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Governments Urged to Get Ready for Peak Oil (video and transcript)
Ashley Hall, The World Today (ABC Australia)
ELEANOR HALL [host]: Theories abound about why the price of oil has been skyrocketing. The head of OPEC says the weak US dollar and continuing tensions about Iran’s nuclear program are to blame. Economists say speculators are playing a role, as is soaring demand from India and China.
But those who subscribe to the theory of peak oil say the price is high because the resource is running out. The convenor of the Australian Society for the Study of Peak Oil and Gas, Bruce Robinson, has told Ashley Hall that it’s time for governments to stop denying the inevitable.
BRUCE ROBINSON: The real reason that oil prices have been going up is probably geological. We’re probably coming close to peak oil, that’s the time when global oil production will start declining. When, regardless of the economic factors, the geology just won’t be able to keep up.
ASHLEY HALL [reporter]: So this explanation that speculators have been driving the price or it’s soaring demand from developing nations like China and India don’t really make a difference if we’re approaching that peak spot?
BRUCE ROBINSON: Well the soaring demand, you know, increases the pressure on the supply that we’re getting at the moment. But yes, so there’s the speculators and things. Everyone is trying to think of a reason so they can avoid mentioning the real problem of resource depletion.
… Our first recommendation for governments would be to try to raise the community awareness, the community engagement about the problem. Not keep it in the dark, not put everyone and things. Secondly we should try to be more frugal, more efficient. One of the other things that we should be doing is that people should be immunising their children against automobile dependence.
We are very close to addicted to cars. And kids who know how to ride a bike to get somewhere, to catch a bus, the people who can think that kids can only go anywhere if mum takes them in the big car, those kids are going to be very poorly prepared for when there is not enough petrol to go around, and that might be quite soon.
ASHLEY HALL: So we’re talking about, essentially, re-evaluating our entire lifestyle?
BRUCE ROBINSON: I don’t think it’s anything dramatic. The community would be much better if we had a 30 per cent oil shortage suddenly, or if we prepared for it. I mean, the road toll would halve, there would be 800 people a year not killed, 15,000 not admitted to hospital. There’d be many more fitter kids.
ELEANOR HALL: Bruce Robinson from the Australian Society for the Study of Peak Oil and Gas, speaking there to Ashley Hall.
(27 June 2008)
Transcript and audio at original.
Out of gas
Michael McCarthy, Vancouver Courier
Gazing out his kitchen window in Kitsilano, Richard Balfour can see a clear picture of the future. We are running out of oil, says the founder of the Vancouver Peak Oil Executive, a group of local planners and community organizers concerned about this dilemma and looming crisis that will have a major impact on Vancouver in the near future.
“We are in for a very hard landing,” says Balfour, an architect, recently retired member of the Vancouver City Planning Commission and co-founder of the newly formed volunteer organization Metro Vancouver Planning Coalition. “Anything to do with oil will rise sharply in price, and so much of what we consume is dependent upon oil. We can expect imported food prices to jump as aviation and maritime fuel costs increase, and anyone driving a vehicle that’s a gas guzzler is in for a painful adjustment… There are lots of people who tell you this won’t happen, but these deniers said oil would never go past $100 a barrel.
… What does this mean to the homeowner in Kitsilano and the commuter from Surrey? Balfour says the problem facing Vancouver doesn’t lie in arguing about whether peak oil has already occurred, or if or when it will, but how the rapidly increasing cost of oil and oil by-products–which is obviously happening–will affect our way of life and what we need to do about it. The global food crisis which began recently is one example; Balfour lists problems Vancouver needs to deal with as soon as possible, like transportation and housing.
Balfour is 60, and has called Kitsilano home for 35 years. Like many of his neighbours, he’s an “empty nester”–his two grown children have left home. Like others faced with rising gas prices, he’s thinking of selling his old Suzuki station wagon for something better on gas.
The real issue, according to Balfour and other members of the Vancouver Peak Oil Executive, is not whether peak oil has arrived but whether anybody in power is paying attention to the ancillary costs, or if they prefer to listen to the prognosticators who predict that somebody–in the high-tech field, or in government or science–will ride into town on a white horse and save the day.
(27 June 2008)
Interview with Jeffrey J. Brown, oil exploration geoscientist (audio)
Jason Bradford, The Reality Report
The Reality Report interviews Jeffrey J. Brown, an oil exploration geoscientist, primarily in Texas. We discuss the rapid rise in the price of oil, how this is being covered by media, political reactions, and the need to transform from an economy of mass global consumers to one of local producers. Jeff Brown is a contributor to the website http://graphoilogy.blogspot.com/
(16 June 2008)
Drill, Drill, Drill: My Interview with Anadarko Petroleum CEO James Hackett
Larry Kudlow, Money Politics (CNBC)
What follows below is an unofficial transcript of my interview last night with James Hackett. Mr. Hackett is the president & CEO of Anadarko Petroleum. He also happens to be an incredibly bright man whose thoughts and ideas on energy are right on the money.
… Kudlow: …What do you say to the peak oil crowd? You don’t sound like you believe in peak oil.
Hackett: I think that the peak oil is determined by price. And I think that it is also determined by what you allow to be alternative forms of energy. I think there are places in the world where peak oil has not occurred. I do think that oil will not be able to grow to the sky in terms of supply, forever and ever. I think it’s harder to get. It’s getting more expensive to get. I think that we need to continue to develop a broad based fuel sourcing, including nuclear energy. But prices are having some effect. It’s both impacting demand, which we all need to conserve a lot more than we do. We’ve become a very lazy country since the late 70s. Nobody talks about conservation. They’re talking about taxing the oil industry, instead of talking about turning off your air-conditioners, or driving smaller cars, which is what we really need to do. It has that immediate impact.
Kudlow: Well isn’t the high price a blessing? Doesn’t the high price cause conservation? And doesn’t the high price cause production, if it were deregulated?
Hackett: Absolutely. It’s Economics 101. We don’t have to have the government necessarily solve this for us. But it’s not to say that anybody likes [higher] prices. Because it’s not necessarily good for companies like us. It’s not good for demand. But it is having the intended effect. People are riding in buses. They’re taking mass transit. And they’re [creating a smaller] environmental footprint by virtue of doing that. We are finding new supplies in more and more remote parts of the world where you can’t do that at $30 oil.
(24 June 2008)
The logo for Kudlow & Company says: “Pro-Growth, Strong Defense, Virtuous Values, Business, and Stocks.” Mr. Kudlow is depicted with a flag pin. -BA
