THE PROGRESSIVE CONSERVATIVE, USA
An Online Journal of Political Commentary & Analysis
Volume IX, Issue # 191, October 14, 2007
Dr. Almon Leroy Way, Jr., Editor
Government Committed to & Acting in Accord with Conservative Principles
Ensures a Nation's Strength, Progress, & Prosperity
NOT "PEAK OIL," BUT LOTS MORE OIL
By Alan Caruba
PETROLEUM & THE ENVIRONMENTALIST MOVEMENT: THE WORLD'S ACTUAL & POTENTIAL OIL & NATURAL GAS
RESERVES FAR EXCEED THE ESTIMATES OF THE ADHERENTS OF THE "PEAK OIL" THESIS -- DUE TO THE INFLUENCE OF
LIBERAL LEFTISTS & POLITICAL ENVIRONMENTALISTS UPON THE U.S. GOVERNMENT, THE PETROLEUM INDUSTRY IS
PROHIBITED FROM EXPLORING THE ALASKA NATIONAL WILDLIFE RESERVE & 85 PERCENT OF ALL AMERICAN TERRITORIAL
WATERS -- THE U.S. CONGRESS, CURRENTLY CONTROLLED BY THE DEMOCRATIC PARTY & THE ENVIRONMENTALIST
MOVEMENT, IS MORE CONCERNED ABOUT A BOGUS GLOBAL WARMING THAN IT IS ABOUT ENABLING THE U.S.A. TO MEET
ITS ENERGY NEEDS FOR INDUSTRY, TRANSPORTATION, & HOME HEATING & COOLING
FULL STORY:
There was an interesting news item out of Moscow in late September, 2007, to which most people probably paid little
heed. “Russia is one of several countries that have rushed to lay claims to the area where a U.S. study suggests as
much as 25 percent of the world’s undiscovered oil and gas could be hidden.”
Earlier the Russians sent two small submarines to plant a tiny national flag under the North Pole. In response, Canada
vowed to increase its icebreaker fleet and build two new military facilities in the Artic and Denmark sent a team of
scientists to seek evidence that the ridge in question was attached to its territory of Greenland.
When it comes to oil and natural gas, nations have no sense of humor, even if, in the case of the United States, they
often display an astonishing lack of good sense. You are no doubt familiar with the long fight over permitting drilling in
Alaska’s Natural Wildlife Reserve, where it’s estimated there are billions of barrels of untapped oil, but you are surely
going to be surprised to learn that the oil industry is excluded from exploring 85 percent of all American territorial waters.
U.S. President George W. Bush is fond of saying that America is “addicted” to oil, but he might as well say that
Americans are addicted to water or food. It’s not an addiction. It is a perfectly rational requirement of not only our own,
but every other nation’s need for energy to power its industry, its homes, and its transportation needs. Before Bush,
former President Jimmy Carter became convinced in the 1970s that all the proven reserves of oil would shortly be used up.
As Duncan Clarke, Chairman and CEO of Global Pacific & Partners and the author of a new book, The Battle for
Barrels, points out regarding America’s continental shelf, “The undiscovered oil potential in the areas demarcated for
possible offshore (exploration) in the Pacific, Atlantic, and Gulf of Mexico could allow the tapping of up to 85 billion barrels
of oil that technically could be recoverable [but this] awaits the political passage of bills through the legislature” -- i.e.,
through the U.S. Congress.
With the price of oil hitting more than $80 per barrel, one would think that Congress would be inclined to opening access
to those billions of barrels, but the current Democratic Party controlled Congress is more concerned about a bogus global
warming than it is about insuring Americans can drive their cars and trucks, heat their homes, and process oil for the
countless products that are produced from it. And this doesn’t even include the vast reserves of natural gas that are
estimated to exist.
The fact is that there are billions more barrels to be found in the world, whether it’s in the Middle East, Africa, Russia,
Venezuela, and much of the yet to be geologically researched map of the world.
That bit of knowledge, however, rarely makes it into the mainstream media that can be depended upon to give lots of
coverage to the “Peak Oil” crowd which has been predicting we will run out of oil any day now. A former chairman of Shell
made news in late September when he warned the price of oil could hit $150 a barrel “with oil production peaking within the
next 20 years.” You had to read further on in the article, published in London’s The Independent on September 16,
2007, to learn that he also said “I don’t know whether there is going to be a peak in world production….”
That’s why Clarke’s book is subtitled Peak Oil Myths & World Oil Reserves. The notion of Peak Oil, a point at
which the world’s oil reserves begin to fall off and chaos follows, is based on the belief that there is a finite amount of oil,
no new oil will be discovered and extracted, and, well, we’re doomed. This is fine for pessimists, but there is a real world out
there and the indications are there’s plenty of oil. The Russians obviously think there’s some under the Artic and are taking
steps to lay claim to it.
