I think we've all heard about "peak oil". If you haven't, peak oil is about the most we're going to get out of the ground while still maintaining it's relative inexpensiveness.
Now, there's a report saying that we have hit peak oil in 2006.
The German-based Energy Watch Group released a report Tuesday saying the world's oil production peaked in 2006 and from now on will drop by around 3 percent a year. It says that by as early as 2030, the global availability of oil will be half of what it was at its peak.
Scary stuff right? You'd think that we'd be having $20 a gallon for gas and fights over the lines at the gas station for this kind of thing.
However, there are two problems with that. First off, many of you aren't old enough to remember the "oil shortage" in the 1970's. There were supply problems left and right and there was talk of running out of oil. Which is something that may very well happen one day.
However, all of a sudden, there was a glut of oil in the 90's when a barrel of oil plummeted to $10 a barrel, something that OPEC isn't going to allow to happen ever again. So, what to do?
Well auto manufacturers are already working on alternative fuel vehicles such as electric and hydrogen powered cars. So, if all of a sudden there are cars that can get 300 miles to the charge and be "refueled" in less than 5 minutes, OPEC and peak oil problems simply don't exist.
So while I do agree that we may have hit or are going to hit peak oil soon, I don't think we should stop trying to push alternative fueled vehicles, otherwise, we'll simply be back where we started from again in the future.
Think about it, if oil suddenly shoots up to say $200 a barrel, and you only need oil to change in your engine once in a great while, do you really care? Of course, you'd care if you still had a vehicle that ran on petroleum, but once those started getting phased out for electric or hydrogen cars, you'll start seeing the market self adjust.
Travis
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