Peak Oil? What Peak Oil? But At Least One Canadian Still Thinks US Could Make Shale Oil Uneconomic

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.