Wow, isn't this
an interesting article to be posted on The Oil Drum? From the
Edmonton Journal:
Remember Peak Oil, the theory that global crude oil supplies have peaked and are in irreversible, long-term decline?
The
concept got a lot of media play but never really passed the smell test,
since it didn’t account for the impact of technological change or
rising oil prices.
In any case, the notion of Peak Oil seems
amusingly quaint now that it’s been relegated to the same ideological
trash bin as Y2K.
Thanks to such innovations as horizontal
drilling and fracking (hydraulic fracturing), the U.S. is currently
producing more oil than it has in 20 years. U.S. output now exceeds
seven million barrels a day, and that has enabled the world’s biggest
oil consuming nation to cut its imports to the lowest level in 16 years.
Since
Canada’s crude oil exports are a critical driver of well-paid jobs,
royalties, taxes — and ultimately, federal equalization transfers —
that’s something that should alarm all Canadians.
And then this:
The report doesn’t have much to say about the environmental
consequences or restrictions on shale oil that may be imposed by
governments.
And that may be a rather large factor in coming
years, particularly if the Obama administration rolls out a carbon tax
that could render such developments uneconomic. But even if it does,
it’s unlikely that many other oil exporting nations would follow.
The problem: not many other nations with shale oil, as far as I know.
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