End of Suburbia" is now online at YouTube.com:

 

http://www.energybulletin.net/21693.html

 

3-Minute Promo can be viewed at Google Video:

 

http://video.google.com/videoplay?docid=5459242714549184261

This just in...  Osama bin Laden was named to lead a national task force on anti-terrorism, Jeff Skilling was appointed to direct a special advisory committee to Congress on ethics and recently retired Exxon CEO Lee Raymond was named by Bush to chair his energy task force to shape the nation's energy policy.

 

Guess which one of those "fox guarding the henhouse" scenarios is true? Answer is below....

______________________

 

http://www.exxposeexxon.com/newsroom/raymond.html

 

Bush Administration's Appointment Of ExxonMobil's Lee Raymond Draws Public Protest

Exxpose Exxon Activists Call for Fair Play

For Immediate Release: October 25, 2006

CONTACT: Shawnee Hoover (202)674-0922

Print Adobe Version

 

October 25, 2006 — Over 60,000 letters poured into the Energy Department last week in protest of the Bush administration's appointment of former ExxonMobil CEO Lee Raymond and the National Petroleum Council to chart America's energy future. On the eve of Exxon's third quarter profits report, Exxpose Exxon calls on the company to cast off the legacy of Lee Raymond and invest profits in America's future.

 

Lee Raymond, chair of the National Petroleum Council, is to provide the administration with policy recommendations for the long-term direction of the nation's energy policy. As chair, Mr. Raymond was granted the power to handpick the study's leadership.

 

"ExxonMobil is currently the worst of the oil giants fueling America's oil addiction," said Shawnee Hoover, campaign director of Exxpose Exxon. "Putting Exxon's Lee Raymond in charge of solving America's energy crisis is like putting Jack Abramoff in charge of solving political corruption."

FOR IMMEDIATE RELEASE

NOVEMBER 14, 2006

11:21 AM

 

CONTACT: Sierra Club

Josh Dorner, 202-675-2384

 

Big Three Asks Bush for More Rope to Hang Themselves

 

WASHINGTON - November 14 - As President Bush is scheduled to meet with the CEOS of General Motors, Ford, and DaimlerChrylser, the Sierra Club issued the following statement from Daniel Becker, Director of the Sierra Club's Global Warming program.

 

"Instead of focusing on innovation and 21st century vehicles, American auto industry executives are today asking the Bush administration for more rope with which to hang themselves. Today's meeting of the Big Three automaker executives with President Bush is an effort to blame others for Detroit's woes and to propose false solutions.

 

The unseen elephant in the room is the failure of the auto industry to produce more fuel efficient vehicles since the last major increase in fuel economy standards in the 1980's. Unless the industry modernizes, they will continue to lose sales to foreign automakers resulting in lost jobs and income and more closed plants.

 

"Much of the Big Three's failure to compete in the marketplace is the result of its refusal to build more fuel-efficient vehicles at a time when Toyota and Honda have led the industry. Instead of building vehicles that can compete in the marketplace, the auto industry is asking for more incentives for flex-fuel vehicles (FFVs) and hydrogen. Yet, even the President's own Department of Energy acknowledges that 99 percent of the time, FFVs don't run on ethanol.

 

"The auto industry likes to say that what you drive says a lot about you. In this case, it rings true. The CEOs of General Motors and Ford Motor Company are arriving at the White House in their company's best hybrid vehicles. But sadly, neither of these vehicles comes close to the fuel economy of Toyota and Honda's best hybrids, which also happen to have the highest sales. In General Motors' case, their first hybrid vehicle came on the market nearly 8 years after the first hybrid was sold in the United States; and DaimlerChrysler still doesn't make one.

 

"The Big Three have become technology laggards because for more than 25 years, they have been protected from higher fuel economy standards. They failed to invest in better technology while their competitors brought the next generation of vehicles to the market. America's oil addiction, more global warming pollution and the industry's current crisis are the direct result of the Big 3's failure to innovate.

 

"Making new cars and trucks go farther on a gallon of gas is the biggest single step we can take to saving money at the gas pump, curbing global warming, and cutting America's oil dependence. It is also the key to returning the American auto industry to profitability. The technology exists today to make all new vehicles - from sedans to pickups to SUVs - average 40 miles per gallon within ten years. This is auto mechanics, not rocket science. Taking this step would save four million barrels of oil per day - that's more oil than we currently import from the entire Persian Gulf and could ever get out of the Arctic National Wildlife Refuge, combined. If the automakers do their job and improve fuel economy, the U.S. can help them. The U.S. can provide health care assistance along with incentives to retrofit existing plants to build the next generation of clean vehicles and at the same time help consumers purchase these vehicles.

 

"It is time for President Bush to stop enabling the auto industry's bad decisions and start raising standards that will spur innovation, provide energy security, protect the environment, and save American jobs. The clock is ticking on the Big 3, if they fail to innovate, the will likely fail to exist."

 

###

saw this on drudge report

 

Historian says peak oil production is still a quarter-century away

http://www.realcities.com/mld/krwashington//16012061.htm

 

His projection seems to fly in the face of several predictions that appear to have already come true.

 

Even if he's right, it's folly to think of a quarter century as a long time and become complacent. Twenty-five years may look like a long time when you look forward, but when I look back, it doesn't seem like very long at all.

That's true. I was just looking through some photos I took from the early 1980s -- sometimes it seems like it was just last year.

 

The problem with global peak oil is we'll never know when we pass it until it several years have gone by. Same thing occurred when the U.S. passed its peak of oil production in the early 1970s. You just don't know if the decline you're experiencing is a temporary dip or a permanent slide until some time has passed to tell for certain.

This is an hour long interview with James Howard Kunstler about his book The Long Emergency from just over a year ago:

 

http://video.google.com/videoplay?docid=4878856748297910182

 

Matthew Simmons on peak oil at Boston University:

 

http://video.google.com/videoplay?docid=-429585738009344102

 

 

Big Oil’s tactics raise questions

Sunday, November 26, 2006

Jeff Donn

ASSOCIATED PRESS

 

BAKERSFIELD, Calif. — You’d think it was Texas. Dusty roads course the scrubland toward oil tanks and warehouses. Beefy men talk oil over burritos at lunch. Like grazing herds, oil wells dip nonstop amid the tumbleweed.

 

That’s why the rumor sounded so wrong here in California’s lower San Joaquin Valley, where petroleum has gushed up more riches than the whole gold rush. Why would Shell Oil Co. close its Bakersfield refinery? Why scrap a profit maker?

 

The rumor seemed to make no sense. Yet it was true.

 

http://dispatch.com/news-story.php?story=dispatch/2006/11/26/20061126-B2-00.html

I don't know about the logic used in this article.  A company has to make educated decisions.  They look at the cost of a project vs. the benefit that it would bring.  Obviously, if the price of oil is low many projects never get off the ground.  I don't see a huge conspiracy here, just capitalism at work.