Posted on 07/28/2012 8:29:10 PM PDT by Sark
For decades, the threat of “peak oil” has hung over policymakers of the developed world. The basic premise of peak oil is simple and difficult to argue with: At a certain point, we’ll extract as much petroleum as possible, and after that “peak,” our rate of extraction will inevitably decline. Since it takes so long for petroleum to develop naturally, there’s for all intents and purposes a finite amount of it on Earth. So, our rate of extraction can’t possibly continue rising forever. At some point, we will hit peak oil.
Of course, that’s not the whole theory. Nearly all peak oil theorists argue that following peak oil, chaos will erupt. As so many of our energy needs and products in the developed world rely on the energy produced from petroleum, an inexorable decline in its supply will wreak havoc on our society. This declining supply combined with the rising demand for oil will lead to higher and higher prices. Now, they’re not arguing that the exact moment we hit peak oil will immediately devastate our society or something along those lines. In fact, many don’t consider the actual timing of peak oil to be very important.
However, most do believe that the negative consequences of declining oil production associated with peak oil will rapidly become severe, as the rising price of oil will impact every sector of the economy. Modern peak oil theorists grant that the rising price of oil may occasionally dip as new discoveries are found and more efficient technologies are invented, but they don’t consider either of these periodic drops in the price of oil very important in the long-run. Finally, they argue that peak oil is right around the corner. Are they correct?
(Excerpt) Read more at principlesandpolicy.wordpress.com ...
Another hole in Peak Oil, hydrocarbons are prevalent throughout the solar system and therefore likely NOT the result of organic decomposition.
Titan has oceans of methane for example:
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Titan_(moon)
Peak oil theory says there is a finite amount of oil and natural gas available and that this total amount available can be measured with precision. Using those assumptions the conclusion is we will soon run out of oil and natural gas.
The total amount oil and natural gas that supposedly was available in the late 1970’s was less than 20% of the total oil and natural gas that has been produced since then. In short peak oil theory has simply been wrong. It has been very wrong. Yet most politicians still believe it without question.
Peak Oil is a lie.
Oil is NOT a “Fossil” fuel.
Oil is NOT “million year old dinosaurs”.
Oil is produced naturally under the pressures of the Earth and it does NOT take millions of years.
We discover oil every day and in places and forms NOT possible under the “Dead Dino” theory.
The shale and sands oils, along with the natural gas deposits discovered and turned operational in the last few years can supply the US with 300 years worth of 100% of our current use.
I predict, that if this nation lasts another 300 years and if the Good Lord tarries as well, that we will find MORE oil by then.
Peak Oil is a LIE !
It’s peak CHEAP oil that we need to worry about.
It’s peak easy-to-get oil.
There will always be oil ... for a price.
Even if true, the only thing that stands in the way of our energy survival is envirowhacko’s. Syn fuels from coal are very viable and we have enough reserves for centuries.
Deep hot biosphere ping
Are they correct?
I na word, no
Robert Zubrin recently pointed out that US oil production had grown an average of 3.5 per cent per year since the inception of the oil industry until 1970, at which point production started to decline. 1970 was also the year that the EPA was formed and the year it started creating obstructions for the energy industry, among others.
Had the EPA not been formed the long-term growth rate would have continued and current domestic production would have been 35 million barrels per day. Not only would all domestic needs be met, but the USA would also be the world’s largest oil exporter.
As others have commented on the thread, oil is abiotic; it is not the product of decayed life forms but rather one of the primal materials that formed the earth. The recoverable quantities are massive and the human race will move onto other forms of energy (not the worthless ‘green’ technologies currently being shoved down our throats) long before they can be depleted.
A very good summary of the scientific facts and arguments can behind the the abiotic theory of oil can be read in Thomas Gold’s “The Deep Hot Biosphere”.
Common sense trumps hysteria.
Common sense trumps hysteria.
Peak Oil is a lie.
Proven.
Oil is NOT a “Fossil” fuel.
Oil is NOT “million year old dinosaurs”.
I’ve got to hear this explanation.
Nobody knows how oil forms.
The biotic theory is that it is the product of dead plants and animals forming oil after millions and millions of years.
A newer abiotic theory is that the earth simply manufactures it from a source of inorganic carbon, just as the earth forms coal and diamonds.
http://origeminorganicadopetroleo.blogspot.com/2011/02/normal-0-21-false-false-false-pt-br-x.html
Peak Oil is false - but not because of the Abiotic Oil theory. If Oil reservoirs are indeed filling up again they are doing it at a rate far too slow to be measured.
We are not at Peak Oil because human ingenuity has consistently discovered new ways to get the fuel out of progresively more intractable reservoirs.
The only thing retarding this free-market process is Government: that frequently blocks energy initiatives in order to serve its green/communist agenda.
Both oil and coal are fossil fuels: you can actually see extinct fossil ferns in coal. Oil...not so much!
Oil drawn from Earth deposits contains tiny—and extinct—plants and animals.
I don’t buy into the abiotic theory at all, when they start finding oil in areas that are not ancient sea basins then they’ll get my attention.
Most people don’t believe in the abiotic theory of oil. My problem is that the biogenic theory leaves too much unexplained.
If oil is biogenic, how does oil get 5 miles deep in the earth’s crust? Oil is lighter than water. Water displaces oil. How does this light fluid then get drawn 5 miles deep into the earth’s crust to be found.
Another question is, why does Saturn’s moon, Titan, have methane and ethane? Cosmic dinosaurs? Ancient dinosaurs on Titan now extinct?
Why is their Methane on Mars?
These are the kinds of questions I need answered by people like you who swear by the biogenic theory of oil formation, so I can also believe it.
Can you answer how light oil can be drawn down through 5 miles of soil, rock and shale? Can you answer how methane and ethane formed on Titan without the presence of plants and animals?
Environmentalists lie.
They oppose any energy source that is not gov’t controlled.
That is why they supported wind power until it started approaching feasibility from a cost/benefit analysis and attracted private investment.
So, now environmentalists oppose wind power because the turbines are an “eyesore”. They didn’t know they were an eyesore before supporting it?
PS: Solar has the same issue with being an “eyesore” and incredible glare problems (search “solar panel glare”) but it is not being promoted by the private sector yet.
Environmentalists supported natural gas as a clean alternative until we found it in abundance under our feet in this country where it will employ hundreds of thousands of Americans.
So, now environmentalists oppose natural gas because the extraction process is dangerous to our drinking water even though it takes place thousands of feet below fresh water aquifers. But we pump raw sewage only a feet feet below the surface (septic systems) into the ground and environmentalists see no issue there.
The bottom line is that environmentalists only want gov’t control and do not want private companies to make profits from energy.
They see energy like healthcare -— a right that should be free.
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