Finally, I have found an extremely well written piece about “peak oil” that puts everything on the table. I couldn’t have written it better myself. This editorial from The Patriot News urges us to declare an “energy emergency” and dispels many of the myths surrounding the United States’ energy consumption.
Myth #1: Greedy oil companies are at fault for high oil prices. Although they are making plenty of money, the real culprit is the fact that there is only a finite amount of the stuff in the world, and we have already used more than half of it. Duh.
Myth #2: US oil fields in Alaska or elsewhere will save us all. Nope. Apparently it has been found that the US only has about 2 percent of the world’s oil reserves, and we are already producing 8 percent of world oil today. That won’t work.
Myth #3: Some amazing silver-bullet technology like fuel cells or electric cars will be the answer. This is something I’ve been harping on for a while, the point is that there is not one single answer to this problem, in the end, it will be a variety of technologies that gets us out of this mess.
Myth #4: Oil sands, oil shale and tar sands have plenty of oil for the forseeable future. This is simply wishful thinking. Not only is the extraction process of these things extremely dirty, they don’t produce nearly as much as current oil fields. Compare 3 million gallons a day to the 87 million we are currently consuming each day, and you will see that it just doesn’t add up.
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