In response to John's Peak Oil post, a reader writes:
Tar Sands, fracking and deep water drilling actually PROVE Peak Oil. These techniques are only attractive because the cheap oil is being used up. Peak Oil predicts that as sources in each price tier are tapped out, production moves to the next least expensive tier.
Cue eerie flashback music. On November 15, 2006 I wrote:
What do economic models predict? As oil becomes more scarce, oil will become more difficult to find, more difficult to extract and less profitable. In short, prices will rise. As prices rise there will be incentives for additional exploration (if you can make more money, you'll look for more oil), incentives for conservation (who likes to pay high prices?), and incentives for investment in alternative energies (hydrogen may not be cost effective now, but if gas hits $10 a gallon, it might be). The upshot: peak oil doesn't matter. There's no particular significance to reaching the peak, the real problems come when we reach the bottom of the hill.
Sheesh.
Use the tool to the right (no, John isn't sitting next to me), to Google "Peak Oil" on our site. I think you'll see where we stand.
