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Lawmakers: US should prepare for global oil flow peak
Nick Snow, Oil & Gas Journal
WASHINGTON, DC — While there is disagreement about when world crude oil production will hit its peak, the US should begin preparing for it now, two US House members told an Energy and Commerce subcommittee hearing on Dec. 7.
Reps. Roscoe G. Bartlett (R-Md.) and Tom Udall (D-NM) led off the hearing before the Energy and Air Quality Subcommittee because they lead the House Peak Oil Caucus, which has six other members.
“We started it to bring immediate and serious attention to this issue. The continued prosperity of the United States depends on its ability to act on this,” Udall explained.
Bartlett, who has given 14 special-order speeches before the House on the subject since March, cited Shell Oil Co. geologist M. King Hubbert’s 1956 prediction that US oil production would peak around 1970.
…Udall called for a government initiative comparable to developing the atomic bomb at the end of World War II and putting a man on the moon in the 1960s.
“Over the past 100 years, fueled by cheap oil, the United States has led the revolution in the way the world operates. Replacing this resource is imperative in continuing our way of life,” he said.
But three witnesses on a second panel varied in their recommendations and assessments of the situation. So did several members of the subcommittee.
“The United States, with 5% of the world’s population, should not continue to consume 25% of the world’s oil production if other countries are to have their fair share,” said Kjell Aleklett, a radiation sciences professor at Uppsala University in Sweden.
He added that a global effort will be necessary to address the peak-oil problem, and technologically advanced countries such as the US will have to take the lead.
Robert L. Hirsch, senior energy program advisor at Science Applications International Corp., Alexandria, Va., said SAIC recently concluded, in an analysis commissioned by the US Department of Energy, that a maximum effort will be needed to mitigate problems resulting from the world’s hitting an oil production peak.
“The timing was left open because we don’t know when it would occur,” Hirsch said. “But if we wait until it does, the world will have a problem with adequate liquid fuels for more than two decades. If we initiate a program more than 20 years before it occurs, we have a possibility of avoiding the problem.”
(7 December 2005)
FoxNews (!!!) also had a good article on the hearing:
Rep. offers ‘Man on the moon’ problem-solving to combat Oil shortage
Lundberg: Reflections on my Amtrak peak-oil tour
Jan Lundberg, Culture Change
After a going away party, on September 6 I took a train from Emeryville, California bound for Washington, DC. That was my base for five conferences, mostly in the Eastern U.S., where I had been hired to speak on peak oil and petrocollapse. Here’s some of what I said, and what I learned during my odyssey…
(7 December 2005)
Book review: “The Final Energy Crisis”
Mike Stasse, EnergyResources
I can’t say I enjoyed it. How can you ‘enjoy’ so much grim stuff? Having said that, however, it’s a darn good read, and I really recommend everyone on this list buy a copy, and pass it on. It must
be read.
(6 December 2005)
Published by Pluto Press. For more information, see also >The Final Energy Crisis. Edited by Andrew McKillop with Sheila Newman.
Analysis: The future of oil
Andrea R. Mihailescu, UPI via World Peace Herald
WASHINGTON — Some industry experts argue new technologies can maximize oil usage with the discovery of more oil fields and extract more oil from current and future fields, while others debate the feasibility of technology saving “peak oil.”
The United States, the world’s largest oil and gas importer, produces some 8 percent of the world’s oil, but consumes some 25 percent, of which it imports nearly 60 percent from foreign nations, according to studies. That figure is expected to continue to climb from some 25 million barrels per day in 2005 to nearly 33 million bpd in 2025, according to the U.S. Energy Information Administration.
Rep. Roscoe Bartlett, R-Md., is expected to testify as a lead witness Wednesday at a congressional hearing to address the inevitable challenges of peak o
(6 December 2005)
World oil production doom scientist decries editors
Gary Scott, Ontario (CA) Daily Bulletin
PASADENA – There it was, laid out in a simple linear graph for everyone to see: the end of the age of oil.
For anyone who fears oil companies run the White House, fumes at the thought of drilling in the Arctic National Wildlife Refuge or deems global warming doubters deranged, there had to be something perversely gratifying about the picture of doom on display Thursday at Caltech’s Beckman Auditorium.
“The peak of world oil production is happening right now,” Ken Deffeyes, professor emeritus at Princeton University, confidently declared. “Here is the most important story since the Industrial Revolution.”
And when Deffeyes said “right now,” he meant it.
According to his calculations, world oil production reached its peak on Thanksgiving Day 2005, and now starts on a steady decline until it reaches zero near the end of the century. Deffeyes, a geologist, bases his conclusions on a production chart developed by M. King Hubbert, a Shell Oil Co. geophysicist who, in the 1950s, accurately predicted the rise and fall of U.S. oil production.
… [Deffeyes] went so far as to attack news articles for including critical voices, saying attempts at being fair have obscured the truth.
“Editors are one of the great enemies of the people right now,” he said.
(4 December 2005)
A a more complete version of Deffeyes’ criticism is that the media often cover important issues superficially. Instead of presenting intelligent analysis, they quote two different sides, without investigating the trustworthiness of the sources or the underlying issues. This isn’t fair journalism; it’s lazy journalism. It favors well financed propaganda sources. -BA
“End of Suburbia” video now on-line
Electric Wallpaper, Google Video
We had a report that the “End of Suburbia” video is now online at the new “Google Video” service.
[ UPDATE: This was not authorised by The End of Suburbia producers, so we have removed the link. -AF 9 Dec 05 ]
Video website is http://www.endofsuburbia.com/.
Post-Carbon website is http://www.postcarbon.org.
-BA
(4 December 2005)