Clarke further writes:
“Thanks to vivid media coverage and prodigious output of
publications, Peak Oil has begun to capture the public
imagination…. It has only rarely been subjected to rigorous
analysis, although much evidence to contradict its thesis is
found.”
And just how often is the media wrong about events and trends? Every day.
I doubt that Clarke’s book will leap onto the bestseller lists. It will be read by anyone who is in the energy industry and those
of us who keep an eye on energy events and trends. It is not easy reading because Clarke is an economist by trade, an advisor
on corporate strategy and geopolitical issues in the oil industry, and much in demand on six continents for his expertise.
Fact by fact, Clarke’s analysis requires one to bring a great deal of concentration and effort to read his book, but it is well
worth the effort because he dissects the Peak Oil myth and its advocates with surgical skill and patience.
Anyone who has followed the trajectory of the environmentalist movement for the last three or four decades knows that much
of it is based on ludicrous claims that the Earth is doomed and mankind is to blame. Peak Oil and its “end of civilization”
message got its impetus from a study by M. King Hubbert, an American geoscientist with a long career in the oil industry who,
in 1956, predicted that the world would begin to run out of oil within a few decades.
Hubbert’s prediction was picked up and amplified by others to the point where there is now an Association for the Study of
Peak Oil that, several times, has had to revise its estimates of when the world runs out of oil. The reason for the revisions is
simple. New reserves of oil, as well as new technology to revive existing fields, find new ones and drill in the ocean’s
depths, keep pushing the date further and further off. To put it another way, Peak Oil predictions exist mostly to maintain the
waning credibility of those who keep making the predictions.
Yet another way of looking at Peak Oil is to observe that it is now sustained, not by facts, but by public relations in the form
of new books, new studies, international symposia and conferences, websites devoted to the subject, and all the ways the
idea is maintained, despite its questionable merit.
Like environmentalism, it is less a science and more a new form of religion or ideology in which one takes its “facts” on faith.
Selective computer models keep producing these “facts,” but events like the September, 2006, discovery by Chevron of a
huge deep water new field in the Gulf of Mexico keep contradicting them.
“Overall,” writes Clarke, “it is clear that conventional proven oil reserves estimates considerably exceed those used by Peak
Oil in Africa, Latin America, Russia, the Middle East, and elsewhere.”
Why has the price of oil hit a new high? Well, there’s a war going on in Iraq to insure Osama bin Laden, who wants to take
over all the nations in that region, doesn’t get his wish. Add to that the ambitions of the Persian mullahs running Iran.
There’s a Communist dictator in Venezuela who has nationalized its oil industry. There’s Russia’s ambitions in the Artic.
There are hurricanes that impact oil extraction in the Gulf of Mexico. Et cetera!
For the most part, these are geopolitical forces at work that have absolutely nothing to do with how much oil exists or is yet
to be found. If the world did not have to contend with the dictators and wannabes, oil would be flowing to meet all our needs
for a very long time to come.
The world is not running out of oil, but neither is it running out of political ideologues, religious fanatics, dictators, and
Communist thugs who want to line their own pockets, while holding us hostage and enslaving vast portions of the world’s
population.
LINKS TO RELATED TOPICS:
Political Environmentalism Versus Human Progress & Prosperity:
Policy Issues Relating to Energy, Environment,
& Natural Resources
Political Economy -- Philosophies, Systems, & Public Policies:
Government, the Economy, & Economic Prosperity
The Earth's Natural History, Global Climate Changes,
& the Future of Human Life & Civilization on the Planet:
Science, Ideology, & Public Policy
Alan Caruba is a veteran business and science writer, a Public Relations Counselor, and Founder of the National Anxiety Center, a
clearinghouse for information about media-driven scare campaigns. Caruba writes a weekly commentary, "Warning Signs," posted
on the Internet website of the National Anxiety Center, which is located at
www.anxietycenter.com.
Caruba has a daily blog at http://factsnotfantasy.blogspot.com.
Caruba’s new book, Right Answers: Separating Fact from Fantasy, has been published by Merril Press.
© Alan Caruba 2007
Published with Permission of Alan Caruba
ACaruba@AOL.Com
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THE PROGRESSIVE CONSERVATIVE, USA
An Online Journal of Political Commentary & Analysis
Dr. Almon Leroy Way, Jr., Editor
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Conservative Government Ensures a Nation's Strength, Progress, & Prosperity