On 3/16/06, Yoshie Furuhashi <furuhashi.1 at osu.edu> wrote:
> Miles wrote:
>
> > Jim Devine wrote:
> >
> > >I don't believe in "peak oil," but the likely environmental
> > >consequences of our continued oil addiction are of a similar
> > magnitude
> > >to the posited results of peak oil. Different, but similar in
> > terms of
> > >costs.
> >
> > This is a bizzare claim: of course oil production will peak at some
> > point and then decline! Fossil fuels are a finite resource. Do
> > you mean to say that you disagree with the projected peak dates? --
> > And more importantly: do you have empirically verified statistical
> > models to support your preferred date, as the geologists who have
> > carefully studied this topic do?
>
>
> Those who talk about "peak oil" tend to consider only one factor:
> time. They don't consider how other factors, such as economy,
> technology, conservation, population, politics, etc. impact
> production and consumption of oil. Here's one bit of recent news.
>
> <blockquote>Issued on: March 3, 2006
> New CO2 Enhanced Oil Recovery Technology Could Greatly Boost U.S. Oil
> Supplies
>
> Reports See Another 89-430 Billion Barrels of Oil Through Carbon
> Dioxide Injection, Other Advances
> Washington, DC – State-of-the-art enhanced oil recovery with carbon
> dioxide, now recognized as a potential way of dealing with greenhouse
> gas emissions, could add 89 billion barrels to the recoverable oil
> resources of the United States, the Department of Energy has
> determined. Current U.S. proved reserves are 21.9 billion barrels.
>
> The 89-billion-barrel jump in resources was one of a number of
> possible increases identified in a series of assessments done for the
> Department which also found that, in the longer term, multiple
> advances in technology and widespread sequestration of industrial
> carbon dioxide could eventually add as much as 430 billion new
> barrels to the technically recoverable resource.
>
> <http://www.fe.doe.gov/news/techlines/2006/06015-
> Oil_Recovery_Assessments_Released.html></blockquote>
>
> Oil prices are likely to go up some more, what with Brussels and
> Washington's confrontation with Iran, an upcoming election in
> Venezuela, etc., before they come down again. We ought to be putting
> more pressures on peoples and governments to conserve and restructure
> production while oil prices are still high. Once oil prices go down,
> they won't listen (until they go up again).
>
> Yoshie Furuhashi
> <http://montages.blogspot.com>
> <http://monthlyreview.org>
> <http://mrzine.org>
>
>
>
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>
-- Jim Devine / "There can be no real individual freedom in the presence of economic insecurity." -- Chester Bowles