Whatever happened to Peak Oil?

Seemed like for a while damned near every other thread was about Peak Oil. Now there are none? Whats going on?

Don

when it's not it doesn't?

and you might read more about it there.

Al Gore's electric bill have us distracted.

n/t

As much as we might want to believe in our own enlightenment we are a lot like everybody else - subject to the same fads and fickleness as any other group of individuals.

Bryant
Check it out --> http://politicalcomment.blogspot.com

is the thicker harder to extract oil but it needed the price of oil to exceed a certain price (I believe $28/barrrel) to make it cost effective to extract. I believe this is what helped Venezuela in becoming a player. Anyway the need for alternative fuels due to global warming also plays a more urgent role.

Richard Heinberg, the author of several books on the peak oil topic, responded to Palast's misrepresentations of the subject in 'Armed Madhouse' in an open letter last July -> http://www.energybulletin.net/17914.html

...that thicker, more expensive oil requires more energy to extract and refine (that's why the oil is more expensive). So, though there's oil, the energy returned on energy invested falls. Back in the 1950's EROEI was anywhere between 50-80x. On some of these alternate sources of oil EROEI falls under 10x and in some cases less than 1x (which means the alternative is an energy sink, not an energy source).

The notion that peak oil is a fad is bunk. That we may be at the plateau of Hubbert's Peak is not a stretch of fantasy but supported by demand and supply curves looked at from the vantage of time. THe size of new discoveries dwindle, the cost to extract from new sites rise, and output from aging reservoirs decline. Aggregate discovery of new supplies has been falling behind rising global demand and the declining output of mature fields for some time. The net is global reserves will decline.

Hitting the peak does not mean tomorrow the oil spigots run dry; it just means oil prices rise from that point on, with some pretty harsh socio-politico-economic consequences that unfold over decades. Oil is still over $60 bbl and would be much higher if world recession was not looming.

Peak oil also means future wars and skirmishes over control of dwindling supplies. What were the first two US military invasions this century really all about? Why the failed coup in Venezuela? THe answer is Peak Oil, something our Oil pResident, Oil VP, and Oil Secretary of State are all keenly aware of.

talk here on DU, since Palast is popular here.

I actually had this conversation with Palast (I hosted a fundraising event at my home where he was guest speaker.) It was just after many in attendence had watched "End of Suburbia", and were interested in Palast's different take. He did not bulge in his opinion and neither did we. I believe that global warming will hopefully (of course I'm horrified about the climate but it will force drastic changes) diminish the importance.

The fact that extraction of expensive hard-to-get oil has begun is evidence that peak oil is happening. Unlike what Palast would have us believe, peak oil is not about having run out of oil, but about declining oil production capacity.

The issues are still out there, but the media reporting (and thus new threads) comes and goes.

I don't know why folks think oil isn't "damned expensive" right now. $60+ a barrel would be considered expensive no matter when.

But 300% more expensive than it has been for decades up to some 6 years ago.
Maybe people have short attention span.

but in a dedicated forum.
That forum to is rather quiet these days, but the consensus seems to be that we're at the peak now.
http://www.democraticunderground.com/discuss/duboard.php?az=show_topics&forum=266