The issue of “Peak Oil” is a hotly debated one. Peak Oil marks the point when the amount of oil available for recovery and use begins to decline. According to a report leaked to the German magazine Der Speigel there is
“some probability that peak oil will occur around the year 2010 and that the impact on security is expected to be felt 15 to 30 years later.”
Whenever the point of Peak Oil is reached, there is little chance of immediate shortages. However as oil supplies diminish, prices will rise and oil-as-a-weapon becomes a real issue which must be dealt with far in advance of the effects actually being felt.
According to a study published by the highly regarded Cambridge Energy Research Associates:
It is impossible to be precise about the timing of this event, but given the pace at which demand has increased in the past decade a pivot point may well be reached before the middle of this century.
That’s 40 years in the future. Forty years ago was 1971 … time does fly by.
Our imports continue unabated, the United States must immediately look to alternatives to oil as our principal transportation fuel. The Pickens Plan has called for taking immediate steps to move America’s heavy truck fleet from burning imported diesel to running on domestic natural gas. While that, in and of itself, would not delay “Peak Oil,” it would have the effect of weaning the U.S. off much of its need for foreign oil and beginning, in earnest, a domestic alternative fuels program.
To read the entire essay on peak oil, click HERE
— The Pickens Team