What is disgusting is that the technology now exists to avert this crisis, but it's been supressed so that the oil industry will continue to stay afloat by keeping everyone dependent on their product. The first half of all the oil sold sold below $30 per barrel in today's dollars, for the most part. The second half of all the oil that will be sold will be over $100 on average. The oil industry stands to make a lot more money than they are making now, so of course they want this crisis to happen. It will maximize their bottom line. Yet here we are, still guzzling gas like no tomorrow, the auto industry not even making rudimentary improvements to the cars we drive that could save fuel without even altering what's underneath the hood. Electric vehicle are now viable, but supression of wind and solar electricity to keep the current coal, natural gas, and nuclear industries afloat will bite that prospect in the ass when the coal and natural gas also start running low in 10 years. Not to mention, the supression of the electric vehicle itself as has been outlined in the following topic: click here. 45% of the oil we consume in America is consumed as fuel inside our automobiles. Would we cut that consumption by 80%, we'd cut the entire consumption of the world's oil by 9%, given that America consumes 25% of the world's oil. This is just by changing America's and only America's cars, alone! Just in America, cutting fuel consumption of our aircraft, building a high speed electric rail system to displace some air travel both combined having the goal of cutting consumption of fuel for air travel by half, cutting oil from our electricity usage(about 1% of America's oil consumption). Another 20% is used in industrial processes, which we could cut that in half simply by cutting our military budget and ending our wars. America has the potential to perhaps cut its oil use by 2/3 today, and thus reduce world consumption by over 15%, just by this one country acting alone and no one else.
But, that's not as profitable to the oil industry, who runs this government. When the crisis does take shape, the oilies and bureacrats will be keeping all their oil-dependent luxuris because they can afford them, while the rest of us will do without as the middle class becomes a thing of the past.
http://canadaeast.com/apps/pbcs.dll/...RIEF/307020172
World supply of oil being sucked dry
Experts disagree on whether new energy crisis awaits us
BY SARAH MCGINNIS
Telegraph-Journal
Waking up, you reach for the lights, but they don't turn on. The house is cold, but there's no heat to warm your toes or cook breakfast. Grabbing the keys, you hop in the car for the commute to work. The engine won't start. Instead, a red light flashes from the dashboard.
You're out of gas.
Soon we all could be.
The world is facing a decline in oil.
Stacks of freshly printed books, newspaper and magazine headlines warn of global oil reserves nearing their peak and wells being sucked dry.
Gas shortages and higher prices are predicted, but no one knows what will happen if crude costs become unaffordable or if the oil stops flowing.
Amidst this debate, Saint John is becoming an energy hub, potentially changing how this province could experience the coming energy crisis.
With a liquefied natural gas terminal, a possible natural gas-fired power plant and the retrofit of the Point Lepreau Nuclear Generating Station, the city is poised to export huge amounts of power to the United States.
This could cushion Saint John from economic blows of an end to cheap oil.
Then again, the provincial government, industries and citizens could be forced to make difficult choices to prepare for the coming energy crisis.
With every tank of gas burned, or kilowatt of power consumed, New Brunswickers come closer to finding out.
The world is running out of oil.
Within the next year the peak of global oil supply will be reached, said Colin Campbell, founder of the London-based Oil Depletion Analysis Centre. By then 50 per cent of all oil will have been consumed. What remains will be more costly and time consuming to get out of the ground.
Depleting oil reserves are only half of the problem. Demand is increasing.
There's the United States, where five per cent of the global population imports 25 per cent of its oil. Americans' SUV-loving ways keep demand climbing.
China, the second largest oil importer, is catching up. Economic expansion encouraged its middle class to demand large gas-guzzling cars too.
Developing world countries also need oil. Their economies can't flourish without cheap energy.
The result: the world is consuming 84 million barrels of oil a day. In 20 years that demand will have doubled.
The system can't keep up. The entire oil industry is working flat out to meet today's thirst, Mr. Campbell said. Seventy per cent of the world's supply is drained from older wells likely in decline. Newly discovered oil fields are smaller or harder to get at than those they replace.
Not everyone admits the age of oil is almost over.
"The stone-age didn't end because we ran out of stone," said Lawrence Eagles, head of oil, markets and industry at the International Energy Agency in Paris.
There are enough projects standing between now and 2010 to keep pace with current demands for 20 years, he said.
"We're not running out of oil. This is all hype," said George Eynon, research director at the Canadian Energy Research Institute in Calgary. "You can't measure oil reserves because we don't know where the oil is and technology can make inaccessible oil accessible now."
There's never been a physical shortage of oil, said Greg Stringham, vice-president of the Canadian Association of Petroleum Producers.
The world isn't as dependent on oil as it was 50 years ago. Rising costs will lead those who can shift to alternate power sources to do so, he said.
