Energy Crisis

This is too important not to share. I’ve been reading this guy for about five years; he knows what he’s talking about (look up “Matt Simmons” if you like) and he makes a lot of sense in this video clip.

This thing, if it’s anywhere close to what they describe, would rock.

Therefore?  We’ll never see one.

I don’t know how y’all feel about the energy situation. I know I’ve been preachy from time to time, but I try not to harp on things. Besides, you know how I tend to look at the rather dark side of issues.

But the editors at The Oil Drum have posted a great piece encouraging a broader and more informed discourse about energy and oil in particular. Well worth a few minutes to read.

Posts tagged Peak Oil per day for the last 30 days.

Get your own chart!

Gasoline.

Gotta have it, right?

I work next to a gas station. Not right next to it, but our building is next to it.

Wednesday Afternoon: $2.41
Thursday morning: $2.45
Thursday afternoon: $2.47
Friday morning (two hours ago) $2.51
Now $2.57

God knows what it will be by the time I get off work!

Let me guess: it’s a hurricane! No, wait, not hurricane season yet. I know, terrorists blew up a refinery! Nope, not that, either. Let’s see. “Summer Fuels” having to be made? No, nothing special around here in the summer time (which isn’t for several months yet, anyway). Crap. Spring break is over (last time it went up thirty cents overnight was the day before spring break) and parents weekend isn’t for a couple of weeks. Memorial day? No, not yet.

I know! The oil company want to try and set a new record profit!

What else can it be?

This is not “shocking” nor “surprising,” but watch our officials try and act like it is.

Lil’ ol me, who is not in the oil industry, has been reading about this for at least the past five years. Probably longer.

Simple math: We need more oil than we can produce. Even if we “cut back,” we’ll need more oil than we can produce. And where do we get that oil from? “Unstable parts of the world.” Who have us by the balls.

Plugged in: The hard truth about oil

It’s not every day that an industry best known for keeping its head down takes issue with the President of the United States on the subject of ending our dependence on foreign oil. But that’s exactly what happened on Tuesday when an Exxon Mobil (Research) exec had the courage to say aloud what every oil insider in the world knows — America isn’t going to be ‘energy independent’ anytime soon, if ever.

‘Realistically, it is simply not feasible in any period relevant to our discussion today,’ Exxon Senior V.P. Stuart McGill told the crowd at a Houston energy conference, according to Reuters.

Referring to the gap between imports and domestic production — which is about 10 million barrels, or half our daily consumption, McGill said, ‘Americans depend upon imports to fill the gap. No combination of conservation measures, alternative energy sources and technological advances could realistically and economically provide a way to completely replace those imports in the short or medium term.’