The beauty of peak oil theory is that, no matter how much production capacity improves, we will always be at "peak" at any given moment and thus always a decade or so away from collapse. It's a doomsayer's dream.
You've got it. The theory has been around for quite a while, and it usually resurfaces whenever fuel prices jump significantly. Funny how they have to keep pushing back that doom date, isn't it?
Well, I guess it is like how whenever any climactic extreme is observed, the media types always say something about Global Warming (or is it cooling? Heck, let's just call it "change" now. Whatever.).