These arguments don't sway Chris Skrebowski, editor of the UK's Petroleum Review. He monitors production rates and start-ups for the world's biggest oil companies.
Knowing the amount of underground oil isn't as important as ensuring a constant flow of black crude for consumers. Technological advances in a decade won't help if there isn't enough oil now, he said. Drivers at gas stations don't want to wait weeks or months to fill their tanks.
"Cheap oil has given us the greatest economic party in history. No one wants to believe the party is over," Mr. Skrebowski said.
A sudden shortage of oil would create an "economic tsunami" with immediate repercussions.
The price of energy would get higher. Consumers would be forced to devote more money to heating homes. Soaring gas prices would make commuting from the suburbs or driving SUVs unaffordable. Food would be more expensive because it depends on oil-based fertilizers. Even shopping at Wal-Mart would cost more since products are trucked thousands of kilometres to reach store shelves. Inflation rates would rise. Families tightening belts would stop discretionary spending. Recessions and job cuts would follow, all because of oil.
North America has already tasted these hardships. In October, 1973, Middle Eastern countries stopped exporting oil to the west in retaliation for support of Israel in the Yom Kippur War. Gas prices quadrupled, drivers waited hours at pumps and 20 per cent of gas stations were without fuel.
New Brunswickers couldn't escape the economic fallout. Telegraph-Journal headlines proclaimed "Maritimers cannot pay more for oil." Stories described soaring interest rates and increased poverty. Political cartoons depicted cars equipped with free bicycles or bank tellers asking if they offer "heat the house for winter" loans.
"We have just seen the end of an era when the price and availability of petroleum products could be taken for granted," then premier Richard Hatfield warned in January of 1974.
"A crisis in energy must not be the occasion for changing the goals of Canadian economic policy," he said.
But it appears a prolonged energy crisis is needed for change to occur.
Policy makers aren't eager to create conservation legislation such as European-style gas taxes or vehicle fees. The past provincial election's focus on insurance premiums shows how much voters love their cars.
Consumers will adjust to the higher gas prices and will conserve energy on their own, said provincial Energy Minister Bruce Fitch. The government can promote changes but can't force them, nor can provincial regulations cap gas prices dependent on world markets, he said.
The Arab Oil embargo would have forced changes to energy policy if it had lasted longer. Middle Eastern oil began flowing a year after it stopped and many of the conservation programs and technological advances were forgotten.
Today's oil prices haven't matched those of the '70s, which in current dollars would be over $80 a barrel, but they could.
At some point oil prices will become too high for consumers to bear or there will be a prolonged shortage and the economy will collapse, said Paul Roberts, journalist and author of The End of Oil.
"(It would) throw the entire economy into an enduring depression that would make 1929 look like a dress rehearsal and could touch off a desperate and probably violent contest for whatever oil supplies remained," he said.
This new reality of unaffordable or inaccessible oil will make securing energy critical to everyone. As communities and industries struggle meeting their power needs, Saint John's energy hub should be producing more electricity than ever before. Experts disagree over whether the burgeoning energy industry will protect Saint John from the coming crisis.
One thing is clear: the end of oil is coming.
But, that's not as profitable to the oil industry, who runs this government. When the crisis does take shape, the oilies and bureacrats will be keeping all their oil-dependent luxuris because they can afford them, while the rest of us will do without as the middle class becomes a thing of the past.
http://canadaeast.com/apps/pbcs.dll/...RIEF/307020172
World supply of oil being sucked dry
Experts disagree on whether new energy crisis awaits us
BY SARAH MCGINNIS
Telegraph-Journal
Waking up, you reach for the lights, but they don't turn on. The house is cold, but there's no heat to warm your toes or cook breakfast. Grabbing the keys, you hop in the car for the commute to work. The engine won't start. Instead, a red light flashes from the dashboard.
You're out of gas.
Soon we all could be.
The world is facing a decline in oil.
Stacks of freshly printed books, newspaper and magazine headlines warn of global oil reserves nearing their peak and wells being sucked dry.
Gas shortages and higher prices are predicted, but no one knows what will happen if crude costs become unaffordable or if the oil stops flowing.
Amidst this debate, Saint John is becoming an energy hub, potentially changing how this province could experience the coming energy crisis.
With a liquefied natural gas terminal, a possible natural gas-fired power plant and the retrofit of the Point Lepreau Nuclear Generating Station, the city is poised to export huge amounts of power to the United States.
This could cushion Saint John from economic blows of an end to cheap oil.
Then again, the provincial government, industries and citizens could be forced to make difficult choices to prepare for the coming energy crisis.
With every tank of gas burned, or kilowatt of power consumed, New Brunswickers come closer to finding out.
The world is running out of oil.
