Quote Originally Posted by redrumracer
we arent going to run out in my lifetimeor prob my childs life time. and peak oil is different than running out. and i also say that fuel prices will drop within the next 3 years.
That's probably not true. Moreover, once Peak Oil is reached (peak oil, for those of you who don't know, is the point at which maximum production is reached, followed by a sharp decline in production -- as roughly half the world's oil has been mined), demand will not decline along with production. To the contrary, at the rate we're going, demand will continue to rise far beyond the world's capacity to mine and refine what oil is left.

In 2006, US (and ONLY US) oil consumption reached 7.5 billion barrels, while continuing the trend towards increasing demand of about 30-40% in about a decade. Mind you, that 7.5 billion barrels only accounted for about a quarter of the entire world's consumption (these are EIA statistics). The concept of Peak Oil has not been widely publicized or explored due to conflicting reports on the world’s oil supply.

Estimates from the National Petroleum Council’s (NPC) 2007 Hard Truths Report to the Secretary of the Department of Energy claim there is about one trillion barrels worth of oil left in the earth (or roughly 3-4 years of oil at EIA’s approximation of present consumption levels). Other estimates claim two to three trillion barrels are still untapped. Such drastic differences between estimates, enhanced by the potential for future oil discoveries, have left most of America with the impression that the oil crisis is a purely political one.

The bottom line: regardless of which estimate most accurately predicts the world’s total supply, oil remains finite. A difference in one trillion barrels only accounts for a few years’ supply. New discoveries, while capable of postponing the inevitable, cannot change the fact that oil is an exhaustible resource.

To understand why the breakdown of oil production would be so detrimental to the US infrastructure, we have to understand what oil does for the US. Oil is not simply gasoline for transportation; rather, it is crucial for the production of plastics, rubbers, pharmaceuticals, and food production capabilities. Plastics and rubbers, themselves, are among the most important products of crude oil, accounting for major components in all electronics, transportable food and water supplies, sterile single-use medical equipment, automotive components, all major utilities, and more. Ultimately, every American is affected by oil from the very moment of birth. Without oil, life as we know it would not exist.

Peak Oil is a reality. When Peak Oil will occur may be a matter of retrospection rather than prediction, but many agree that it will more than likely come in our lifetime. As devastating as the potential effects of a terminal decline in production associated with Peak Oil may be, the US is not approaching the issue to the extent necessary.