<< Even if it is off by ten years or so due to
as yet undiscovered major reserves or major tech
breakthroughs in terms of recovery methods out of old
fields (these have been happening to some extent), at some
point we are going to have to get off oil, one way or
another, period.
Dan Lazare replies:
Yes, I quite agree, although for the forseeable future I think that the pressure will be from the environmental/social side, not the supply side. To reiterate: energy markets are glutted, have been so since the early 80s, and prices are kept artificially through subsidization of infrastructure and environmental costs, etc. The chief danger is not that oil will run out, but that the cost of those externalities will prove ruinous. Hell, they're already proving ruinous. The question is what happens when ruin is piled on top of ruin ad infinitum.>