Within the next year the peak of global oil supply will be reached, said Colin Campbell, founder of the London-based Oil Depletion Analysis Centre. By then 50 per cent of all oil will have been consumed. What remains will be more costly and time consuming to get out of the ground.
Depleting oil reserves are only half of the problem. Demand is increasing.
There's the United States, where five per cent of the global population imports 25 per cent of its oil. Americans' SUV-loving ways keep demand climbing.
China, the second largest oil importer, is catching up. Economic expansion encouraged its middle class to demand large gas-guzzling cars too.
Developing world countries also need oil. Their economies can't flourish without cheap energy.
The result: the world is consuming 84 million barrels of oil a day. In 20 years that demand will have doubled.
The system can't keep up. The entire oil industry is working flat out to meet today's thirst, Mr. Campbell said. Seventy per cent of the world's supply is drained from older wells likely in decline. Newly discovered oil fields are smaller or harder to get at than those they replace.
Not everyone admits the age of oil is almost over.
"The stone-age didn't end because we ran out of stone," said Lawrence Eagles, head of oil, markets and industry at the International Energy Agency in Paris.
There are enough projects standing between now and 2010 to keep pace with current demands for 20 years, he said.
"We're not running out of oil. This is all hype," said George Eynon, research director at the Canadian Energy Research Institute in Calgary. "You can't measure oil reserves because we don't know where the oil is and technology can make inaccessible oil accessible now."
There's never been a physical shortage of oil, said Greg Stringham, vice-president of the Canadian Association of Petroleum Producers.
The world isn't as dependent on oil as it was 50 years ago. Rising costs will lead those who can shift to alternate power sources to do so, he said.
These arguments don't sway Chris Skrebowski, editor of the UK's Petroleum Review. He monitors production rates and start-ups for the world's biggest oil companies.
Knowing the amount of underground oil isn't as important as ensuring a constant flow of black crude for consumers. Technological advances in a decade won't help if there isn't enough oil now, he said. Drivers at gas stations don't want to wait weeks or months to fill their tanks.
"Cheap oil has given us the greatest economic party in history. No one wants to believe the party is over," Mr. Skrebowski said.
A sudden shortage of oil would create an "economic tsunami" with immediate repercussions.
The price of energy would get higher. Consumers would be forced to devote more money to heating homes. Soaring gas prices would make commuting from the suburbs or driving SUVs unaffordable. Food would be more expensive because it depends on oil-based fertilizers. Even shopping at Wal-Mart would cost more since products are trucked thousands of kilometres to reach store shelves. Inflation rates would rise. Families tightening belts would stop discretionary spending. Recessions and job cuts would follow, all because of oil.
North America has already tasted these hardships. In October, 1973, Middle Eastern countries stopped exporting oil to the west in retaliation for support of Israel in the Yom Kippur War. Gas prices quadrupled, drivers waited hours at pumps and 20 per cent of gas stations were without fuel.
New Brunswickers couldn't escape the economic fallout. Telegraph-Journal headlines proclaimed "Maritimers cannot pay more for oil." Stories described soaring interest rates and increased poverty. Political cartoons depicted cars equipped with free bicycles or bank tellers asking if they offer "heat the house for winter" loans.
"We have just seen the end of an era when the price and availability of petroleum products could be taken for granted," then premier Richard Hatfield warned in January of 1974.
"A crisis in energy must not be the occasion for changing the goals of Canadian economic policy," he said.
But it appears a prolonged energy crisis is needed for change to occur.
Policy makers aren't eager to create conservation legislation such as European-style gas taxes or vehicle fees. The past provincial election's focus on insurance premiums shows how much voters love their cars.
Consumers will adjust to the higher gas prices and will conserve energy on their own, said provincial Energy Minister Bruce Fitch. The government can promote changes but can't force them, nor can provincial regulations cap gas prices dependent on world markets, he said.
The Arab Oil embargo would have forced changes to energy policy if it had lasted longer. Middle Eastern oil began flowing a year after it stopped and many of the conservation programs and technological advances were forgotten.
Today's oil prices haven't matched those of the '70s, which in current dollars would be over $80 a barrel, but they could.
At some point oil prices will become too high for consumers to bear or there will be a prolonged shortage and the economy will collapse, said Paul Roberts, journalist and author of The End of Oil.
"(It would) throw the entire economy into an enduring depression that would make 1929 look like a dress rehearsal and could touch off a desperate and probably violent contest for whatever oil supplies remained," he said.
This new reality of unaffordable or inaccessible oil will make securing energy critical to everyone. As communities and industries struggle meeting their power needs, Saint John's energy hub should be producing more electricity than ever before. Experts disagree over whether the burgeoning energy industry will protect Saint John from the coming crisis.
One thing is clear: the end of oil is coming.