[lbo-talk] Oil Is A Renewable Resource! Take That, You Peaksters!

[Andy F]

On 9/9/06, Doug Henwood <dhenwood at panix.com> wrote:
>
> On Sep 9, 2006, at 4:22 PM, Andy F wrote:
>
> > A couple sentences before this he dismisses higher CO2 concentrations
> > as a natural cycle.  Would anybody be shocked if he pulled a Hitchens?
>
> Cockburn's been saying this for years. I tell you it's because he
> loves big old Chryslers (back when I used to keep up with him, he had
> about a dozen stashed all over the US, in part because he had no
> credit card and couldn't rent a car), and wants to blame corporations
> for environmental problems. If you start talking about cars
> contributing to global warming, you have to start talking about
> massive changes in spatial layout and transportation habits that
> would force big changes onto daily life, and he doesn't want to talk
> about that.

This is the first paragraph from that section (I don't blame you if
you don't read the source, though he does have some ideas about fun
things Chavez could do....):

....Since I don't believe in "peak oil" (the notion that world
production is peaking and will soon slide, plunging the world into
economic chaos) and regard oil "shortages" as contrivances by the oil
companies and allied brokers and middlemen to run up the price, I fill
my aging fleet of 50s and 60s era Chryslers with a light heart,
although for longer trips these days I fill an 82 Mercedes 240D with
diesel. True, diesel these days costs more than high-octane gasoline
but the Mercedes gets 35 miles to the gallon, whereas the 59 Imperial
ragtop and the 62 Belevedere wagon get around 18 mpg, which is still
way ahead of the SUVs....

-- 
Andy