Wake-up call to U.S. on oil? (Chicago Tribune)

http://www.chicagotribune.com/business/chi-0607180238jul18,1,3732960.story?coll=chi-business-hed&ctrack=1&cset=true

WASHINGTON -- The price of oil fell back from record highs on Monday but the risk of another spike in the cost of petroleum remained high as fighting continued in the volatile Middle East.

Some oil analysts said the hostilities should serve as both a warning and a wake-up call to America that it is time to deal with the nation's precarious energy situation and what President Bush has called the country's addiction to oil.

If fighting should take a sharper turn for the worse, analysts said they would not be surprised to see the price of oil approach or surpass $100 a barrel and pose a threat to the economic recovery.

At the beginning of the year, such a prospect would have been dismissed as unthinkable. Today, analysts said, it cannot be ruled out, especially if the fighting leads to a supply disruption by Iran, one of the region's major oil producers.

<more>

....so BushCo keeps the pot boiling with Iraq War, war on terrorism, threats against Iran and Syria and uses Israeli government as an agent to carry out and fuel U.S. policies of aggression, counter terror and torture.

There are quite a few prominent petroleum geologists and geophysicists out there -- people who have worked in the oil industry for DECADES -- who are sounding the alarms about supply right now.

Peak oil doesn't seem like a "peak" when you hit it, because at that point more oil is being extracted from the ground than at any previous point in history. The problem is that "peak" is not followed by rates of extraction continuing upward to match growing demand. Rather, it is followed by a plateau (at best) to a sharp decline (at worst).

People scoffed at M. King Hubbert's 1956 prediction of a 1970 peak in the lower-48 when that time came, because the US was never pulling more oil out of the ground. However, in the following years as production gradually declined -- Hubbert was proved to be completely right.

I'm afraid that Colin Campbell, Kenneth Deffeyes, Chris Skrebowski and the others trying to warn us of peak oil will be proven right. All of which makes it more of a shame that the mainstream media spends so much time quoting David "oil production will increase forever" Yergin as their chosen "voice of reason". :eyes: